The Dragon Never Sleeps

— 109 —

WarAvccat glanced at the screen to his left. P. Benetonica 3. A very old world orbiting an old star. He tried to recall when last he had set foot on a planet. Ages ago. He had been a combat soldier. How would he take it? Often soldiers on-planet experienced a sort of nostalgic melancholy.

He shifted attention to a tentative list of members of his landing party. About the experts there was no doubt. Gemina had picked them. But he was uncertain about the rest. Especially the Guardship soldiers from the chartered Horigawa. Would they be useful?

He had a hunch they might.

What could it hurt? They would expect him to bring an escort.

Aleas joined him. "Want to hear something?" She sounded amused.

"What now?" She had an irreverent sense of humor.

"Our people haven't had any luck getting into the local data pool. They just got an access-unauthorized response, whatever they tried. Till they pissed the system and it told them they'd be arrested and given five years to life at hard labor if they tried to get in again."

That was amusing. "Somebody screwed up?"

"Not really. The probe during our first visit to M. Shrilica warned them they needed better safeguards. You think they'll arrest the whole Guardship if we try again?"

He chuckled."It is useful to know when you've been found out. We'll keep digging. Though it's unlikely we'll find anything now."

"Gemina says it's not Guardship-specific. The Tregessers don't like anybody nosing into their business."

"WarAvocat grunted. "You coming down?"

"Try and stop me."

Lupo and the Ku watched the visitors debark deep in the roots of the Pylon. He had gotten a panic signal from Six, who had met them at the port.... "It's that damned Lieutenant! What the hell is she doing back?"

The Ku bent nearer the screen, shocked. Then he relaxed. "No. That's not the same one. That's a copy."

"Good." Lupo hated to think that more than one had gotten away on V. Rothica 4.

"This is the one to watch," the Ku said. "WarAvocat Hanaver Strate. I'm surprised."

Strate fit Provik's stereotype of a Guardship officer perfectly. "Recognize anyone else?"

"The woman. The apparent companion. As a face in a crowd. I don't know who she is."

Lupo tapped his wrist. "Two. Have they broken into that data system yet?"

"Yes."

"Good." He slipped a receiver button into his left ear, told the Ku, "Monitor the show. Give me any hints you can. Does this Strate have weaknesses?"

"He's lonely. Loneliness is epidemic aboard VII Gemina. Anyone off that Guardship might be vulnerable to a manipulation of that. He's also vain of his personal accomplishments. He's fond of women. As a general rule, don't underestimate him."

"He's the man who beat me in the end space. I plan to be careful."

WarAvocat could not hide his awe of the Pylon. In its frame of reference it was as impressive as Starbase.

He refused to bow to the paranoia that was the consequence of leaving VII Gemina. He let the Tregesser woman put his people into the lift however she would.

Why had they made so little fuss? They had sent only one woman to meet them. She had driven them herself. There were no obvious security arrangements. As far as he could see, there was no effort to keep anything out of sight.

A series of lifts took thern to a reception area that suggested the level was a headwater of power in the Tregesser empire.

The woman palmed a wall plate. A door opened on a vast, mostly brown, and mostly empty room. A woman stood looking out a window. A man sat in a chair, reading. He looked up, put his papers aside, considered them coolly. A second man sat at a work station against the wall to the left, dealing with callers.

"Shoot the bastard," he told one. "The rest will forget the idea." He cut off, switched, said, "Sorry. Family crisis. Look, the injunction will come through. Tell Deccan to concentrate on the lawsuits. For what we pay him he ought to castrate every fatass bureaucrat on Capitola Primagenia. I have visitors, Rash." He cut off, looked them over, lined an eyebrow, came forward. "I see you've kept well, Lieutenant. Welcome back to Tregesser Prime."

"Who the hell are you?" Klass snapped.

"Same winning personality, too."

WarAvocat scowled. He should have warned Klass.

The man said, "I'm Lupo Provik. Head of House security, doer of odd jobs. Today I'm mouthpiece for the Chair. The gentleman there is Cable Shike. He represents Blessed Tregesser, heir to the Chair. The lady is Tina Bofoku, representing Blessed's daughter and her own, Placidia Tregesser. Whom have we the honor of addressing?"

WarAvocat frowned. This was not what he expected. "Hanaver Strate, WarAvocat VII Gemina, twice Dictat. The Deified Aleas Notable, formerly WarAvocat VII Gemina, thrice Dictat." This Provik set off alarms.

"I presume that means you're important. I'm not familiar with the fleet. My one encounter was when the Lieutenant threatened to destroy Prime unless Blessed let her abduct several houseguests. He doesn't think well of you. He was infatuated with the artifact."

WarAvocat allowed himself no visible reaction. "We'll talk about that. If the Lieutenant exceeded her instructions ..."

Provik betrayed a ghost of a sneer.

Klass handled it. Most soldiers, walking into a former incarnation cold, would have shown cracks.

Provik said, "I'm told you want to follow up on our research on Outsiders of human stock. Why tie up a Guardship on that?"

"A man in your position seldom tells a lie but never tells the truth. I want to know what you didn't report."

Provik denied nothing. "Might I suggest an information swap? To maintain the dignity of the laws of thermodynamics?"

He was a bold rogue. "I'm open to suggestions."

"It's trivial, really. But I'm curious by nature. The question: Why were the artifact and alien so important the Lieutenant threatened general mayhem to get them?"

Why did he keep after Klass? "The artifact and two alien companions had been guests aboard VII Gemina, Mr. Provik. One was the Ku warrior Kez Maefele, who commanded the Dire Radiant during the Ku wars. Some years ago, in our haste to engage an enemy, we pulled out of Starbase without them. During our absence the three fled Starbase with information that might have been deleterious to fleet security. Somehow they reached the Tregesser system M. Shrilica."

Provik looked at him. He gulped air. His expression grew black. He turned slowly toward Shike, who had appeared astounded, skeptical, and grimly defensive in succession.

"You had that in your hands? And all Blessed could think about was wetting his one-eyed snake? Do you have any idea what we could have done with that?" He skirted his work station. "We could have traded it for a couple of star systems. Hell, for Capitola Primagenia! Blessed don't think with anything but his balls, but you're supposed to have good sense. Didn't you bother to find out what you had?"

"They were DownTown stuff, Lupo. We wouldn't have bothered with them if the artifact would've let Blessed break the set."

Provik shouted at him. The Bofoku woman tried to intervene, ended up getting drawn into the shouting match on Shike's side.

They did not care who knew they were villains, did they?

Two determined women burst in, pushed Provik and Shike apart. One forced Shike into his chair. Provik retreated to his work station. His voice quavered, promised murder. "Cable, you drag that cretin out of whatever bed he's in and take him to his mother. T.W., get ahold of Valerena. Tell her he's coming. Tell her why. And don't anybody say anything about this. If the Directorate finds out what we blew they'll hand us our heads."

Well done if staged, WarAvocat thought. You could smell the anger and hatred.

Staged or genuine did not matter. The central fact was inescapable. If these people had known what they had, they would have exploited it.

"Get him out, T.W."

Provik closed his eyes, took deep breaths. He slapped his desk, muttered, "We had it all."

He was shaking still when he opened his eyes and looked at his guests somewhat vaguely. Was he unstable? A man would have to be a little insane to attain Provik's position in one of the great Houses. "Two. Tell Research to put together whatever we've got on the Outsiders."

He looked at them. For an instant raw hatred peeped through. He pressed his hands down onto his desk to still their trembling. ‘Tit for tat, sir. The thing I reserved was the fact that the Outsiders revealed details and identities of the agencies inside Canon space. I neutralized those in a position to harm Tregesser interests and left the others to their mischief."

Aleas asked, "Don't you have any loyalty to Canon?"

He looked at her like she'd just offered to show him a grotesque physical deformity. "To the extent that the Outsider alternative looks worse. Your kind doesn't make a rite of torture and mutilation—that I've heard. I presume some of these people are research and technical staff?"

"Yes."

"Six. When we're done, take them down and let them get started. Tell Linver to give them whatever they want. Clearance is from me."

"It's plain you have no love for us," WarAvocat said. "Why are you cooperating?"

"Pragmatism. Having a Guardship insystem is murder on business. Guardships get what they want. Yours will, too, whatever I like. When T.W. comes back, I'll have her fix you up with documentation. Do be careful wandering around. Security staff won't be told who you are. They get bonuses for shooting people who turn up where they don't belong. You want to go somewhere, clear it with T.W.'s office. We have our own politics to survive. Anything else?"

Aleas whispered, "You're not a demigod here, Hanaver. Just a nuisance." Which amused her.

Provik awaited some response. WarAvocat declined. He had made a mistake, challenging these people on their home ground. Here all the intimidations belonged to them.

"A rest, a meal, a chance to freshen up would do us the most good, Mr. Provik."

"As you will. Six. Forget the labs. Take them to Residential." Provik turned to his screens. He was done with them.

WarAvocat noted that the man's hands still trembled.

One, Three, and Four entered as the outer door closed. One raised four fingers. Lupo nodded, watched them place the bugs in isolation boxes. "That's all?"

"We saw every twitch."

"Give them to Research."

"You put on a hell of a show."

"I almost believed it myself. Shike did better than I expected."

"You pointed them straight at us."

"If we're vulnerable we might as well find out."

"I wish we all were as confident of our ability to walk the edge without falling."

"You are." And that was the truth. He only hoped circumstances would let them step back from the brink someday.

WarAvocat said, "Stay with us, Lieutenant," as Provik's woman led them around, assigning quarters. He owed her an explanation.

The techs started sweeping the moment the woman departed. They found an ample scatter of listening devices. They would have been troubled if they had not.

"That Provik bothers me," WarAvocat said once it was safe. "I don't know why. Maybe it's potential. Sit down, Lieutenant. I'll tell you the story."

Turtle studied Provik, trying to fathom his game. "You have grown too subtle for me."

"Just baffling them with bullshit."

Turtle wondered, though.