A Dark and Hungry God Arises (17 page)

'If we fail to back him up effectively, we might as well not have sent him at all. No, it's worse than that. If we aren't going to back him up, we should have left him rotting on Com-Mine. If we lose him, we'll expose all the knowledge and expertise that went into him, as well as all the information he carries about us.

'I want to deal with your objections and problems now, so they won't interfere later. '

'Then there is no need for me to speak. ' The DA director coughed like a man who'd spent a lifetime breathing Earth's clotted atmosphere instead of processed station air. 'Much of this operation I designed. The rest I approved. And I do not doubt that it will succeed.

'However, I suspect that my colleagues' - he grinned through his glasses - 'differ with me on this. '

Warden glanced at Min, at Godsen. 'How so?'

Min glared grimly at Frik.

Seeing that she wasn't going to speak first, Godsen raised his head. Covering his uncertainty with fulsome-ness, he announced, Well, I've said before that I think Taverner is a terrible choice. That man has the morals of a stoat. Even Hashi will admit we didn't have any trouble suborning him - which means no one else is likely to have any trouble either. But I think the situation is worse than that.

'I've read his records' - Godsen appeared to consider this an act of great diligence - 'and I can tell you, it isn't a simple question whether we approached him or he approached us. He was too slick about it to be obvious, but I'm convinced selling out Com-Mine Security was at least as much his idea as ours. '

Under her breath, Min muttered, 'What does that prove?'

Portentously Godsen continued, 'So Taverner is a terrible choice for two reasons. He'll sell us out as soon as someone - anyone - offers him enough money. ' He seemed to draw confidence from the sound of his own voice. 'And if the great unwashed public we're all sworn to serve and protect ever ever gets a hint that we released a cyborg as powerful as Joshua with only a proven bugger to control him, this whole operation will turn to shit faster than you can say "righteous indignation". Even the Dragon might not be able to keep the votes from pulling the plug on Data Acquisition. '

'Meaning what?' asked Warden calmly.

'Meaning' — Godsen was in full spate — 'the mighty and forever-to-be-respected GCES might de-charter Hashi's little game room. The votes might decide Data Acquisition is too sensitive for mere cops to play with. They might even consider a bill of severance. '

Warden noticed Min's increasing tension, but betrayed none himself. 'Do you consider this realistic?'

For a moment Godsen was torn between his love of rhetoric and his deeper loyalties. Then he sighed, 'No.

The Dragon won't let it happen.

'But he's the real issue here, isn't he? If this gamble goes against us, he's the one who will have to clean up the mess. And he won't be amused. That I guarantee. '

'Neither will I, ' Dios promised. Because he was speaking for Godsen's benefit, he faced the other directors and kept his tone quiet. 'And I won't put up with being second-guessed. If I ever get any hint - from anybody -

that one word of our conversation has left this room, I'll extract blood for it. Finding fault after the fact is easy.

The four of us are going to leave the easy jobs to other people. '

That was another message aimed at Holt Fasner. When Godsen repeated it to the Dragon, it would take on a different meaning.

Leave Mm and, Hashi out of this. If you decide you want to punish someone for what happens to Angus' mission, concentrate on me. I'm at least big enough to pay for my own mistakes.

The fact that Hashi and perhaps Min as well were probably as doomed as Warden Dios himself didn't deflect him.

'Other objections? Other problems?' he asked bluntly.

Like a woman who knew that her moment had come, Min said, 'Morn Hyland. '

The passion of her aura, the intensity of her emissions, was vivid. All her doubts and fears were focused in that one name.

Involuntarily Warden stiffened. Precisely because he valued his ED director and ached to spare her, he often found that he couldn't be as gentle with her as he was with Godsen. Close to anger, he demanded, 'What about her?'

The curse as well as the blessing of his position was that Min Donner trusted him too much to fear his anger.

The fact that she challenged him so rarely was a mark of respect, not an indication of timidity.

'Like Godsen, ' she said, as clear as a blade, 'I don't trust Taverner. I don't care about the PR implications. I worry about betrayal. But now that I see how this operation is running, I understand why you wanted him.

Thermopyle probably wouldn't get into Billingate alone.

And anybody else we sent with him wouldn't be much of an improvement. Taverner may be a shitty choice, but he's probably the best we could hope for.

'Morn Hyland is another matter. I don't understand what you're doing to her. ' Min glanced at Frik as if giving him a chance to support her, then continued on her own.

'For some reason, you refused to let Thermopyle be programmed to at least try to rescue her. I don't understand that - and I may never understand it until you tell me why you let Succorso have her in the first place.

'I don't care if she's the price we were supposed to pay for Succorso's help. That isn't good enough. He's accepted money before. For a chance to hurt a "competi-tor" like Thermopyle, he would have accepted money again. In any case, he couldn't have stopped us. If we'd ordered Com-Mine Security to take her after he got her away from Thermopyle, there's nothing he could have done about it.

'She's one of ours, one of mine. She'd been raped and abused for weeks. She had an unauthorized zone implant

- and by the time Thermopyle was done with her, she was almost certainly an addict. We're the police, for God's sake. If there was ever a human being who needed our help, she was it. But we didn't help her. We abandoned her to Succorso.

'I want to know why. '

Even though Warden was braced for this, it still hurt him. Of the people in his office, only she had the power to cause him so much pain. He had to stifle his impulse to say, Min, forgive me. I'm so sorry.

He glanced at his chronometer. Two minutes left.

Apparently he would be on time.

'Other problems?' he asked Godsen. Worries?' he asked Hashi. 'Objections?' he asked Min.

The three of them regarded him without speaking.

Godsen's apprehension, Hashi's hidden excitement, Min's outrage: each had its own distinct infrared flavor; but none struck him as a reason for delay.

Because he was a man who acted on his commitments, he took the next step along the path he'd chosen.

'All right. Unless I've completely misjudged the situation, you're about to get the answers you want.

'You won't be surprised to hear that Godsen's news release is already stirring up trouble. Specifically the GCES is in an uproar. I don't know what the Council members are saying, but I would guess that terms like

"incompetence", "dereliction of duty", and even "mal-feasance" are being shouted in all directions. An emergency session has already been declared to probe the situation.

The Council has demanded a video conference with Hashi and me so that we can account for ourselves. In fact, we're supposed to downlink with them' - Warden checked the time - 'right about now. As you know, our charter doesn't require us to obtain GCES approval for our operations, but it does require us to honor requests for disclosure. So Hashi and I are going to talk to them. '

He looked at Godsen and Min. 'I want you to listen.

What you're going to hear is our official position — the position you'll swear to from now on. Is that clear? If the explanation we give the Council doesn't resolve your objections, I'll go into more detail afterward. '

Godsen nodded to demonstrate his dutiful loyalty. Min tightened her grip on herself and said nothing.

'Hashi, ' Warden continued as he tapped buttons which activated the broadcast equipment in his office, 'we'll sit on the edge of the desk. A little informality' - he hoped that his bitterness didn't show in his voice - 'might make us look like the kind of men who tell the truth. '

While cameras and pickups came to life, and partitions unfolded to reveal a wide screen in one wall, Lebwohl pushed himself out of his chair and shambled to the desk.

At the same time lights dimmed around the office so that only the desk remained bright. Warden chimed his secretary and told her to complete the downlink with the GCES on Earth. Then he joined his DA director on the front of the desk.

Min Donner and Godsen Frik watched from the gloom outside the reach of the cameras as Warden Dios and Hashi Lebwohl settled themselves to talk to the Council.

After a brief burst of static, the screen resolved into an image of the formal meeting hall of the Governing Council for Earth and Space.

Much of the room was filled by a large, half oval table.

The twenty-one Council members sat around the outside of the table, with small data terminals as well as hardcopy notes in front of them, and their personal advisers behind them. Usually individuals being questioned by the Council sat at a testimony table within the half oval, equally accessible to all the members. Now, however, the screen which showed Warden to the Council had taken the place of the table and chair. His own perspective on the hall came from cameras above and behind the testimony seat; but what Holt Fasner called 'the votes' faced him as if he were seated in front of them.

A quick scan told him that all the members were present. That didn't surprise him: this wasn't an occasion that any of the elected representatives of Earth and her far-flung stations would choose to miss. Somewhere in the back of his brain, he knew all twenty-one by name, as well as a fair number of their advisers; circumstances would refresh his memory at need. And at any given moment Hashi could probably recite verbatim the UMCP file on every person in the hall.

For the present Warden made a deliberate effort not to take notice of old Sixten Vertigus, rigid as steel in his chair despite his years, or of any of the other members who might conceivably support a bill of severance. He didn't want to give even the slightest indication that he was going to damage — perhaps ruin - their careers.

The screen in his office had a distressing flicker. Sun-spot activity, no doubt. Numbers running across the bottom of the image told him that his communications techs were attempting to filter out the distortion. Unfortunately the unsteadiness of the picture touched a sore place in his optic nerves, gave him the impression that he was coming down with a migraine.

Members snuffled papers, verified or canceled their data readouts. In a moment every eye was fixed on Warden's image. Because of his own angle of view, the members appeared to focus their attention on his crotch.

He missed being able to make eye contact with them, just as he missed the IR dimension which video denied him; but he was accustomed to the discrepancy.

'Director Dios. Thank you for responding so promptly. '

The man who spoke sat in the middle of the half oval.

Only the position of his chair indicated his rank: he was Abrim Len, President of the Governing Council for Earth and Space. In the private rooms of UMCPHQ, ensigns and techs sometimes joked that Godsen Frik was a Len clone. Both men were capable of the same public posturing, the same orotund cadences. Len was no Fasner stooge, however. He was simply a man who preferred any sort of consensus, no matter how fatuous, over any form of confrontation.

Prominent teeth and a receding chin made him look like a rabbit.

'As you can imagine, ' he was saying, 'the news released by your director of Protocol a few hours ago has given us all grave cause for concern. It's our hope that you can explain what's happened in a way that will relieve our fears. '

The president paused expectantly.

'Mr President, ' Warden replied in greeting, 'members of the Council. As you know, I'm Warden Dios, director of the United Mining Companies Police. ' He announced this as if he were stating his loyalties. With me is Hashi Lebwohl, who serves as my director of Data Acquisition.

I don't need imagination to understand your concerns.

We're more than a little concerned ourselves. Hashi and I will do our best to answer your questions.

'I must tell you immediately, however, that my investigation is incomplete. Events are too recent - I haven't yet had time to study them fully. Please keep that in mind if some of our answers don't seem entirely adequate. '

'Certainly, certainly. ' Len's impulse to soothe ruffled feelings was instinctive and automatic. 'In any case, we're all acutely aware of the rather specialized nature of the relationship between the GCES and the UMCP. It's gratifying to see that you take the commitment to dis-close so seriously. '

'Mr President, ' Warden put in sternly because he didn't like wasting time, 'I take all my commitments seriously. '

'I'm sure you do, ' Len responded at once. 'Your record is admirable in every particular. I speak for everyone here'

- he gestured around the hall — 'when I say that we hold you in the highest esteem.

'Director Lebwohl, we appreciate your presence as well. ' One of Len's techniques for avoiding conflict was to keep talking. This level of cooperation benefits all of us who are charged with the duty of guiding and protecting our people. '

'Make no mention of it, please, Mr President, ' Hashi replied with a grin. 'I am always eager to do whatever I can to redeem my own errors. '

Despite his confidence in Hashi, Warden feared for a moment that the conference was about to go badly awry.

'"Errors"?' a woman snapped aggressively. 'Do you admit errors?'

With an effort, Warden identified the junior member for the United Western Bloc. Her name was Carsin.

At the same time he flicked a look at Godsen and Min.

They emitted nothing except tension.

'All in good time, my dear, all in good time, ' Len interposed quickly. We must consider every aspect of this unfortunate situation in its proper order. It is premature to discuss errors' - another man would have said, to assign blame. 'Director Dios, Director Lebwohl, can we first agree on the facts?'