The Phoenix Reckoning (The Phoenix Conspiracy Series Book 6) (5 page)

At least he knew his fleet had left Ophiuchus and was making swift progress toward Capital World. It would take it time to get here, but once it did arrive, his fleet would make short work of the
Harbinger
and any of the rest of Raidan’s squadron. All Caerwyn had to do was survive long enough for that to happen.

True, Raidan would probably show his fury when Caerwyn could not be found and delivered to him, and some would suffer his wrath. But so long as Caerwyn himself remained safe, in an undisclosed location, he was more than content to let the planet burn—if that’s what it took—until his forces arrived to save the day.

CHAPTER 03

“Close the door; I think that’s everybody who is coming,” said Hadriana Cydney; she was one of the people’s elected Representatives of Olympia. Like everyone else gathered with her in the musky basement of the Assembly Hall in a nondescript utility room, she was a member of the Imperial Assembly. As she examined the faces around her, she counted nine members of the Assembly—including herself. That wasn’t a very strong number, but among them were some of the most powerful and influential figures in the legislative body.

“All right,” said Representative Ogden as she slid the door shut.

“For God’s sake, keep your voice down,” said Representative Brady. It was hard to tell in the dim light—the single light source left everyone’s face half obscured—but Representative Brady seemed the most anxious of the lot. Though everyone seemed on edge. As well they should be.

“It’s all right,” said Hadriana. “Nobody can hear us in here. We’re safe to speak freely.” This may have comforted the others a little, but it didn’t act as the springboard of discussion that she had hoped it would. Instead the others stared at her silently, clearly expecting her to be the first one to speak any words that others might consider treasonous.
Very well, then, I will
, thought Hadriana. “Thank you all for coming,” she began. “With that out of the way, I think it would be best for us to jump straight to the matter at hand and discuss the
elephant in the room
, as it were.”

“You mean the fact that this very building will likely be bombed in the next couple of hours, and you’ve decided that we should meet underneath it?” asked Representative Ogden.

“I was thinking more along the lines of…discussing what our options are,” she said. “And whether or not we’re interested in entertaining Asari Raidan’s demands.”

“Give him the king?” asked Representative Ogden, sounding appalled—although Hadriana knew he was faking the emotion. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am serious,” said Hadriana, hoping to embolden the others if she spoke out first and loudest.

“But even discussing such a thing is treason,” said Representative Ogden. “We are all, now, accessories to treason, just by listening to you.”

“And yet you came,” she said, looking first at Representative Ogden and then at each of the others in turn. “Ogden, Brady, Easton, Taylor, Baldwin, Taggart, Blackmore, and Nichols, my esteemed colleagues, it is our sworn duty to protect our people. Is that not why we are here?”

They nodded or otherwise murmured their assent.

“And our people, the people of this very world, have been threatened with death. With a holocaust of annihilation if we do not give up the life of just one man. Is that not something we ought to consider?”

“That one man,” said Representative Easton, “happens to be the king.”

“Ah yes, the king…” said Hadriana. “But, is he, though?”

“What do you mean?” asked Representative Easton.

“Treason,” said Representative Ogden, “I knew it. I knew it.”

“Calm down,” Hadriana said gently, raising her hands. “I only mean, while it is true that Caerwyn was elected to be the king by our own Imperial Assembly, were not any of you bribed or threatened to vote for him? If not, can you honestly not tell me that, with the rumors swirling about regarding our missing colleagues, that you weren’t honestly just a bit afraid of opposing him?”

“Perhaps a little,” admitted Representative Ogden. The others seemed to agree.

“And if that’s so, then doesn’t that mean he was elected by duress?” asked Hadriana. “Which would negate the election, according to the Articles of the Imperial Charter.”

“That is so, if it could be proved,” said Representative Taggart.

“If he is then not our king, that makes him only a man, and is not the life of one man worth less than the lives of millions, and perhaps billions? Keeping in mind that these lives we’d be saving belong to the very people we swore to protect when we were elected to represent them.”

“We cannot seriously be discussing the ethics of the value of one life for many lives,” said Representative Ogden. “Leave that to the philosophers.”

“And if it is your estate that is bombed, Mister Ogden, with your wife and children in it, will you still be glad that you took that position?” asked Hadriana. This seemed to cow him.

“Miss Cydney,” said Representative Baldwin. “I think we can all see what stop this train of yours is taking us to. And it is also true, I believe, for all of us here, that we have no love for the king. That is, indeed, why we are here at all. But honestly, what would you have us do? Even if we wished to hand Caerwyn over to Raidan, it is impossible. His whereabouts are unknown and he has surrounded himself with a private army of guards. We are but nine politicians.”

“Are we, though?” asked Hadriana. She walked over to the closet and rapped twice on the door. It opened, and two men exited. As soon as their faces became clear in the dim light, everybody began scrambling to get away, only Hadriana blocked the way out. “Order! Order!” she shouted. “These men are on our side.”

The panic slowly halted and the representatives, who had been shoving each other, and her, in an effort to get out, cautiously returned to their original places.

“As you can plainly recognize, these are two of the king’s own handpicked ministers,” said Hadriana. “Allow me the honor of welcoming Sergei, His Majesty’s Minister of Strategy, and Oliver, His Majesty’s Minister of Finance.” Each man bowed when his name was spoken.

“Great, so now we are eleven politicians instead of nine,” said Representative Baldwin. “What difference does that make? We still don’t know where the king is.”

“I know where he is,” said Sergei.

“Well, then, what about his army of guards?” asked Representative Baldwin.

“Trust me,” said Sergei, “when I say that all obstacles may be overcome with the right strategy.”

“I’m out,” said Representative Ogden, standing up. “This is a trap; I can smell it. I’m not a traitor. I’m not disloyal to the king.” He reached the door. “Long may he reign.”

“Representative Ogden,” said Sergei, stopping him just as he was about to open the door. “I recognize you and, under torture, would still identify you. It is too late now to not be here. Like it or not, you are part of this now, all of you, so you might as well do the right thing for your people and your country.”

Representative Ogden turned around, looking angry momentarily, then returned to his place.

“You two come here and claim to be on our side,” said Representative Easton. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“That we must depose the king,” said Sergei in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I quite agree,” Oliver said, adding his voice to Sergei’s.

“But the two of you are Ministers of the King, handpicked to serve him,” said Representative Easton. “Forgive me if I am not a little suspicious of your motives.”

“We have had the privilege to serve the king directly, and to see him at his worst. And I tell you,” said Sergei, “the king is not a good man. There is a dark and selfish side to him that will make him a tyrant, not a ruler. I have long believed that he must be eliminated, but now there is a compelling reason to make it happen. We can prevent a horrible disaster from befalling our beloved planet.”

“I too have had personal dealings with the king,” said Oliver. “And I can confirm, through intense and repeated auditing of the royal treasury, that the king has been using those funds as his own personal savings account. Using some of that money to pay bounties on your former colleagues, representatives who tried to flee the system and defect to the queen.”

“So, the rumors are true?” asked Representative Taggart, looking shocked. Despite the man’s apparent surprise, Hadriana was fairly certain everyone in the room knew the rumors were true. Even if most of them had wanted to believe otherwise.

“Yes,” said Sergei, confirming Oliver’s accusation. “They are true. Additionally, the king has had advance warnings of attacks by Kalila’s fleet—specifically against Olympia System—and when I wanted to warn the system, so it could marshal its defenses, the king personally ordered me to stand down.”

This particular revelation, when they’d told her about it earlier, had burned under Hadriana’s skin worse than all of the others combined. The fact that her planet could have been savagely attacked, and very nearly was, and the king had had advance knowledge of the threat, and had chosen not to defend it, or even give Hadriana’s people any warning, it was an outrage!

“Why would he do that?” asked Representative Ogden.

“The king wished any attack by Kalila to be as brutal as possible, so he could reveal her to be a savage warlord.”

“Unforgiveable,” said Hadriana.

“Because of these reasons, and the threat made against our planet by Asari Raidan, and more, Oliver and I stand with you in solidarity, ready to consider
options
,” said Sergei.

“You speak of options, and even of deposing the king,” said Representative Ogden. “But, seriously, what would you have us do? We are but eleven people, and the man is still our king, however unpalatable that fact is. We did elect him; he was coronated. Do we not have a duty to our king?”

“What about our duty to the Empire?” replied Hadriana. “Can we continue to sit idly by and allow the Empire to be torn in two? Caerwyn has divided us in half.”

“I would argue that the queen is equally guilty of that,” said Representative Ogden.

“
Is
she?” asked Hadriana.

“Silence,” said Sergei, “and listen.” The room fell quiet. “However you see the king, legitimate or illegitimate, it does not matter. What matters is that an alpha-class dreadnought, leading a squadron of warships, is due to arrive in our system very shortly. They are led by Asari Raidan, a man convicted of brutally murdering Rotham traders. He has made a threat against us, and he has the means to deliver upon that threat. Trust me when I say we are vulnerable; our static defenses are not going to stop him. And when he gets here, if he doesn’t get what he wants, there will be a slaughter. Some of us in this very room may very well die. If not us, our loved ones. If not them, then still millions of others. People whose safety we must put first. Surely we cannot allow the planet to burn in order to shield our selfish and corrupt king. I say giving him over is a small price to pay to prevent such a slaughter.”

“Hear, hear,” said some of the representatives, including Hadriana.

“And let us not forget that Caerwyn Martel is a coward,” said Hadriana. “When the Rotham attacked our Empire in the Thetican System, where our leader Representative Tate has gone, and where Caerwyn’s own father lives, it was the queen who answered the call to defend the system, not Caerwyn. He refused to send any aid or participate in that battle.” This was met with murmurs, most of them agreeing that Caerwyn had made a cowardly image of himself by making such a choice.

“He may not be a good king,” said Representative Ogden. “But you would have us deliver him into the hands of a mad man. How do we know that this Raidan character can even be taken at his word? And, even if he can, do we now negotiate with terrorists?”

“Hear, hear,” said Taggart and Baldwin.

“Indeed,” said Representative Baldwin. “If we give up the king, what then will Raidan ask for next? Once he’s proven that he can get us to give him anything?”

“Asari Raidan might be an insane lunatic,” admitted Sergei, “which is all the more reason to take his threat seriously and believe that he will unleash this hell upon us that he has claimed he will. That said, it is pretty obvious that he only wants one thing—Caerwyn Martel. Give him that and he will go away, leaving the rest of us unharmed. It is only logical. And it would be good for the Empire.”

“I would even dare say that it is our duty,” added Hadriana.

“Yes, but would we really even be able to do that?” asked Representative Baldwin.

“Indeed,” said Representative Ogden. “We are the Assembly, the supposed legal power behind the throne, yet we hide here, in this dreadful basement, whispering words that some would call treason. How is it even remotely possible that we could depose the king? Surely he would reject any new motion on our part to revoke his crown in the Assembly Hall.”

“Yes, not only that, he’d probably kill off any of us who tried,” added Representative Baldwin.

“As I said before,” said Sergei, “all obstacles may be overcome, with the right strategy.”

“Then tell us this strategy,” said Representative Taggart. “Make me believe.”

“Our time runs short,” said Representative Ogden. “If we remain here much longer, surely our absence will be noted.”

“Then we must all meet again,” said Hadriana. “And soon.”

“When we do,” said Representative Ogden, “I expect to hear a very foolproof and convincing plan. And for my part, I need to hear one or two more good reasons why we should put our necks on the line and take the risk.”

“I too would like more reasons,” said Representative Baldwin.

“There is no end to the list of reasons,” said Hadriana. “When we meet here again, at the scheduled time, I am sure that Minister Sergei will make a believer out of you with his plan. And then we will be the heroes who saved Capital World, not the traitors who plotted against their king.