A Dark and Hungry God Arises (36 page)

'I've got another idea, ' she rasped, 'one that doesn't require us to assume the native Earthers are capable of faking that kaze's id. We have a high-level traitor - someone so high up he has access to genuine chips, so high up he knows or can get all the passcodes and verifications.

Producing valid maintenance id was easy for him. But he didn't have a kaze ready because until today he had no intention of attacking Captain Vertigus. '

'Interesting. ' Warden didn't sound surprised. Aside from his obvious concentration, his face was expressionless. 'Then let me ask your question. Why was Captain Vertigus attacked now? Why does this traitor suddenly want to get rid of him?'

Shock and keening still occluded Min's hearing. Nevertheless the fact that he hadn't asked who she thought the traitor might be was as loud as a shout.

'Because, ' she answered past a dryness like ashes in her throat, 'we chose him. This traitor wanted to kill him so that he couldn't introduce your Bill of Severance. '

Maybe I'm not the only one you talked to about it.

And maybe whoever that was leaked the information.

Or maybe you leaked the information.

'Alternatively, ' the UMCP director replied as if she'd engaged him in an exercise of pure speculation, 'this traitor may have wanted Captain Vertigus dead for the same kind of reason I ascribed to the native Earthers.

Martyr him in order to solidify support for the bill. '

Calmly, without apparent premeditation, Dios gave her a reason to think that he might be to blame.

He may have been trying to steer her away from her own ideas.

Without warning, she felt a rush of loathing for him.

She hated his calm, his strength, his secrets: she hated this game he was playing, a game which corroded the convictions that made the UMCP valuable - not to mention viable. She was his ED director because she believed in what cops were for. And she'd always been sure he shared her beliefs. But since Morn Hyland's return to Com-Mine Station with Angus Thermopyle - no, before that, since Warden had assented to the quashing of Intertech's mutagen immunity research - he'd given her more and more reason to question the nature of his beliefs; more reason to wonder whether he'd finally sold his soul to the Dragon. Facing him now, with his complex intentions and his subtleties, she burned for the simple service she loved, the clean dedication that kept her whole. And she hated him for taking those things away from her.

Making no effort to mask her anger — she couldn't have concealed it from him anyway - she retorted, 'I'm glad you mentioned that possibility. It brings me to your video conference with the Council. While I was talking to Captain Vertigus, I kept asking myself why. Why did you do that? Why did you do it now? You've never let the GCES' - or me - 'see you in that light before. And I was only able to come up with one answer.

'You did it so the bill would have some prayer of passing.

'But now you've given me another idea. ' She balanced herself, kept her poise, as if she were a gun aimed at his head. 'Maybe you did it so I would be sure to go see Captain Vertigus as soon as possible - so you would have a chance to get rid of the only people who really believe in that bill. '

When she stopped, her heart was hammering as if she feared she would be struck down for saying those words aloud. Her hands felt full of killing fire. Yet her eyes never wavered; the muzzle of her accusation held steady.

Just for an instant the muscles of his face tightened; he may have been wincing. Almost immediately, however, he smoothed out his expression. Only a hint of grief around his eye undermined his impassivity.

'I like to think, ' he articulated slowly, 'that if I wanted you dead — if I were the kind of man who solved his problems by butchering subordinates and politicians - I would choose something more honest than a kaze to kill you. '

She had trouble hearing him: he was no longer making the effort to speak loudly. Only the slow recovery of her eardrums enabled her to distinguish the blurred vibrations of his voice.

More honest than a kaze.

As soon as he said that, she believed him. That was the Warden Dios she admired; the Warden Dios to whom she'd given her devotion. She couldn't have been so wrong about him for so many years. The whole idea that he might have had something to do with the kaze was smoke.

It was all meant to. distract her.

For a moment she was so angry that she couldn't speak.

But he hadn't stopped talking. As if he were still on the same subject, he asked rhetorically, 'Has it ever occurred to you that maybe we - I mean all of us, the cops - are responsible for the existence of places like Billingate? That maybe humankind would be better off if we hadn't made ourselves so powerful, or so necessary?'

Min swallowed convulsively. She knew him well enough to know that he didn't expect an answer. Because she was furious, however, she rasped, That's absurd. We didn't create Angus Thermopyle. We didn't create the Amnion. But if we weren't here, the rest of humanity would have no defense. '

A grimace pulled at the corners of his mouth. 'I'm not so sure. Human history is full of - I guess you could call them enforcement mistakes. Using muscle to control people seems to make them more determined. Angus and the Amnion are probably a good example.

'Before we got our hands on him, he was caught between two dangers, two enemies. The Amnion and us.

They want to change him, take away his humanity. We want to kill him, or at least lock him up. What would you do in his position? We try to get what we want by gunfire. The Amnion trade for it. And they always keep their bargains because they know that otherwise they won't be trusted, which means they won't be able to trade effectively. What would you do?'

She stared at him as if she could see mutagens chewing at his genes, changing the structure of his bones.

'It's obvious, isn't it?' he went on. 'If you had to choose between being shot by us and risking your humanity with the Amnion, you would be crazy not to choose them.

They're the lesser danger because they leave you a chance to survive. Once you have us for enemies, piracy is your only sane alternative.

'And we make the rules. We create the restrictions which define illegality. We put Angus in the position where he had to choose between us and the Amnion.

'You can't expect a man like that to have a sense of perspective. You can't ask him to understand that the Amnion are a threat to all humanity, while we're only a threat to people who increase the risks for humankind.

He takes everything personally. He has to - he's on the run, and his life depends on it.

The Amnion look good to a man like Angus because from his point of view we're worse. In other words, we created him. We created every individual human being on Billingate, on every illegal shipyard, on every outpost or installation that does business with the Amnion. If we didn't work so hard to control piracy - or if we weren't so self-righteous about it - pirates wouldn't be such a danger to the people we're supposed to serve. '

As she listened, Min's anger curdled to sorrow. Despite her need to believe in him, he had changed. This wasn't how he'd explained her function - and his own - the last time she'd heard him talk about it.

She gritted her teeth to control her sadness. 'Then why do it? Why do we work so hard for something we don't believe in?'

Now his voice was no more than a whisper. If she hadn't seen his lips moving, she might have thought the words came from the shadows around her.

'Because the people we're supposed to serve and the people we do serve aren't the same. We don't serve humankind. We serve the United Mining Companies.

And the United Mining Companies profits from piracy.

Piracy reinforces the UMC's hold on its markets. '

Is that it? she thought. Is that the truth at last? Or is it just another distraction?

Was he casting doubt on the UMCP, questioning the integrity of his own life's work, so that she might believe him capable of aiming a kaze at Captain Vertigus in order to consolidate support for a Bill of Severance?

No, that didn't make sense. If the captain had been killed, no one on the Council would have heard of the bill. It would have been blown up along with its intended sponsor.

And she was morally certain that the kaze had been surprised to see her in Captain Vertigus' doorway.

The video conference may have been a ploy on Warden Dios' part to lend his bill authority, credibility. The kaze was something else entirely.

Clenching her jaws so hard that her head throbbed, she demanded, 'Why are you telling me this?'

What makes you think I want to go on serving Holt Fasner, instead of my own species?

What are you trying to distract me from?

Abruptly Warden leaned forward, planted his palms on the bare surface of the desk. His voice was soft, but he pitched it to reach her. His single eye glittered with intensity.

'Min, I want you to survive this. If it can be done, I want you to be the next director of the police. '

With those words he bound her to him; caught her in a grip she would never be able to break. Implications came into focus in the light as if his strong fingers held them down on the desktop for her to see. Without transition he restored her convictions; remade himself into the man to whom she'd fixed her heart.

Too astonished for anger or sorrow, she breathed,

'You think you're finished. ' The idea seemed to throw illumination into the most obscure corners of the office.

We need a Bill of Severance - we need some way to change ourselves into what we were supposed to be in the first place, the servants of humankind. But it can't pass because the Dragon has too many votes. So you've decided to sacrifice yourself in order to create the conditions that will enable it to pass. But of course if it passes you'll be removed as director. Nobody will trust you.

And if it doesn't pass, the Dragon will get rid of you himself, if only because you've become a liability. '

You want to push me away from you, make me keep my distance. That's what all these distractions are for -

that's why you're encouraging me to. doubt you. You want Enforcement Division to retain its credibility when your position collapses. You want to make me look like the only one the GCES can rely on to pick up the pieces.

Dios seemed to shrink in his seat. Substance appeared to drain out of him, as if her understanding bled his hope away. Or maybe it was her new ferocity which defeated him. Slowly he turned his palms upward.

'I'll tell you why I'm finished, ' he murmured softly. 'As long as I'm telling you things you shouldn't hear, I'll give you one more.

'You've been angry ever since I signed the order quashing Intertech's immunity research. You wanted me to fight Fasner on that one. You probably thought I should have gone public - exposed what he was doing, forced his hand. ' Hints of ire reached her through her veiled hearing. 'But what would that accomplish? If I pushed him far enough, he could always publish the research himself. Tell the GCES I'd misunderstood him. He might be damaged, but he would survive. He would still be here — and I would be gone.

'Of course, I could have just quit. But that would have accomplished even less.

'So I didn't do any of those things.

'I didn't quash Intertech's research. I took it away. The order I signed was just a sham. I took the research and gave it to Hashi. He completed it himself. '

Warden's eye was full of darkness. Hints of pain tugged at the muscles of his cheeks. We have a mutagen immunity drug. It works. Hashi is the only one who knows about it. He's the only one allowed to use it.

'That was my idea. ' The director closed his fists, knotted them on the desktop in front of him. 'Fasner wanted to stop the whole project. I persuaded him to let Hashi finish it - to let me have it and keep it secret.

'If that comes out, I won't just lose my job. I'll be executed for treason.

'But it's the only lever I have with the Dragon. It's the kind of collusion he understands. It implicates me. More than anything I've ever done, that convinced him to trust me - convinced him to let me make my own decisions.

'He would kill me if he knew I'm responsible for that bill. He might kill me anyway, if he thinks the bill could pass - or if he even starts to suspect I might tell anybody else what I know. '

The familiar fire in Min's palms seemed to spread up through her body to her face; her eyes burned. Another woman would have been on the verge of tears: Min was on the verge of an explosion. Simply to control the brisance fighting for release inside her, she asked, 'But what does he get out of it? How does it help UMC profits if DA has a secret immunity drug?

'What do you get?'

Warden took a deep breath. When he expelled it, the intensity seemed to flow out of him. The tension faded from his hands and shoulders; his face resumed its impassivity. He looked like a man who'd taken a desperate risk and lost, and now had nothing left to do but accept the consequences.

'I'm sorry, ' he sighed. 'Sometimes I'm appalled by my own weakness. I should have let you go on believing I simply quashed the research. That would have been easier for you. '

Easier? She didn't understand. Easier how?

Did he mean, easier for her to keep her distance? to separate herself from him, preserve ED's integrity?

Was her loyalty such a threat that he wanted - no, needed — to drive her away?

'How does it help UMC profits?' he continued. 'It preserves the conflict with the Amnion. It scares them -

that's what Hashi is using it for - which makes them both more hostile and more cautious. Which in turn makes them more dependent on trade. With the UMC, of course - but also with illegals. And that makes the cops more necessary. More violent. More self-righteous.

More dangerous. Which produces more hostility and caution.

'Anything that escalates the conflict short of actual war increases UMC profits.

What do I get? I get to keep my job. Right now that's more important to me than my life. '

Min couldn't stomach what he was saying. The ideas sickened her: the thought that her loyalty was hazardous to him sickened her. Again she asked, Warden, why are you telling me this?' Where was her clean, simple anger when she needed it? Why couldn't she hate him now? 'If you want easy, you could have avoided the whole subject. Hell, you could have avoided me. There's nothing I can do about it when you decide to sequester yourself. '