Kissur and the pilot disappeared in the hatch opening. Ashidan sat on
the log not raising his pale face. Bemish's mind was reeling. If Kissur
hadn't known whom he would meet at the old altar house, why had he brought
the assault rifle that he was now carefully hiding under his hunting coat?
And if he had known, why had he dragged Bemish with him? Did he think that
Bemish would keep silent? No, damn it, did he think that Terence Bemish
would swallow even that? Or would he suggest landing these boats in Assalah
spaceport?
Kissur and the pilot stepped out of the hatch again. The pilot was
smiling. It was clear that in his opinion he got away cheaply and found
himself such a protector that all Weian police would not be able to lay a
finger on him. Kissur stuck the money in his pants pocket and, having bent
his leg, placed it right in front of the pilot on a boarding ramp's aluminum
stair.
The latter started looking around confusedly.
"Stupid," old Lakhor hissed, "Kiss the foot, the Lord's foot."
The Earthman shrugged his shoulders and bended down to the dusty boot.
At this moment, Kissur kneed the pilot under his chin. The pilot
squealed. His body flew upwards and Kissur's joined hands crushed his neck -
his backbone crunched.
Out of the corner of his eye, Bemish barely managed to see how Aldon
plucked Ashidan and threw him into the bushes. Kissur went flat behind a
steel landing support, whipped his gun out and started firing at the
confused people, Aldon and Khanadar joined the fray.
Three Earthmen with guns went supine, the fourth one, unnoticed by
Kissur, leaped out of the altar house. Bemish jumped at him and kicked his
gun away; both of them went to the ground. The gunman seized Bemish's throat
and started choking him. Bemish rolled on his back and quite nimbly kicked
the attacker in the place where legs grow from. The latter said "ouch"
loudly and let Bemish go but he immediately recovered and butted him in the
stomach and then punched him with the right hand. Bemish intercepted this
punch, seized the gunman's sleeve with his left hand and, with fingers
spread apart, hit him in the eyes. One eye burst and oozed down his cheek.
"Aaahhh!" the gunman screamed. In a tight embrace, they rolled down to
the abyss over boulders and hummocks.
Bemish banged a rock with his back badly and he fainted for a moment.
The gunman whipped an arrow out of the quiver, hanging behind Bemish's back.
The arrow was sharp and firm, with white icy feathers. A hexagonal titanium
tip gleaned in the moonlight above Bemish. "That's it," Bemish thought.
The smuggler dropped the arrow, however, and then he sighed and fell on
Bemish's chest. Bemish shook himself up and climbed from under his enemy's
body. A long knife was stuck in the guy's back and Khanadar the Dried Date
stood over the knife.
Date extended his hand and helped Bemish get up. They climbed the loose
rocks uphill to the lighted altar house and space boat.
Everything had already been done there. Bemish counted the corpses -
sixteen people, five wore body suits or jeans and the others were locals.
The gunpowder smell of shots mixed with the smell of fresh hemp and blood.
Ashidan sat on a rock holding his head in his hands.
Following Kissur's orders they gathered the corpses and the sacks next
to the altar house walls, poured gas over them and lit them on fire.
"I feel bad about the grave," Khanadar said.
"It's desecrated now, what can we do?" Kissur responded. Still, he
untied the bear cub off the saddle and threw it in the fire.
Afterwards, Kissur tore off the emergency control seals, turned the
safety block off and started clicking the switches till the main screen
swelled red and screamed in an ugly voice.
"Mount," Kissur yelled, running out of the space boat. Khanadar had
already leaped across the broken fence and he was prancing on his horse next
to the forest.
"Should I repeat it for you?" Kissur screamed at Ashidan, "It will blow
up in a moment."
Ashidan raced following the others.
It blew up in such a way that the moon almost dropped off the sky and
fire imps leaped out of the mountains and danced over the altar house left
behind; when people in the village found the remnants, they said, with
astonishment, that old Aldis had dragged stupid travelers from the sky to
him and nothing good, of course, had come out of it.
With his head low, Ashidan rode between Aldon and Khanadar and Khanadar
held his horse's reins.
Bemish rode behind everybody. He didn't feel all that good. A dull pain
walked up and down where his spine had banged against the rock and his side
was skinned in places. Kissur suddenly slowed his horse a bit and waited for
his friend.
Kissur jabbed Bemish with his elbow and said, with a laugh,
"So, Earthman, admit that your feet got cold? Admit that you decided I
would ask you to land this boat next time in Assalah spaceport?"
"You should have called police in."
"I," Kissur said, "am the master over this land's taxes and courts.
What would have happened if I had called police? Firstly, I wouldn't have
found this boat, because our justice is worse than a whore and they would be
warned away. When the justice sells out, a man should take it in its own
hands. Or do you think that I acted wrongly?"
"Yes," Bemish answered, "I don't think that you acted right. It was not
justice you cared about but rather shame besmirching your clan's honor. If
you had executed people accordingly to their guilt, Ashidan would have been
executed first since he knows perfectly well that selling drugs is a crime,
unlike a stupid old serf who did what his master told him to and anyway he
had no clue that it's illegal to eat this weed, since all the shamans in
this village have been eating it for the last thousand years and so what?
You would have given him couple lashes and sent him away."
They rode down a broad dark path between the abyss and the cliff and
the sky on the other side of the cliff was red and crackled.
"Ashidan," Kissur quietly called out, "do you hear what Terence is
saying? He is saying that your guilt is larger than that of people who are
dead already and it's not fair."
Even in the light brought by the moon and by the faraway fire one could
see the youth's shoulders shaking.
"Get off the horse, Ashidan," Kissur ordered. Ashidan dismounted.
Kissur also jumped down and pulled the sword with the intertwined snakes
handle out of the sheath fastened to the saddle.
"Get on your knees," Kissur ordered.
Ashidan wordlessly kneeled next to the abyss. The wind started playing
with his golden hair and it glistened in the moonlight. Ashidan lowered his
head and pulled his hair off the base of the neck with his own hand.
"It would have been better," Kissur spoke, "if you had died of his
sword eight years ago and not now," and he raised the sword over the
brother's bowed head.
Bemish jumped off his horse and seized Kissur's hand.
"Isn't enough for today, Kissur? You are drunk with blood."
"You said it yourself," Kissur objected, "that I acted unfairly. I
don't want people to say that about me."
"Damn it," Bemish said, "you did everything correct. Let the lad be."
"Get in the saddle, Ashidan," Kissur spoke quietly.
In a week, Bemish returned to the capital. He was buried up to his neck
in work, he had to attend a benefit dinner, a risk strategy and investment
conference, a Fall Leaves celebration in the palace, and a negotiation round
with the management of a Chakhar company that Bemish had plans for.
Ronald Trevis was also at the conference, he gained some weight since
they had met last time and, as Bemish learned, he had exchanged his third
wife for a fourth one. Shavash invited both friends to join his retinue and
visit Chakhar and after the vice minister had introduced the two Earthmen to
the company director, the negotiations were concluded surprisingly quickly.
In the evening, Bemish and Trevis suddenly found themselves at a villa
with Shavash while the rest of his retinue hung out at another hotel. The
guests were served an incomparable dinner but, when the girls that had
circling around the guests left and a waiter from the security department
brought a counter surveillance device with the desert, Bemish realized that
the serious conversation was just starting.
"I would like," Shavash said, leaning back in his armchair and putting
an empty bowl for the glazed fruits aside, "to discuss with you our state
debt. We are stuck all the way to our ears. The interest payments alone are
bigger that one third of our GDP."
"I wouldn't say that you have a large state debt," Trevis mentioned,
"You just have a very small GDP."
"That's what I have in mind," Shavash nodded, "when I suggest
restructuring the debt."
Trevis bounced in his chair about to protest against this idea but
Shavash's next words caused his eyes to pop out.
"I think that it would be possible to create a private company that
will be responsible for paying interest on certain state debt tranches and
this company will obtain Chakhar."
"What do you mean, Chakhar?" Trevis was astonished.
"I mean Chakhar or any other province where this company would be able
to collect taxes, make laws and build factories. If a province frightens
you, you can limit yourself with some mining deposits."
A long silence ruled the table.
"Shavash, aren't you afraid that someday they will arrest you for
treason?" Trevis finally inquired.
The small official shrugged his shoulders.
"Why? It's just a way to decrease budget expenses. If a company doesn't
pay the state debt out, it will, of course, loose the license. I've already
talked to Dachanak and Ibinna and they are ready to be the company's
co-founders. Mr. Bemish will fit perfectly there and as for you," here
Shavash smiled charmingly at the banker, "I would like you, Ronald, to
handle the negotiations with the bonds' owners."
Ronald Trevis leaned forward - his eyes reflected the lights from the
candles burning on the table and the green illumination coming from the
counter surveillance device. "He will never stop," a thought passed Bemish's
mind, "He will handle the most fantastic deals for Shavash because Shavash
can offer him what nobody has ever done in the Galaxy yet. He will be a
consultant if Shavash asks him to privatize the ministry of finance."
Three days later, Bemish dropped by Assalah, for a couple of hours - he
was accompanying a Galactic Bank committee.
The committee was shown a new section of finished launching pads,
numbers seven to seventeen, and was escorted down the unfinished but already
working spaceport building with twelve underground service floors and a
fifteen story tower that housed Bemish's office on its very top.
Bemish entered his office with the bank vice president and
contemplated, smiling slightly, his table covered with a barely perceptible
layer of dust.
After the committee had left, Giles walked into the office.
"How is Kissur's castle?" the spy inquired.
Bemish mumbled something vague.
"By the way," Giles said, "satellites observed a space boat explosion
in this area. It was something like a Colombine or a Trial with a boosted up
engine - they use them to traffic drugs. By any chance, have you heard about
it?"
"I witnessed it," Bemish said. "Kissur blew up the boat. Before that,
he torched ten million worth of drugs and killed sixteen men. Afterwards he
almost cut his own brother's head off. Ashidan was involved in the
business."
"Did you memorize the space boat's license plate number?"
"It was D-3756A Orinoko, if the plate wasn't a fake."
Giles paused.
"Do you think that Kissur took you with him on purpose? Did he know
that we suspected him in drug trafficking and that they had refused his
application to the military academy exactly because of this?"
"Yes. Only, Kissur is a proud man and he will die before he says it out
loud."
Giles was biting his lips.
"Where is Ashidan now?" he asked finally.
"Ashidan stayed in the castle. More precisely, he stayed in the
castle's cellar." Bemish specified.
He paused and added,
"You said that you had proof of Kissur's connection to drug dealers.
Where did you get this proof?"
"Make a guess."
"Shavash?"
Giles nodded and spoke,
"But he could just be mistaken."
Bemish blew up and banged his fist on the table,
"There is no way this bastard could be mistaken!" he screamed, "You can
fool the Earthmen from a sky far away and tell them that Kissur traffics in
drugs! You can't fool Shavash! He has better spies that all the local
gangsters combined! He knew for sure that Kissur had nothing to do with it!
But he also knew that Kissur, if cornered, would sooner or later break his
head!"
"But Shavash is Kissur's friend..."
"Friend? The only thing he wants is to get into Idari's bed! If Kissur
keels over, before a year goes by, Idari will have a choice - either to go
bumming or to marry Shavash!"
Giles looked at Bemish and said suddenly,
"I think that Mrs. Idari will also have the third alternative - to
marry the Assalah spaceport director. Not that a barbarian from the stars
could really allure her..."
The Eleventh Chapter
Where Terence Bemish's assistant goes to the sectants' meeting in
Imissa while Kissur the White Falcon looks around the Galaxy for abandoned
warheads.
Two days later, Ashinik returned to the spaceport and he didn't drop a
word about the Inissa meeting. It could not be ruled out that the zealots
had made certain decisions and that these decisions could include an order
for Ashinik to plant a bomb for Bemish or to throw it down a launching
chute. But Bemish didn't have time to think about it.
Three days later, Bemish wandered into his office for half an hour to
dictate a whole pile of documents, Ashinik interrupted him calling from
somewhere in the port.
"Mr. Bemish, could you find an hour for me? There is a man here who
would like to meet you. "
"What man?" Bemish asked.
"It's an... old man."
Bemish was quite impressed. He cleaned up his office and changed his
jacket, just in case; he hung his regular one in the closet and picked out a
light grey jacket that had one very useful feature - it could resist a laser
burst at a three meter distance.
Ashinik led into the office an eighty-year-old man in peasant clothing,
with white and bushy eyebrows, straight back and a square cap on a seemingly
bald head. The old man looked at the Earthman with scary bulging eyes.
"You," the old man said, "are the boss of this place. And who am I?"
"You are probably," Bemish said, "the boss of the people who don't like
this place."
"We don't have bosses," the old man declared, "We have students and
teachers."
Bemish had nothing to reply, so he asked, "Would you like some tea?"
Strangely, the old man agreed. Bemish ordered it and soon Inis entered
the office carrying a tray with a teapot, cups, and several baskets filled
with sweet cookies.
The old man disapprovingly stared at Inis' skirt. It was exactly one
meter shorter than what he would consider decent. Even Bemish, in the back
of his mind, disapproved of Inis strolling in this skirt anywhere outside of
his bedroom. But what could he do? Inis enjoyed very few things besides
skirts and earrings and Bemish felt sorry for her and never contradicted her
about her skirts.
The main demon and the arch foe of the demons silently drank tea for a
while.
"How are you going to scamper from here to the sky?" the White Elder
asked. "I walked around your construction and I saw holes going down but I
haven't seen any ladders going to the sky."
"We don't use ladders," Bemish explained patiently, "to go to the sky.
We use space ships. Before starting, these ships stay in underground chutes,
like pigeons resting in a pigeon house between flights."
The White Elder looked at him with interest and Bemish started
explaining where to and why ships flew. He tried very hard. He even got to
the concept of an escape velocity when the old man interrupted him and
asked, "Ok, I believe that you fly to the sky and not underground. But why
wouldn't you still build a ladder so that people don't get confused?"
Bemish suppressed a desire to burst into hysterical laughter. Then he
recalled the stories about the zealots' cunning and how they enjoyed placing
a man in absurd situations and watching his actions. What if the old man
understood everything about space ships? He knew exactly that Bemish would
be able to explain to him what an escape velocity was but he didn't know
what Bemish would do after such a question.
Bemish hadn't exactly shown himself in the best light and he stuck his
nose in the tea cup.
"Listen," the old man said, having realized that he wouldn't get an
answer, "you talked to this puppy and to Kissur and to the great sovereign
and even to this briber Shavash and you managed to find the common ground
with everyone. How have you managed it?"
"I don't know," Bemish said. "It probably happened because I always try
to speak truth. People rarely tell the truth to each other. They either
flatter each other and think that they are lying or they are rude to each
and think that they are telling the truth. But they tell the truth very
rarely."
"What truth will you say about yourself? Will you admit that you are a
demon?"
"No," Bemish said, "I will not lie and say that I am a demon and I will
not say that you are wrong. You see, I grew up in a country where they think
that the people are always right. If so, many people feel themselves
slighted, they must have reasons for it. If so many people hate Earthmen
they must have reasons for it. I think that the main reason is that you are
poorer than Earthmen. And I think that the only way to change it is to help
you to become as rich as Earthmen. That's why I am building this spaceport."
"You are connected to some very bad people," the old man said, "For
instance, to a man named Shavash. He is a backside of the world, a jerboa
turned into a man, a filthy duck with seven tongues and no soul. His black
shadow found its way into our counsel and his black shadow stretches over
the construction. Think upon my words."
Having said this, the old man stood and left without bowing. Ashinik
rushed out with him.
Three more days passed and Ashinik said, "Mr. Bemish, if you wish to
talk to the White Elder again, you should be in the capital, in the hotel
Archan the day after tomorrow at the dew hour."
Bemish couldn't fall asleep throughout the night. Archan was
unquestionably the Empire's most luxurious hotel. It was located in the
Emperor's palace territory, where the place where the Cloud Houses for
visiting officials used to be. Archan retained all the crazy luxury of the
dwellings built for visiting provincial governors and judges of the ninth
rank; additionally it acquired all the newest comforts, including
computerized climate control. Evil tongues added that Archan also retained
hidden passages that executioners had used to visit the governors called to
the capital to receive capital punishment. The medieval spy holes had been
adapted for communication equipment and much more modern surveillance
hardware had taken over.
The fact that White Elder stayed at Archan and not at a five star
Hilton demonstrated that the sect not only had considerably more money that
Bemish had suspected before but it also had some patrons at the very top.
Who were these patrons? Clearly, it was not Shavash. The old man spoke about
Shavash with fresh disgust. Bemish was ready to swear that an informer of
Shavash's had either been near Iniss or even attended the meeting itself and
that crabs had already feasted on him.
Bemish lay in his bed and thought that maybe he, the main demon of the
Empire, who never sent spies, never bribed and never intrigued, managed to
succeed where the cunning official Shavash failed. He managed to make the
White Elder, the Earthmen's enemy, reconsider his policy.
"You are absent-minded tonight," Inis said. "Has anything happened?"
Terence smiled in the dark.
"It's nothing. Sleep little one."
The woman carefully caressed his chest.
"Oh, Mr. Bemish, I can feel that you are troubled. I hope that it's not
due to the accounting error I made yesterday. If it's something else, why
don't you tell me about it?"
Bemish smiled slightly imagining Inis advising him. She, however, was
right - he, indeed, needed advice.
Bemish climbed out of bed and, having walked to the bathroom, dialed a
number. Surprisingly, he heard an answer immediately even though it was
quite late.
"Mrs. Idari? This is Bemish. I need to talk to you."
"I am listening, Terence."
"It's not a phone conversation. I will be in the capital in two hours.
May I see you?"
"Yes."
Idari met him in the large living room. Bemish didn't ask about
Kissur's whereabouts - the majordomo had already whispered to him that
Kissur was on a pub crawl accompanied by two barbarians and one bandit.
Idari wore a solemn house mistress dress - long black pants and a black
blouse. The blouse's sleeves were embroidered with entwined flowers and
stems. She was girdled by a wide belt of silver segments. She walked by
Bemish carefully stepping on the beasts and grasses weaved on the rugs and
Bemish felt as if her feet were stepping on his heart.
Bemish sat down in a soft chair in the small living room and Idari sat
cross legged across him on the carpet.
"I am meeting the White Elder tomorrow," Terence said.
Alarm crossed the woman's face.
"Be careful, Terence, it has to be a trap. They can kill or kidnap you.
You have tamed a kitten Ashinik but don't think that you have learned a
forest tiger's habits."
"It's not a trap," Bemish said. "They can't set a trap for my body in
that place. But... You see... The sect is ready to reconsider its policy
towards Earthmen."
Idari smiled with her blue eyes.
"I... I was happy at first. I was able to do what Shavash couldn't. You
know how dangerous they are. But now I am afraid. The White Elder is doing
me a huge favor. He will ask something in return. An eye for an eye. I want
to know what it will be."
"It's very simple," Idari said. "They say you are the foreigner who is
the closest to the sovereign. The White Elder will ask you to persuade the
sovereign to dismiss Shavash."
Bemish shuddered. The negotiations concerning the company that would
obtain a half of Chakhar's ore deposits in exchange for taking
responsibility of one of the state loans were proceeding at full speed. The
company even had a name, BOAR project. Nobody knew about the project yet,
but...
"But... But... Oh my God, it's impossible! Shavash will bankrupt me!"
The woman smiled imperceptibly.
"You should have realized what could happen, Terence, when you offered
Ashinik a job. Or do you think that Following the Way would have let Ashinik
serve a demon if they hadn't thought that the demon had made himself a snare
they could catch him with?"
Bemish arrived at Archan at eight thirty.
The hotel's malachite columns gleamed and the mirrors on the lobby's
walls were inlaid with the thinnest silver layers on top. Above the mirrors,
where the gods had been depicted in the past, elegant clocks were now set;
they showed the local time, Melbourn time - Melbourn being the Federation of
Nineteen capital during this decade - and time in London, New York, Khoine
and in a dozen other largest Galaxy's business centers.
A certain disturbance was taking place in the hotel's lobby, a palace
guardsman in a green caftan (palace guardsmen were in charge of hotel
security) was silently and forcefully pushing a journalist with a camera
away. Bemish approached the registration desk and expressed a wish to talk
to the resident of room number fifteen on the hotel phone. The girl behind
the desk was quite surprised. A hand touched Bemish on the back and the
hand's owner turned Bemish around to face him in a somewhat impolite manner.
"My dear fellow," he started unceremoniously and then he choked,
thought a bit and asked tightly, "Mr. Bemish?"
"That's me."
The man with palace guard captain insignia was clearly nervous.
"Excuse me," he said, "do I understand correctly that you were
inquiring about the resident of the room number fifteen?"
"Yes," Bemish said exasperatedly, "I have a meeting with him at nine."
"It's impossible."
"Why?"
"An hour and a half ago the man who stayed in the room number fifteen
and two bodyguards of his were killed by a bomb that exploded in the room."
Bemish put his elbows on the desk and squeezed his temples with his
hands in anguish and, right at that moment, a journalist hiding behind a
large flower pot happily clicked his camera.
In half an hour Bemish rushed up Shavash's city manor staircase. The
vice-minister was drinking his morning tea in the blue living room.
"What happened, Terence?" he stood up in astonishment, meeting Bemish.
"Murderer!" Bemish shouted.
"What's happened?"
"Don't play games with me!"
"Are you talking about the Archan accident? Terence, honestly, I have
nothing to do with it..."
Shavash's face demonstrated sincere surprise and affection. Bemish's
fist collided with this affectionate face maybe not at a half of his full
power but definitely at one third of it.
Shavash flew to the floor. He squeaked, rolled on the carpet and jumped
on his feet. His face burned and a red mark stretched across his left cheek.
"Listen, Terence," the official said, chewing on his lips, "you will
fall out the zealots' favor this morning. It will be bad if you also fall
out of my favor..."
Bemish sagged heavily in a chair.
"Well, tell me what happened."
"There is nothing to tell you. You know it all. This morning I was
supposed to meet the White Elder in Archan. The White Elder was going to
reconsider his attitude towards Earthmen. Now he is as dead as a wasted frog
and, since it happened thanks to his meeting with an Earthman, the zealots
will consider us demons just as they considered us before. They will also
remain banned and, being more dangerous for the country, they will be less
dangerous for you, Shavash."
The small official grinned.
"Don't you think Terence that if you meet a man who signed a death
warrant to your friend, you should let you friend know about it?"
"No."
Shavash threw himself back in the chair. His voice became flatter and
less caressing.
"Suppose," Shavash said, "that somebody informed me about the White
Elder's stay in Archan and his meeting with you. Don't I know the conditions
of this meeting and what they asked you to do so that Earthmen would stop
being demons?"
"They didn't ask me anything."
"They would have asked my resignation from you."
"And it's better for you to kill a man who could make a peace between
Earthmen and millions of people that to resign, isn't it?"
"Oh, Terence, you don't understand anything. Tell me, what could you
tell the sovereign that the sovereign could revoke my appointment?"
"What?! One tenth of what I know..."
"Exactly. You can get me to resign only based on the deals we have
handled together. And if my part in these deals is known, would I keep
silence about your part? And if your part is known, even the moderate
newspapers will agree that you are a demon."
Shavash spread his hands.
"The White Elder had no intention of making peace with Earthmen. He was
going to use you as a tool to cause my resignation and your own destruction
while the sect's attitude would not change a bit. I think that this decision
was made in Inissa during the same sect's meeting that you beloved Ashinik
attended."
"This is bullshit," Bemish said, "This is bullshit that you don't
believe, because if it had happened this way, you would have just talked and
told me that the White Elder was leading me by my nose. Instead of that you
killed him, because they came to another decision at the sect's meeting."
"Actually, I was going to talk to you," Shavash replied, "today, after
your meeting with the White Elder. But somebody outwitted us both."
"Who is it?"
"It's Yadan."
"Who?"
"He is the teacher of your Ashinik, the number two man in the sect who
will become the first one now. I bet that he was the only one who knew or
suspected about the White Elder's plan to throttle you with your own hands.
He killed him to take his position, knowing that in the current
circumstances half Weia would blame me for the murder and the other half
would blame you."
"Bullshit! I saw enough to be sure that it was a professional
assassination. Should I believe that the same people who call all the Earth
technology a phantom, used sinex explosives?"
"They call it a phantom but they can use it quite well, Terence. Don't
worry. And they have many more opportunities to organize an assassination; I
can bet my life that it was a suicide bomber."
Ashinik spent this night in the company director's bed with Inis, as he
spent all the other nights when Bemish was away from the spaceport. He
learned about the accident from the morning news report, right from one of
the multiple screens hanging in a lounge that Ashinik was passing through.
Ashinik stood in silence boring the screen through with his eyes. A
worker passed by and slid a note into the lad's hand. He unwrapped and read
it; the note ordered him to attend a meeting at one of the sect's secret
places - an old temple next to a tavern three hundred kilometers to the
north from Assalah.
Ashinik paled and hurried to an exit.
They waited for him at the exit - two people in black and white
uniforms of the security service silently blocked his way. Ashinik made an
attempt to turn aside.
"Follow us, vice-president," an officer said quietly, "the boss would
like to talk to you."
He raised his hand to his mouth and spoke into a round badge on his
wrist,
"We are going upstairs, sir,"
Richard Giles, the spaceport security head was waiting for Ashinik in
his white soundproof office on the tower's twelfth floor. When Giles saw the
vice-president who actually outranked him, he didn't even move.
The people in black and white uniform seated Ashinik in an armchair and
left at a sign from their boss. The office doors slid towards each other
behind their backs with a soft hiss; Ashinik and Giles were alone.
"Have you introduced the White Elder to Terence?" Giles asked.
It was useless to deny it.
"Yes."
"Why haven't I been notified?"
"It's Mr. Bemish's prerogative," Ashinik answered, "If he had liked to,
he would've let you know. When I came to work here, Bemish promised me that
I didn't have to answer any questions and I haven't been asked anything so
far."
"That was under different circumstances. What did Bemish and the White
Elder talk about?"
"I don't know."
"What was discussed at your sect's meeting in Inissa?"
"I won't tell you."
"Either you, Ashinik, tell me what happened in Inissa or I will tell
Terence in whose bed you sleep every night that he spends outside of the
spaceport, including tonight."
Ashinik paled.
"And I can even show him some pictures." Ashinik sat motionlessly.
"What happened in Inissa?
"We... we agreed not to consider Earthmen to be demons."
"How interesting... Why?"
"It was my suggestion."
"Did everybody support it?"
"The White Elder agreed. That was enough."
"What about the others? Who was against it?"
"Yadan, Akhunna and a man nicknamed Garlic Dan were against it."
"Why did the White Elder agree?"
"He said that he would make peace with the spaceport's boss if the
latter broke up with Shavash."
"Aha. So, who killed the White Elder, Shavash or Yadan?"
"I don't know."
"What will happen to you?"
Giles was silent.
"Ashinik, have you received anything from the sect after the
assassination?"
"No."
Giles looked at the youth carefully.
"When you receive anything, let me know."
Ashinik was silent.
"Ashinik, don't you understand? You were the one who supported making
an agreement with Earthmen! You will be the next victim after the White
Elder. They will kill you if you are not with us!"
"I know," Ashinik said quietly.
Giles sighed.
"Listen, Ashinik," he spoke suddenly, "why have you gotten involved
with Inis? She is a dumb broad; you can get a bunch of them for an ishevik."
In the evening Ashinik sat at the same table again, together with Giles
and Bemish. Wind and engines howled behind a huge dark window, the glares of
the beacons darted across the landing field and chunks of pollen from
blooming nut trees traveled back and forth over the landing space.
Technicians cursed under their breath - the pollen found its way inside all
the hardware. Superstitious locals said that it was a bad omen. Pollen
whirlwinds were always considered to be witches and the places where they
moved particularly high were known to be damned.
On the space field open to the winds and to the powerful blows from
plasma engines the witches danced their best.
"When are you meeting Yadan?" Bemish asked.
Ashinik was silent. He had burned the note long ago but its words still
flared inside his mind. Should he answer or not?
But here Giles entered the conversation.
"We know that a courier from Yadan arrived in the spaceport territory.
He gave you a note. When did it happen?"
"Nobody has given me any notes. Where is your courier? Have you
arrested or photographed him?"
"No," Giles admitted.
"Why not?"
"Shavash's people saw him. They told me."
"Don't you understand that Shavash lied to you," Ashinik asked, "and
that you can't believe a single word of his?"
"Listen, Ashinik," Giles said, "I know that after the death of your
sect's head, the new head has to be elected in two days. And I know that as
a member of the upper circle, you have to be there because otherwise the
meeting will be invalid. Where and when do you meet?"
"I don't know."
Giles grabbed the youth by the lapels of his jacket.
"Idiot! Do you understand that they called you there to kill you? You
will get out of there alive only if you agree to kill Terence!"
Ashinik paled. His pupils suddenly dilated covering his whole eyeballs.
"Don't touch me, demon!" the youth suddenly screamed.
Bemish leaped up. Ashinik's face was contorted and foam bubbled on his
lips - a fit started.
Ashinik was carried away and then an inner door to Giles' office opened
and a man, who had watched the conversation from the next room, walked out
of it; it was Shavash.
"Are you sure that a meeting will occur?" Giles asked.
"I am three hundred percent sure," Shavash replied. "The top of the
sect will be there. It's our only chance - to pick them all and cut them
down to a demon's snot!"
"It's your only chance," Bemish said through his teeth.
"Terence! We are both in the same shit here. Zealots are not like
Galactic police. Nobody is gonna care whether it was you or me who sent the
bomb to the White Elder. They will finish both of us off. Give me Ashinik."
"What do you mean?" Bemish inquired.
"Are you a child?"
And a private jail's owner made a straightforward gesture with his hand
as if he was squeezing water out of a sheet.
"No," Bemish cut him off.
"Ronald will be very angry with you," Shavash purred. "He has already
started the negotiations with the owners of large debt blocks. If you don't
join BOAR stock owners..."
"I will think about it," Bemish said in a suddenly low voice.
Shavash didn't insist. He knew that the Earthman had never exchanged a
friend's life before for a certain - even if very large - amount of money
and he thought that a man had to get used to such a thought.
He stopped talking and he excused himself soon. Giles stepped out to
walk him down. On the space field where nobody could overhear them, Giles
whispered several words to Shavash and the latter smiled at the spy with his
eyes.
Ashinik woke up late at night. He was in the medical room on the fifth
floor and the sky blinked red and blue behind the window.
He didn't remember what exactly happened before and during the fit. It
seemed like this demon, Shavash, demanded something from him. A demon? How
could it be a demon? Shavash is a Weian. But Yadan is also a Weian and he
killed the White Elder. Only a demon could kill the White Elder. Then, are
the zealots demons? No, they only invent demons. But if you invent somebody,
you will turn into him...
Ashinik sat up in bed with a jerk. He remembered now. He, as a member
of the first circle, was called to the sect's meeting. If he doesn't arrive,
he will be outlawed. What if he arrives? It's crazy. The Earthmen are
watching him. He will act as a bee leading them to its beehive and they will
burn the beehive out with their rocket launchers.
Ashinik looked around. The room wasn't large and though he couldn't see
anything out of ordinary around him, Ashinik felt as if the closed circuit
cameras were zooming in at him from all directions. Ashinik dug in his
clothing hanging on a chair next to him and fished out a flat pebble with
two holes. They had given him this pebble at Inissa meeting and told him
that the pebble had been bewitched and it would render all Earthmen
electronic eyes impotent.
Ashinik smiled bitterly; he knew all too well that no sorcery would
help against a video camera. "If I don't come and use surveillance as a
reason they will accuse me of unbelieving into the power of the holy
talisman," a thought glanced in his mind.
Why would they watch him though? He usually stayed in bed for a day or
two after a fit. Who would figure it out that the foam on his lips came from
a "foamy nut" that he had chewed on and that he fainted from this nut for a
couple of hours at most.
At the same time he needed to leave due to a very simple reason.
Ashinik couldn't rely on Bemish's behavior. It's true that the Earthman had
been very magnanimous so far but it had also been in his interest. Now
Bemish was utterly interested in the destruction of the sect and he would
doubtfully be particularly nice to Ashinik.
Ashinik stood and pulled on the door handle. It was not locked but the
corridor it led to was blocked by a closed department door in two or three
meters. Ashinik knew it for sure that unlocking this door would be
dangerous. It was connected to the night alarm system in case of thieves and
other accidents.
Ashinik stuck his nose into a couple of offices. They were mostly
filled with medical equipment. Two rooms teemed with plastic paint buckets
and other construction paraphernalia - they were being furnished. Sharp
paint smell hadn't disappeared completely yet and the workers laboring here
during the day had left a window ajar.
A couple of disgustingly dirty worker overalls lay on the floor.
The next moment, Ashinik's eyes gleamed and he rushed to where the
paint was. Yes! A small white roll, about an elbow wide, was there, behind
the plastic buckets. It was not a rope, no; it was just sound resistant
insulation tape that was used for seal soundproofing linnit blocks. Ashinik
knew, however, that the tape was incredibly strong - the construction
workers loved to sell it on the side to the peasants who wove horse
harnesses out of it. The tape length in a standard pack was sixty meters but
the workers had already utilized some. By Ashinik's estimate, about one
sixth of the tape had been used. It should be enough for eighteen floors.
Ashinik pulled torn overalls over his pajama, walked to a window and wrapped
the tape's end around the window frame. He briefly prayed to the White Elder
and climbed out of the window.
The descent was hard. The tape was sticky just to the right degree and
it was unwrapping slowly under Ashinik's weight. Sometimes it got stuck and
Ashinik had to pull the tape off jerkily with one hand while hanging from
the other one.
In five minutes, Ashinik jumped down onto a sidewalk and ran at top
speed across stiff and booming thermoconcrete. This spaceport's sector was
relatively empty - two helicopters stood next to its border and a hefty
trans-galactic liner was being loaded far away. With an open mouth, Ashinik
stared at the containers floating into the cargo hatch for several moments.
What if he just crept in the ship and flew away from this damned planet? At
least, nobody would kill or betray him there.
Ashinik raced to the fifth sector, squeezed through a hole in the fence
and ran down an unpaved road, illuminated by silvery moonlight, to a small
jeep that was perched at the curb. Earlier, he had asked a worker to leave a
car there.
Ashinik jumped into the jeep and stuck his hand under the driver's
seat. Thank God - the car keys were right where they were supposed to be,
wrapped in a dirty rag. Ashinik turned the ignition on and a cold gun barrel
touched his temple and somebody said quietly, "Be nice and drive straight,
cutie."
Ashinik glanced aside - he could see the speaker in the rearview
mirror. Ashinik recognized him to be a personal bodyguard of Shavash's, one
out of five that he was rumored to hold in his complete confidence.
"Go!"
The jeep started moving slowly. The guard got his radio out and quietly
reported,
"The fish is on the hook. Meet us behind the bridge." Ashinik ground
his teeth.
"Just wait," he uttered, "my master will learn that you seized me and
you will get you butt kicked!" The guard laughed.
"Firstly," he spoke, "it would be difficult for Bemish to find out that
we caught you because you escaped on your own. But if you are really
interested in it, it was Mr. Bemish who handed you over to us. He told us
where the jeep would be and suggested that we trapped you.
Ashinik's heart plummeted.
"You are lying! The master wouldn't do it!"
"Eh, my dear, the master didn't do it while he still hoped to make
peace with the sect. And now he can only hope to find out where the Meeting
of Choosing will occur and burn them all out with a laser or with DDT. We
can learn where it is from you, right? Of course, Mr. Bemish could skin you
himself but Bemish is a squeamish Earthman. Why should he get his hands
dirty if there are other people around? That's why he sold you out,
Ashinik."
Ashinik drove silently. Nearby, the spaceships' exhausts hissed warming
up and signal lights blinked behind the spaceport wall. The unpaved road
finally ended, the jeep climbed onto a six lane highway and rolled towards
Lannah Bridge.
"So, where is the meeting?"
"I don't know."
The car raced over a ramp next to the spaceport eastern gates; a
passenger car's lights blinked below.
"Ashinik, why are you so stubborn? Don't you understand that you are
the third one on their extermination list, right after Bemish and my boss?
You aren't crazy. You don't believe that Yadan was born out of a golden egg,
do you? Tell us and we will let you go because my masters are normal people
and yours are nuts!"
Ashinik suddenly swerved the steering wheel all the way to the right.
The car hit the concrete sidewalk, jumped and hit the fence head-on. The
guard shot and the bullet burned Ashinik's hair and made a neat hole in the
windshield.
"Ouch! What are you doing, bastard?!"
The rail caved in, bursting. Ashinik threw the door open and rolled
out. He was barely able to grab the poles at the ramp's edge.
The busted rail links glimmered on their way down and the car followed
them spinning in the air. Ashinik heard it hitting the ground; the sound of
a muted explosion came next.
Ashinik climbed onto the ramp and ran as fast as he could.
The next morning, barefoot Ashinik dressed in peasant clothing with a
the log not raising his pale face. Bemish's mind was reeling. If Kissur
hadn't known whom he would meet at the old altar house, why had he brought
the assault rifle that he was now carefully hiding under his hunting coat?
And if he had known, why had he dragged Bemish with him? Did he think that
Bemish would keep silent? No, damn it, did he think that Terence Bemish
would swallow even that? Or would he suggest landing these boats in Assalah
spaceport?
Kissur and the pilot stepped out of the hatch again. The pilot was
smiling. It was clear that in his opinion he got away cheaply and found
himself such a protector that all Weian police would not be able to lay a
finger on him. Kissur stuck the money in his pants pocket and, having bent
his leg, placed it right in front of the pilot on a boarding ramp's aluminum
stair.
The latter started looking around confusedly.
"Stupid," old Lakhor hissed, "Kiss the foot, the Lord's foot."
The Earthman shrugged his shoulders and bended down to the dusty boot.
At this moment, Kissur kneed the pilot under his chin. The pilot
squealed. His body flew upwards and Kissur's joined hands crushed his neck -
his backbone crunched.
Out of the corner of his eye, Bemish barely managed to see how Aldon
plucked Ashidan and threw him into the bushes. Kissur went flat behind a
steel landing support, whipped his gun out and started firing at the
confused people, Aldon and Khanadar joined the fray.
Three Earthmen with guns went supine, the fourth one, unnoticed by
Kissur, leaped out of the altar house. Bemish jumped at him and kicked his
gun away; both of them went to the ground. The gunman seized Bemish's throat
and started choking him. Bemish rolled on his back and quite nimbly kicked
the attacker in the place where legs grow from. The latter said "ouch"
loudly and let Bemish go but he immediately recovered and butted him in the
stomach and then punched him with the right hand. Bemish intercepted this
punch, seized the gunman's sleeve with his left hand and, with fingers
spread apart, hit him in the eyes. One eye burst and oozed down his cheek.
"Aaahhh!" the gunman screamed. In a tight embrace, they rolled down to
the abyss over boulders and hummocks.
Bemish banged a rock with his back badly and he fainted for a moment.
The gunman whipped an arrow out of the quiver, hanging behind Bemish's back.
The arrow was sharp and firm, with white icy feathers. A hexagonal titanium
tip gleaned in the moonlight above Bemish. "That's it," Bemish thought.
The smuggler dropped the arrow, however, and then he sighed and fell on
Bemish's chest. Bemish shook himself up and climbed from under his enemy's
body. A long knife was stuck in the guy's back and Khanadar the Dried Date
stood over the knife.
Date extended his hand and helped Bemish get up. They climbed the loose
rocks uphill to the lighted altar house and space boat.
Everything had already been done there. Bemish counted the corpses -
sixteen people, five wore body suits or jeans and the others were locals.
The gunpowder smell of shots mixed with the smell of fresh hemp and blood.
Ashidan sat on a rock holding his head in his hands.
Following Kissur's orders they gathered the corpses and the sacks next
to the altar house walls, poured gas over them and lit them on fire.
"I feel bad about the grave," Khanadar said.
"It's desecrated now, what can we do?" Kissur responded. Still, he
untied the bear cub off the saddle and threw it in the fire.
Afterwards, Kissur tore off the emergency control seals, turned the
safety block off and started clicking the switches till the main screen
swelled red and screamed in an ugly voice.
"Mount," Kissur yelled, running out of the space boat. Khanadar had
already leaped across the broken fence and he was prancing on his horse next
to the forest.
"Should I repeat it for you?" Kissur screamed at Ashidan, "It will blow
up in a moment."
Ashidan raced following the others.
It blew up in such a way that the moon almost dropped off the sky and
fire imps leaped out of the mountains and danced over the altar house left
behind; when people in the village found the remnants, they said, with
astonishment, that old Aldis had dragged stupid travelers from the sky to
him and nothing good, of course, had come out of it.
With his head low, Ashidan rode between Aldon and Khanadar and Khanadar
held his horse's reins.
Bemish rode behind everybody. He didn't feel all that good. A dull pain
walked up and down where his spine had banged against the rock and his side
was skinned in places. Kissur suddenly slowed his horse a bit and waited for
his friend.
Kissur jabbed Bemish with his elbow and said, with a laugh,
"So, Earthman, admit that your feet got cold? Admit that you decided I
would ask you to land this boat next time in Assalah spaceport?"
"You should have called police in."
"I," Kissur said, "am the master over this land's taxes and courts.
What would have happened if I had called police? Firstly, I wouldn't have
found this boat, because our justice is worse than a whore and they would be
warned away. When the justice sells out, a man should take it in its own
hands. Or do you think that I acted wrongly?"
"Yes," Bemish answered, "I don't think that you acted right. It was not
justice you cared about but rather shame besmirching your clan's honor. If
you had executed people accordingly to their guilt, Ashidan would have been
executed first since he knows perfectly well that selling drugs is a crime,
unlike a stupid old serf who did what his master told him to and anyway he
had no clue that it's illegal to eat this weed, since all the shamans in
this village have been eating it for the last thousand years and so what?
You would have given him couple lashes and sent him away."
They rode down a broad dark path between the abyss and the cliff and
the sky on the other side of the cliff was red and crackled.
"Ashidan," Kissur quietly called out, "do you hear what Terence is
saying? He is saying that your guilt is larger than that of people who are
dead already and it's not fair."
Even in the light brought by the moon and by the faraway fire one could
see the youth's shoulders shaking.
"Get off the horse, Ashidan," Kissur ordered. Ashidan dismounted.
Kissur also jumped down and pulled the sword with the intertwined snakes
handle out of the sheath fastened to the saddle.
"Get on your knees," Kissur ordered.
Ashidan wordlessly kneeled next to the abyss. The wind started playing
with his golden hair and it glistened in the moonlight. Ashidan lowered his
head and pulled his hair off the base of the neck with his own hand.
"It would have been better," Kissur spoke, "if you had died of his
sword eight years ago and not now," and he raised the sword over the
brother's bowed head.
Bemish jumped off his horse and seized Kissur's hand.
"Isn't enough for today, Kissur? You are drunk with blood."
"You said it yourself," Kissur objected, "that I acted unfairly. I
don't want people to say that about me."
"Damn it," Bemish said, "you did everything correct. Let the lad be."
"Get in the saddle, Ashidan," Kissur spoke quietly.
In a week, Bemish returned to the capital. He was buried up to his neck
in work, he had to attend a benefit dinner, a risk strategy and investment
conference, a Fall Leaves celebration in the palace, and a negotiation round
with the management of a Chakhar company that Bemish had plans for.
Ronald Trevis was also at the conference, he gained some weight since
they had met last time and, as Bemish learned, he had exchanged his third
wife for a fourth one. Shavash invited both friends to join his retinue and
visit Chakhar and after the vice minister had introduced the two Earthmen to
the company director, the negotiations were concluded surprisingly quickly.
In the evening, Bemish and Trevis suddenly found themselves at a villa
with Shavash while the rest of his retinue hung out at another hotel. The
guests were served an incomparable dinner but, when the girls that had
circling around the guests left and a waiter from the security department
brought a counter surveillance device with the desert, Bemish realized that
the serious conversation was just starting.
"I would like," Shavash said, leaning back in his armchair and putting
an empty bowl for the glazed fruits aside, "to discuss with you our state
debt. We are stuck all the way to our ears. The interest payments alone are
bigger that one third of our GDP."
"I wouldn't say that you have a large state debt," Trevis mentioned,
"You just have a very small GDP."
"That's what I have in mind," Shavash nodded, "when I suggest
restructuring the debt."
Trevis bounced in his chair about to protest against this idea but
Shavash's next words caused his eyes to pop out.
"I think that it would be possible to create a private company that
will be responsible for paying interest on certain state debt tranches and
this company will obtain Chakhar."
"What do you mean, Chakhar?" Trevis was astonished.
"I mean Chakhar or any other province where this company would be able
to collect taxes, make laws and build factories. If a province frightens
you, you can limit yourself with some mining deposits."
A long silence ruled the table.
"Shavash, aren't you afraid that someday they will arrest you for
treason?" Trevis finally inquired.
The small official shrugged his shoulders.
"Why? It's just a way to decrease budget expenses. If a company doesn't
pay the state debt out, it will, of course, loose the license. I've already
talked to Dachanak and Ibinna and they are ready to be the company's
co-founders. Mr. Bemish will fit perfectly there and as for you," here
Shavash smiled charmingly at the banker, "I would like you, Ronald, to
handle the negotiations with the bonds' owners."
Ronald Trevis leaned forward - his eyes reflected the lights from the
candles burning on the table and the green illumination coming from the
counter surveillance device. "He will never stop," a thought passed Bemish's
mind, "He will handle the most fantastic deals for Shavash because Shavash
can offer him what nobody has ever done in the Galaxy yet. He will be a
consultant if Shavash asks him to privatize the ministry of finance."
Three days later, Bemish dropped by Assalah, for a couple of hours - he
was accompanying a Galactic Bank committee.
The committee was shown a new section of finished launching pads,
numbers seven to seventeen, and was escorted down the unfinished but already
working spaceport building with twelve underground service floors and a
fifteen story tower that housed Bemish's office on its very top.
Bemish entered his office with the bank vice president and
contemplated, smiling slightly, his table covered with a barely perceptible
layer of dust.
After the committee had left, Giles walked into the office.
"How is Kissur's castle?" the spy inquired.
Bemish mumbled something vague.
"By the way," Giles said, "satellites observed a space boat explosion
in this area. It was something like a Colombine or a Trial with a boosted up
engine - they use them to traffic drugs. By any chance, have you heard about
it?"
"I witnessed it," Bemish said. "Kissur blew up the boat. Before that,
he torched ten million worth of drugs and killed sixteen men. Afterwards he
almost cut his own brother's head off. Ashidan was involved in the
business."
"Did you memorize the space boat's license plate number?"
"It was D-3756A Orinoko, if the plate wasn't a fake."
Giles paused.
"Do you think that Kissur took you with him on purpose? Did he know
that we suspected him in drug trafficking and that they had refused his
application to the military academy exactly because of this?"
"Yes. Only, Kissur is a proud man and he will die before he says it out
loud."
Giles was biting his lips.
"Where is Ashidan now?" he asked finally.
"Ashidan stayed in the castle. More precisely, he stayed in the
castle's cellar." Bemish specified.
He paused and added,
"You said that you had proof of Kissur's connection to drug dealers.
Where did you get this proof?"
"Make a guess."
"Shavash?"
Giles nodded and spoke,
"But he could just be mistaken."
Bemish blew up and banged his fist on the table,
"There is no way this bastard could be mistaken!" he screamed, "You can
fool the Earthmen from a sky far away and tell them that Kissur traffics in
drugs! You can't fool Shavash! He has better spies that all the local
gangsters combined! He knew for sure that Kissur had nothing to do with it!
But he also knew that Kissur, if cornered, would sooner or later break his
head!"
"But Shavash is Kissur's friend..."
"Friend? The only thing he wants is to get into Idari's bed! If Kissur
keels over, before a year goes by, Idari will have a choice - either to go
bumming or to marry Shavash!"
Giles looked at Bemish and said suddenly,
"I think that Mrs. Idari will also have the third alternative - to
marry the Assalah spaceport director. Not that a barbarian from the stars
could really allure her..."
The Eleventh Chapter
Where Terence Bemish's assistant goes to the sectants' meeting in
Imissa while Kissur the White Falcon looks around the Galaxy for abandoned
warheads.
Two days later, Ashinik returned to the spaceport and he didn't drop a
word about the Inissa meeting. It could not be ruled out that the zealots
had made certain decisions and that these decisions could include an order
for Ashinik to plant a bomb for Bemish or to throw it down a launching
chute. But Bemish didn't have time to think about it.
Three days later, Bemish wandered into his office for half an hour to
dictate a whole pile of documents, Ashinik interrupted him calling from
somewhere in the port.
"Mr. Bemish, could you find an hour for me? There is a man here who
would like to meet you. "
"What man?" Bemish asked.
"It's an... old man."
Bemish was quite impressed. He cleaned up his office and changed his
jacket, just in case; he hung his regular one in the closet and picked out a
light grey jacket that had one very useful feature - it could resist a laser
burst at a three meter distance.
Ashinik led into the office an eighty-year-old man in peasant clothing,
with white and bushy eyebrows, straight back and a square cap on a seemingly
bald head. The old man looked at the Earthman with scary bulging eyes.
"You," the old man said, "are the boss of this place. And who am I?"
"You are probably," Bemish said, "the boss of the people who don't like
this place."
"We don't have bosses," the old man declared, "We have students and
teachers."
Bemish had nothing to reply, so he asked, "Would you like some tea?"
Strangely, the old man agreed. Bemish ordered it and soon Inis entered
the office carrying a tray with a teapot, cups, and several baskets filled
with sweet cookies.
The old man disapprovingly stared at Inis' skirt. It was exactly one
meter shorter than what he would consider decent. Even Bemish, in the back
of his mind, disapproved of Inis strolling in this skirt anywhere outside of
his bedroom. But what could he do? Inis enjoyed very few things besides
skirts and earrings and Bemish felt sorry for her and never contradicted her
about her skirts.
The main demon and the arch foe of the demons silently drank tea for a
while.
"How are you going to scamper from here to the sky?" the White Elder
asked. "I walked around your construction and I saw holes going down but I
haven't seen any ladders going to the sky."
"We don't use ladders," Bemish explained patiently, "to go to the sky.
We use space ships. Before starting, these ships stay in underground chutes,
like pigeons resting in a pigeon house between flights."
The White Elder looked at him with interest and Bemish started
explaining where to and why ships flew. He tried very hard. He even got to
the concept of an escape velocity when the old man interrupted him and
asked, "Ok, I believe that you fly to the sky and not underground. But why
wouldn't you still build a ladder so that people don't get confused?"
Bemish suppressed a desire to burst into hysterical laughter. Then he
recalled the stories about the zealots' cunning and how they enjoyed placing
a man in absurd situations and watching his actions. What if the old man
understood everything about space ships? He knew exactly that Bemish would
be able to explain to him what an escape velocity was but he didn't know
what Bemish would do after such a question.
Bemish hadn't exactly shown himself in the best light and he stuck his
nose in the tea cup.
"Listen," the old man said, having realized that he wouldn't get an
answer, "you talked to this puppy and to Kissur and to the great sovereign
and even to this briber Shavash and you managed to find the common ground
with everyone. How have you managed it?"
"I don't know," Bemish said. "It probably happened because I always try
to speak truth. People rarely tell the truth to each other. They either
flatter each other and think that they are lying or they are rude to each
and think that they are telling the truth. But they tell the truth very
rarely."
"What truth will you say about yourself? Will you admit that you are a
demon?"
"No," Bemish said, "I will not lie and say that I am a demon and I will
not say that you are wrong. You see, I grew up in a country where they think
that the people are always right. If so, many people feel themselves
slighted, they must have reasons for it. If so many people hate Earthmen
they must have reasons for it. I think that the main reason is that you are
poorer than Earthmen. And I think that the only way to change it is to help
you to become as rich as Earthmen. That's why I am building this spaceport."
"You are connected to some very bad people," the old man said, "For
instance, to a man named Shavash. He is a backside of the world, a jerboa
turned into a man, a filthy duck with seven tongues and no soul. His black
shadow found its way into our counsel and his black shadow stretches over
the construction. Think upon my words."
Having said this, the old man stood and left without bowing. Ashinik
rushed out with him.
Three more days passed and Ashinik said, "Mr. Bemish, if you wish to
talk to the White Elder again, you should be in the capital, in the hotel
Archan the day after tomorrow at the dew hour."
Bemish couldn't fall asleep throughout the night. Archan was
unquestionably the Empire's most luxurious hotel. It was located in the
Emperor's palace territory, where the place where the Cloud Houses for
visiting officials used to be. Archan retained all the crazy luxury of the
dwellings built for visiting provincial governors and judges of the ninth
rank; additionally it acquired all the newest comforts, including
computerized climate control. Evil tongues added that Archan also retained
hidden passages that executioners had used to visit the governors called to
the capital to receive capital punishment. The medieval spy holes had been
adapted for communication equipment and much more modern surveillance
hardware had taken over.
The fact that White Elder stayed at Archan and not at a five star
Hilton demonstrated that the sect not only had considerably more money that
Bemish had suspected before but it also had some patrons at the very top.
Who were these patrons? Clearly, it was not Shavash. The old man spoke about
Shavash with fresh disgust. Bemish was ready to swear that an informer of
Shavash's had either been near Iniss or even attended the meeting itself and
that crabs had already feasted on him.
Bemish lay in his bed and thought that maybe he, the main demon of the
Empire, who never sent spies, never bribed and never intrigued, managed to
succeed where the cunning official Shavash failed. He managed to make the
White Elder, the Earthmen's enemy, reconsider his policy.
"You are absent-minded tonight," Inis said. "Has anything happened?"
Terence smiled in the dark.
"It's nothing. Sleep little one."
The woman carefully caressed his chest.
"Oh, Mr. Bemish, I can feel that you are troubled. I hope that it's not
due to the accounting error I made yesterday. If it's something else, why
don't you tell me about it?"
Bemish smiled slightly imagining Inis advising him. She, however, was
right - he, indeed, needed advice.
Bemish climbed out of bed and, having walked to the bathroom, dialed a
number. Surprisingly, he heard an answer immediately even though it was
quite late.
"Mrs. Idari? This is Bemish. I need to talk to you."
"I am listening, Terence."
"It's not a phone conversation. I will be in the capital in two hours.
May I see you?"
"Yes."
Idari met him in the large living room. Bemish didn't ask about
Kissur's whereabouts - the majordomo had already whispered to him that
Kissur was on a pub crawl accompanied by two barbarians and one bandit.
Idari wore a solemn house mistress dress - long black pants and a black
blouse. The blouse's sleeves were embroidered with entwined flowers and
stems. She was girdled by a wide belt of silver segments. She walked by
Bemish carefully stepping on the beasts and grasses weaved on the rugs and
Bemish felt as if her feet were stepping on his heart.
Bemish sat down in a soft chair in the small living room and Idari sat
cross legged across him on the carpet.
"I am meeting the White Elder tomorrow," Terence said.
Alarm crossed the woman's face.
"Be careful, Terence, it has to be a trap. They can kill or kidnap you.
You have tamed a kitten Ashinik but don't think that you have learned a
forest tiger's habits."
"It's not a trap," Bemish said. "They can't set a trap for my body in
that place. But... You see... The sect is ready to reconsider its policy
towards Earthmen."
Idari smiled with her blue eyes.
"I... I was happy at first. I was able to do what Shavash couldn't. You
know how dangerous they are. But now I am afraid. The White Elder is doing
me a huge favor. He will ask something in return. An eye for an eye. I want
to know what it will be."
"It's very simple," Idari said. "They say you are the foreigner who is
the closest to the sovereign. The White Elder will ask you to persuade the
sovereign to dismiss Shavash."
Bemish shuddered. The negotiations concerning the company that would
obtain a half of Chakhar's ore deposits in exchange for taking
responsibility of one of the state loans were proceeding at full speed. The
company even had a name, BOAR project. Nobody knew about the project yet,
but...
"But... But... Oh my God, it's impossible! Shavash will bankrupt me!"
The woman smiled imperceptibly.
"You should have realized what could happen, Terence, when you offered
Ashinik a job. Or do you think that Following the Way would have let Ashinik
serve a demon if they hadn't thought that the demon had made himself a snare
they could catch him with?"
Bemish arrived at Archan at eight thirty.
The hotel's malachite columns gleamed and the mirrors on the lobby's
walls were inlaid with the thinnest silver layers on top. Above the mirrors,
where the gods had been depicted in the past, elegant clocks were now set;
they showed the local time, Melbourn time - Melbourn being the Federation of
Nineteen capital during this decade - and time in London, New York, Khoine
and in a dozen other largest Galaxy's business centers.
A certain disturbance was taking place in the hotel's lobby, a palace
guardsman in a green caftan (palace guardsmen were in charge of hotel
security) was silently and forcefully pushing a journalist with a camera
away. Bemish approached the registration desk and expressed a wish to talk
to the resident of room number fifteen on the hotel phone. The girl behind
the desk was quite surprised. A hand touched Bemish on the back and the
hand's owner turned Bemish around to face him in a somewhat impolite manner.
"My dear fellow," he started unceremoniously and then he choked,
thought a bit and asked tightly, "Mr. Bemish?"
"That's me."
The man with palace guard captain insignia was clearly nervous.
"Excuse me," he said, "do I understand correctly that you were
inquiring about the resident of the room number fifteen?"
"Yes," Bemish said exasperatedly, "I have a meeting with him at nine."
"It's impossible."
"Why?"
"An hour and a half ago the man who stayed in the room number fifteen
and two bodyguards of his were killed by a bomb that exploded in the room."
Bemish put his elbows on the desk and squeezed his temples with his
hands in anguish and, right at that moment, a journalist hiding behind a
large flower pot happily clicked his camera.
In half an hour Bemish rushed up Shavash's city manor staircase. The
vice-minister was drinking his morning tea in the blue living room.
"What happened, Terence?" he stood up in astonishment, meeting Bemish.
"Murderer!" Bemish shouted.
"What's happened?"
"Don't play games with me!"
"Are you talking about the Archan accident? Terence, honestly, I have
nothing to do with it..."
Shavash's face demonstrated sincere surprise and affection. Bemish's
fist collided with this affectionate face maybe not at a half of his full
power but definitely at one third of it.
Shavash flew to the floor. He squeaked, rolled on the carpet and jumped
on his feet. His face burned and a red mark stretched across his left cheek.
"Listen, Terence," the official said, chewing on his lips, "you will
fall out the zealots' favor this morning. It will be bad if you also fall
out of my favor..."
Bemish sagged heavily in a chair.
"Well, tell me what happened."
"There is nothing to tell you. You know it all. This morning I was
supposed to meet the White Elder in Archan. The White Elder was going to
reconsider his attitude towards Earthmen. Now he is as dead as a wasted frog
and, since it happened thanks to his meeting with an Earthman, the zealots
will consider us demons just as they considered us before. They will also
remain banned and, being more dangerous for the country, they will be less
dangerous for you, Shavash."
The small official grinned.
"Don't you think Terence that if you meet a man who signed a death
warrant to your friend, you should let you friend know about it?"
"No."
Shavash threw himself back in the chair. His voice became flatter and
less caressing.
"Suppose," Shavash said, "that somebody informed me about the White
Elder's stay in Archan and his meeting with you. Don't I know the conditions
of this meeting and what they asked you to do so that Earthmen would stop
being demons?"
"They didn't ask me anything."
"They would have asked my resignation from you."
"And it's better for you to kill a man who could make a peace between
Earthmen and millions of people that to resign, isn't it?"
"Oh, Terence, you don't understand anything. Tell me, what could you
tell the sovereign that the sovereign could revoke my appointment?"
"What?! One tenth of what I know..."
"Exactly. You can get me to resign only based on the deals we have
handled together. And if my part in these deals is known, would I keep
silence about your part? And if your part is known, even the moderate
newspapers will agree that you are a demon."
Shavash spread his hands.
"The White Elder had no intention of making peace with Earthmen. He was
going to use you as a tool to cause my resignation and your own destruction
while the sect's attitude would not change a bit. I think that this decision
was made in Inissa during the same sect's meeting that you beloved Ashinik
attended."
"This is bullshit," Bemish said, "This is bullshit that you don't
believe, because if it had happened this way, you would have just talked and
told me that the White Elder was leading me by my nose. Instead of that you
killed him, because they came to another decision at the sect's meeting."
"Actually, I was going to talk to you," Shavash replied, "today, after
your meeting with the White Elder. But somebody outwitted us both."
"Who is it?"
"It's Yadan."
"Who?"
"He is the teacher of your Ashinik, the number two man in the sect who
will become the first one now. I bet that he was the only one who knew or
suspected about the White Elder's plan to throttle you with your own hands.
He killed him to take his position, knowing that in the current
circumstances half Weia would blame me for the murder and the other half
would blame you."
"Bullshit! I saw enough to be sure that it was a professional
assassination. Should I believe that the same people who call all the Earth
technology a phantom, used sinex explosives?"
"They call it a phantom but they can use it quite well, Terence. Don't
worry. And they have many more opportunities to organize an assassination; I
can bet my life that it was a suicide bomber."
Ashinik spent this night in the company director's bed with Inis, as he
spent all the other nights when Bemish was away from the spaceport. He
learned about the accident from the morning news report, right from one of
the multiple screens hanging in a lounge that Ashinik was passing through.
Ashinik stood in silence boring the screen through with his eyes. A
worker passed by and slid a note into the lad's hand. He unwrapped and read
it; the note ordered him to attend a meeting at one of the sect's secret
places - an old temple next to a tavern three hundred kilometers to the
north from Assalah.
Ashinik paled and hurried to an exit.
They waited for him at the exit - two people in black and white
uniforms of the security service silently blocked his way. Ashinik made an
attempt to turn aside.
"Follow us, vice-president," an officer said quietly, "the boss would
like to talk to you."
He raised his hand to his mouth and spoke into a round badge on his
wrist,
"We are going upstairs, sir,"
Richard Giles, the spaceport security head was waiting for Ashinik in
his white soundproof office on the tower's twelfth floor. When Giles saw the
vice-president who actually outranked him, he didn't even move.
The people in black and white uniform seated Ashinik in an armchair and
left at a sign from their boss. The office doors slid towards each other
behind their backs with a soft hiss; Ashinik and Giles were alone.
"Have you introduced the White Elder to Terence?" Giles asked.
It was useless to deny it.
"Yes."
"Why haven't I been notified?"
"It's Mr. Bemish's prerogative," Ashinik answered, "If he had liked to,
he would've let you know. When I came to work here, Bemish promised me that
I didn't have to answer any questions and I haven't been asked anything so
far."
"That was under different circumstances. What did Bemish and the White
Elder talk about?"
"I don't know."
"What was discussed at your sect's meeting in Inissa?"
"I won't tell you."
"Either you, Ashinik, tell me what happened in Inissa or I will tell
Terence in whose bed you sleep every night that he spends outside of the
spaceport, including tonight."
Ashinik paled.
"And I can even show him some pictures." Ashinik sat motionlessly.
"What happened in Inissa?
"We... we agreed not to consider Earthmen to be demons."
"How interesting... Why?"
"It was my suggestion."
"Did everybody support it?"
"The White Elder agreed. That was enough."
"What about the others? Who was against it?"
"Yadan, Akhunna and a man nicknamed Garlic Dan were against it."
"Why did the White Elder agree?"
"He said that he would make peace with the spaceport's boss if the
latter broke up with Shavash."
"Aha. So, who killed the White Elder, Shavash or Yadan?"
"I don't know."
"What will happen to you?"
Giles was silent.
"Ashinik, have you received anything from the sect after the
assassination?"
"No."
Giles looked at the youth carefully.
"When you receive anything, let me know."
Ashinik was silent.
"Ashinik, don't you understand? You were the one who supported making
an agreement with Earthmen! You will be the next victim after the White
Elder. They will kill you if you are not with us!"
"I know," Ashinik said quietly.
Giles sighed.
"Listen, Ashinik," he spoke suddenly, "why have you gotten involved
with Inis? She is a dumb broad; you can get a bunch of them for an ishevik."
In the evening Ashinik sat at the same table again, together with Giles
and Bemish. Wind and engines howled behind a huge dark window, the glares of
the beacons darted across the landing field and chunks of pollen from
blooming nut trees traveled back and forth over the landing space.
Technicians cursed under their breath - the pollen found its way inside all
the hardware. Superstitious locals said that it was a bad omen. Pollen
whirlwinds were always considered to be witches and the places where they
moved particularly high were known to be damned.
On the space field open to the winds and to the powerful blows from
plasma engines the witches danced their best.
"When are you meeting Yadan?" Bemish asked.
Ashinik was silent. He had burned the note long ago but its words still
flared inside his mind. Should he answer or not?
But here Giles entered the conversation.
"We know that a courier from Yadan arrived in the spaceport territory.
He gave you a note. When did it happen?"
"Nobody has given me any notes. Where is your courier? Have you
arrested or photographed him?"
"No," Giles admitted.
"Why not?"
"Shavash's people saw him. They told me."
"Don't you understand that Shavash lied to you," Ashinik asked, "and
that you can't believe a single word of his?"
"Listen, Ashinik," Giles said, "I know that after the death of your
sect's head, the new head has to be elected in two days. And I know that as
a member of the upper circle, you have to be there because otherwise the
meeting will be invalid. Where and when do you meet?"
"I don't know."
Giles grabbed the youth by the lapels of his jacket.
"Idiot! Do you understand that they called you there to kill you? You
will get out of there alive only if you agree to kill Terence!"
Ashinik paled. His pupils suddenly dilated covering his whole eyeballs.
"Don't touch me, demon!" the youth suddenly screamed.
Bemish leaped up. Ashinik's face was contorted and foam bubbled on his
lips - a fit started.
Ashinik was carried away and then an inner door to Giles' office opened
and a man, who had watched the conversation from the next room, walked out
of it; it was Shavash.
"Are you sure that a meeting will occur?" Giles asked.
"I am three hundred percent sure," Shavash replied. "The top of the
sect will be there. It's our only chance - to pick them all and cut them
down to a demon's snot!"
"It's your only chance," Bemish said through his teeth.
"Terence! We are both in the same shit here. Zealots are not like
Galactic police. Nobody is gonna care whether it was you or me who sent the
bomb to the White Elder. They will finish both of us off. Give me Ashinik."
"What do you mean?" Bemish inquired.
"Are you a child?"
And a private jail's owner made a straightforward gesture with his hand
as if he was squeezing water out of a sheet.
"No," Bemish cut him off.
"Ronald will be very angry with you," Shavash purred. "He has already
started the negotiations with the owners of large debt blocks. If you don't
join BOAR stock owners..."
"I will think about it," Bemish said in a suddenly low voice.
Shavash didn't insist. He knew that the Earthman had never exchanged a
friend's life before for a certain - even if very large - amount of money
and he thought that a man had to get used to such a thought.
He stopped talking and he excused himself soon. Giles stepped out to
walk him down. On the space field where nobody could overhear them, Giles
whispered several words to Shavash and the latter smiled at the spy with his
eyes.
Ashinik woke up late at night. He was in the medical room on the fifth
floor and the sky blinked red and blue behind the window.
He didn't remember what exactly happened before and during the fit. It
seemed like this demon, Shavash, demanded something from him. A demon? How
could it be a demon? Shavash is a Weian. But Yadan is also a Weian and he
killed the White Elder. Only a demon could kill the White Elder. Then, are
the zealots demons? No, they only invent demons. But if you invent somebody,
you will turn into him...
Ashinik sat up in bed with a jerk. He remembered now. He, as a member
of the first circle, was called to the sect's meeting. If he doesn't arrive,
he will be outlawed. What if he arrives? It's crazy. The Earthmen are
watching him. He will act as a bee leading them to its beehive and they will
burn the beehive out with their rocket launchers.
Ashinik looked around. The room wasn't large and though he couldn't see
anything out of ordinary around him, Ashinik felt as if the closed circuit
cameras were zooming in at him from all directions. Ashinik dug in his
clothing hanging on a chair next to him and fished out a flat pebble with
two holes. They had given him this pebble at Inissa meeting and told him
that the pebble had been bewitched and it would render all Earthmen
electronic eyes impotent.
Ashinik smiled bitterly; he knew all too well that no sorcery would
help against a video camera. "If I don't come and use surveillance as a
reason they will accuse me of unbelieving into the power of the holy
talisman," a thought glanced in his mind.
Why would they watch him though? He usually stayed in bed for a day or
two after a fit. Who would figure it out that the foam on his lips came from
a "foamy nut" that he had chewed on and that he fainted from this nut for a
couple of hours at most.
At the same time he needed to leave due to a very simple reason.
Ashinik couldn't rely on Bemish's behavior. It's true that the Earthman had
been very magnanimous so far but it had also been in his interest. Now
Bemish was utterly interested in the destruction of the sect and he would
doubtfully be particularly nice to Ashinik.
Ashinik stood and pulled on the door handle. It was not locked but the
corridor it led to was blocked by a closed department door in two or three
meters. Ashinik knew it for sure that unlocking this door would be
dangerous. It was connected to the night alarm system in case of thieves and
other accidents.
Ashinik stuck his nose into a couple of offices. They were mostly
filled with medical equipment. Two rooms teemed with plastic paint buckets
and other construction paraphernalia - they were being furnished. Sharp
paint smell hadn't disappeared completely yet and the workers laboring here
during the day had left a window ajar.
A couple of disgustingly dirty worker overalls lay on the floor.
The next moment, Ashinik's eyes gleamed and he rushed to where the
paint was. Yes! A small white roll, about an elbow wide, was there, behind
the plastic buckets. It was not a rope, no; it was just sound resistant
insulation tape that was used for seal soundproofing linnit blocks. Ashinik
knew, however, that the tape was incredibly strong - the construction
workers loved to sell it on the side to the peasants who wove horse
harnesses out of it. The tape length in a standard pack was sixty meters but
the workers had already utilized some. By Ashinik's estimate, about one
sixth of the tape had been used. It should be enough for eighteen floors.
Ashinik pulled torn overalls over his pajama, walked to a window and wrapped
the tape's end around the window frame. He briefly prayed to the White Elder
and climbed out of the window.
The descent was hard. The tape was sticky just to the right degree and
it was unwrapping slowly under Ashinik's weight. Sometimes it got stuck and
Ashinik had to pull the tape off jerkily with one hand while hanging from
the other one.
In five minutes, Ashinik jumped down onto a sidewalk and ran at top
speed across stiff and booming thermoconcrete. This spaceport's sector was
relatively empty - two helicopters stood next to its border and a hefty
trans-galactic liner was being loaded far away. With an open mouth, Ashinik
stared at the containers floating into the cargo hatch for several moments.
What if he just crept in the ship and flew away from this damned planet? At
least, nobody would kill or betray him there.
Ashinik raced to the fifth sector, squeezed through a hole in the fence
and ran down an unpaved road, illuminated by silvery moonlight, to a small
jeep that was perched at the curb. Earlier, he had asked a worker to leave a
car there.
Ashinik jumped into the jeep and stuck his hand under the driver's
seat. Thank God - the car keys were right where they were supposed to be,
wrapped in a dirty rag. Ashinik turned the ignition on and a cold gun barrel
touched his temple and somebody said quietly, "Be nice and drive straight,
cutie."
Ashinik glanced aside - he could see the speaker in the rearview
mirror. Ashinik recognized him to be a personal bodyguard of Shavash's, one
out of five that he was rumored to hold in his complete confidence.
"Go!"
The jeep started moving slowly. The guard got his radio out and quietly
reported,
"The fish is on the hook. Meet us behind the bridge." Ashinik ground
his teeth.
"Just wait," he uttered, "my master will learn that you seized me and
you will get you butt kicked!" The guard laughed.
"Firstly," he spoke, "it would be difficult for Bemish to find out that
we caught you because you escaped on your own. But if you are really
interested in it, it was Mr. Bemish who handed you over to us. He told us
where the jeep would be and suggested that we trapped you.
Ashinik's heart plummeted.
"You are lying! The master wouldn't do it!"
"Eh, my dear, the master didn't do it while he still hoped to make
peace with the sect. And now he can only hope to find out where the Meeting
of Choosing will occur and burn them all out with a laser or with DDT. We
can learn where it is from you, right? Of course, Mr. Bemish could skin you
himself but Bemish is a squeamish Earthman. Why should he get his hands
dirty if there are other people around? That's why he sold you out,
Ashinik."
Ashinik drove silently. Nearby, the spaceships' exhausts hissed warming
up and signal lights blinked behind the spaceport wall. The unpaved road
finally ended, the jeep climbed onto a six lane highway and rolled towards
Lannah Bridge.
"So, where is the meeting?"
"I don't know."
The car raced over a ramp next to the spaceport eastern gates; a
passenger car's lights blinked below.
"Ashinik, why are you so stubborn? Don't you understand that you are
the third one on their extermination list, right after Bemish and my boss?
You aren't crazy. You don't believe that Yadan was born out of a golden egg,
do you? Tell us and we will let you go because my masters are normal people
and yours are nuts!"
Ashinik suddenly swerved the steering wheel all the way to the right.
The car hit the concrete sidewalk, jumped and hit the fence head-on. The
guard shot and the bullet burned Ashinik's hair and made a neat hole in the
windshield.
"Ouch! What are you doing, bastard?!"
The rail caved in, bursting. Ashinik threw the door open and rolled
out. He was barely able to grab the poles at the ramp's edge.
The busted rail links glimmered on their way down and the car followed
them spinning in the air. Ashinik heard it hitting the ground; the sound of
a muted explosion came next.
Ashinik climbed onto the ramp and ran as fast as he could.
The next morning, barefoot Ashinik dressed in peasant clothing with a