sack behind his shoulder stepped out of a bus three hundred kilometers away
from Assalah.
In half an hour, he entered a village tavern on Mer Lake shore.
Five people in simple clothing sat in the tavern. It seemed that none
of them paid any attention to Ashinik. It was as if not a man came through
the door but just a bug flew in. "Why have I come," a thought desperately
beat at Ashinik's mind, "Why have I come? They will kill me like they killed
the White Elder." Ashinik sat on an unoccupied chair. Now all six chairs at
the table were taken.
"Rashan is dead," one of the seated people stated quietly. "He is dead
because he desired to make peace with the demons and the man who advised him
to do so is responsible for his death."
Rashan was the White Elder's name and it was forbidden to say it while
he held this position. Since this name was mentioned, it meant that the
White Elder had already been elected and Ashinik's heart shuddered when he
realized that it had been done without him.
All five people turned and started looking at Ashinik.
"Rashan's soul is lonely; those that defiled it should follow it," Dush
said; he sat next to Ashinik.
Two small seven-year-old boys entered the room and started walking
among the people with two goblets, a white and a black one. Everyone put his
hand into one goblet and then into the other one.
Dush also lowered his hand into the white goblet and then into the
black one. He had a dry bean in his hand - he was supposed to drop it in one
of the goblets - nobody could see in which one. Ashinik didn't have any
difficulties, however, guessing that Dush chose the white one.
The boys walked around all six people and then they turned the goblets
over onto the table. There was nothing in the black one and there were five
beans in the white one. Five out of six people sitting here voted for
Ashinik's death. The sixth one abstained.
Ashinik observed himself with a cold curiosity. His mind separated in
two halves and both halves were watching the current events independently.
One half was Ashinik-Assalah vice-president, the youngest Weian manager, the
man who earned ten times more money than all the other people here combined.
Another half was Ashinik-zealot who put the Elder's orders above his death.
What's the value of one life if there are so many of them? It's better to
die with honor and come to your next life into a good family than to die as
a coward and be reborn as a spider.
Two men in red hoods picked Ashinik up by his hands, dragged him for
several steps and put him on a rug unrolled between two tripods. One of them
threw a sturdy rope noose over Ashinik's neck quickly and efficiently. "No!"
Ashinik wanted to cry out as an Earthman would have cried at his place.
"Let me put my hair in place," Ashinik heard his own voice and his
hands rose and removed several hair curls from under the rope."
One executioner pushed him closer to the altar and the other one
started unhurriedly putting the candles' flame out with a wooden board.
Ashinik knew that he would be killed when the last candle dies.
Ashinik stood on his knees immobile and watched how darkness was slowly
conquering the room. Soon only one flame tongue was left...
"Leave us alone," a voice spoke suddenly.
The rope on his neck was loosened up. Ashinik heard the chairs and door
squeaking quietly. He turned his head slightly and saw that he was left
alone with Yadan. He realized that Yadan was now the White Elder by how
quickly his order had been obeyed.
"It's not right to kill a man," Yadan said, "who can serve our purpose
still, however guilty he is. You want to serve our purpose, don't you?"
"I want it with all my heart."
"Do you agree that you are responsible for Rashan's demise?"
"Yes."
Ashinik answered automatically. He knew what he would be told to do
now. He would be commanded to kill Shavash or his master.
"The demons taught you a lot. Can you return to Terence Bemish?"
"No. Bemish betrayed me."
"It's not important that Bemish betrayed you," Yadan noticed
sarcastically. "It's important that Bemish betrayed Rashan. He will answer
for that."
Two days later, when Bemish flew to hunt with Khanadar, he heard that
yet another assassination attempt had been made on Shavash's life. This
time, it was no longer amateurs. A car packed with serit explosives had been
parked in Shavash's car path and it exploded exactly when the cars were next
to each other. The assassination attempt had been organized very well; the
criminals had clearly studied all of the vice-minister's possible routes and
they had maintained constant radio communication. Once it became clear that
Shavash would drive by Azure circle, the corresponding order had been given.
The car with explosives had been parked literally five minutes before the
official drove by.
Shavash was saved by a freaky accident. Just a moment before the
explosion, a doll rolled onto the road and an eight-year-old girl rushed out
there after it. The driver stepped on the brake sharply trying not to hit
the girl and the car spun across the road.
Right then the explosion hit. Since the car faced the blast with its
back instead of its side, it was hurled forward for several meters and it
hit a glass shop window (while it was already disintegrating) head on. It
bounced backwards, jumped and its trunk hit a small electric auto that was
quietly hurrying to the Cheese Precinct.
The car leaped quite nimbly on the electric auto with its rear wheels,
jumped from its hood onto its roof, froze there for a second, tipped over
and banged into the road cover face on.
The driver banged his forehead on the steering wheel and hurt himself
quite a bit. Shavash obtained a minor concussion and got the driver's blood
all over his excellent suit. The bodyguard had been sitting in the back
seat, against the regulations, and he was not so lucky - he sustained a rib
fracture and a lacerated spleen.
Having learned about serit explosives, Bemish went cold. This
particular explosive had been used often in the earlier stage of the
spaceport's construction.
Quite a crowd gathered in the foyer in front of Bemish's office. Bemish
walked into his office gesturing to Giles to follow him. The security
service director's face acquired a wooden expression and he came after
Bemish.
"Ashinik hasn't showed up, has he?" Bemish asked Giles.
"No," the latter said.
"Dick, run a check on the used explosives up to the last milligram,"
Bemish said quietly.
"If I was you, I would not address this issue," Giles answered just as
quietly even though they were alone.
"Being me, I will not wait till Shavash addresses this issue."
In an hour Inis entered Bemish's office. Bemish raised his eyes and got
a surprise - Inis was very serious, her eyebrows were furled and her face
was pale. She even wore a skirt that almost reached to the ground though it
was somewhat transparent.
"Terence," she said, lowering her eyes, "Ashinik has been arrested. He
had just being sitting in a tavern and they jumped upon him and drove him
away."
"How do you know this?"
"I got a phone call."
Bemish paused.
"Terence, I swear to you that he is not guilty! These people... they
just used him as a dummy front! It's their technique - they decided to get
rid of the man who is half Earthman already and they decided to do it with
Shavash's hands!"
Bemish was astonished. Inis could well be correct. But how did this
girl figure it out? Who suggested this to her? Bemish almost asked her this
question and then he went pale. He understood what had happened. It was not
"who" it was "what."
"You should go to Shavash," Inis said.
"Why?"
Inis suddenly put her hands on her hips.
"Three months ago you would not ask, "Why?" You would know that you
couldn't control the workers without Ashinik. Now Ashinik has performed his
function and you can give him away! He taught the workers to be rich and
sated and nobody will betray you anymore!"
Oh my God! Inis was no longer a bedding girl, content with her dresses
and sweets. Bemish leaped from his armchair and grabbed her by her
shoulders.
"Why are you asking for him? Why do you care about my deputy? Why have
they called you and not me?"
Then, Inis burst into tears. She kneed, embraced Bemish's legs and
wailed confusedly, "I... I can't be without him..."
Bemish paled.
"Are you lovers?"
Inis was crawling next to his feet. Bemish ran his hands over the table
and the woman cried out and leapt up. She looked at the intercom button with
horror as if she was expecting Terence Bemish to push it and order the
spaceport's security service director to find a jute sack somewhere, stick
the unfaithful lover of the general director in it and sew it up.
Bemish turned and rushed out of the office.
When Bemish got to Shavash, the small official was eating a breakfast.
"You've arrested my employee!" Bemish declared at the doorstep. "On
what grounds did you do it?"
"He is a zealot and he was involved in yesterday's assassination
attempt."
"Where is the proof?"
Shavash grinned.
"The arrest comes first. He will supply us with the proof later."
"If I were you, I wouldn't particularly trust to a testimony obtained
under torture."
"And I would never," Shavash said, "trust a zealot's testimony obtained
without torture. Why are you looking at me as if a live carp is stuck
between my teeth?"
"You are a scoundrel!" Bemish shouted.
"You have said it before, Terence."
"And you are shaking with fright and rushed to arrest everybody left
and right!"
"Terence," Shavash said, "we are now on one side. Look, Ashinik had run
away from you and he never came back to you. Why? Because he was ordered to
wring our necks."
"If he had returned to Assalah," Bemish noticed, "it would have been
much easier."
"If he had returned to Assalah, Giles would take him apart in half a
minute."
"Shavash, I know Ashinik a little bit. Listen, if he had set this
assassination up, you would not have survived. He would have used three
times more explosives. He would not let any accidents get in his way."
"It's possible," Shavash said, "but you see, if you arrest a fool that
carried out the assassination, he can only tell you what a fool knows. If
you arrest Ashinik who is not particularly strong in his faith, thanks to
your efforts, he will tell us everything. Three days later, after Ashinik
tells us everything, nothing will be left of the sect."
"Nothing will be left except the reasons for its existence - poverty of
the people, embezzling officials and rude Earthmen."
Shavash grinned.
"You are a strange man, Terence. If I were you, I would thank a man who
arrested my concubine's lover."
Bemish paled. Even that was out. Damn it, everybody, including the
zealots, knew it except for him...
"You, of course, do not love Inis. You love another woman. But still
it's not a reason to appeal on Inis' beau's behalf."
Shavash yawned and covered his mouth with his hand.
Bemish shouted in such a voice that the glass doors in a cabinet
clanged.
"Either you will show me the proof that Ashinik's arrest is based on or
you will go with me and free him!"
Shavash thought for a bit and then he rose, gestured at Bemish with his
finger to follow him and stepped out of the office. They walked down a
corridor with a beautiful hardwood floor, passed by two or three halls
decorated with the utmost luxury and covered with ancient rugs. It was
rumored that Shavash had ordered these rugs to be ripped off the walls of
Isia-ratough temple in Chakhar (they had processed this robbery later as the
sale of these rugs at some ridiculously low price). Having passed two or
three more doors, they found themselves in a concrete corridor leading
underground. Bemish suddenly remembered with a shudder how Shavash had
boasted about his personal jail. He also recalled the words attributed to
Shavash, "You are powerful not if you can afford a personal villa; you are
powerful if you can afford a personal dungeon." So, they hadn't even taken
Ashinik to a state prison...
A low desperate cry came from behind a door at the very end of the
corridor. Shavash threw the door wide open.
Bemish noticed a pile of bloody rags in a corner, some pliers in a bowl
and Ashinik's dead eyes. Completely naked, he was hanging head down on metal
rings attached to a wall and Bemish's attention was pulled to his right hand
- all the nails there had been torn out. Then Shavash stepped forward moving
his friend aside and said in a tired and ironic voice, "The first set is
finished. Take the pear off the branch."
They took half-dead Ashinik off the rings and seated him astride a
chair. Shavash stood above the prisoner, pulled his head up and asked, "Who
placed the bomb?"
Ashinik was silent. His black hair stood up straight soaked with blood.
Bemish rushed to the youth but the guards blocked his way at once and one of
them, baring his rotten teeth, silently stuck a gun into Bemish's side.
Ashinik's eyes were as empty as RAM in a turned off computer. Then he
whispered something. His lips didn't work. Bemish understood only the end of
the sentence - Ashinik swore dirty.
"That's not an answer." Shavash said.
Ashinik licked his broken lips and spit with all his strength at
Shavash's face.
His saliva and blood were all over the official's lips and chin.
Everybody froze. Shavash slowly turned and walked to an old sink built into
the room's right corner. The splashing water and the washing official's
snorts sounded very clear in the quiet room. Shavash closed the tap and
approached the prisoner again.
"Do you hope that your boss will get you out of this?"
He spun to Bemish.
"Choose, Terence - this guy or the controlling stock block of BOAR."
The single second, that passed by, seemed like eternity to Ashinik.
Then the Assalah general director pushed the gun, pointed at him, away and
said loudly, "You are such a scoundrel, Shavash!"
Astonishment glanced in Ashinik's wide open eyes.
"You are free," Shavash told Ashinik, "And when you set up another
assassination, take care that your boss is around, otherwise nobody will
step in on your behalf."
Bemish pushed the official away, looked around and, grinning viciously,
started pulling the pants and shirt off one of the torturers. The torturer
squeaked fearfully, pulled out of the boss' hands and ran away. He came back
in a minute, carrying clean clothes.
The second guard smiled exasperatedly and unlocked the cuffs holding
Ashinik's bloodied wrists together.
"Shouldn't we wash the lad?" he asked.
Bemish hissed at him like a goose and started pulling the pants on
Ashinik. Then he buttoned up the jacket on the youth and dragged him away.
Bemish had dropped his car right at the main staircase of the city
manor. He threw the lad into the car like a sack and he drove the car over a
flower bed planted with rare orchids while making a turn.
Bemish stopped at the first private hospital; they washed Ashinik and a
physician with frightened eyes bandaged him. The youth was silent and he
only cried occasionally.
Bemish looked at the crying Ashinik and thought that he and the
official had not even discussed whether or not the lad was guilty.
When they arrived to Assalah, the sun was setting down. The pilot and
Bemish picked up Ashinik and helped him to walk to the administration
building. Ashinik was slowly getting over the shock and his eyes started
looking more alert.
Bemish locked the youth in his office and went to deal with the
representatives of the freight company SpaceMart.
When he returned in an hour, he had a white plastic folder in his
hands. Ashinik had squeezed into a corner and he sat there shaking horribly.
A comfortable leather armchair was next to him but Ashinik squatted in his
ancestors' way. It was strange to see a man in Earth clothing squatting.
Bemish walked to the youth.
"Did you have anything to do with this explosion?"
"No."
"Will you lie to me, like you just lied to Shavash? Do I look like his
executioners?"
The Assalah company vice president squeezed himself further into the
wall.
"Ashinik, I know that there are people you must obey unquestionably.
They could have given you orders. If this is the case, I wouldn't tell
Shavash anything. I will help you to go to Earth, to any place where nobody
can give you orders. Did you have anything to do with this explosion?"
"They told me that you had sold me to Shavash. That you exchanged me
for a controlling stock block of the aluminum plant!"
"Oh-ho," Bemish muttered, "and you tried to kill Shavash. Did you try
to kill me, too?"
Ashinik hid his face in his knees and burst in tears.
"Master! Why are you torturing me? It was Shavash first, now it's you!
Not again!"
Bemish was silent. In six months he grew attached to this
twenty-year-old youth as if the latter were his son. The lad was almost the
right age. Bemish had gotten used to feeling like Ashinik's patron. He
picked up a dirty guy with lice in his hair and crazy visions and he
transformed him into a manager with a tie around his neck and a cell phone
in his pocket. And now this manager seduced his concubine. He also tried to
send to the other world a man who in a strange way had become one of Terence
Bemish's closest friends. And, possibly...
Bemish paused.
"Our score is even, Ashinik," the Earthman said. "You saved my company.
I saved your life. It's one to one. I don't owe you anything."
Bemish threw the white plastic folder at his deputy.
"You will find here your last check from Assalah Company, two tickets
to Earth, and an application form to Havishem; it's one of the best business
schools. I talked to Trevis - they will accept you to Havishem. Trevis will
pay your tuition fees."
Ashinik pulled the papers out of the folder. His bandaged right hand
shook slightly.
"There are two tickets," Ashinik said suddenly.
"Don't worry," Bemish snickered, "I'll buy myself a new concubine."
While all these unpleasant adventures related to the White Elder's
assassination were taking place on the planet of Weia, Kissur napped in a
wide first class seat of a passenger spaceship flying to the planet of
Lakhan.
The flight took almost eighteen hours.
Kissur left the spaceport for a cheap hotel, took a shower, changed
into old grey pants and a worn out shirt with a popular band's logo pictured
on it, made a couple of phone calls and took off. He went to the western
part of the city, to Danachin University; the famous Lakhan student uprising
had taken place there ten years ago.
Kissur took the main street across the block, turned left and left
again and, bending slightly, dived into the roar and light of a bar's
entrance. He chose a table next a window, leaned to a wall and started
waiting.
In half an hour, Kissur finally saw a tall and skinny guy with olive
skin and a ponytail who was finding his way to the bar's stand.
"Hey, Lore," Kissur said.
Lore turned around and shuddered but he recovered and, having picked up
a beer can, he joined Kissur.
"How is it going, dude?" Lore asked. "You haven't gone back to your
Weia, have you?"
Kissur just waived his hand.
"I have a question to you," he said, "You've told me once that you knew
a man who was ready to trade a tiny gadget."
"What gadget?"
Kissur picked up a napkin and drew something on it.
Lore's eyes widened a bit.
"There is such a man," he said, "but capitalist rot has eaten all the
way through him. He will not do anything for his brothers, he only works for
money."
"Tell him that there is a man who will pay money for his goods."
"How many pieces do you want to buy?"
"I want everything."
Lore's eyes grew suspicious.
"Kissur, where have you gotten the dough?"
Kissur silently presented a three-day-old newspaper to him. It was a
Weian paper published in Interenglish and an article about a daring robbery
of Weian Industrial Bank, the second largest bank in the Empire, covered its
front page.
"We will teach these capitalists a good lesson," Kissur spoke, "we will
show them that we can fight for peace not only with our mouths."
Denny Hill worked on a stationary base Nordwest located on a tiny
natural moon of Danae planet. Nordwest was the only base constructed on a
planet that didn't have either atmosphere or population. It was only fitting
that it had assumed an unpleasant role of a nuclear waste garbage pit for
all the outdated and not particularly outdated armament of the whole Galaxy.
Nordwest storage areas bored through the planet like huge honeycombs.
Weaponry was sent there if it became obsolete or banned due to political
reasons or due to the activities of peace mongers.
The rumors traveled around the base that the oldest units in storage
were shells from the First Moon War. What Denny Hill, a technician at
Nordwest, knew for sure however, was that retired Cassiopeia missiles were
stored at Nordwest.
These missiles had caused a major military scandal at some point. The
missiles were equipped with S-field generators capable of twisting space
around them. It meant that, once launched, they could not be intercepted.
Any wall, defense screen or field can, in principle, be destroyed. To
destroy something, however, you have to interact with it. Interaction means
passing through space but it's impossible to pass through twisted space.
Ten years ago, Gera had raised a great hassle demanding the ban of all
types of offensive armament equipped with S-field. It had been calculated
that the construction of one S-field missile cost as much as the
construction of twenty five subsidized houses for the underprivileged.
The world shed tears. Instead of building missiles and employing the
same underprivileged as a workforce - that would enable them to buy their
houses with their earned income - the Federation signed a treaty offered by
Gera and started constructing houses for the poor.
Now Gera now didn't have to build expensive missiles and it put
everything into an effort to develop alternative types of S-field that would
not be covered by the treaty and would be cheaper.
Some missiles had been destroyed outright and some had been partially
disassembled and brought to a "relatively disabled" stage. The missiles from
three bases - Arcon, Mino and Delos - had been transported to Nordwest.
The accompanying documentation pointed out that there were one hundred
forty six "relatively disabled" missiles. The whole Galaxy thought that
there were one hundred forty six of them. Only Denny Hill, a civilian
technician at the base, was energetic enough to take a count of the newest
(though disassembled) missiles and he found out that there were one hundred
fifty eight of them. The missiles were stored in a huge depositary area
where the alarm system had been disabled by a local anaerobic life form and
Denny Hill was supposed to take a census of the storage once a month.
Formally speaking, it should have been a committee made out of three local
employees and federal inspectors but the army didn't have any money for all
these stupid committees and the base didn't have enough employees. That was
why Denny Hill conducted the census on his own.
In two weeks on a planet with the beautiful name of Grace, two people
approached Denny Hill who was spending his vacation there. Denny would have
ever taken them for students - both guys were well-built and lean like
pedigreed greyhounds and the senior guy had an old horrible scar above his
neckline. They were Kissur and Khanadar.
"Lore sends you his greetings," Kissur said.
"Hello," Denny Hill said guardedly. "Why are there two of you?"
"You are seeing only one person here. Consider the other one to be his
shadow."
Denny Hill was not completely satisfied with this explanation and he
continued sipping on his soup silently- the meeting was taking place at a
restaurant table.
Kissur sat still. He wanted Hill to start talking first.
"Is it true that you would like to buy goods?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Twelve."
"Three million a piece."
"One million nine hundred."
"Two seventy five."
"One million eight hundred."
"Two fifty. It's manufacturing cost."
"Nobody sells stolen goods at their manufacturing cost."
"When these birdies fly to their destination, the counter-intelligence
will be ready to cough up ten million for information about their original
residency."
"They won't fly anywhere," Kissur said.
"Lore told me something else."
"Who cares what Lore said? I am an Emperor's servant. Do you think that
a sovereign of the Amaride Dynasty and a man of the White Falcon clan will
buy your toys to bust a supermarket? Don't you know that we are a Federation
ally? The Federation won't go nuts if it learns that its ally obtained these
trifles."
"Well, that's different," Denny agreed. "I want two million a piece and
a new passport because I won't like to be here when they start figuring out
who should get a medal for providing a Federation ally with military
support."
In a month, the next scheduled ship arrived at Nordwest bringing food
rations in bright boxes. The ship was going to take retired scanning
equipment away. Loading was completely automatic and the only person at the
dock was Denny Hill. Theoretically, the regulations required the presence of
two people, a civilian and a military operator that would track each other's
actions. But only a quarter of the positions was currently filled at the
base and the only thing that the regulations were good for was taking memory
in the computer.
Denny Hill counterfeited a backup copy of the loading papers and locked
it in a safe. He was not able to fake the files in the computer itself - the
computer was protected too well.
Three days later Denny shoved Jack the Ripper virus into the computer,
the virus overwrote all of the files' headers and Denny's boss told him to
clean the computer up and to recover all the documentation from the backup
copies.
Denny pulled the fake backup copy out of the safe and wrote it to the
hard drive removing the last traces of his real activities.
It took three hours for the cargo ship Antei, license number 284-AP-354
registered at the planet of Agassa, to reach Lakhan spaceport. Lore Sigel
was in charge of freight shipping at the spaceport. A while ago, Lore had
been a very promising young man but his social-anarchy tendencies interfered
with his career. He spent three days in jail for offending the public - he
attempted to register a pig bought at a pig farm as a candidate on the
presidential elections in Austria. He was a witness at a number of notorious
terrorist trials and he had a habit of constantly moving from one place to
another. All this finally brought Lore to this small provincial planet where
he worked as a cargo department manager.
Lore employed as longshoremen five or six friends that nobody else
would hire since the central department of security wouldn't recommend it.
Not surprisingly, the unloading of the ship with license number
284-AP-354 started very late, after the ship's yawning crew walked away to
sleep in a hotel next to the port.
Lore and his friends unloaded the boxes with the retired radio scanning
equipment. There were twelve more boxes in the ship than had been
registered. The identification numbers on the extra boxes were removed and
the boxes were packed in the new containers and sealed. The new containers
were loaded on the ship Astra flying to the planet Issan. Accordingly to the
documentation, the new containers housed geo-physical equipment for the
company Ambeko.
The containers, however, never reached the planet Issan. Three hours
after the ship's departure, the captain extracted a box out of his pocket.
Out of the box, he extracted a paralyzed lightning beetle, a dweller of
Lakhan deserts known for its ability to generate 370V electric sparks. The
beetle was placed under the front panel cover of the control room. Having
regained its senses the beetle discharged, causing minor damages to the main
flight control system. The ship had to exit hyperspace and the crew began
repairs. While the technicians were digging out the beetle and fixing the
problems, twelve containers were dumped off the ship.
The ship soon continued its way. The reason for its deviation off route
in deep space was documented and presented to the authorities in a bottle
with formaldehyde. The authorities reprimanded the crew for its lack of
attention that had let the malevolent representative of the local fauna
infiltrate the ship and the captain didn't receive a bonus.
Meanwhile, a small ship picked up the containers; since the ship was on
a charter flight, it didn't really require all the justifying paperwork. The
ship's name was Laissa. The documentation accompanying the twelve containers
was changed again and the containers were now marked as medical equipment.
The ship was flying to the planet of Weia, to the Assalah spaceport.
On the seventeenth of the month of rains, Terence Bemish got a phone
call in the evening. Shavash was on the line. They discussed a Chakhar
nickel facility construction project for a while and then Shavash advised
his friend to sell Inissa Logging Corporation stocks in case Terence had
them.
"Oh, by the way, Shavash recalled, "a charter ship Laissa will arrive
at your spaceport tomorrow. Could you make sure that customs don't bother
them too much and check that their freight could be stored in some nice
storage facility."
"All my storage space is crammed," Bemish replied.
"Why don't you load it into 17B?"
17B storage was empty - it had been built for military equipment and
its walls, covered with lead sheets, insulated all irradiation.
"What about Giles?"
"Giles won't object," Shavash snorted.
The next day, the phone rang in Bemish's office. It was Ashinik.
"A charter flight has arrived," Ashinik said...
"Is it Laissa?"
"Yes."
"Send them to 17B storage."
In half an hour Ashinik came to Bemish to get storage "keys" - its
electronic locks required an ingenious system of codes and, additionally, it
had a microprocessor that could recognize the owner's retina pattern. The
lock could store ten retina patterns in its memory but it currently had only
two - Bemish's and Giles'. Only Bemish, however, knew the password.
The cargo delivered by Laissa was registered as medical equipment. That
was not surprising. Every day, three hundred tons of medical equipment
passed the spaceport. Accordingly to Bemish's calculations, every Weian
peasant had by now one and a half CAT scanner.
Medical equipment was the only hardware that could be imported without
tariffs and a lot of stuff entered the planet registered as such. It would
be pretty hard to transport an oil drill, even disassembled, in cardboard
boxes from Pepsi-Cola.
This time the cargo was too heavy to be unloaded by a forklift. Bemish
watched for a while loading platforms with huge cubes, sealed and painted in
green color, moving inside the classified storage area.
"Who owns the cargo?" Bemish inquired.
"Ascon Company."
Having returned to his office, Bemish checked Ascon Company out. It had
been registered two months ago and it was an IC offshoot. Out of its
cofounders, two were anonymous - they were probably colonel Giles and
Shavash.
That's our Giles, that's our fighter for democracy! No surprise here
that he won't object about his offshoot company using his storage area!
In three days, a party took place in Lore's house that was located half
an hour away from the spaceport. Lore, five longshoremen, and Kissur were at
the party.
Lore said, "I don't have to introduce our old friend to you. I will
only say that two thousand years ago, a man named Irshahchan achieved at his
planet what Marx wrote about five centuries ago and Shrainer half a
century... Of course, Irshahchan was limited by his epoch and culture but,
generally, his actions were correct. And I don't think that anybody has
achieved more for the recovery of Irshahchan's and Marx' ideals than Kissur
has. Now, we - six Earthmen - should be proud that we are helping, albeit to
a small degree, to fix the world that our countrymen, obsessed by the spirit
of capitalism, have corrupted."
Everybody agreed that, generally, the sovereign Irshahchan had thought
a lot in unison with Marx and Shrainer - half a century ago - even though he
had been somewhat backwards compared to the abovementioned thinkers. He had
still been a despotic ruler of a patriarchic society.
By the midnight the company had gotten pretty high and Kissur suggested
driving around. They loaded in Lore's Dodge and rushed downhill on a
mountainous road. At a zigzag turn Lore, driving the car, suddenly saw a
beetle shaped truck blocking the road. Lore lost his wits for a moment and
Kissur, sitting next to him, swerved the steering wheel to the right and
having opened the door, jumped out of the car.
None of the other passengers had Kissur's reflexes. The car smashed
through the guard rail, dived into the gulf, flew two hundred meters down to
the rocks and exploded. The explosion wouldn't have happened all that
easily, if Kissur had not put an extra hydrogen tank in the trunk. This tank
went off.
Kissur looked beyond the torn guard rail, made sure that everything was
fine, climbed into the beetle shaped truck and was gone. Khanadar the Dried
Date was at the truck's steering wheel.
The death of Lore Sigel and his friends didn't cause any suspicions. He
had had at least eight crashes before and he had been quite high every time.
And now they also found LSD in the blood of the magnificent six.
Nobody found anything connecting this episode and an unfortunate
accident that happened two days later on a provincial planet Issan. Denny
Hill, a technician from Nordwest base, was on the vacation at a local
resort. He swam too far out in the local ocean and drowned.
The Twelfth Chapter
Where the Emperor of the Country of Great Light finds out the real
purpose of the Assalah construction from the opposition press and expresses
his confusion.
In the beginning of May a large article filled a quarter of a page in
one of the most influential newspapers - MegaMoney. A well known economy
journalist and a Ronald Trevis' fan Christopher Blant figured out (or got a
hint) to perform the simplest calculation - he took secondary balances that
large banks had to publish and added up all the credits granted to the
Empire of Great Light.
The result was that this year Weia had to pay off about one hundred
forty million dinars on all its foreign and domestic loans; at the same time
the total sum of all taxes collected this year would be only one hundred
twenty million dinars. "The real total of all the Weian loans is probably
higher," Blant wrote, "and it's clear that the only way Weia can make
payments on its loans is to obtain more loans at a higher interest rate. It
can't go on forever. Weian economy will crash and Weian ishevik will be
devalued."
The investors clutched their heads. They demanded the Weian government
to publish the real debt figures. During next week, the government published
three different figures - eighty, hundred and hundred and thirteen billion -
all of them signed by the finance minister.
It only spread the panic further.
Somebody started a rumor that the payments on the two billion dinars
credit obtained by Weia from Galactic Bank would be postponed first - this
credit had been turned into securities and distributed on the market after
the bank had gone public.
The quotes went down by a factor of two and after that Weian government
came out with a restructuring plan.
The two billion loan would be taken over by a new company BOAR that
would obtain in exchange - at no cost - one of the largest nickel and other
non-ferrous metals deposits in the Galaxy where the government had already
built an ore enrichment facility. The concern and all the other companies
registered at its territories would not have to pay anything towards the
state's budget.
Three very influential Weian entrepreneurs and Terence Bemish were the
company's cofounders. Even by the most modest estimate, the profit from the
export of non-ferrous metals would be three times larger that the payments
on the state's debt that the company would have to make. The bond prices
skyrocketed at once to 97% of their face value.
The bankers were tearing their hair out in shock. The newspaper article
resulted - without any responsibility from the Weian government's side - in
devaluation of the bonds. Their value could have dropped to even 30% if
somebody hadn't bought devalued securities through Ronald Trevis.
Inissa governor came, probably, the closest to the understanding of the
true reasons behind the panic; he didn't really like Shavash and he sent him
a birthday gift - a disinfectant can with a label "for avarice."
Bemish started visiting Earth often on BOAR business and every time he
would wonder at a skyline awkwardly constricted by the buildings and a
meager lonely moon. Once, in June, Trevis remarked that the calculations
that Bemish held in his hands had been done by Ashinik and the lad had an
internship in the head office during his holidays.
"How is he?" Bemish asked unaffectedly.
"He is trying hard," Trevis said, "but he is very disappointed."
"What is he disappointed with?"
"He is disappointed that nobody kisses his boots. They kissed his boots
on Weia when he led the sect, didn't they?"
"No," Bemish answered, "they didn't kiss his boots. They gathered dust
where he walked and gave it to the pregnant and to the sick to drink."
"Well," Trevis said, "he is disappointed that nobody gathers his dust."
"How is his wife doing?" Bemish asked unexpectedly.
"Is he married?" Trevis was surprised.
Bemish didn't answer.
Bemish had a bit of time after his meetings and before the ship's
departure; he ascended to his hotel room and connected to the White Pages
website via a computer. The computer thought for a while and then belched
forth several green lines. On the black screen, they resembled a rim of
meson irradiation formed around the exhausts of an interstar ship. Bemish
sat on a coach motionless for a while and then he ordered a taxi and rode in
it to the address that he got in the White Pages.
Ashinik was renting an apartment in an old building and there was no
camera at the entrance, only intercom buttons bristled to the right. Bemish
pushed the button number 27.
"Who is it?" Ashinik's voice replied.
Bemish let the button go. He expected that Ashinik wouldn't be at home
at daytime, only Inis would be there. His expectations proved to be wrong.
There were two more hours left before the ship's departure; Bemish turned
and walked away.
Only when the ship pulled into the orbit and was almost out of the
regular T-phone reception range, Bemish called Trevis.
"Listen," Bemish said, "I looked through the papers prepared by Ashinik
and I found them to be pretty good. Send him to me."
Trevis said that he would like to have the young Weian in his office
due to the growing number of Weian deals.
"This guy cost me ten percent of a company with a yearly export size of
forty billion dinars," Bemish said, "and he will work it all off for me."
Trevis asked something else but then the receiver croaked and hissed
and the connection broke off.
Ashinik returned to Weia in three weeks. He looked completely
different. Instead of a skinny frightened young lad that had left the Empire
eight months ago, a confident man with cold blue eyes and wide shoulders
walked into Bemish's office.
"I am sorry that I pulled you out," Bemish said, embracing the youth,
"but I need you. It concerns BOAR."
Ashinik lowered his head. When half a year ago, half-dead from torture
he heard Shavash's voice offering his master to choose between him, Ashinik,
and a twenty five percent controlling BOAR stock block, the company name
couldn't tell him anything. Now the word BOAR decorated the financial
newspapers' front pages and Bemish's share of the company was perfectly well
known to be fourteen percent. Ashinik knew for sure that neither his direct
boss nor Trevis nor even Ashinik himself would have exchanged the control of
the deal of the century for a man.
"I...I...," Ashinik muttered. Bemish took the youth's hand.
"It doesn't matter. Where are you staying?"
"I am staying in a hotel," the lad replied turning to a window. There,
behind the burned caramel color glass and sharp points of the ships, a huge
glass body of a luxurious hotel was melting in the sun.
"You can move to my villa," Bemish said. "How is Inis doing?"
"She is with me," Ashinik replied. He paused and added, "I don't want
to leave her alone. She shouldn't wave her skirt around.
It became quiet for a moment in the office, and then Bemish said,
"I left her alone often and nothing good came out of it. In three
hours, Giles will meet people from Chakhar Trade Bank in the capital. Could
you go with him?"
Ashinik went to the capital. He took part in the talks and stayed at a
party celebrating the third year anniversary of Sadd Company. Giles
introduced him to the economics minister.
Ashinik's hands went cold when, having approached a cluster of people,
he saw in its center the beautiful, slightly corpulent face of Shavash.
"How is your health," Shavash asked abruptly, interrupting his
conversation with an Earthman and nodding welcomingly to Ashinik.
"I am well, thanks," Ashinik heard his own voice as if it was coming
out of a phone receiver.
"How is your wife doing?"
Ashinik uttered something about his wife being also fine.
"I recommend you this young man," Shavash said, "He helped us a lot
with BOAR company."
The people who crowded around Shavash but stood to far to start a
conversation with him moved slowly and started surrounding Ashinik.
In a while after Shavash had left, Ashinik realized suddenly with cold
curiosity that he felt good about Shavash's nodding to him - the same
Shavash that he had been trained in his previous life to exterminate like a
mongoose exterminates snakes. In the hierarchy of his new life this nod
immediately distinguished him out of the other young people and it was as if
a small beacon lit above Ashinik's head and the guests flew towards this
beacon as moths fly towards light.
The door slammed behind Ashinik and Bemish still sat the same way
looking absent-mindedly at a field through the window. He picked up a lot of
Empire's customs in his two years on Weia. One thing he hadn't apparently
done yet - he had never killed a man because he wanted his wife.
Now, in seven months after their last meeting, Bemish didn't have any
feelings towards ex-zealot Ashinik who started to resemble, frighteningly, a
polished novice broker. He only felt quite annoyed thinking about the lost
BOAR shares. On the other hand, the accident brought Bemish certain
benefits. It had somehow leaked out - probably via Shavash who didn't find
anything appalling there - and it improved Bemish's reputation tremendously.
The biggest people on Weia knew that the Earthman hadn't turned his friend
into for money and it was a Weian custom not to betray friends. It would be
fine to send an innocent man to the gallows to help your friend or to
embezzle money from the state treasury but to betray your friend was not
nice.
Bemish didn't need Ashinik. But he realized with a surprise that he
needed Inis. While his concubine had been next to him and he could take her
from Assalah.
In half an hour, he entered a village tavern on Mer Lake shore.
Five people in simple clothing sat in the tavern. It seemed that none
of them paid any attention to Ashinik. It was as if not a man came through
the door but just a bug flew in. "Why have I come," a thought desperately
beat at Ashinik's mind, "Why have I come? They will kill me like they killed
the White Elder." Ashinik sat on an unoccupied chair. Now all six chairs at
the table were taken.
"Rashan is dead," one of the seated people stated quietly. "He is dead
because he desired to make peace with the demons and the man who advised him
to do so is responsible for his death."
Rashan was the White Elder's name and it was forbidden to say it while
he held this position. Since this name was mentioned, it meant that the
White Elder had already been elected and Ashinik's heart shuddered when he
realized that it had been done without him.
All five people turned and started looking at Ashinik.
"Rashan's soul is lonely; those that defiled it should follow it," Dush
said; he sat next to Ashinik.
Two small seven-year-old boys entered the room and started walking
among the people with two goblets, a white and a black one. Everyone put his
hand into one goblet and then into the other one.
Dush also lowered his hand into the white goblet and then into the
black one. He had a dry bean in his hand - he was supposed to drop it in one
of the goblets - nobody could see in which one. Ashinik didn't have any
difficulties, however, guessing that Dush chose the white one.
The boys walked around all six people and then they turned the goblets
over onto the table. There was nothing in the black one and there were five
beans in the white one. Five out of six people sitting here voted for
Ashinik's death. The sixth one abstained.
Ashinik observed himself with a cold curiosity. His mind separated in
two halves and both halves were watching the current events independently.
One half was Ashinik-Assalah vice-president, the youngest Weian manager, the
man who earned ten times more money than all the other people here combined.
Another half was Ashinik-zealot who put the Elder's orders above his death.
What's the value of one life if there are so many of them? It's better to
die with honor and come to your next life into a good family than to die as
a coward and be reborn as a spider.
Two men in red hoods picked Ashinik up by his hands, dragged him for
several steps and put him on a rug unrolled between two tripods. One of them
threw a sturdy rope noose over Ashinik's neck quickly and efficiently. "No!"
Ashinik wanted to cry out as an Earthman would have cried at his place.
"Let me put my hair in place," Ashinik heard his own voice and his
hands rose and removed several hair curls from under the rope."
One executioner pushed him closer to the altar and the other one
started unhurriedly putting the candles' flame out with a wooden board.
Ashinik knew that he would be killed when the last candle dies.
Ashinik stood on his knees immobile and watched how darkness was slowly
conquering the room. Soon only one flame tongue was left...
"Leave us alone," a voice spoke suddenly.
The rope on his neck was loosened up. Ashinik heard the chairs and door
squeaking quietly. He turned his head slightly and saw that he was left
alone with Yadan. He realized that Yadan was now the White Elder by how
quickly his order had been obeyed.
"It's not right to kill a man," Yadan said, "who can serve our purpose
still, however guilty he is. You want to serve our purpose, don't you?"
"I want it with all my heart."
"Do you agree that you are responsible for Rashan's demise?"
"Yes."
Ashinik answered automatically. He knew what he would be told to do
now. He would be commanded to kill Shavash or his master.
"The demons taught you a lot. Can you return to Terence Bemish?"
"No. Bemish betrayed me."
"It's not important that Bemish betrayed you," Yadan noticed
sarcastically. "It's important that Bemish betrayed Rashan. He will answer
for that."
Two days later, when Bemish flew to hunt with Khanadar, he heard that
yet another assassination attempt had been made on Shavash's life. This
time, it was no longer amateurs. A car packed with serit explosives had been
parked in Shavash's car path and it exploded exactly when the cars were next
to each other. The assassination attempt had been organized very well; the
criminals had clearly studied all of the vice-minister's possible routes and
they had maintained constant radio communication. Once it became clear that
Shavash would drive by Azure circle, the corresponding order had been given.
The car with explosives had been parked literally five minutes before the
official drove by.
Shavash was saved by a freaky accident. Just a moment before the
explosion, a doll rolled onto the road and an eight-year-old girl rushed out
there after it. The driver stepped on the brake sharply trying not to hit
the girl and the car spun across the road.
Right then the explosion hit. Since the car faced the blast with its
back instead of its side, it was hurled forward for several meters and it
hit a glass shop window (while it was already disintegrating) head on. It
bounced backwards, jumped and its trunk hit a small electric auto that was
quietly hurrying to the Cheese Precinct.
The car leaped quite nimbly on the electric auto with its rear wheels,
jumped from its hood onto its roof, froze there for a second, tipped over
and banged into the road cover face on.
The driver banged his forehead on the steering wheel and hurt himself
quite a bit. Shavash obtained a minor concussion and got the driver's blood
all over his excellent suit. The bodyguard had been sitting in the back
seat, against the regulations, and he was not so lucky - he sustained a rib
fracture and a lacerated spleen.
Having learned about serit explosives, Bemish went cold. This
particular explosive had been used often in the earlier stage of the
spaceport's construction.
Quite a crowd gathered in the foyer in front of Bemish's office. Bemish
walked into his office gesturing to Giles to follow him. The security
service director's face acquired a wooden expression and he came after
Bemish.
"Ashinik hasn't showed up, has he?" Bemish asked Giles.
"No," the latter said.
"Dick, run a check on the used explosives up to the last milligram,"
Bemish said quietly.
"If I was you, I would not address this issue," Giles answered just as
quietly even though they were alone.
"Being me, I will not wait till Shavash addresses this issue."
In an hour Inis entered Bemish's office. Bemish raised his eyes and got
a surprise - Inis was very serious, her eyebrows were furled and her face
was pale. She even wore a skirt that almost reached to the ground though it
was somewhat transparent.
"Terence," she said, lowering her eyes, "Ashinik has been arrested. He
had just being sitting in a tavern and they jumped upon him and drove him
away."
"How do you know this?"
"I got a phone call."
Bemish paused.
"Terence, I swear to you that he is not guilty! These people... they
just used him as a dummy front! It's their technique - they decided to get
rid of the man who is half Earthman already and they decided to do it with
Shavash's hands!"
Bemish was astonished. Inis could well be correct. But how did this
girl figure it out? Who suggested this to her? Bemish almost asked her this
question and then he went pale. He understood what had happened. It was not
"who" it was "what."
"You should go to Shavash," Inis said.
"Why?"
Inis suddenly put her hands on her hips.
"Three months ago you would not ask, "Why?" You would know that you
couldn't control the workers without Ashinik. Now Ashinik has performed his
function and you can give him away! He taught the workers to be rich and
sated and nobody will betray you anymore!"
Oh my God! Inis was no longer a bedding girl, content with her dresses
and sweets. Bemish leaped from his armchair and grabbed her by her
shoulders.
"Why are you asking for him? Why do you care about my deputy? Why have
they called you and not me?"
Then, Inis burst into tears. She kneed, embraced Bemish's legs and
wailed confusedly, "I... I can't be without him..."
Bemish paled.
"Are you lovers?"
Inis was crawling next to his feet. Bemish ran his hands over the table
and the woman cried out and leapt up. She looked at the intercom button with
horror as if she was expecting Terence Bemish to push it and order the
spaceport's security service director to find a jute sack somewhere, stick
the unfaithful lover of the general director in it and sew it up.
Bemish turned and rushed out of the office.
When Bemish got to Shavash, the small official was eating a breakfast.
"You've arrested my employee!" Bemish declared at the doorstep. "On
what grounds did you do it?"
"He is a zealot and he was involved in yesterday's assassination
attempt."
"Where is the proof?"
Shavash grinned.
"The arrest comes first. He will supply us with the proof later."
"If I were you, I wouldn't particularly trust to a testimony obtained
under torture."
"And I would never," Shavash said, "trust a zealot's testimony obtained
without torture. Why are you looking at me as if a live carp is stuck
between my teeth?"
"You are a scoundrel!" Bemish shouted.
"You have said it before, Terence."
"And you are shaking with fright and rushed to arrest everybody left
and right!"
"Terence," Shavash said, "we are now on one side. Look, Ashinik had run
away from you and he never came back to you. Why? Because he was ordered to
wring our necks."
"If he had returned to Assalah," Bemish noticed, "it would have been
much easier."
"If he had returned to Assalah, Giles would take him apart in half a
minute."
"Shavash, I know Ashinik a little bit. Listen, if he had set this
assassination up, you would not have survived. He would have used three
times more explosives. He would not let any accidents get in his way."
"It's possible," Shavash said, "but you see, if you arrest a fool that
carried out the assassination, he can only tell you what a fool knows. If
you arrest Ashinik who is not particularly strong in his faith, thanks to
your efforts, he will tell us everything. Three days later, after Ashinik
tells us everything, nothing will be left of the sect."
"Nothing will be left except the reasons for its existence - poverty of
the people, embezzling officials and rude Earthmen."
Shavash grinned.
"You are a strange man, Terence. If I were you, I would thank a man who
arrested my concubine's lover."
Bemish paled. Even that was out. Damn it, everybody, including the
zealots, knew it except for him...
"You, of course, do not love Inis. You love another woman. But still
it's not a reason to appeal on Inis' beau's behalf."
Shavash yawned and covered his mouth with his hand.
Bemish shouted in such a voice that the glass doors in a cabinet
clanged.
"Either you will show me the proof that Ashinik's arrest is based on or
you will go with me and free him!"
Shavash thought for a bit and then he rose, gestured at Bemish with his
finger to follow him and stepped out of the office. They walked down a
corridor with a beautiful hardwood floor, passed by two or three halls
decorated with the utmost luxury and covered with ancient rugs. It was
rumored that Shavash had ordered these rugs to be ripped off the walls of
Isia-ratough temple in Chakhar (they had processed this robbery later as the
sale of these rugs at some ridiculously low price). Having passed two or
three more doors, they found themselves in a concrete corridor leading
underground. Bemish suddenly remembered with a shudder how Shavash had
boasted about his personal jail. He also recalled the words attributed to
Shavash, "You are powerful not if you can afford a personal villa; you are
powerful if you can afford a personal dungeon." So, they hadn't even taken
Ashinik to a state prison...
A low desperate cry came from behind a door at the very end of the
corridor. Shavash threw the door wide open.
Bemish noticed a pile of bloody rags in a corner, some pliers in a bowl
and Ashinik's dead eyes. Completely naked, he was hanging head down on metal
rings attached to a wall and Bemish's attention was pulled to his right hand
- all the nails there had been torn out. Then Shavash stepped forward moving
his friend aside and said in a tired and ironic voice, "The first set is
finished. Take the pear off the branch."
They took half-dead Ashinik off the rings and seated him astride a
chair. Shavash stood above the prisoner, pulled his head up and asked, "Who
placed the bomb?"
Ashinik was silent. His black hair stood up straight soaked with blood.
Bemish rushed to the youth but the guards blocked his way at once and one of
them, baring his rotten teeth, silently stuck a gun into Bemish's side.
Ashinik's eyes were as empty as RAM in a turned off computer. Then he
whispered something. His lips didn't work. Bemish understood only the end of
the sentence - Ashinik swore dirty.
"That's not an answer." Shavash said.
Ashinik licked his broken lips and spit with all his strength at
Shavash's face.
His saliva and blood were all over the official's lips and chin.
Everybody froze. Shavash slowly turned and walked to an old sink built into
the room's right corner. The splashing water and the washing official's
snorts sounded very clear in the quiet room. Shavash closed the tap and
approached the prisoner again.
"Do you hope that your boss will get you out of this?"
He spun to Bemish.
"Choose, Terence - this guy or the controlling stock block of BOAR."
The single second, that passed by, seemed like eternity to Ashinik.
Then the Assalah general director pushed the gun, pointed at him, away and
said loudly, "You are such a scoundrel, Shavash!"
Astonishment glanced in Ashinik's wide open eyes.
"You are free," Shavash told Ashinik, "And when you set up another
assassination, take care that your boss is around, otherwise nobody will
step in on your behalf."
Bemish pushed the official away, looked around and, grinning viciously,
started pulling the pants and shirt off one of the torturers. The torturer
squeaked fearfully, pulled out of the boss' hands and ran away. He came back
in a minute, carrying clean clothes.
The second guard smiled exasperatedly and unlocked the cuffs holding
Ashinik's bloodied wrists together.
"Shouldn't we wash the lad?" he asked.
Bemish hissed at him like a goose and started pulling the pants on
Ashinik. Then he buttoned up the jacket on the youth and dragged him away.
Bemish had dropped his car right at the main staircase of the city
manor. He threw the lad into the car like a sack and he drove the car over a
flower bed planted with rare orchids while making a turn.
Bemish stopped at the first private hospital; they washed Ashinik and a
physician with frightened eyes bandaged him. The youth was silent and he
only cried occasionally.
Bemish looked at the crying Ashinik and thought that he and the
official had not even discussed whether or not the lad was guilty.
When they arrived to Assalah, the sun was setting down. The pilot and
Bemish picked up Ashinik and helped him to walk to the administration
building. Ashinik was slowly getting over the shock and his eyes started
looking more alert.
Bemish locked the youth in his office and went to deal with the
representatives of the freight company SpaceMart.
When he returned in an hour, he had a white plastic folder in his
hands. Ashinik had squeezed into a corner and he sat there shaking horribly.
A comfortable leather armchair was next to him but Ashinik squatted in his
ancestors' way. It was strange to see a man in Earth clothing squatting.
Bemish walked to the youth.
"Did you have anything to do with this explosion?"
"No."
"Will you lie to me, like you just lied to Shavash? Do I look like his
executioners?"
The Assalah company vice president squeezed himself further into the
wall.
"Ashinik, I know that there are people you must obey unquestionably.
They could have given you orders. If this is the case, I wouldn't tell
Shavash anything. I will help you to go to Earth, to any place where nobody
can give you orders. Did you have anything to do with this explosion?"
"They told me that you had sold me to Shavash. That you exchanged me
for a controlling stock block of the aluminum plant!"
"Oh-ho," Bemish muttered, "and you tried to kill Shavash. Did you try
to kill me, too?"
Ashinik hid his face in his knees and burst in tears.
"Master! Why are you torturing me? It was Shavash first, now it's you!
Not again!"
Bemish was silent. In six months he grew attached to this
twenty-year-old youth as if the latter were his son. The lad was almost the
right age. Bemish had gotten used to feeling like Ashinik's patron. He
picked up a dirty guy with lice in his hair and crazy visions and he
transformed him into a manager with a tie around his neck and a cell phone
in his pocket. And now this manager seduced his concubine. He also tried to
send to the other world a man who in a strange way had become one of Terence
Bemish's closest friends. And, possibly...
Bemish paused.
"Our score is even, Ashinik," the Earthman said. "You saved my company.
I saved your life. It's one to one. I don't owe you anything."
Bemish threw the white plastic folder at his deputy.
"You will find here your last check from Assalah Company, two tickets
to Earth, and an application form to Havishem; it's one of the best business
schools. I talked to Trevis - they will accept you to Havishem. Trevis will
pay your tuition fees."
Ashinik pulled the papers out of the folder. His bandaged right hand
shook slightly.
"There are two tickets," Ashinik said suddenly.
"Don't worry," Bemish snickered, "I'll buy myself a new concubine."
While all these unpleasant adventures related to the White Elder's
assassination were taking place on the planet of Weia, Kissur napped in a
wide first class seat of a passenger spaceship flying to the planet of
Lakhan.
The flight took almost eighteen hours.
Kissur left the spaceport for a cheap hotel, took a shower, changed
into old grey pants and a worn out shirt with a popular band's logo pictured
on it, made a couple of phone calls and took off. He went to the western
part of the city, to Danachin University; the famous Lakhan student uprising
had taken place there ten years ago.
Kissur took the main street across the block, turned left and left
again and, bending slightly, dived into the roar and light of a bar's
entrance. He chose a table next a window, leaned to a wall and started
waiting.
In half an hour, Kissur finally saw a tall and skinny guy with olive
skin and a ponytail who was finding his way to the bar's stand.
"Hey, Lore," Kissur said.
Lore turned around and shuddered but he recovered and, having picked up
a beer can, he joined Kissur.
"How is it going, dude?" Lore asked. "You haven't gone back to your
Weia, have you?"
Kissur just waived his hand.
"I have a question to you," he said, "You've told me once that you knew
a man who was ready to trade a tiny gadget."
"What gadget?"
Kissur picked up a napkin and drew something on it.
Lore's eyes widened a bit.
"There is such a man," he said, "but capitalist rot has eaten all the
way through him. He will not do anything for his brothers, he only works for
money."
"Tell him that there is a man who will pay money for his goods."
"How many pieces do you want to buy?"
"I want everything."
Lore's eyes grew suspicious.
"Kissur, where have you gotten the dough?"
Kissur silently presented a three-day-old newspaper to him. It was a
Weian paper published in Interenglish and an article about a daring robbery
of Weian Industrial Bank, the second largest bank in the Empire, covered its
front page.
"We will teach these capitalists a good lesson," Kissur spoke, "we will
show them that we can fight for peace not only with our mouths."
Denny Hill worked on a stationary base Nordwest located on a tiny
natural moon of Danae planet. Nordwest was the only base constructed on a
planet that didn't have either atmosphere or population. It was only fitting
that it had assumed an unpleasant role of a nuclear waste garbage pit for
all the outdated and not particularly outdated armament of the whole Galaxy.
Nordwest storage areas bored through the planet like huge honeycombs.
Weaponry was sent there if it became obsolete or banned due to political
reasons or due to the activities of peace mongers.
The rumors traveled around the base that the oldest units in storage
were shells from the First Moon War. What Denny Hill, a technician at
Nordwest, knew for sure however, was that retired Cassiopeia missiles were
stored at Nordwest.
These missiles had caused a major military scandal at some point. The
missiles were equipped with S-field generators capable of twisting space
around them. It meant that, once launched, they could not be intercepted.
Any wall, defense screen or field can, in principle, be destroyed. To
destroy something, however, you have to interact with it. Interaction means
passing through space but it's impossible to pass through twisted space.
Ten years ago, Gera had raised a great hassle demanding the ban of all
types of offensive armament equipped with S-field. It had been calculated
that the construction of one S-field missile cost as much as the
construction of twenty five subsidized houses for the underprivileged.
The world shed tears. Instead of building missiles and employing the
same underprivileged as a workforce - that would enable them to buy their
houses with their earned income - the Federation signed a treaty offered by
Gera and started constructing houses for the poor.
Now Gera now didn't have to build expensive missiles and it put
everything into an effort to develop alternative types of S-field that would
not be covered by the treaty and would be cheaper.
Some missiles had been destroyed outright and some had been partially
disassembled and brought to a "relatively disabled" stage. The missiles from
three bases - Arcon, Mino and Delos - had been transported to Nordwest.
The accompanying documentation pointed out that there were one hundred
forty six "relatively disabled" missiles. The whole Galaxy thought that
there were one hundred forty six of them. Only Denny Hill, a civilian
technician at the base, was energetic enough to take a count of the newest
(though disassembled) missiles and he found out that there were one hundred
fifty eight of them. The missiles were stored in a huge depositary area
where the alarm system had been disabled by a local anaerobic life form and
Denny Hill was supposed to take a census of the storage once a month.
Formally speaking, it should have been a committee made out of three local
employees and federal inspectors but the army didn't have any money for all
these stupid committees and the base didn't have enough employees. That was
why Denny Hill conducted the census on his own.
In two weeks on a planet with the beautiful name of Grace, two people
approached Denny Hill who was spending his vacation there. Denny would have
ever taken them for students - both guys were well-built and lean like
pedigreed greyhounds and the senior guy had an old horrible scar above his
neckline. They were Kissur and Khanadar.
"Lore sends you his greetings," Kissur said.
"Hello," Denny Hill said guardedly. "Why are there two of you?"
"You are seeing only one person here. Consider the other one to be his
shadow."
Denny Hill was not completely satisfied with this explanation and he
continued sipping on his soup silently- the meeting was taking place at a
restaurant table.
Kissur sat still. He wanted Hill to start talking first.
"Is it true that you would like to buy goods?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Twelve."
"Three million a piece."
"One million nine hundred."
"Two seventy five."
"One million eight hundred."
"Two fifty. It's manufacturing cost."
"Nobody sells stolen goods at their manufacturing cost."
"When these birdies fly to their destination, the counter-intelligence
will be ready to cough up ten million for information about their original
residency."
"They won't fly anywhere," Kissur said.
"Lore told me something else."
"Who cares what Lore said? I am an Emperor's servant. Do you think that
a sovereign of the Amaride Dynasty and a man of the White Falcon clan will
buy your toys to bust a supermarket? Don't you know that we are a Federation
ally? The Federation won't go nuts if it learns that its ally obtained these
trifles."
"Well, that's different," Denny agreed. "I want two million a piece and
a new passport because I won't like to be here when they start figuring out
who should get a medal for providing a Federation ally with military
support."
In a month, the next scheduled ship arrived at Nordwest bringing food
rations in bright boxes. The ship was going to take retired scanning
equipment away. Loading was completely automatic and the only person at the
dock was Denny Hill. Theoretically, the regulations required the presence of
two people, a civilian and a military operator that would track each other's
actions. But only a quarter of the positions was currently filled at the
base and the only thing that the regulations were good for was taking memory
in the computer.
Denny Hill counterfeited a backup copy of the loading papers and locked
it in a safe. He was not able to fake the files in the computer itself - the
computer was protected too well.
Three days later Denny shoved Jack the Ripper virus into the computer,
the virus overwrote all of the files' headers and Denny's boss told him to
clean the computer up and to recover all the documentation from the backup
copies.
Denny pulled the fake backup copy out of the safe and wrote it to the
hard drive removing the last traces of his real activities.
It took three hours for the cargo ship Antei, license number 284-AP-354
registered at the planet of Agassa, to reach Lakhan spaceport. Lore Sigel
was in charge of freight shipping at the spaceport. A while ago, Lore had
been a very promising young man but his social-anarchy tendencies interfered
with his career. He spent three days in jail for offending the public - he
attempted to register a pig bought at a pig farm as a candidate on the
presidential elections in Austria. He was a witness at a number of notorious
terrorist trials and he had a habit of constantly moving from one place to
another. All this finally brought Lore to this small provincial planet where
he worked as a cargo department manager.
Lore employed as longshoremen five or six friends that nobody else
would hire since the central department of security wouldn't recommend it.
Not surprisingly, the unloading of the ship with license number
284-AP-354 started very late, after the ship's yawning crew walked away to
sleep in a hotel next to the port.
Lore and his friends unloaded the boxes with the retired radio scanning
equipment. There were twelve more boxes in the ship than had been
registered. The identification numbers on the extra boxes were removed and
the boxes were packed in the new containers and sealed. The new containers
were loaded on the ship Astra flying to the planet Issan. Accordingly to the
documentation, the new containers housed geo-physical equipment for the
company Ambeko.
The containers, however, never reached the planet Issan. Three hours
after the ship's departure, the captain extracted a box out of his pocket.
Out of the box, he extracted a paralyzed lightning beetle, a dweller of
Lakhan deserts known for its ability to generate 370V electric sparks. The
beetle was placed under the front panel cover of the control room. Having
regained its senses the beetle discharged, causing minor damages to the main
flight control system. The ship had to exit hyperspace and the crew began
repairs. While the technicians were digging out the beetle and fixing the
problems, twelve containers were dumped off the ship.
The ship soon continued its way. The reason for its deviation off route
in deep space was documented and presented to the authorities in a bottle
with formaldehyde. The authorities reprimanded the crew for its lack of
attention that had let the malevolent representative of the local fauna
infiltrate the ship and the captain didn't receive a bonus.
Meanwhile, a small ship picked up the containers; since the ship was on
a charter flight, it didn't really require all the justifying paperwork. The
ship's name was Laissa. The documentation accompanying the twelve containers
was changed again and the containers were now marked as medical equipment.
The ship was flying to the planet of Weia, to the Assalah spaceport.
On the seventeenth of the month of rains, Terence Bemish got a phone
call in the evening. Shavash was on the line. They discussed a Chakhar
nickel facility construction project for a while and then Shavash advised
his friend to sell Inissa Logging Corporation stocks in case Terence had
them.
"Oh, by the way, Shavash recalled, "a charter ship Laissa will arrive
at your spaceport tomorrow. Could you make sure that customs don't bother
them too much and check that their freight could be stored in some nice
storage facility."
"All my storage space is crammed," Bemish replied.
"Why don't you load it into 17B?"
17B storage was empty - it had been built for military equipment and
its walls, covered with lead sheets, insulated all irradiation.
"What about Giles?"
"Giles won't object," Shavash snorted.
The next day, the phone rang in Bemish's office. It was Ashinik.
"A charter flight has arrived," Ashinik said...
"Is it Laissa?"
"Yes."
"Send them to 17B storage."
In half an hour Ashinik came to Bemish to get storage "keys" - its
electronic locks required an ingenious system of codes and, additionally, it
had a microprocessor that could recognize the owner's retina pattern. The
lock could store ten retina patterns in its memory but it currently had only
two - Bemish's and Giles'. Only Bemish, however, knew the password.
The cargo delivered by Laissa was registered as medical equipment. That
was not surprising. Every day, three hundred tons of medical equipment
passed the spaceport. Accordingly to Bemish's calculations, every Weian
peasant had by now one and a half CAT scanner.
Medical equipment was the only hardware that could be imported without
tariffs and a lot of stuff entered the planet registered as such. It would
be pretty hard to transport an oil drill, even disassembled, in cardboard
boxes from Pepsi-Cola.
This time the cargo was too heavy to be unloaded by a forklift. Bemish
watched for a while loading platforms with huge cubes, sealed and painted in
green color, moving inside the classified storage area.
"Who owns the cargo?" Bemish inquired.
"Ascon Company."
Having returned to his office, Bemish checked Ascon Company out. It had
been registered two months ago and it was an IC offshoot. Out of its
cofounders, two were anonymous - they were probably colonel Giles and
Shavash.
That's our Giles, that's our fighter for democracy! No surprise here
that he won't object about his offshoot company using his storage area!
In three days, a party took place in Lore's house that was located half
an hour away from the spaceport. Lore, five longshoremen, and Kissur were at
the party.
Lore said, "I don't have to introduce our old friend to you. I will
only say that two thousand years ago, a man named Irshahchan achieved at his
planet what Marx wrote about five centuries ago and Shrainer half a
century... Of course, Irshahchan was limited by his epoch and culture but,
generally, his actions were correct. And I don't think that anybody has
achieved more for the recovery of Irshahchan's and Marx' ideals than Kissur
has. Now, we - six Earthmen - should be proud that we are helping, albeit to
a small degree, to fix the world that our countrymen, obsessed by the spirit
of capitalism, have corrupted."
Everybody agreed that, generally, the sovereign Irshahchan had thought
a lot in unison with Marx and Shrainer - half a century ago - even though he
had been somewhat backwards compared to the abovementioned thinkers. He had
still been a despotic ruler of a patriarchic society.
By the midnight the company had gotten pretty high and Kissur suggested
driving around. They loaded in Lore's Dodge and rushed downhill on a
mountainous road. At a zigzag turn Lore, driving the car, suddenly saw a
beetle shaped truck blocking the road. Lore lost his wits for a moment and
Kissur, sitting next to him, swerved the steering wheel to the right and
having opened the door, jumped out of the car.
None of the other passengers had Kissur's reflexes. The car smashed
through the guard rail, dived into the gulf, flew two hundred meters down to
the rocks and exploded. The explosion wouldn't have happened all that
easily, if Kissur had not put an extra hydrogen tank in the trunk. This tank
went off.
Kissur looked beyond the torn guard rail, made sure that everything was
fine, climbed into the beetle shaped truck and was gone. Khanadar the Dried
Date was at the truck's steering wheel.
The death of Lore Sigel and his friends didn't cause any suspicions. He
had had at least eight crashes before and he had been quite high every time.
And now they also found LSD in the blood of the magnificent six.
Nobody found anything connecting this episode and an unfortunate
accident that happened two days later on a provincial planet Issan. Denny
Hill, a technician from Nordwest base, was on the vacation at a local
resort. He swam too far out in the local ocean and drowned.
The Twelfth Chapter
Where the Emperor of the Country of Great Light finds out the real
purpose of the Assalah construction from the opposition press and expresses
his confusion.
In the beginning of May a large article filled a quarter of a page in
one of the most influential newspapers - MegaMoney. A well known economy
journalist and a Ronald Trevis' fan Christopher Blant figured out (or got a
hint) to perform the simplest calculation - he took secondary balances that
large banks had to publish and added up all the credits granted to the
Empire of Great Light.
The result was that this year Weia had to pay off about one hundred
forty million dinars on all its foreign and domestic loans; at the same time
the total sum of all taxes collected this year would be only one hundred
twenty million dinars. "The real total of all the Weian loans is probably
higher," Blant wrote, "and it's clear that the only way Weia can make
payments on its loans is to obtain more loans at a higher interest rate. It
can't go on forever. Weian economy will crash and Weian ishevik will be
devalued."
The investors clutched their heads. They demanded the Weian government
to publish the real debt figures. During next week, the government published
three different figures - eighty, hundred and hundred and thirteen billion -
all of them signed by the finance minister.
It only spread the panic further.
Somebody started a rumor that the payments on the two billion dinars
credit obtained by Weia from Galactic Bank would be postponed first - this
credit had been turned into securities and distributed on the market after
the bank had gone public.
The quotes went down by a factor of two and after that Weian government
came out with a restructuring plan.
The two billion loan would be taken over by a new company BOAR that
would obtain in exchange - at no cost - one of the largest nickel and other
non-ferrous metals deposits in the Galaxy where the government had already
built an ore enrichment facility. The concern and all the other companies
registered at its territories would not have to pay anything towards the
state's budget.
Three very influential Weian entrepreneurs and Terence Bemish were the
company's cofounders. Even by the most modest estimate, the profit from the
export of non-ferrous metals would be three times larger that the payments
on the state's debt that the company would have to make. The bond prices
skyrocketed at once to 97% of their face value.
The bankers were tearing their hair out in shock. The newspaper article
resulted - without any responsibility from the Weian government's side - in
devaluation of the bonds. Their value could have dropped to even 30% if
somebody hadn't bought devalued securities through Ronald Trevis.
Inissa governor came, probably, the closest to the understanding of the
true reasons behind the panic; he didn't really like Shavash and he sent him
a birthday gift - a disinfectant can with a label "for avarice."
Bemish started visiting Earth often on BOAR business and every time he
would wonder at a skyline awkwardly constricted by the buildings and a
meager lonely moon. Once, in June, Trevis remarked that the calculations
that Bemish held in his hands had been done by Ashinik and the lad had an
internship in the head office during his holidays.
"How is he?" Bemish asked unaffectedly.
"He is trying hard," Trevis said, "but he is very disappointed."
"What is he disappointed with?"
"He is disappointed that nobody kisses his boots. They kissed his boots
on Weia when he led the sect, didn't they?"
"No," Bemish answered, "they didn't kiss his boots. They gathered dust
where he walked and gave it to the pregnant and to the sick to drink."
"Well," Trevis said, "he is disappointed that nobody gathers his dust."
"How is his wife doing?" Bemish asked unexpectedly.
"Is he married?" Trevis was surprised.
Bemish didn't answer.
Bemish had a bit of time after his meetings and before the ship's
departure; he ascended to his hotel room and connected to the White Pages
website via a computer. The computer thought for a while and then belched
forth several green lines. On the black screen, they resembled a rim of
meson irradiation formed around the exhausts of an interstar ship. Bemish
sat on a coach motionless for a while and then he ordered a taxi and rode in
it to the address that he got in the White Pages.
Ashinik was renting an apartment in an old building and there was no
camera at the entrance, only intercom buttons bristled to the right. Bemish
pushed the button number 27.
"Who is it?" Ashinik's voice replied.
Bemish let the button go. He expected that Ashinik wouldn't be at home
at daytime, only Inis would be there. His expectations proved to be wrong.
There were two more hours left before the ship's departure; Bemish turned
and walked away.
Only when the ship pulled into the orbit and was almost out of the
regular T-phone reception range, Bemish called Trevis.
"Listen," Bemish said, "I looked through the papers prepared by Ashinik
and I found them to be pretty good. Send him to me."
Trevis said that he would like to have the young Weian in his office
due to the growing number of Weian deals.
"This guy cost me ten percent of a company with a yearly export size of
forty billion dinars," Bemish said, "and he will work it all off for me."
Trevis asked something else but then the receiver croaked and hissed
and the connection broke off.
Ashinik returned to Weia in three weeks. He looked completely
different. Instead of a skinny frightened young lad that had left the Empire
eight months ago, a confident man with cold blue eyes and wide shoulders
walked into Bemish's office.
"I am sorry that I pulled you out," Bemish said, embracing the youth,
"but I need you. It concerns BOAR."
Ashinik lowered his head. When half a year ago, half-dead from torture
he heard Shavash's voice offering his master to choose between him, Ashinik,
and a twenty five percent controlling BOAR stock block, the company name
couldn't tell him anything. Now the word BOAR decorated the financial
newspapers' front pages and Bemish's share of the company was perfectly well
known to be fourteen percent. Ashinik knew for sure that neither his direct
boss nor Trevis nor even Ashinik himself would have exchanged the control of
the deal of the century for a man.
"I...I...," Ashinik muttered. Bemish took the youth's hand.
"It doesn't matter. Where are you staying?"
"I am staying in a hotel," the lad replied turning to a window. There,
behind the burned caramel color glass and sharp points of the ships, a huge
glass body of a luxurious hotel was melting in the sun.
"You can move to my villa," Bemish said. "How is Inis doing?"
"She is with me," Ashinik replied. He paused and added, "I don't want
to leave her alone. She shouldn't wave her skirt around.
It became quiet for a moment in the office, and then Bemish said,
"I left her alone often and nothing good came out of it. In three
hours, Giles will meet people from Chakhar Trade Bank in the capital. Could
you go with him?"
Ashinik went to the capital. He took part in the talks and stayed at a
party celebrating the third year anniversary of Sadd Company. Giles
introduced him to the economics minister.
Ashinik's hands went cold when, having approached a cluster of people,
he saw in its center the beautiful, slightly corpulent face of Shavash.
"How is your health," Shavash asked abruptly, interrupting his
conversation with an Earthman and nodding welcomingly to Ashinik.
"I am well, thanks," Ashinik heard his own voice as if it was coming
out of a phone receiver.
"How is your wife doing?"
Ashinik uttered something about his wife being also fine.
"I recommend you this young man," Shavash said, "He helped us a lot
with BOAR company."
The people who crowded around Shavash but stood to far to start a
conversation with him moved slowly and started surrounding Ashinik.
In a while after Shavash had left, Ashinik realized suddenly with cold
curiosity that he felt good about Shavash's nodding to him - the same
Shavash that he had been trained in his previous life to exterminate like a
mongoose exterminates snakes. In the hierarchy of his new life this nod
immediately distinguished him out of the other young people and it was as if
a small beacon lit above Ashinik's head and the guests flew towards this
beacon as moths fly towards light.
The door slammed behind Ashinik and Bemish still sat the same way
looking absent-mindedly at a field through the window. He picked up a lot of
Empire's customs in his two years on Weia. One thing he hadn't apparently
done yet - he had never killed a man because he wanted his wife.
Now, in seven months after their last meeting, Bemish didn't have any
feelings towards ex-zealot Ashinik who started to resemble, frighteningly, a
polished novice broker. He only felt quite annoyed thinking about the lost
BOAR shares. On the other hand, the accident brought Bemish certain
benefits. It had somehow leaked out - probably via Shavash who didn't find
anything appalling there - and it improved Bemish's reputation tremendously.
The biggest people on Weia knew that the Earthman hadn't turned his friend
into for money and it was a Weian custom not to betray friends. It would be
fine to send an innocent man to the gallows to help your friend or to
embezzle money from the state treasury but to betray your friend was not
nice.
Bemish didn't need Ashinik. But he realized with a surprise that he
needed Inis. While his concubine had been next to him and he could take her