Strings (14 page)

Musn’t think about that.

Someone held out a glass of orange juice. Surprised, Cedric looked up and saw that it was Bagshaw, grimly inscrutable.

He realized what Bagshaw had guessed—eating was making him thirsty. He said thanks and looked around. Bagshaw and the security woman; the turbaned man in tan, who had a narrow, dark face and must be in attendance on the princess—all clustered around him, as though his feeding habits were something remarkable. The waiters had gone. The five of them had the enormous place to themselves.

“I think you did wonderfully,” the princess said. She seemed to be serious, but she saw his skepticism and smiled. “Jathro?”

“Highness?”

“How would you rate Doctor—Mister—Hubbard’s performance?”

“He astonished me,” the man with the beard said. He was trim and smooth and dapper, everything Cedric was not. “I thought the mob was going to riot and throw things. He didn’t lose his head at all. I was impressed.”

“Jathro knows,” Alya said. “He’s a politician. He makes his living rousing rabbles. Don’t you, Jathro?”

Jathro responded with an exasperated sigh. “Highness…”

“But was Cedric right,” Alya asked earnestly, “when he suggested that this shambles of a meeting was a big accident? You’re the political expert. Tell us.”

“Princess! Anything said in this building will be monitored. The director—”

“This,” she told him sternly, “is important!”

He blinked at Cedric with doubt. “It is?”

“It is.”

Doubt became strong dislike. “You’re sure?” he asked the girl.

“I’m certain! Now tell us.”

Jathro scratched his beard, glanced at the watching guards and the distant doorway, and then sighed again. “Very well. No, he was wrong. Dr. Hubbard is one of the great minds of our age. She does not make mistakes on that scale. She was thoroughly enjoying herself. Didn’t you see how she was enjoying herself? Whatever happened, she had planned it down to the last cough. It was a deliberate slap in the face for everyone in the room—including her boss and former lover, the Secretary General. She spat on the massed media of the world. Incredible! I would not have believed it possible. Did you choose that suit, Deputy?”

“Huh?”

“That green monstrosity—did you choose the color?”

“Er, no.”

“Don’t be jealous, Jathro,” Alya said sharply. “Cedric didn’t ask to be made a deputy. He wasn’t told anything about this in advance—were you?”

“No,” Cedric said, stuffing lettuce in his mouth with the enthusiasm of a caterpillar. He liked lettuce. It had been underneath the fruit.

Jathro nodded. “The hair was just luck, I suppose, and the fingernails; but the bright green was a masterful touch. In English the color green carries connotations of immaturity, Highness. You were sent up as a human insult, Mr. Hubbard.”

Cedric sneaked an unobtrusive look at his nails. They were even worse than usual. Damn! Girls noticed hands.

“Why they didn’t tear you in half I can’t guess,” Jathro added with interest. “But tonight’s newscasts will.”

“Why?” Alya asked. “Why did she?”

Again Jathro sent a fidgety glance toward the door. “I have no idea. I am completely baffled. BEST is reported to be stepping up the pressure on her, and the Chamber is threatening to replace the U.N. altogether. If Hastings Willoughby and the U.N. fall, then 4-I will certainly go also. BEST and the World Chamber will take over. Hubbard Agnes will be lucky to reach jail in one piece.”

Cedric exchanged puzzled stares with the princess.

“Then how did today help?” he asked. “Why did Gran do this?”

“I told you—I don’t know. Short of public murder, it was about the worst thing she could have done. She played right into Grundy’s hands. Remember, while the General Assembly is officially a collection of government representatives, in practice the delegates and their backers are bribed and coerced into giving Hastings his own way. He is puppet master of the world—or he was, until today. Now he’s a public sucker.”

He pondered a moment. “Grundy’s ambition is to unionize 4-I. For years BEST has been urging the nations to replace Hubbard as director. Hastings has defended her, using the money she plucks off Stellar Power. They have been a great partnership, those two, for most of this century. After today’s performance, though, he will not be able to resist the pressure. The media will be after her scalp, claiming she is senile or insane. Him, too.”

“Hastings was not part of it?” Alya asked.

“No, no! He blanched when she sprang the trap. White-eyes’ faces are very revealing. You saw—he was a broken man. He could not have known what she was planning. She duped him more than anyone. He must have expected something else, probably something that would help him out of his own troubles. Instead she will drag him down with her.” Jathro shook his head sadly; but he had enjoyed his own lecture.

Alya beamed up at him in reward. “How do you know all this?”

“I watch the news as you do,” he said sourly.

“Newscasters don’t report this sort of thing!”

“Listen to what they don’t say and watch what they don’t show.”

“Great! I’ll remember. And our business?”

“I would guess that we have about a week. I give her that long, but very little more. Grundy will be starting his moves already.”

“Grundy is BEST?” Cedric was struggling to follow it all. The information was interesting, but not immediately helpful.

Jathro nodded. “Grundy Julian Wagner. He and your grandmother have been deadly enemies for years. She will not allow a member of BEST into Cainsville.”

“BEST’s only a union,” Cedric said, crunching celery. There was nothing else left on the tray. “How can a union—”

“Grundy can. Five years ago he withdrew all technical expertise from Italy. He threw the whole country back to the Middle Ages inside a week. People were dying in the streets.”

“I didn’t know that!”

“It wasn’t reported—the media need engineers and technicians, also. Since then, though, no government has argued with Grundy. Nobody can.”

“And now he’s going to make them vote against Gran, and the media will help?”

Jathro barely nodded at that repetition of the obvious.

“Maybe she has gone crazy,” Cedric said glumly. “Seventy-five?” That seemed an incredible age.

“Trust her!” Alya said firmly. “We’ll all have to trust that she knows what she’s doing.”

Cedric was not sure he could do that—not after what had just been done to him.

“Then let us go and see what she wants with us!” Jathro said urgently.

Alya rose and lifted the empty tray from Cedric’s knees. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

Muttering thanks, he clambered to his feet. She was not as tall as he had hoped—but not small! And still delicious. He ought to be feeling nervous around a princess, but he could not help wondering if that smile meant that she liked him, too. Dreamer! “I don’t know. Try to do the job she gave me, and see if she was serious.”

Jathro began to walk, but Alya did not, so he stopped.

“Where are you going to begin?” she asked Cedric.

“With System, I suppose.”

Then they all moved, Bagshaw and the other guard, also. Cedric was trying to plan what he must do in the absurd job he had been given, but it was not very easy to concentrate on that with a scrumptious princess walking at his side. They could have held hands—her elbow was very close to his wrist. Then they reached a comset on the wall. The Jathro man had arrived at the door. Finding himself alone, he growled and strode over to join them. “Highness! Director Hubbard—”

“Oh, plug up!” Alya said absently. “You go talk to her.”

Jathro took a very deep breath, as though dealing with a wayward child. “She has eight candidates for you to choose from.”

“So? I already know that. I know which one I’ll choose.”

“You do? That list? You said—”

“I lied.” Alya was keeping her eyes on Cedric—which was flattering, but too distracting to be much help.

He chewed a knuckle, wondering where to start. He would have to have something ready for ten o’clock the next morning, even if it was only a suicide note.

And Eccles Pandora had hinted at some extra treat up her sleeve. He must not forget that nasty threat.

“Even so,” Jathro said. “Common courtesy—”

Cedric looked to Bagshaw. “How do I go up to my work grade?”

Most of the bull’s face was hidden by his helmet, and the rest of it was just shiny plastic, too. “First time it balks you say, ‘Override.’ But anything you do after that may get tattled to your granny.”

“How do I turn it off again?”

“Say ‘normal grading’—or wait five minutes. It downgrades automatically.”

Cedric nodded. Then his eyes went back to Alya. “Oh—sir?” Her dimples did lovely things when she smiled. “I’m supposed to play host for you, Alya. I’m not doing a very good job, am I?”

She smiled. “How long have you been here?”

Again Cedric looked to Bagshaw, who said, “About three hours.”

“Then we arrived at about the same time. You can’t know this place any better than I do.”

“True. But—”

“Your Highness…” Jathro said.

Alya nodded. “I must go.”

She took Cedric’s hand and squeezed it. “See this?” She pointed to a brooch on her left breast. It showed a double helix, outlined in gems. She clung to his hand still.

“Pretty,” Cedric said doubtfully. “Looks like DNA.”

“It’s the—” Alya gave him a puzzled look. “For someone who claims he doesn’t have grade school, you know some odd things.”

“I watch a lot of holo. There’s educational stuff there, if you hunt for it.” He felt his face go pink again, because that sounded as though he were trying to sound smart. He knew he was not smart.

“Mmm. Well, this is the national symbol of Banzarak, a cobra and a silken rope.”

He stooped to peer at it, less conscious of what it looked like than of where it was. The snake was done in emeralds, and the rope in diamonds.

“It’s a very old symbol,” Alya said. “It—”

“Highness!” Jathro growled a warning.

Alya hesitated.

“That is not your secret to reveal!” the bearded man said sharply.

Her chin came up and she met his eye, but she seemed less certain that she had been before. “I think it’s important!” She turned to Cedric again. “For hundreds of years there was a tradition in my family. When a prince or princess came of age, and again whenever the throne came vacant, then he or she—”

“Highness, please!” Jathro stepped close, openly threatening. “There are others present.”

Alya ignored him, fixing Cedric with her cryptic dark eyes and speaking rapidly. “He was presented before the people—or she was, originally. After Islam came, it was only the men.”

“Islam?”

“In 1413. Never mind that. There were two clay pots—”

Ping
! A holo of Hubbard Agnes glared out from within the comset. “That will do, Princess.”

She had changed from her blue suit to a looser one in gray. She sat in a swivel chair with her back to the big pentagonal table that Cedric had seen earlier. Her expression was frosty, to say the least.

Alya flinched and then raised her hands to her face and bowed. “God be with you, Director.”

“And with you, Your Highness. You were about to be indiscreet.”

Cedric had thought that eavesdropping was not good manners. Apparently grandmothers had other rules.

Alya hung her head, avoiding the older woman’s cold gaze. “It seemed important to me.”

Then it was Cedric’s turn to endure the freezing inspection.

“Indeed? That is a complication I had not anticipated. You must not let recreation interfere with business. Moreover, there are others present. I have utmost confidence in the discretion of both Dr. North and Dr. Bagshaw, and I admit that Cedric’s brief career seems impressive so far. But there are some secrets that it is dangerous to know, Your Highness.”

“Yes, Director.”

“You will do nobody a favor by sharing that one.”

“I am sorry. I will be more cautious in future.”

“Very well.” Hubbard Agnes seemed pleased. The tip of her tongue moistened her pale, dry lips. “Cedric, you handled those nerds much better than I expected.”

“You hoped they would eat me alive?”

The cold blue eyes snapped him a look that felt like a slap in the face. “If you don’t want to paddle, you can always swim.”

“I’m sorry, Grandmother.”

“Very well. What are you planning?”

“They want access to System.”

His grandmother winced as though in pain. “Talk to Lyle.”

“Lyle?”

“Dr. Fish. The one you tried to shake hands with when he wasn’t here, remember? If I allow those busybodies into System, then they’ll flood us with computer viruses. But if Lyle says he can do it safely, then go ahead.”

Cedric’s heart jumped. That felt very good indeed. “And I need advice! Aren’t there consultants—”

“Talk to Personnel.”

That was the lecherous bouncy black woman, Cedric remembered—Dr. Wheatland. Just thinking of her was enough to make him squirm. But Gran had not thumped him down yet; he began to feel hopeful. “Money? How much can I—”

“Spend whatever you can justify. You have credit now—for God’s sake get some decent clothes.”

That was deliberate unfairness. “And get my hair cut?”

“If you hurry, you can do both before the four o’clock lev.”

“The lev?”

Obviously he was being stupid. She was not giving him time to think straight.

“You have taken on a commitment for ten o’clock tomorrow, so you had better go on up to Cainsville tonight. Princess Alya—we expect a window to Rhine at about two hundred hours. I want you to inspect it.”

Alya flinched and glanced at Jathro, who said nothing.

“I do not think Rhine is important, Dr. Hubbard.”

Hubbard Agnes rose from her chair. She was taller than Alya. “Are you quite certain? It is a very promising candidate.”

Alya hesitated.

“You know the stakes, child.”

Alya nodded unhappily. “I had best be certain.” She glanced at Cedric, but was given no chance to speak.

“Come to my office and we shall discuss the next few days’ program. Cedric—do whatever you feel is right. If you make a mistake I will throw you away like a gum wrapper.”