any minute, could walk upstairs with her or simply lock the office door,
caress her soft body and think about another woman - unavailable and
forbidden - then it seemed to Bemish that talking about love would be
stupid. Do you love your car? You just use it and if you crash it, you buy
another one.
But buying another car proved to be difficult. Bemish tried three or
four concubines during that time and threw them out, wincing. The sluts
called in by Bemish didn't help either. Kissur seeing the Earthman suffering
once took him to such a place that... yikes, it's better to forget all about
it...
Then, there was some celebration at Shavash's palace where, besides
everything else, they presented an ancient play about an Inissa prince.
Watching it, Bemish suddenly realized that in this world it had always been
considered normal for a man to desire two women simultaneously and that he,
Terence Bemish, had turned Weian to a greater degree than he expected.
A penetrating beep of the phone interrupted Bemish's contemplation.
Having answered the call, Bemish stood up abruptly. It was time to face the
truth - he called Ashinik to Weia to take his wife away from him. It would
possibly not work on Earth. But here, on Weia, where Bemish was no longer a
man that would be called "businessman" on Earth but rather became a man that
would be called "prince" - nobody would dare refuse him.
When Bemish with a large wrapped gift package entered a hotel room,
Inis sat next to a mirror. She turned around and froze seeing the Earthman.
Bemish, without taking his light overcoat off, approached her and kissed her
silently. The woman didn't resist.
"It's for you," Bemish said, gently pushing her away in several
minutes.
Blushing with joy, Inis started unwrapping the package. In a moment,
she cried out happily admiring a necklace of large bluish pearls.
Bemish carefully took the necklace out of her hands and put it on her
neck. Inis tried to turn away.
"What's wrong?"
Bemish tenderly turned her face towards him. It was only then that he
noticed an ugly round bruise on her cheekbone.
"What is it?"
"Ashinik hit me."
"Ashinik?"
"He beats me often."
"Why?"
"He doesn't like anything," Inis said. "He doesn't like my dresses, he
doesn't like that I was his master's concubine, he doesn't like that people
don't kowtow in front of him, and he doesn't like it when I dance with
anybody else. At first he works day and night closing a deal and then he
gets a bonus and says that it's a sugar lump that they gave to a trained
Weian dog for jumping through a hoop."
Bemish sat on the bed. He suddenly didn't have anything to say. Two
people in the room were silent and the setting sun, melting in the sky, was
rapidly floating to the west following a rising freight ship.
"You didn't buy yourself a new concubine, did you?" Inis suddenly
asked.
"No," Bemish said.
"Why?"
"I don't know. I think I didn't stop loving the previous one enough."
Inis carefully sat down next to Bemish's feet. Her eyes, large and
green, were almost like Idari's eyes and they looked at Bemish with
admiration and hope.
When Ashinik returned to the hotel room in the evening, the bedroom
door was slightly open and an immobile silhouette sat on the bed.
"Inis!" Ashinik called opening the door and stopped short.
It was not Inis sitting on the bed, it was Yadan.
It was difficult to recognize the zealots' leader - he wore a
well-tailored suit with a fashionable standing collar and a wide tie.
"Are you back?" Yadan asked.
Ashinik felt cold fury rising inside him.
"What do you want from me?"
"I saved you ten years ago, my boy. I gave you a gift of your life
after my predecessor's death. It's time to pay back."
"I paid you back. It's a miracle that I survived."
"You didn't pay back well and a lot of people could not understand why
your bomb was not as good as the demons promised."
"I don't owe you anything, Yadan. I owe Terence Bemish who made a man
out of me."
"They bought you, my boy."
"No."
"Yes. The demons buy some people for a gold piece, others for a
thousand gold pieces, others for a million. They say, you were bought for a
billion, for a piece of the demon's company that you called BOAR and for an
opportunity to live like demons. You even got a concubine that her owner was
bored with..."
Yadan paused and then cried out,
"You, a man who could become the White Elder and rule the millions of
hearts, were bought for an opportunity to have a house in Los Angeles
suburbs and to work eight hours a day!"
"Get out!" Ashinik squealed.
"Have you forgotten how you talked to the gods, Ashinik? Have you
forgotten how they took you alive to the sky, how thousands of ears listened
to you in the way that nobody listens to anybody in this whole stupid
Galaxy?"
"And what have the gods spilled out to me? That you were born out of a
golden egg? That one could stop a laser ray with a spell? That Earthmen were
demons? Great things your gods have told me!"
"You are a fool, Ashinik," Yadan grinned, "and Earthmen are demons. Do
you know that they built this spaceport for a war between Gera and Earth and
that when this war commences, it will start raining bombs on our planet.
They made our world a lawn where elephants will tread and nobody will get
two cents for it except Shavash who collected six million out of it!
Wouldn't you call it demons' work?"
"Bullshit," Ashinik replied, "there is as much bullshit here as there
is in the fable about you hatching out of a gold egg."
"Do you know that Giles works for Federal Intelligence?"
"I built this spaceport and I know that it's a civil port!"
"And do you know how much they steal there? Do you know how much of our
Motherhood they rob via this spaceport?
Right then, light steps sounded in the corridor and Inis flitted into
the room.
"Get out of here," Ashinik told Yadan quietly but furiously, "I am not
afraid of all of you anymore."
"You don't talk to the gods anymore, do you?" Yadan grinned.
Having risen quietly, he slid by Inis to the door. Ashinik didn't
notice how Yadan covertly threw a grain of yellow substance into a barely
smoking brazier while leaving.
He sat on the bed with his hands wrapped about his head. Yadan's last
words stung him sharply. He really didn't speak to the gods anymore. And
though today's Ashinik new very well that only mad people talked to the
gods, he remembered these conversations deep in his mind and he remembered
that it had been a proof of him being chosen.
Inis approached him and stroked him on his head and Ashinik was
surprised to see an antique necklace of bluish Assaisse pearls.
"Where have you been?" irritated Ashinik asked her.
"Well, I walked around the town."
"Where did you get this necklace?"
"It's a gift from Idari," the woman replied quickly. "I received it
today in a basket."
Such a quick answer put Ashinik on his guard.
"Is it a gift from Bemish?" he bared his teeth.
Inis put her hands on her hips.
"And so what?!" she cried out, "If you don't give me beautiful things
you shouldn't at least forbid other people do it!"
"You still love him, don't you?" Ashinik screamed.
"Shame on you!"
"You love him! You were just jealous of this bitch Idari! Everybody
knows that she had slept with Shavash before Kissur! And then she and Bemish
hit it off together! You whored with me to punish your Terence!"
Ashinik could no longer hear what he was screaming; his eyes darted
wildly as if they were trying to follow something invisible filling the
room. His vision became obscured by a red wavering veil that seemed to
separate this place from the otherworld and it could fall apart any moment.
Noises and voices were buzzing in his ears as if a TV set had fifty channels
on simultaneously... Ashinik was quite familiar with this state - it used to
precede an event that his brothers in sect called an "appearance of gods"
and Earthmen called a fit.
"Give it to me!" Ashinik screamed grabbing the woman and falling onto
the bed with her and he started tearing the necklace off. But the necklace
was strong and small and it wasn't easy to either tear the thread or take it
off Inis.
"You slept with him, didn't you," Ashinik shouted, "in exchange for
this thing?"
"So what," Inis grinned suddenly. "Or are you going to buy a necklace
for me with your stipend? What would you have become without Terence,
Ashinik? Would you be entertaining a crowd at a fair with your talks about
demons?"
Something exploded in Ashinik's mind and white light blazed across it
and he heard a familiar voice telling him,
"Kill the demoness! Kill the demon's lover or she will get knocked up
and a demon will be born that will destroy the whole world!"
Instead of tearing the necklace, his hands tightened it around Inis'
neck. The woman screamed and thrashed. "Pull it! Pull it!" the voice
screamed in Ashinik's mind. "Pull it, my son!"
Ashinik regained his senses only in the morning. He lay supine on the
red carpet and the morning sun seeped through the blinds. He didn't remember
anything except the very beginning of the quarrel.
"Inis," Ashinik called.
There was no response. "She left," a thought passed through Ashinik's
mind, "she left for the Earthman!"
Somebody knocked into the door.
"Who is there?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
"Breakfast," the answer came.
Ashinik walked unsteadily to the living room and opened the door.
A cute maid looked at him with certain sympathy - the young financier's
suit was wrinkled and bedraggled and the suit's owner stood there swaying
with disheveled hair and black circles under his eyes.
"When did my wife leave?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
"I don't know," the maid answered and winked slightly at the man, "but
if you need a woman..."
"Go away."
The maid rushed out of the room.
Ashinik climbed into the bathtub and washed and shaved himself
recovering slowly. His recollections were becoming clearer and now he was
absolutely sure that he indeed had had a fit yesterday. Damned Yadan! He
drove Ashinik to it with his forked tongue. But how could Inis walk away
when he was in the middle of a fit? Did she leave her helpless husband
rolling on the floor?
Wincing, Ashinik swallowed two cups of coffee and walked back to the
bedroom to change his clothing. Only now he noticed what he had not noticed
half an hour ago - a white woman's arm on the carpet, on the other side of
the bed, closer to the window.
Ashinik moved nearer and froze.
Inis lay on the carpet on the other side of the bed and the pearls set
in silver were scattered all around her - the necklace did snap. A red mark
darkened her neck but that was not all of it - her body was hacked and
covered in blood and a knife with a bone handle lay next to her.
"Inis!" Ashinik screamed desperately clutching at his wife's face.
Ashinik stood up from his knees in fifteen minutes. He was completely
covered with blood now. He swayed. His thoughts darted around like hungry
mice in a cage. His memory was getting clearer and clearer. An ugly quarrel
had happened at first and a fit followed it. Is it possible that he killed
his wife during the fit? It's possible. The police will certainly think
along these lines. It will be a gift worthy of an Emperor for Shavash...
What if it was not him? He refused to follow Yadan's orders - Yadan
knows that Ashinik loses himself completely during a fit; one of Yadan's men
could have been there watching them and he could have punished Ashinik for
being obstinate!
It just had to have happened like that!
Though why would the sect need a scandal that would certainly hit it?
The "yellow coats" will squeeze everything out of Ashinik! Does Yadan hope
that Ashinik will run back to the zealots for help? "Only they can help me,"
Ashinik thought, "Only they can hide a corpse and hide me."
Or maybe it's not Yadan. It could be a spy of Shavash's. It could be
anybody who hates Ashinik. Who hates Ashinik? The whole world hates him! His
only home is the sect but the Earthmen took it away from him!
Bemish! Terence Bemish will understand him!
In seven minutes Ashinik, pale but already groomed, climbed out of a
taxi at the main spaceport building. He didn't have an ID that allowed
access to the service floors anymore but a manager recognized Ashinik and
walked him upstairs.
Thankfully, Terence Bemish was in his office. He immediately stood up
greeting Ashinik.
"Oh my God, Ashinik! What happened to you? Are you sick?"
"I had a fit," Ashinik said. "What am I saying," a thought glanced in
his mind, "When they find Inis, he will immediately think about the fit. On
the other hand, I am going to tell him everything..."
But at that point something beeped and whined at Bemish's belt.
"Yes," the Assalah director shouted into the receiver. Having turned it
off in five minutes, he said, "Ashinik, I need to go!"
"I will come with you!"
"No, it's ok. Get yourself a coffee and I'll be back in a moment."
He disappeared through the door.
Ashinik mechanically sat down in the office owner's armchair. He was
confused and deeply offended that Terence hadn't even heard him out. Several
minutes had passed before Ashinik moved. It was not the first occasion when
he was sitting in this armchair as the Assalah director's deputy but then he
had used his own password...
When Bemish returned to his office in three hours, he didn't find
Ashinik there.
"He figured out why I called him to Weia," Bemish thought. He leaned
back in the armchair and dialed Ashinik's hotel room number. Nobody picked
up a receiver - the room was empty. Bemish called his villa and his headman
told him that the mistress hadn't arrived yet and that everything was ready
for her arrival accordingly to Bemish's orders.
With a smile Bemish called the border control chief - just in case -
and told him not to let Ashinik and Inis off the planet. Time and again
later he blamed himself that he hadn't called police at once, though it
would have made no difference by then.
In two days at five in the morning, a phone call woke Bemish up at the
villa. It was Shavash's personal secretary and Bemish's heart skipped a beat
because a phone call so early could be only about Inis - she and Ashinik had
disappeared out of the hotel room without a trace like a rotting mushroom
would disappear in the earth in the fall.
"Mr. Bemish?"
"Yes."
"Have you seen today's Blue Sun?"
"No, I haven't seen it."
"Take a look."
The secretary hung the receiver.
"Where are the newspapers?!" Bemish screamed rushing out at the
terrace.
His secretary, pale with fear, handed the newspapers to him. The front
page had it all, "The Earthmen are building a military base next to the
capital - Weia is now a hostage in the superpowers' fight." The second page
boasted another title, "The last bribe of Shavash's. What's the price of
your country?" The phone rang. It was Kissur.
"Terence? The Emperor wants to see you. You should be in the Fragrant
Solemnity Pavilion in half an hour."
The phone screamed again.
"I am not here, not here, I am already flying!" Bemish shouted leaping
out of his bathrobe. A helicopter was beating his transparent wings at the
landing field behind the white wall.
Bemish spent half an hour in the helicopter studying the damned Blue
Sun, a shitty newspaper that belonged to the rebels. "I've always known that
it would come to that," he thought. The newspaper lied only in the minor
details. The bribe received by Shavash had actually been thirty percent
higher. Terence Bemish was called "a professional spy, an experienced agent
who wormed his way into the confidence of some people close to the
sovereign." There was even some bullshit story about Bemish being kicked out
of Gera three years ago for espionage - it didn't speak in favor of his
spying skills.
They were already awaiting him in the carved halls. Sweetish smoke was
rising out of the silver corollas of the braziers. The gold peacocks, cast
during Empress Cassia's rule, stood on the both sides of the forbidden door
and gawked at the Earthman with bewilderment and condemnation. The Emperor,
confused and pale, sat in an armchair. Dressed up Shavash faced the Emperor
expressionlessly and the first minister Yanik stood to the right. He was
devouring Shavash with his eyes.
"How do you do, Mr. Bemish?" the Emperor said.
Bemish felt himself blushing as if he were a boy caught in a
supermarket while stealing a chocolate bar and not the man responsible for
the largest military scandal of the century.
The sovereign paused and added, "It's not my place to judge but,
really, should the Emperor of the Country of Great Light find what you do to
my country out of newspapers?"
Precisely at that moment, the doors of the golden peacocks moved apart
and another character - Giles - walked in.
Bemish turned to him and said vengefully, "Well, what have I told you?
We got it."
"I am very upset, Mr. Bemish," sovereign Varnazd continued, "I
considered you to be an honest man. I am always wrong about people."
"Bemish has nothing to do with it," Giles said, "Our company was
supposed to get the license. It took us a while to persuade Mr. Bemish so
that he agreed to build it our way."
"And how much has it cost you for Mr. Bemish to agree?" the Emperor
smiled.
Bemish became as red as the apples on the tapestry behind the Emperor
and said, "It cost them nothing. I thought that if I had to screw around, I
would at least do it for free."
"Just a moment," Giles was astonished, "What do you mean, "for free?"
You received..."
Bemish turned and started walking towards Giles.
"Son of a bitch," he hissed. At that point, Shavash spoke in calm
voice, "This is my fault, Mr. Giles. I took some money from you to give to
Mr. Bemish but I spoke to him and he refused the money. So, I took it upon
myself to keep it."
Absurdly, Giles and Bemish burst out laughing.
"I swear by god's goiter," Yanik spoke through his clenched teeth
looking at the small official. But the Emperor didn't pay much attention to
Shavash's confession; he was probably used to these things. The first
minister started pompously, "They used to boil criminals in oil for selling
the country and to crucify them on gates! How can you justify yourself, Mr.
Shavash?"
"I," Shavash said, "don't see what I should justify. I signed a treaty
that transformed Weia from a pebble in the Galaxy's backyard into an ally of
the Federation of Nineteen and its potential member. The way the agreement
is defined makes it most profitable for the Weian people. Accordingly to the
treaty, three months ago we obtained a seven billion dinar credit that the
first minister had conducted unsuccessful negotiations for. I made the most
profitable deal for Weia in the last seven years and I made the Earthmen pay
for it with a seven billion credit!"
"Well," the Emperor hesitated, "if it is indeed the case..."
"But how will this man justify his actions?" Shavash continued, "He
lost his way among his bribes and he is completely incapable of performing
his duties. He is ready to destroy the Empire just to destroy me with it.
How will this man justify his actions when he delivered the information
concerning a classified agreement to the newspapers of the heretics? How
will you justify it, first minister?"
Yanik went gray in the face.
"It's not true," he muttered.
"Nonsense! I will prove that it's true and I will demonstrate how you,
instead of notifying the Emperor, preferred to let the heretics know about
everything!"
"Come here, Mr. Yanik," the Emperor said.
The old minister made one hesitating step forward, than another one.
"Is it correct? Who gave the information to Blue Sun?"
The official paled and his hands started shaking.
"Tell me the truth..."
"I... I...," the old man muttered, "It's the military consul of Gera...
I didn't take any actions against it, but... Unfortunately, I don't know
what to do..."
"Resign," the Emperor said. The old official desperately threw up his
hands. Shavash banged his fist on a brazier.
"Who cares about Gera?" he cried out, "We are now Earth's ally. We
should admit that Bemish's company will obtain a military commission from
us! We should admit that the Empire has finally drawn a lucky number after
seven years of suffering!"
The Emperor faced Shavash with a sick smile.
"Should we appoint you to the first minister position?"
"Yes," Shavash said, "it will confirm that we made a military agreement
with Earth and that we will not turn away."
"If Mr. Shavash becomes the first minister," Giles reached out, "Earth
will consider it to be a... favorable omen. It would mean that the
government's position is firm. We are ready to consider a new loan."
"Sovereign," Shavash said," I haven't taken a single bribe that was not
beneficial for our people but you can't have a first minister who betrays
his country and his Emperor in order to get even with his personal enemy!"
The Emperor was quiet. Everybody stood motionless. The golden peacocks
stretched their necks listening to the silence. The brazier smoke quietly
danced atop a sun ray. When the Emperor spoke, it seemed to Bemish that gods
on the skies and demons in the underground went still listening to him.
"You are right, Mr. Shavash. It would make sense to appoint you as a
first minister. Unfortunately, I can't do it."
"Why?" Shavash asked.
The Emperor raised his grey eyes at the official.
"I can't do it because you are a scoundrel, Shavash."
The official was taken aback. In another place, he would probably make
a standard repartee that he had never heard that scoundrels couldn't be
first ministers and he would generally comment in detail about this most
childish argument. Here, he suddenly closed his mouth and blinked like a
gosling.
"I will not appoint you as a first minister, Shavash, while I am
alive," the Emperor continued quietly. "You are a scoundrel. When you
appoint a scoundrel to such a position, in the end he always causes more
harm that good for the country."
He paused and raised his eyes at Bemish.
"Great Wei, what should I do? What would you, Terence, do at my place?"
"I had an honor to present my opinion to you," Bemish answered, "And my
opinion was that first ministers should not be appointed by a sovereign, but
rather be appointed by the people via their duly elected representatives."
The sovereign laughed nervously. Then he guffawed out loud.
"You are right, Terence," he spoke, "You are right! I will gather
your... representatives. Let them decide themselves who is gonna be the
minister! And let Mr. Shavash prove them that he acted for the people's
good, let's see if my people are as stupid as I am!"
The Emperor rose and rushed into the inner halls. Giles and Shavash
hurried after him but the guards didn't let them through. Bemish turned
around, tripped over a golden peacock and bolted downstairs. Halfway down,
he almost collided with Kissur who was ascending quickly.
"Kissur," Bemish said desperately, "You know that they forced me to do
it."
Kissur just waved his hand.
"How is the sovereign?" he asked.
"He fired Yanik."
"Great Wei! Who is the first minister?! Shavash?!"
"Nobody," Bemish said, "The sovereign promised to announce elections to
the Parliament."
Kissur's face contorted.
"You suggested this to him, didn't you?"
"You know my views."
"I know your views. You don't give a damn about this country. You think
that democracy will raise the stock quotes of your blasted companies!"
"Time spent with me was beneficial for you, Kissur. How long ago was it
when your understanding of stocks equaled my understanding of horses?"
Kissur threw himself down on a stair and squashed Bemish's foot. He sat
there for a while and then he stood up.
"It's not a problem. I've hanged one fully assembled parliament already
and I will hang another one. Take this into account when you plan your
investments."
And he ran up jumping over three stairs at a time - however, they were
quite low.
Still airborne on his way to Assalah, Bemish spent an hour giving
orders to buy the stocks of Weian companies, to buy as many of them as
possible and to keep low profile while doing it.
In an hour, having finished all his calls, Bemish extracted a sheet of
paper and started drawing a diagram illustrating his company's refinancing
scheme. High yield Assalah bonds currently paid off at fourteen percent a
month. Parliament elections and the subsequent rise of the country's rating
would increase the bonds' value. Accordingly to Bemish's calculations, they
should cost a hundred and three to a hundred and four cents for a dinar in
two to three months. Even now they reached a hundred and one point one cents
for a dinar - under these conditions even a bond bought at the price above
its face value still brought thirteen percent. Accordingly to the IPO's
conditions, rise (and fall) of the bonds' value caused the interest rates to
adjust so that the bonds would cost hundred cents per dinar. New Assalah
bonds, Bemish calculated, should make eleven to twelve percent.
A phone call interrupted his calculations.
"I have news about Inis," over the receiver he heard Giles' cold voice.
"Finally. Where is she?"
"You should better come to the villa."
In half an hour Bemish stood in a far corner of his luxurious garden,
next to a carved gazebo entwined with ivy. He stood near an ornamental well
that was a necessary feature - together with a hermit's hut and tame deer -
of a country manor. Nobody used it for the original purpose since running
water available was available. But tame beasts started behaving strange next
to the well and three hours ago a meticulous gardener had taken a look into
it in case something was wrong.
Bemish stood and watched two security service guys, clad in tight
rubber and leather, pulling a white swollen body over the well's edge. Far
away in the sky among the stars, danced blue and yellow lights of the rising
ships and a bold nightingale in a neighboring bush was singing a song
accompanied by a chorus of night cicadas.
"Do you know what Blue Sun will publish tomorrow?" Giles moved nearby.
"It will write that a foreign vampire killed his lover and hid her body in
an abandoned well.
Bemish turned and Giles saw with horror that the businessman's grey
eyes were as empty as a safe that robbers had broken into. Then, the general
director of Assalah Company swayed and, unconscious, slowly collapsed in
Giles's hands.
The Thirteenth Chapter
Where the nation expresses its will with unpredictable results.
Two months passed by. Preparations for the elections were at their
peak. Throughout the whole country, the officials had their precinct gates
wide open and fed their future electorate with, square like Weia, rice pies
and with, round like the sky, wheat pies. Throughout the whole country,
zealots performed shows about iron people. Throughout the whole country,
entrepreneurs and traders made donations to the officials' election
campaigns instead of bribing them.
Bemish spent this time flying around the Galaxy. The people closest to
him knew that he was horribly upset about Inis' death. The Earthman hadn't
stepped out of his bedroom for the first two days and, then, he threw
himself into his business like a fish dives into the ocean with an evident
and almost hysterical desire to drive the recent events out of his mind.
Various suggestions were made about the murderer's identity, including
the ex-first minister Yanik and the Following the Way; a number of people
suspected them to be connected. Mr. Yanik, alike the zealots, didn't approve
of the Empire being bought by the people from the stars. He wholeheartedly
wanted his friends to buy the Empire but, unfortunately, the people from the
stars had more money.
Shavash was also mentioned quite often; people said that the vengeful
official had killed Ashinik in retaliation for the old assassination attempt
and that he had killed the woman because once Bemish hadn't shared her with
him and also to mislead the investigation. They said that the Earthman
grieved so much because he knew who the man behind the murder was but he
could avenge it only by destroying his business in the process. Frankly, the
comments hit reasonably close to the truth.
Another rumor was also popular - the Earthman had knifed the woman to
demonstrate his grief and to alleviate the suspicions about his love for
another woman - they mentioned Idari quite loudly.
They searched for Ashinik very thoroughly, sometimes suspecting him of
his wife's murder and sometimes thinking that he had been killed together
with his wife as a traitor. But Ashinik disappeared without a trace. They,
however, found the man who had handed the papers about the spaceport's
military future to the zealots. It was the marxist technician who had
arrived with Ashidan at Kissur's villa and spied on the spaceport later.
Bemish went to see what was what left of this man. The next day, during
negotiations in Los Angeles Bemish would catch himself thinking occasionally
about possible reactions of his polite colleague in tortoise glasses if this
colleague knew that six hours ago the respectable director of Assalah
Company had cold-bloodedly observed how an alive man had his flesh cut off
him bit after bit and how this man screamed at the top of his lungs that he
knew nothing, absolutely nothing about Inis.
Having traveled for a month, Bemish returned to Weia. He had
practically finished the negotiations concerning BOAR. At the spaceport, he
ran into a flock of journalists who arrived to monitor the fairness of the
election preparations. One of the journalists asked him, "What do you
estimate Yadan's chances to win the elections are?"
Three hours before Bemish's arrival, the leader of the White Sect, a
mortal foe of the Earthmen and, therefore a mortal foe of all their
inventions such as democracy, credit cards and pizza, had declared that he
would participate in the elections.
"What are Yadan's chances?" Bemish was astonished.
"He is a madman who believes that Earthmen are demons. He looks at my
spaceport and says that I built a hole to hell. He says that he climbs a
ladder to the sky every morning and there are no Earthmen here. It means
that all our ships and equipment are phantoms and our spaceports are holes
leading underground. He also says that he was born out of a golden egg."
The journalist grinned and asked, "Why, in this case, does Ashinik
follow Yadan in the party's hierarchy? He was a vice-president in your
company and he seems to have worked under the billionaire Ronald Trevis.
Does he also think that the spaceport is a hole leading underground?"
Bemish froze. Ashinik is alive! The journalist pursed his lips and
said, "Aren't you ashamed to repeat the rumors spread by corrupted officials
to discredit the people's leaders?"
The next day, Bemish read an article about Weia in an influential and,
therefore, liberal newspaper Standard Times. The article was written by the
abovementioned journalist. The article presented the election company on
Weia as the fight between the corrupted officials and the true democratic
representatives of the people. Yadan was the true democratic representative
of the people. The corrupted officials and certain Earthmen who had reaped
off a lot of money robbing Weia tried all they could to smear the people's
leader.
An interview with Yadan followed the article. The journalist asked
Yadan, "Is it true that you consider Earthmen to be demons?"
"I don't know where this crazy rumor came from. You see, Mr. Bemish
doesn't speak Weian very well. You sometimes say "Go to hell" and we say
"You are a demon, go home." It could be that one of my friends swore at
Bemish and he, not really understanding our culture, took this expression
literally. I can give you another example. Some Earthmen started a rumor
that Following the Way claimed that their leader had been born out of a
golden egg. But it's just a metaphorical expression. "To be born out of a
golden egg" is equivalent to your expression "to be born with a silver spoon
in your mouth."
Having finished the article, Bemish ordered Ashinik to be delivered to
him. It appeared to be a difficult task. Even though Ashinik was no longer
in hiding, he appeared everywhere accompanied by a triple layer of
bodyguards. Bemish had to limit himself to the zealot's satellite phone
number which was known only to a dozen people. He called him and screamed at
him in perfect Weian, "I don't really speak Weian, do I? Was it your
invention, Ashinik, to use Earth media to strengthen the sect's position?
Was it your idea to persuade a passerby pen pusher that he knew the
subtleties of local culture better than the Assalah Company director?"
"Ai-tana khari (Demon, go home)," Ashinik replied sarcastically and he
dropped the receiver.
Bemish was pissed off to such a degree that he gave an order to fire
Ashinik. The latter had still been formally a member of the Board of
Directors.
Together with the majority of the Earthmen living and working in the
Empire Bemish found himself facing a strange problem. On one hand, the local
Earthmen understood perfectly well - better than the local officials - what
exactly the so-called party of the people's freedom, led by co-chairmen
Yadan and Ashinik, was about. It would not be difficult to start a large
scale media campaign against these people. But such a campaign would crash
the Weian stock market because nothing is as easy to scare away as money. At
the same time, this campaign would not hurt the zealots since they didn't
give a damn about demons' newspapers anyway.
The local Earthmen took a counsel and came to the conclusion that there
was no chance these halfwits would win the election. So, let the liberal
newspapers idolize the new heroes. Why should they bother exposing them? It
would only be bad publicity for the new IPOs.
As the elections were approaching, the fund index grew like bamboo,
since fund indexes in developing countries always grow before the elections.
To scream about the party of the people's freedom under these conditions
meant killing your own profit. A considerable part of the paper and
speculation profits, obtained by the Earthmen financiers and manufacturers,
was donated to Shavash's election campaign. They and their wallets just
loved this future country's leader. Their enthusiasm for donations was based
on the solid and persuading results of the sociological studies predicting
Shavash's victory.
What the financiers didn't know was that these studies were paid for by
Shavash. It is much easier to buy two hundred sociologists than to buy fifty
million of voters.
The elections caused certain problems, however, to Assalah Company.
Ashinik occasionally appeared on the pages of the Galaxy newspapers. While
his general comments towards Earthmen were restrained, he used Terence
Bemish as an example to explain the peculiarities of the corruption in the
Empire. Mostly, he commented on the abuses of Assalah customs and unabashed
insider trading in Bemish's funds.
It wasn't particularly beneficial for the company's quotes and their
growth lagged noticeably behind the general fund index.
But the worst for Bemish was that, due to the elections, Kissur and
Shavash - two people that meant a lot for the planet and quite a bit for
Bemish personally - quarreled. Their breach started almost unnoticeably, at
the moment when Kissur declared openly that he was against all the
elections. Shavash had opposite views. When the sovereign declared in
Shavash's face that he would never appoint him as a first minister, Shavash
realized that he would be able to become a first minister only by people's
volition.
Practically immediately, in a great hurry, Shavash channeled all his
power and money into a huge political campaign and into the creation of his
own party. Shavash's methods were as primordial as they were effective. The
doors to the vice-prefect's manor stood wide open for the poor - they could
get there free soup and pies day and night.
The minimal wage law was under consideration at that time. The first
minister Yanik insisted on a fifty isheviks minimal wage while Shavash
suggested eighty. Yanik won. Then, the vice-prefect Shavash declared that he
would pay the difference to the workers in the capital drawing a salary of
less than eighty isheviks.
Two assassination attempts were made at Shavash's life. It's hard to
say whether or not they were real but Shavash clearly gained from them. He
became the only man opposing the zealots for both foreign investors and
well-intentioned people.
While Kissur and Shavash could live in peace at the Emperor's court,
the fallout between became inevitable once the latter emerged as the head of
Weian Democratic Alliance party since the former considered democracy to be
an ultimate stupidity that Weia needed just as much as somebody would need a
fur hat amidst a hot summer.
The final quarrel happened at a party in one of Shavash's country
houses. Bemish attended it - he needed to meet some officials from Chakhar
and hand a check for the election campaign to Shavash.
They were all drunk; Kissur was somewhat more sober while Shavash was
boozed up completely. Shavash reclined on a sofa with one of his slaves
sitting on his knees. The slave was a cute fourteen-year-old boy and nobody
had any doubts about the precise nature of his relationship with Shavash.
The boy was kissing his master's fingers and picking bits off his plate and
finally the time arrived when the future prime minister, the light and hope
of the people, the enemy of inflation and the paragon of virtue started
walking towards an exit pushing the boy in front of him and looking horny.
Two or three supplicants had been circling around Shavash hoping to discuss
some important matters; they jumped out of his way not willing to distract
the vice minister away from his modest boy. At that point, Kissur appeared
in front of Shavash.
"Shavash," an Empire's ex-first minister said, "are you really going to
Lannakh tomorrow?"
A meeting of three provinces was taking place in Lannakh with feasts
for the chosen and pies for everybody.
"Yes."
"I beseech you not to go there."
Shavash smiled confounded.
"I can't, Kissur. The people are waiting for me there."
"I beseech you, Shavash, don't do it. I ask you in the name of our
friendship. It's not befitting for a Weian official to ape these stupid
Earthmen and to take part in the elections."
Shavash giggled drunkenly.
"Is it your personal request?"
"No, I speak on the other's behalf."
Kissur didn't say "other person's". He never called the Emperor Varnazd
a man. The Emperor was always a god in his eyes.
"Is he, in whose name you speak, afraid of me winning the elections?"
"You are not worthy of heading the country."
Everybody was listening to this dialog breathlessly; soon afterwards,
it was to acquire the most fantastic details added to it. Both Kissur and
Shavash were boozed up to the hilt and what a sober man has on his mind, a
drunkard has on his tongue...
Shavash laughed.
"What would you offer me instead, Kissur?"
"Anything you wish. You wanted Iman. (The sovereign gave to Kissur a
lot of land in the oil-rich areas of Iman). Would you like me to cut Yadan
down?"
Shavash giggled louder. He swayed and grabbed Kissur's shoulder to
avoid falling. Then, he missed a step and dropped on his knees. His lips
touched Kissur's hand.
"Kissur... Give me Idari and I won't participate in the elections."
Everybody froze not comprehending yet what was happening. Kissur was
the first one to react. His hands were next to Shavash's face, they suddenly
locked together on their own and Kissur hit Shavash with his locked hands in
the chin.
The vice minister sailed in a long arch through the air and landed with
his back on the banquet table. Sauces and appetizers flew to the sides and
priceless fifth dynasty china plates were smashed.
Kissur grabbed the object that was closest to him and it was a tall
five candle chandelier in the shape of a burning rose on a bronze rod and
rushed at Shavash roaring wildly. At this point, Bemish and Shavash's guards
tackled him and if it had not been for them, Kissur would have certainly
slaughtered the welcoming host. As it was, he had to limit himself to
killing one guard and leaving another one disabled.
The next day Bemish came to Kissur's manor to beg forgiveness. Green
with hangover, Kissur lay in a wide bed with a broken hand in a sling.
Bemish had broken this hand yesterday.
Kissur's brother, Ashidan, and Khanadar the Dried Date sat at Kissur's
feet and they weren't particularly welcoming towards Bemish.
"Son of a bitch," Kissur said out of his pillows. "I'll kill him
anyway."
He meant Shavash.
"You were drunk," Bemish objected, "You will still make peace."
Kissur laughed hoarsely.
"Don't be an idiot, Kissur! Shavash is just a horny goat. He almost
took Inis away from me! He sleeps with the wives of all his employees!"
"Exactly. He sleeps with everything that has a hole between its legs
whether this hole is in the front or in the back, he never leaves the pubs,
he drags his brat even to the negotiations with Galactic Bank and he dares
to ask me to give him my wife!"
The elections for the first Weian parliament took place on the fifth of
Shuyun, July, 17th by the interplanetary calendar. The
overwhelming majority of the electorate - 67.5% - voted for the party of the
people's freedom, the ex-sect Following the Way.
The same day, the sovereign declared the results invalid and issued
arrest warrants for Yadan and Ashinik, two best known leaders of the sect.
Yadan disappeared. Ashinik escaped to Earth. His arrival caused a huge
sensation in the liberal media. He was a charming twenty two year old young
man with perfect English, a year's working experience as a vice president in
a large trans galactic company and a one year college experience in an elite
business school. He totally didn't look like somebody accused by Weian
authorities of terrorism, manipulation of people's minds, mass hypnosis and
the literal understanding of the electoral campaign slogan "Earthmen are
demons."
Two days after his escape, Ashinik gave a long interview on the seventh
intergalactic TV channel. He explained all of the rumors attacking the party
of the people's freedom in a very simple way. The officials had decided to
run the elections hoping to obtain more power than they had before. When the
people's party won the elections, the results were declared invalid and a
huge incomparable libel campaign started against the party.
They asked Ashinik if his party was going to nationalize the foreign
companies' property if it came to power.
"No," Ashinik answered, "but we were going to make businessmen and
financiers of the Federation of Nineteen follow the Federation's laws."
As an example, Ashinik referred to Terence Bemish. Mr. Bemish had
created one of the largest industrial companies on Weia and Ashinik had
worked for him for a year. Terence Bemish bought eighteen million dollars
worth of Ichar non-ferrous metals facility stocks in an hour after his
friend Shavash had cleared this facility's sale to MetalUranium Company and
a day before the deal went public. Terence Bemish made thirty million.
Terence Bemish bought twenty million worth of gold loan bonds after
caress her soft body and think about another woman - unavailable and
forbidden - then it seemed to Bemish that talking about love would be
stupid. Do you love your car? You just use it and if you crash it, you buy
another one.
But buying another car proved to be difficult. Bemish tried three or
four concubines during that time and threw them out, wincing. The sluts
called in by Bemish didn't help either. Kissur seeing the Earthman suffering
once took him to such a place that... yikes, it's better to forget all about
it...
Then, there was some celebration at Shavash's palace where, besides
everything else, they presented an ancient play about an Inissa prince.
Watching it, Bemish suddenly realized that in this world it had always been
considered normal for a man to desire two women simultaneously and that he,
Terence Bemish, had turned Weian to a greater degree than he expected.
A penetrating beep of the phone interrupted Bemish's contemplation.
Having answered the call, Bemish stood up abruptly. It was time to face the
truth - he called Ashinik to Weia to take his wife away from him. It would
possibly not work on Earth. But here, on Weia, where Bemish was no longer a
man that would be called "businessman" on Earth but rather became a man that
would be called "prince" - nobody would dare refuse him.
When Bemish with a large wrapped gift package entered a hotel room,
Inis sat next to a mirror. She turned around and froze seeing the Earthman.
Bemish, without taking his light overcoat off, approached her and kissed her
silently. The woman didn't resist.
"It's for you," Bemish said, gently pushing her away in several
minutes.
Blushing with joy, Inis started unwrapping the package. In a moment,
she cried out happily admiring a necklace of large bluish pearls.
Bemish carefully took the necklace out of her hands and put it on her
neck. Inis tried to turn away.
"What's wrong?"
Bemish tenderly turned her face towards him. It was only then that he
noticed an ugly round bruise on her cheekbone.
"What is it?"
"Ashinik hit me."
"Ashinik?"
"He beats me often."
"Why?"
"He doesn't like anything," Inis said. "He doesn't like my dresses, he
doesn't like that I was his master's concubine, he doesn't like that people
don't kowtow in front of him, and he doesn't like it when I dance with
anybody else. At first he works day and night closing a deal and then he
gets a bonus and says that it's a sugar lump that they gave to a trained
Weian dog for jumping through a hoop."
Bemish sat on the bed. He suddenly didn't have anything to say. Two
people in the room were silent and the setting sun, melting in the sky, was
rapidly floating to the west following a rising freight ship.
"You didn't buy yourself a new concubine, did you?" Inis suddenly
asked.
"No," Bemish said.
"Why?"
"I don't know. I think I didn't stop loving the previous one enough."
Inis carefully sat down next to Bemish's feet. Her eyes, large and
green, were almost like Idari's eyes and they looked at Bemish with
admiration and hope.
When Ashinik returned to the hotel room in the evening, the bedroom
door was slightly open and an immobile silhouette sat on the bed.
"Inis!" Ashinik called opening the door and stopped short.
It was not Inis sitting on the bed, it was Yadan.
It was difficult to recognize the zealots' leader - he wore a
well-tailored suit with a fashionable standing collar and a wide tie.
"Are you back?" Yadan asked.
Ashinik felt cold fury rising inside him.
"What do you want from me?"
"I saved you ten years ago, my boy. I gave you a gift of your life
after my predecessor's death. It's time to pay back."
"I paid you back. It's a miracle that I survived."
"You didn't pay back well and a lot of people could not understand why
your bomb was not as good as the demons promised."
"I don't owe you anything, Yadan. I owe Terence Bemish who made a man
out of me."
"They bought you, my boy."
"No."
"Yes. The demons buy some people for a gold piece, others for a
thousand gold pieces, others for a million. They say, you were bought for a
billion, for a piece of the demon's company that you called BOAR and for an
opportunity to live like demons. You even got a concubine that her owner was
bored with..."
Yadan paused and then cried out,
"You, a man who could become the White Elder and rule the millions of
hearts, were bought for an opportunity to have a house in Los Angeles
suburbs and to work eight hours a day!"
"Get out!" Ashinik squealed.
"Have you forgotten how you talked to the gods, Ashinik? Have you
forgotten how they took you alive to the sky, how thousands of ears listened
to you in the way that nobody listens to anybody in this whole stupid
Galaxy?"
"And what have the gods spilled out to me? That you were born out of a
golden egg? That one could stop a laser ray with a spell? That Earthmen were
demons? Great things your gods have told me!"
"You are a fool, Ashinik," Yadan grinned, "and Earthmen are demons. Do
you know that they built this spaceport for a war between Gera and Earth and
that when this war commences, it will start raining bombs on our planet.
They made our world a lawn where elephants will tread and nobody will get
two cents for it except Shavash who collected six million out of it!
Wouldn't you call it demons' work?"
"Bullshit," Ashinik replied, "there is as much bullshit here as there
is in the fable about you hatching out of a gold egg."
"Do you know that Giles works for Federal Intelligence?"
"I built this spaceport and I know that it's a civil port!"
"And do you know how much they steal there? Do you know how much of our
Motherhood they rob via this spaceport?
Right then, light steps sounded in the corridor and Inis flitted into
the room.
"Get out of here," Ashinik told Yadan quietly but furiously, "I am not
afraid of all of you anymore."
"You don't talk to the gods anymore, do you?" Yadan grinned.
Having risen quietly, he slid by Inis to the door. Ashinik didn't
notice how Yadan covertly threw a grain of yellow substance into a barely
smoking brazier while leaving.
He sat on the bed with his hands wrapped about his head. Yadan's last
words stung him sharply. He really didn't speak to the gods anymore. And
though today's Ashinik new very well that only mad people talked to the
gods, he remembered these conversations deep in his mind and he remembered
that it had been a proof of him being chosen.
Inis approached him and stroked him on his head and Ashinik was
surprised to see an antique necklace of bluish Assaisse pearls.
"Where have you been?" irritated Ashinik asked her.
"Well, I walked around the town."
"Where did you get this necklace?"
"It's a gift from Idari," the woman replied quickly. "I received it
today in a basket."
Such a quick answer put Ashinik on his guard.
"Is it a gift from Bemish?" he bared his teeth.
Inis put her hands on her hips.
"And so what?!" she cried out, "If you don't give me beautiful things
you shouldn't at least forbid other people do it!"
"You still love him, don't you?" Ashinik screamed.
"Shame on you!"
"You love him! You were just jealous of this bitch Idari! Everybody
knows that she had slept with Shavash before Kissur! And then she and Bemish
hit it off together! You whored with me to punish your Terence!"
Ashinik could no longer hear what he was screaming; his eyes darted
wildly as if they were trying to follow something invisible filling the
room. His vision became obscured by a red wavering veil that seemed to
separate this place from the otherworld and it could fall apart any moment.
Noises and voices were buzzing in his ears as if a TV set had fifty channels
on simultaneously... Ashinik was quite familiar with this state - it used to
precede an event that his brothers in sect called an "appearance of gods"
and Earthmen called a fit.
"Give it to me!" Ashinik screamed grabbing the woman and falling onto
the bed with her and he started tearing the necklace off. But the necklace
was strong and small and it wasn't easy to either tear the thread or take it
off Inis.
"You slept with him, didn't you," Ashinik shouted, "in exchange for
this thing?"
"So what," Inis grinned suddenly. "Or are you going to buy a necklace
for me with your stipend? What would you have become without Terence,
Ashinik? Would you be entertaining a crowd at a fair with your talks about
demons?"
Something exploded in Ashinik's mind and white light blazed across it
and he heard a familiar voice telling him,
"Kill the demoness! Kill the demon's lover or she will get knocked up
and a demon will be born that will destroy the whole world!"
Instead of tearing the necklace, his hands tightened it around Inis'
neck. The woman screamed and thrashed. "Pull it! Pull it!" the voice
screamed in Ashinik's mind. "Pull it, my son!"
Ashinik regained his senses only in the morning. He lay supine on the
red carpet and the morning sun seeped through the blinds. He didn't remember
anything except the very beginning of the quarrel.
"Inis," Ashinik called.
There was no response. "She left," a thought passed through Ashinik's
mind, "she left for the Earthman!"
Somebody knocked into the door.
"Who is there?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
"Breakfast," the answer came.
Ashinik walked unsteadily to the living room and opened the door.
A cute maid looked at him with certain sympathy - the young financier's
suit was wrinkled and bedraggled and the suit's owner stood there swaying
with disheveled hair and black circles under his eyes.
"When did my wife leave?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
"I don't know," the maid answered and winked slightly at the man, "but
if you need a woman..."
"Go away."
The maid rushed out of the room.
Ashinik climbed into the bathtub and washed and shaved himself
recovering slowly. His recollections were becoming clearer and now he was
absolutely sure that he indeed had had a fit yesterday. Damned Yadan! He
drove Ashinik to it with his forked tongue. But how could Inis walk away
when he was in the middle of a fit? Did she leave her helpless husband
rolling on the floor?
Wincing, Ashinik swallowed two cups of coffee and walked back to the
bedroom to change his clothing. Only now he noticed what he had not noticed
half an hour ago - a white woman's arm on the carpet, on the other side of
the bed, closer to the window.
Ashinik moved nearer and froze.
Inis lay on the carpet on the other side of the bed and the pearls set
in silver were scattered all around her - the necklace did snap. A red mark
darkened her neck but that was not all of it - her body was hacked and
covered in blood and a knife with a bone handle lay next to her.
"Inis!" Ashinik screamed desperately clutching at his wife's face.
Ashinik stood up from his knees in fifteen minutes. He was completely
covered with blood now. He swayed. His thoughts darted around like hungry
mice in a cage. His memory was getting clearer and clearer. An ugly quarrel
had happened at first and a fit followed it. Is it possible that he killed
his wife during the fit? It's possible. The police will certainly think
along these lines. It will be a gift worthy of an Emperor for Shavash...
What if it was not him? He refused to follow Yadan's orders - Yadan
knows that Ashinik loses himself completely during a fit; one of Yadan's men
could have been there watching them and he could have punished Ashinik for
being obstinate!
It just had to have happened like that!
Though why would the sect need a scandal that would certainly hit it?
The "yellow coats" will squeeze everything out of Ashinik! Does Yadan hope
that Ashinik will run back to the zealots for help? "Only they can help me,"
Ashinik thought, "Only they can hide a corpse and hide me."
Or maybe it's not Yadan. It could be a spy of Shavash's. It could be
anybody who hates Ashinik. Who hates Ashinik? The whole world hates him! His
only home is the sect but the Earthmen took it away from him!
Bemish! Terence Bemish will understand him!
In seven minutes Ashinik, pale but already groomed, climbed out of a
taxi at the main spaceport building. He didn't have an ID that allowed
access to the service floors anymore but a manager recognized Ashinik and
walked him upstairs.
Thankfully, Terence Bemish was in his office. He immediately stood up
greeting Ashinik.
"Oh my God, Ashinik! What happened to you? Are you sick?"
"I had a fit," Ashinik said. "What am I saying," a thought glanced in
his mind, "When they find Inis, he will immediately think about the fit. On
the other hand, I am going to tell him everything..."
But at that point something beeped and whined at Bemish's belt.
"Yes," the Assalah director shouted into the receiver. Having turned it
off in five minutes, he said, "Ashinik, I need to go!"
"I will come with you!"
"No, it's ok. Get yourself a coffee and I'll be back in a moment."
He disappeared through the door.
Ashinik mechanically sat down in the office owner's armchair. He was
confused and deeply offended that Terence hadn't even heard him out. Several
minutes had passed before Ashinik moved. It was not the first occasion when
he was sitting in this armchair as the Assalah director's deputy but then he
had used his own password...
When Bemish returned to his office in three hours, he didn't find
Ashinik there.
"He figured out why I called him to Weia," Bemish thought. He leaned
back in the armchair and dialed Ashinik's hotel room number. Nobody picked
up a receiver - the room was empty. Bemish called his villa and his headman
told him that the mistress hadn't arrived yet and that everything was ready
for her arrival accordingly to Bemish's orders.
With a smile Bemish called the border control chief - just in case -
and told him not to let Ashinik and Inis off the planet. Time and again
later he blamed himself that he hadn't called police at once, though it
would have made no difference by then.
In two days at five in the morning, a phone call woke Bemish up at the
villa. It was Shavash's personal secretary and Bemish's heart skipped a beat
because a phone call so early could be only about Inis - she and Ashinik had
disappeared out of the hotel room without a trace like a rotting mushroom
would disappear in the earth in the fall.
"Mr. Bemish?"
"Yes."
"Have you seen today's Blue Sun?"
"No, I haven't seen it."
"Take a look."
The secretary hung the receiver.
"Where are the newspapers?!" Bemish screamed rushing out at the
terrace.
His secretary, pale with fear, handed the newspapers to him. The front
page had it all, "The Earthmen are building a military base next to the
capital - Weia is now a hostage in the superpowers' fight." The second page
boasted another title, "The last bribe of Shavash's. What's the price of
your country?" The phone rang. It was Kissur.
"Terence? The Emperor wants to see you. You should be in the Fragrant
Solemnity Pavilion in half an hour."
The phone screamed again.
"I am not here, not here, I am already flying!" Bemish shouted leaping
out of his bathrobe. A helicopter was beating his transparent wings at the
landing field behind the white wall.
Bemish spent half an hour in the helicopter studying the damned Blue
Sun, a shitty newspaper that belonged to the rebels. "I've always known that
it would come to that," he thought. The newspaper lied only in the minor
details. The bribe received by Shavash had actually been thirty percent
higher. Terence Bemish was called "a professional spy, an experienced agent
who wormed his way into the confidence of some people close to the
sovereign." There was even some bullshit story about Bemish being kicked out
of Gera three years ago for espionage - it didn't speak in favor of his
spying skills.
They were already awaiting him in the carved halls. Sweetish smoke was
rising out of the silver corollas of the braziers. The gold peacocks, cast
during Empress Cassia's rule, stood on the both sides of the forbidden door
and gawked at the Earthman with bewilderment and condemnation. The Emperor,
confused and pale, sat in an armchair. Dressed up Shavash faced the Emperor
expressionlessly and the first minister Yanik stood to the right. He was
devouring Shavash with his eyes.
"How do you do, Mr. Bemish?" the Emperor said.
Bemish felt himself blushing as if he were a boy caught in a
supermarket while stealing a chocolate bar and not the man responsible for
the largest military scandal of the century.
The sovereign paused and added, "It's not my place to judge but,
really, should the Emperor of the Country of Great Light find what you do to
my country out of newspapers?"
Precisely at that moment, the doors of the golden peacocks moved apart
and another character - Giles - walked in.
Bemish turned to him and said vengefully, "Well, what have I told you?
We got it."
"I am very upset, Mr. Bemish," sovereign Varnazd continued, "I
considered you to be an honest man. I am always wrong about people."
"Bemish has nothing to do with it," Giles said, "Our company was
supposed to get the license. It took us a while to persuade Mr. Bemish so
that he agreed to build it our way."
"And how much has it cost you for Mr. Bemish to agree?" the Emperor
smiled.
Bemish became as red as the apples on the tapestry behind the Emperor
and said, "It cost them nothing. I thought that if I had to screw around, I
would at least do it for free."
"Just a moment," Giles was astonished, "What do you mean, "for free?"
You received..."
Bemish turned and started walking towards Giles.
"Son of a bitch," he hissed. At that point, Shavash spoke in calm
voice, "This is my fault, Mr. Giles. I took some money from you to give to
Mr. Bemish but I spoke to him and he refused the money. So, I took it upon
myself to keep it."
Absurdly, Giles and Bemish burst out laughing.
"I swear by god's goiter," Yanik spoke through his clenched teeth
looking at the small official. But the Emperor didn't pay much attention to
Shavash's confession; he was probably used to these things. The first
minister started pompously, "They used to boil criminals in oil for selling
the country and to crucify them on gates! How can you justify yourself, Mr.
Shavash?"
"I," Shavash said, "don't see what I should justify. I signed a treaty
that transformed Weia from a pebble in the Galaxy's backyard into an ally of
the Federation of Nineteen and its potential member. The way the agreement
is defined makes it most profitable for the Weian people. Accordingly to the
treaty, three months ago we obtained a seven billion dinar credit that the
first minister had conducted unsuccessful negotiations for. I made the most
profitable deal for Weia in the last seven years and I made the Earthmen pay
for it with a seven billion credit!"
"Well," the Emperor hesitated, "if it is indeed the case..."
"But how will this man justify his actions?" Shavash continued, "He
lost his way among his bribes and he is completely incapable of performing
his duties. He is ready to destroy the Empire just to destroy me with it.
How will this man justify his actions when he delivered the information
concerning a classified agreement to the newspapers of the heretics? How
will you justify it, first minister?"
Yanik went gray in the face.
"It's not true," he muttered.
"Nonsense! I will prove that it's true and I will demonstrate how you,
instead of notifying the Emperor, preferred to let the heretics know about
everything!"
"Come here, Mr. Yanik," the Emperor said.
The old minister made one hesitating step forward, than another one.
"Is it correct? Who gave the information to Blue Sun?"
The official paled and his hands started shaking.
"Tell me the truth..."
"I... I...," the old man muttered, "It's the military consul of Gera...
I didn't take any actions against it, but... Unfortunately, I don't know
what to do..."
"Resign," the Emperor said. The old official desperately threw up his
hands. Shavash banged his fist on a brazier.
"Who cares about Gera?" he cried out, "We are now Earth's ally. We
should admit that Bemish's company will obtain a military commission from
us! We should admit that the Empire has finally drawn a lucky number after
seven years of suffering!"
The Emperor faced Shavash with a sick smile.
"Should we appoint you to the first minister position?"
"Yes," Shavash said, "it will confirm that we made a military agreement
with Earth and that we will not turn away."
"If Mr. Shavash becomes the first minister," Giles reached out, "Earth
will consider it to be a... favorable omen. It would mean that the
government's position is firm. We are ready to consider a new loan."
"Sovereign," Shavash said," I haven't taken a single bribe that was not
beneficial for our people but you can't have a first minister who betrays
his country and his Emperor in order to get even with his personal enemy!"
The Emperor was quiet. Everybody stood motionless. The golden peacocks
stretched their necks listening to the silence. The brazier smoke quietly
danced atop a sun ray. When the Emperor spoke, it seemed to Bemish that gods
on the skies and demons in the underground went still listening to him.
"You are right, Mr. Shavash. It would make sense to appoint you as a
first minister. Unfortunately, I can't do it."
"Why?" Shavash asked.
The Emperor raised his grey eyes at the official.
"I can't do it because you are a scoundrel, Shavash."
The official was taken aback. In another place, he would probably make
a standard repartee that he had never heard that scoundrels couldn't be
first ministers and he would generally comment in detail about this most
childish argument. Here, he suddenly closed his mouth and blinked like a
gosling.
"I will not appoint you as a first minister, Shavash, while I am
alive," the Emperor continued quietly. "You are a scoundrel. When you
appoint a scoundrel to such a position, in the end he always causes more
harm that good for the country."
He paused and raised his eyes at Bemish.
"Great Wei, what should I do? What would you, Terence, do at my place?"
"I had an honor to present my opinion to you," Bemish answered, "And my
opinion was that first ministers should not be appointed by a sovereign, but
rather be appointed by the people via their duly elected representatives."
The sovereign laughed nervously. Then he guffawed out loud.
"You are right, Terence," he spoke, "You are right! I will gather
your... representatives. Let them decide themselves who is gonna be the
minister! And let Mr. Shavash prove them that he acted for the people's
good, let's see if my people are as stupid as I am!"
The Emperor rose and rushed into the inner halls. Giles and Shavash
hurried after him but the guards didn't let them through. Bemish turned
around, tripped over a golden peacock and bolted downstairs. Halfway down,
he almost collided with Kissur who was ascending quickly.
"Kissur," Bemish said desperately, "You know that they forced me to do
it."
Kissur just waved his hand.
"How is the sovereign?" he asked.
"He fired Yanik."
"Great Wei! Who is the first minister?! Shavash?!"
"Nobody," Bemish said, "The sovereign promised to announce elections to
the Parliament."
Kissur's face contorted.
"You suggested this to him, didn't you?"
"You know my views."
"I know your views. You don't give a damn about this country. You think
that democracy will raise the stock quotes of your blasted companies!"
"Time spent with me was beneficial for you, Kissur. How long ago was it
when your understanding of stocks equaled my understanding of horses?"
Kissur threw himself down on a stair and squashed Bemish's foot. He sat
there for a while and then he stood up.
"It's not a problem. I've hanged one fully assembled parliament already
and I will hang another one. Take this into account when you plan your
investments."
And he ran up jumping over three stairs at a time - however, they were
quite low.
Still airborne on his way to Assalah, Bemish spent an hour giving
orders to buy the stocks of Weian companies, to buy as many of them as
possible and to keep low profile while doing it.
In an hour, having finished all his calls, Bemish extracted a sheet of
paper and started drawing a diagram illustrating his company's refinancing
scheme. High yield Assalah bonds currently paid off at fourteen percent a
month. Parliament elections and the subsequent rise of the country's rating
would increase the bonds' value. Accordingly to Bemish's calculations, they
should cost a hundred and three to a hundred and four cents for a dinar in
two to three months. Even now they reached a hundred and one point one cents
for a dinar - under these conditions even a bond bought at the price above
its face value still brought thirteen percent. Accordingly to the IPO's
conditions, rise (and fall) of the bonds' value caused the interest rates to
adjust so that the bonds would cost hundred cents per dinar. New Assalah
bonds, Bemish calculated, should make eleven to twelve percent.
A phone call interrupted his calculations.
"I have news about Inis," over the receiver he heard Giles' cold voice.
"Finally. Where is she?"
"You should better come to the villa."
In half an hour Bemish stood in a far corner of his luxurious garden,
next to a carved gazebo entwined with ivy. He stood near an ornamental well
that was a necessary feature - together with a hermit's hut and tame deer -
of a country manor. Nobody used it for the original purpose since running
water available was available. But tame beasts started behaving strange next
to the well and three hours ago a meticulous gardener had taken a look into
it in case something was wrong.
Bemish stood and watched two security service guys, clad in tight
rubber and leather, pulling a white swollen body over the well's edge. Far
away in the sky among the stars, danced blue and yellow lights of the rising
ships and a bold nightingale in a neighboring bush was singing a song
accompanied by a chorus of night cicadas.
"Do you know what Blue Sun will publish tomorrow?" Giles moved nearby.
"It will write that a foreign vampire killed his lover and hid her body in
an abandoned well.
Bemish turned and Giles saw with horror that the businessman's grey
eyes were as empty as a safe that robbers had broken into. Then, the general
director of Assalah Company swayed and, unconscious, slowly collapsed in
Giles's hands.
The Thirteenth Chapter
Where the nation expresses its will with unpredictable results.
Two months passed by. Preparations for the elections were at their
peak. Throughout the whole country, the officials had their precinct gates
wide open and fed their future electorate with, square like Weia, rice pies
and with, round like the sky, wheat pies. Throughout the whole country,
zealots performed shows about iron people. Throughout the whole country,
entrepreneurs and traders made donations to the officials' election
campaigns instead of bribing them.
Bemish spent this time flying around the Galaxy. The people closest to
him knew that he was horribly upset about Inis' death. The Earthman hadn't
stepped out of his bedroom for the first two days and, then, he threw
himself into his business like a fish dives into the ocean with an evident
and almost hysterical desire to drive the recent events out of his mind.
Various suggestions were made about the murderer's identity, including
the ex-first minister Yanik and the Following the Way; a number of people
suspected them to be connected. Mr. Yanik, alike the zealots, didn't approve
of the Empire being bought by the people from the stars. He wholeheartedly
wanted his friends to buy the Empire but, unfortunately, the people from the
stars had more money.
Shavash was also mentioned quite often; people said that the vengeful
official had killed Ashinik in retaliation for the old assassination attempt
and that he had killed the woman because once Bemish hadn't shared her with
him and also to mislead the investigation. They said that the Earthman
grieved so much because he knew who the man behind the murder was but he
could avenge it only by destroying his business in the process. Frankly, the
comments hit reasonably close to the truth.
Another rumor was also popular - the Earthman had knifed the woman to
demonstrate his grief and to alleviate the suspicions about his love for
another woman - they mentioned Idari quite loudly.
They searched for Ashinik very thoroughly, sometimes suspecting him of
his wife's murder and sometimes thinking that he had been killed together
with his wife as a traitor. But Ashinik disappeared without a trace. They,
however, found the man who had handed the papers about the spaceport's
military future to the zealots. It was the marxist technician who had
arrived with Ashidan at Kissur's villa and spied on the spaceport later.
Bemish went to see what was what left of this man. The next day, during
negotiations in Los Angeles Bemish would catch himself thinking occasionally
about possible reactions of his polite colleague in tortoise glasses if this
colleague knew that six hours ago the respectable director of Assalah
Company had cold-bloodedly observed how an alive man had his flesh cut off
him bit after bit and how this man screamed at the top of his lungs that he
knew nothing, absolutely nothing about Inis.
Having traveled for a month, Bemish returned to Weia. He had
practically finished the negotiations concerning BOAR. At the spaceport, he
ran into a flock of journalists who arrived to monitor the fairness of the
election preparations. One of the journalists asked him, "What do you
estimate Yadan's chances to win the elections are?"
Three hours before Bemish's arrival, the leader of the White Sect, a
mortal foe of the Earthmen and, therefore a mortal foe of all their
inventions such as democracy, credit cards and pizza, had declared that he
would participate in the elections.
"What are Yadan's chances?" Bemish was astonished.
"He is a madman who believes that Earthmen are demons. He looks at my
spaceport and says that I built a hole to hell. He says that he climbs a
ladder to the sky every morning and there are no Earthmen here. It means
that all our ships and equipment are phantoms and our spaceports are holes
leading underground. He also says that he was born out of a golden egg."
The journalist grinned and asked, "Why, in this case, does Ashinik
follow Yadan in the party's hierarchy? He was a vice-president in your
company and he seems to have worked under the billionaire Ronald Trevis.
Does he also think that the spaceport is a hole leading underground?"
Bemish froze. Ashinik is alive! The journalist pursed his lips and
said, "Aren't you ashamed to repeat the rumors spread by corrupted officials
to discredit the people's leaders?"
The next day, Bemish read an article about Weia in an influential and,
therefore, liberal newspaper Standard Times. The article was written by the
abovementioned journalist. The article presented the election company on
Weia as the fight between the corrupted officials and the true democratic
representatives of the people. Yadan was the true democratic representative
of the people. The corrupted officials and certain Earthmen who had reaped
off a lot of money robbing Weia tried all they could to smear the people's
leader.
An interview with Yadan followed the article. The journalist asked
Yadan, "Is it true that you consider Earthmen to be demons?"
"I don't know where this crazy rumor came from. You see, Mr. Bemish
doesn't speak Weian very well. You sometimes say "Go to hell" and we say
"You are a demon, go home." It could be that one of my friends swore at
Bemish and he, not really understanding our culture, took this expression
literally. I can give you another example. Some Earthmen started a rumor
that Following the Way claimed that their leader had been born out of a
golden egg. But it's just a metaphorical expression. "To be born out of a
golden egg" is equivalent to your expression "to be born with a silver spoon
in your mouth."
Having finished the article, Bemish ordered Ashinik to be delivered to
him. It appeared to be a difficult task. Even though Ashinik was no longer
in hiding, he appeared everywhere accompanied by a triple layer of
bodyguards. Bemish had to limit himself to the zealot's satellite phone
number which was known only to a dozen people. He called him and screamed at
him in perfect Weian, "I don't really speak Weian, do I? Was it your
invention, Ashinik, to use Earth media to strengthen the sect's position?
Was it your idea to persuade a passerby pen pusher that he knew the
subtleties of local culture better than the Assalah Company director?"
"Ai-tana khari (Demon, go home)," Ashinik replied sarcastically and he
dropped the receiver.
Bemish was pissed off to such a degree that he gave an order to fire
Ashinik. The latter had still been formally a member of the Board of
Directors.
Together with the majority of the Earthmen living and working in the
Empire Bemish found himself facing a strange problem. On one hand, the local
Earthmen understood perfectly well - better than the local officials - what
exactly the so-called party of the people's freedom, led by co-chairmen
Yadan and Ashinik, was about. It would not be difficult to start a large
scale media campaign against these people. But such a campaign would crash
the Weian stock market because nothing is as easy to scare away as money. At
the same time, this campaign would not hurt the zealots since they didn't
give a damn about demons' newspapers anyway.
The local Earthmen took a counsel and came to the conclusion that there
was no chance these halfwits would win the election. So, let the liberal
newspapers idolize the new heroes. Why should they bother exposing them? It
would only be bad publicity for the new IPOs.
As the elections were approaching, the fund index grew like bamboo,
since fund indexes in developing countries always grow before the elections.
To scream about the party of the people's freedom under these conditions
meant killing your own profit. A considerable part of the paper and
speculation profits, obtained by the Earthmen financiers and manufacturers,
was donated to Shavash's election campaign. They and their wallets just
loved this future country's leader. Their enthusiasm for donations was based
on the solid and persuading results of the sociological studies predicting
Shavash's victory.
What the financiers didn't know was that these studies were paid for by
Shavash. It is much easier to buy two hundred sociologists than to buy fifty
million of voters.
The elections caused certain problems, however, to Assalah Company.
Ashinik occasionally appeared on the pages of the Galaxy newspapers. While
his general comments towards Earthmen were restrained, he used Terence
Bemish as an example to explain the peculiarities of the corruption in the
Empire. Mostly, he commented on the abuses of Assalah customs and unabashed
insider trading in Bemish's funds.
It wasn't particularly beneficial for the company's quotes and their
growth lagged noticeably behind the general fund index.
But the worst for Bemish was that, due to the elections, Kissur and
Shavash - two people that meant a lot for the planet and quite a bit for
Bemish personally - quarreled. Their breach started almost unnoticeably, at
the moment when Kissur declared openly that he was against all the
elections. Shavash had opposite views. When the sovereign declared in
Shavash's face that he would never appoint him as a first minister, Shavash
realized that he would be able to become a first minister only by people's
volition.
Practically immediately, in a great hurry, Shavash channeled all his
power and money into a huge political campaign and into the creation of his
own party. Shavash's methods were as primordial as they were effective. The
doors to the vice-prefect's manor stood wide open for the poor - they could
get there free soup and pies day and night.
The minimal wage law was under consideration at that time. The first
minister Yanik insisted on a fifty isheviks minimal wage while Shavash
suggested eighty. Yanik won. Then, the vice-prefect Shavash declared that he
would pay the difference to the workers in the capital drawing a salary of
less than eighty isheviks.
Two assassination attempts were made at Shavash's life. It's hard to
say whether or not they were real but Shavash clearly gained from them. He
became the only man opposing the zealots for both foreign investors and
well-intentioned people.
While Kissur and Shavash could live in peace at the Emperor's court,
the fallout between became inevitable once the latter emerged as the head of
Weian Democratic Alliance party since the former considered democracy to be
an ultimate stupidity that Weia needed just as much as somebody would need a
fur hat amidst a hot summer.
The final quarrel happened at a party in one of Shavash's country
houses. Bemish attended it - he needed to meet some officials from Chakhar
and hand a check for the election campaign to Shavash.
They were all drunk; Kissur was somewhat more sober while Shavash was
boozed up completely. Shavash reclined on a sofa with one of his slaves
sitting on his knees. The slave was a cute fourteen-year-old boy and nobody
had any doubts about the precise nature of his relationship with Shavash.
The boy was kissing his master's fingers and picking bits off his plate and
finally the time arrived when the future prime minister, the light and hope
of the people, the enemy of inflation and the paragon of virtue started
walking towards an exit pushing the boy in front of him and looking horny.
Two or three supplicants had been circling around Shavash hoping to discuss
some important matters; they jumped out of his way not willing to distract
the vice minister away from his modest boy. At that point, Kissur appeared
in front of Shavash.
"Shavash," an Empire's ex-first minister said, "are you really going to
Lannakh tomorrow?"
A meeting of three provinces was taking place in Lannakh with feasts
for the chosen and pies for everybody.
"Yes."
"I beseech you not to go there."
Shavash smiled confounded.
"I can't, Kissur. The people are waiting for me there."
"I beseech you, Shavash, don't do it. I ask you in the name of our
friendship. It's not befitting for a Weian official to ape these stupid
Earthmen and to take part in the elections."
Shavash giggled drunkenly.
"Is it your personal request?"
"No, I speak on the other's behalf."
Kissur didn't say "other person's". He never called the Emperor Varnazd
a man. The Emperor was always a god in his eyes.
"Is he, in whose name you speak, afraid of me winning the elections?"
"You are not worthy of heading the country."
Everybody was listening to this dialog breathlessly; soon afterwards,
it was to acquire the most fantastic details added to it. Both Kissur and
Shavash were boozed up to the hilt and what a sober man has on his mind, a
drunkard has on his tongue...
Shavash laughed.
"What would you offer me instead, Kissur?"
"Anything you wish. You wanted Iman. (The sovereign gave to Kissur a
lot of land in the oil-rich areas of Iman). Would you like me to cut Yadan
down?"
Shavash giggled louder. He swayed and grabbed Kissur's shoulder to
avoid falling. Then, he missed a step and dropped on his knees. His lips
touched Kissur's hand.
"Kissur... Give me Idari and I won't participate in the elections."
Everybody froze not comprehending yet what was happening. Kissur was
the first one to react. His hands were next to Shavash's face, they suddenly
locked together on their own and Kissur hit Shavash with his locked hands in
the chin.
The vice minister sailed in a long arch through the air and landed with
his back on the banquet table. Sauces and appetizers flew to the sides and
priceless fifth dynasty china plates were smashed.
Kissur grabbed the object that was closest to him and it was a tall
five candle chandelier in the shape of a burning rose on a bronze rod and
rushed at Shavash roaring wildly. At this point, Bemish and Shavash's guards
tackled him and if it had not been for them, Kissur would have certainly
slaughtered the welcoming host. As it was, he had to limit himself to
killing one guard and leaving another one disabled.
The next day Bemish came to Kissur's manor to beg forgiveness. Green
with hangover, Kissur lay in a wide bed with a broken hand in a sling.
Bemish had broken this hand yesterday.
Kissur's brother, Ashidan, and Khanadar the Dried Date sat at Kissur's
feet and they weren't particularly welcoming towards Bemish.
"Son of a bitch," Kissur said out of his pillows. "I'll kill him
anyway."
He meant Shavash.
"You were drunk," Bemish objected, "You will still make peace."
Kissur laughed hoarsely.
"Don't be an idiot, Kissur! Shavash is just a horny goat. He almost
took Inis away from me! He sleeps with the wives of all his employees!"
"Exactly. He sleeps with everything that has a hole between its legs
whether this hole is in the front or in the back, he never leaves the pubs,
he drags his brat even to the negotiations with Galactic Bank and he dares
to ask me to give him my wife!"
The elections for the first Weian parliament took place on the fifth of
Shuyun, July, 17th by the interplanetary calendar. The
overwhelming majority of the electorate - 67.5% - voted for the party of the
people's freedom, the ex-sect Following the Way.
The same day, the sovereign declared the results invalid and issued
arrest warrants for Yadan and Ashinik, two best known leaders of the sect.
Yadan disappeared. Ashinik escaped to Earth. His arrival caused a huge
sensation in the liberal media. He was a charming twenty two year old young
man with perfect English, a year's working experience as a vice president in
a large trans galactic company and a one year college experience in an elite
business school. He totally didn't look like somebody accused by Weian
authorities of terrorism, manipulation of people's minds, mass hypnosis and
the literal understanding of the electoral campaign slogan "Earthmen are
demons."
Two days after his escape, Ashinik gave a long interview on the seventh
intergalactic TV channel. He explained all of the rumors attacking the party
of the people's freedom in a very simple way. The officials had decided to
run the elections hoping to obtain more power than they had before. When the
people's party won the elections, the results were declared invalid and a
huge incomparable libel campaign started against the party.
They asked Ashinik if his party was going to nationalize the foreign
companies' property if it came to power.
"No," Ashinik answered, "but we were going to make businessmen and
financiers of the Federation of Nineteen follow the Federation's laws."
As an example, Ashinik referred to Terence Bemish. Mr. Bemish had
created one of the largest industrial companies on Weia and Ashinik had
worked for him for a year. Terence Bemish bought eighteen million dollars
worth of Ichar non-ferrous metals facility stocks in an hour after his
friend Shavash had cleared this facility's sale to MetalUranium Company and
a day before the deal went public. Terence Bemish made thirty million.
Terence Bemish bought twenty million worth of gold loan bonds after