Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (75 page)

Bleys
had
asked
Toni
to
meet
the
invitees
because
he
had
confidence
in
her
ability
to
smooth
over
hurt
feelings
that
might
result from
the
unexpected
change
in
their
plans.
The
leaders
would
almost
all
be
arriving
in
their
own
ships—a
sign
of
the
wealth
and power
they
were
becoming
used
to—and
they
would
not
have
been expecting
to
be
separated
from
their
staffs
and
households;
nor
to have
their
entourages
confined
to
their
ships,
incommunicado,
for the
duration
of
this
secret
conclave.

Bleys
found
he
need
not
have
worried
about
Johann
Wilter's
reaction.
The
leader
of
the
Cassida
organization
looked
as
dapper
as
ever, but
his
gaze
was
still
steady
and
he
brushed
aside
Bleys'
apologies
for the
methods
used,
saying
he
was
certain
that
whatever
Bleys
planned would
be
well
worth
any
inconvenience.
This
man,
Bleys
saw,
was not
going
to
let
himself
be
distracted
by
a
momentary
infringement on
his
status.

Wilter
was
accompanied
by
Support
Hayakawa,
an
Association-born
Other
who,
although
Wilter's
senior
deputy,
was
clearly
under his
boss's
thumb.

Ana
Wasserlied,
leader
of
the
New
Earth
organization,
was
another
matter
entirely.
She
had
come
without
any
of
her
deputies,
and her
angular
body,
superbly
dressed
as
always,
was
radiating
resentment
over
having
been
met
by
Toni,
separated
from
her
entourage, and
made
to
come
around
the
planet
in
a
rented
shuttle.

"Ana,
thank
you
for
coming,"
Bleys
said,
offering
his
hand.
"I apologize
for
making
you
uncomfortable
with
this
alteration
in
your schedule,
but
when
you
hear
what
I've
brought
you
here
to
discuss, I
believe
you'll
understand."

The
woman
uttered
polite
reassurances,
but
her
blue
eyes burned
and
her
posture
remained
stiff
and
unforgiving.

By
the
end
of
the
following
day,
six
more
leaders
had
arrived: Hammer
Martin
from
Freiland,
and
two
of
his
deputies,
Joachim Suslov
and
Aries
Foley;
Kim
Wallech
and
Astrid
Croce
from
Sainte Marie;
and
Pallas
Salvador
from
Ceta.
Only
Pallas
Salvador
had come
in
on
commercial
transportation.

Each
was
greeted
personally,
and
warmly,
by
Bleys,
and
encouraged
to
simply
relax
and
enjoy
the
facilities
of
a
city
meant
for diversions,
while
they
acclimated
to
a
different
time
frame.
Most
seemed
happy
to
do
so,
but
Johann
Wilter
and
Hammer
Martin,
although
compliant,
displayed
a
certain
impatient
eagerness
to
get
on with
whatever
they
had
been
called
here
for.

"They're
going
to
be
our
best
allies,"
Bleys
told
Toni,
who
had come
in
along
with
Pallas
Salvador
after
meeting
the
Cetan
leader when
she
disembarked
in
Citadel.
"They
live
for
their
jobs
and
their power,
and
they'll
be
eager
to
expand.
But
we'll
have
to
do
something
about
Ana
Wasserlied,
and
I
might
need
you
to
help
me
distract
her."

"Distract
her?
Are
you
planning
to
replace
her?"

"I
think
that
may
have
become
necessary.
But
I
can't
do
it
before this
meeting,
and
probably
not
before
the
one
on
Association.
I made
a
mistake
in
calling
her
here,
I'm
afraid."
He
shook
his
head. "I
still
believe
she'd
be
willing
to
go
along
with
my
plans,
under
ordinary
circumstances,
but
she's
allowing
her
resentment
over
what she
sees
as
an
imposition
on
her
status—being
brought
here
in
the way
she
was—to
blind
her."

"In
other
words,
she's
lost
sight
of
the
overall
plan,"
Toni
said.

"Yes.
We'll
have
to
come
up
with
a
list
of
possible
replacements," Bleys
said.
"But
the
priority
now
is
to
keep
her
from
learning
the
purpose
of
this
meeting—I
can't
count
on
her
not
to
talk
about
what
I want
to
do
here."

"To
Dahno,
you
mean."

Bleys
nodded.

"Perhaps
a
couple
of
innocent
meetings,
apparently
in
preparation
for
the
more
formal
meeting
on
Association,"
Toni
suggested. "You
could
say
your
idea
was
to
bring
our
most
important
Others here
so
they
could
get
to
know
each
other
better,
in
a
pleasant,
relaxing
setting—it
would
fit
with
your
acknowledged
intention
to
set up
a
group
leadership
structure.
And
there's
the
fact
that
Pallas
Salvador,
who
isn't
well
known
to
any
of
the
others,
has
suddenly
become
an
important
figure;
this
could
be
presented
as
a
way
to
let
the top
people
get
to
know
her."