Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (65 page)

"We
can
afford
it
if
the
Younger
Worlds
we
control
begin
to
run big
deficits,"
Bleys
said,
"if
in
the
short
run
it
helps
us
get
the
uncontrolled
worlds
under
our
thumbs—because
in
the
long
run
it won't
matter."

"It
ultimately
comes
out
of
the
pockets
of
the
people,"
Dahno said.
"In
the
mid-term,
that
might
be
very
unpopular."

"There
will
be
ways
to
handle
that,
once
we're
firmly
in
control," Bleys
said.
"And
we
can
alleviate
those
effects
a
bit
by
forcing
the Exotics—and
the
Dorsai,
too—to
pay
even
more
ruinous
prices
for the
things
they
need
to
import.
That
will
recover
some
of
our
losses, while
impoverishing
them
...
for
them,
it
will
seem
as
if
a
depression has
set
in."

"We'll
have
to
be
very,
very
adroit
to
carry
out
a
complicated scheme
like
that,"
Dahno
said,
shaking
his
head.
"You're
essentially buying
the
support
of
some
elements
on
each
planet
by
surreptitiously
robbing
other
elements
on
those,
and
other,
planets,
as
well as
the
Exotics
and
the
Dorsai.
It's
a
bit
of
a
house
of
cards,
don't
you think?"

"If
we
were
only
engaging
in
the
financial
manipulations,
it
might well
be
prone
to
fall
apart,"
Bleys
said.
"But
that
would
be
only
one of
our
tactics,
and
not
the
major
one,
either.
And
they're
all
worth
it if
they
help
us
further
consolidate
our
control
on
the
five
worlds
we have,
and
gain
the
other
four
worlds.
The
same
trade
considerations I
suggested
for
Ceta
will
pull
Freiland
into
our
camp,
too—they won't
want
to
be
the
odd
man
out
when
it
looks
like
the
other
planets
are
getting
good
deals."

"What
other
tactics
can
we
use?"
Dahno
asked.

"Big
lies,"
Bleys
said.
"All
the
planets
have
some
tinge
of
jealousy
and
hatred
for
the
Dorsai,
the
Exotics
and
Old
Earth
herself, and
I've
already
laid
the
groundwork,
in
my
talks
and
recorded
lectures
over
the
last
few
years,
to
get
people
to
dwell
on
such
things. There's
a
well
of
emotion
ready
under
the
surface
of
many
of
those people,
that
we
can
open
up
with
a
whispering
campaign,
saying that
those
three
groups
have
been
secretly
working
together
to
try to
take
control
of
the
rest
of
the
planets.

"We'll
also
tell
them
that
Old
Earth,
using
the
facilities
of
the
Final
Encyclopedia,
has
been
secretly
working
to
develop
super-weapons
to
be
used
in
its
campaign
to
take
back
control
of
the colonies
it
once
lost."

"Won't
that
bring
Old
Earth
in
against
us?"
Dahno
asked,
his voice
challenging.

"Not
for
a
long
time,
if
at
all,"
Bleys
replied.
"That
planet
is
totally
splintered,
and
it's
an
enormous
and
time-consuming
task
to bring
those
people
into
any
sort
of
alignment
...
but
probably
that question
won't
even
arise,
because
most
Earthmen
won't
notice what
we're
saying
about
them—the
mother
planet
tends
not
to
pay too
much
attention
to
the
Younger
Worlds,
after
all."

Bleys
stood
up,
his
napkin,
forgotten
like
the
rest
of
his
meal, falling
to
the
floor
as
he
turned
his
back
on
the
table
and
strode
over to
the
gigantic
map.

"All
of
this,"
he
said,
waving
an
arm
before
the
map,
"should
be powerful
enough
to
at
least
give
our
people
on
the
uncontrolled planets
a
start.
If
we
can
fan
the
conflicts
properly,
we
can
only
gain politically.
If
civil
wars
break
out,
we
can
send
in
peacekeepers,
voluntarily
provided,
out
of
fellow
feeling,
by
the
planets
we
already control."
He
turned
to
look
back
at
Toni
and
Dahno.

"Coby
won't
be
a
big
problem,"
he
said,
pointing
without
looking over
his
shoulder;
"it's
the
greatest
source
of
metals
in
the
Younger Worlds,
and
once
we
control
it,
a
lot
of
the
planets
will
tend
to
go along
with
us
just
because
they
need
metals
so
much."

"But
Coby
doesn't
even
have
a
government
we
can
take
over," Dahno
said.
"It's
owned
by
a
consortium
of
commercial
enterprises that
won't
be
susceptible
to
our
normal
tactics."
He
walked
over
to join
Bleys
at
the
map.
"The
consortium's
control
has
always
been totalitarian,
and
the
people
there
have
no
power."