"I know. Soon."
"Real soon. The Directors won't tolerate having the heir apparent kept isolated and ignorant. They'll make it an issue."
"Screw them."
"They're scared, Valerena. They're going to be scared for the rest of their lives. I can tell them ten thousand times there wasn't anything in that end space to connect House Tregesser and they're not going to believe me down in their guts. They're going to wake up every morning wondering if this is the day the hammer falls."
Valerena grunted. She understood. She felt it herself. She told the nearest window she wanted to look outside. Sometimes staring down at Tregesser Horata had a calming effect.
"Can they find us?"
"I don't think so."
"But they never give up. They never forget."
"They can be distracted. Simon made a lot of friends Outside. They'll consider the ambush a great success. They'll be primed for anything. The Simon Other would be priceless as a go-between."
"All right. See who's outside."
Somebody wanted in. Lupo asked who it was.
"Simon."
"Speak of the devil. Come ahead."
Valerena watched Provik move to the best vantage point. She had seen him dispose himself like that for her father a thousand times. She was tempted to move, just to mess with him.
Lupo said, "We were just discussing you. I told Valerena we shouldn't dispense with you because you could be valuable as an ambassador Outside."
Valerena controlled a lip twitch. The bastard could say a lot without saying anything directly. She asked, "What brings you here?"
"That sonofabitch sitting up in the L5 is using our mining drones for target practice."
"What?"
"It just blew away an empty headed for the Pyrimedes moons."
Valerena could not think. Why did she freeze like this sometimes?
Lupo asked, "Why?"
"Who the hell knows? Maybe they're bored. Maybe they didn't know the gun was loaded."
"No provocation? The drone didn't buzz them?"
"Hell, the bastard was five million K away and headed out. They showed off a trick shot with a CT slug."
"Have they been asked for an explanation?"
"They aren't talking."
Provik said, "Valerena, the Directors will be in a panic. Someone will have to hold their hands."
"You do that better than me. You scare them more than a Guardship does."
"I'm usually more immediate."
"Calm them down. I'll try to find out what's going on."
Provik stepped into the down shaft behind the Simon Other's bell. As they descended, the Other asked, "What was that about me being an ambassador Outside?"
"They're used to dealing with Simon Tregesser."
"Why drag it under her nose?"
"Trying to give her reasons to keep you alive."
"I'd think you'd want rid of me."
"Why?"
"You got out of that end space by dancing around a Guardship you expected. If you'd wanted Simon to get out, you would've seen to it. He didn't get out. That makes me a living reproach."
"He overstepped."
"His immortality thing. I warned him. He thought he could bring you around by offering to share. He couldn't survive without you, anyway."
Lupo said nothing.
"I owe you, Lupo. Had he done it his way, he would've gotten rid of me." The Other drifted out of the shaft. "I won't mention my suspicions."
"No. You won't."
The Other would have to be monitored. No way it would not try to use what it knew.
"They're settled," Provik told Valerena. "What's the story upstairs?"
"No story. It won't talk. But it keeps taking potshots. Nothing that can't be dodged, though somebody could break off the Web and get blasted before we could warn them."
"This is screwy, Valerena. Guardships don't play games. They kick ass and say goodbye. Send a Voyager to Starbase for help."
"What? Us ask them for help?"
"It's their job. Coming back, the Voyager could collect Blessed."
"That's a joke? It's a lousy one, Lupo. Where did Simon find you, anyway?"
"Down in the Black Ring. Before there was a Black Ring. The same way Blessed met his jocko boy Cable Shike."
"That's at least the tenth story you've told." Who the hell was Cable Shike?
"I never tell the same one twice. It's nobody's business. But one of the stories might be true."
"Sure. I'll send for Blessed. But no Guardship. I'll go handle this personally."
"Manage that and you'll shut up the Directorate permanently." He left.
"Why did I say that?" Valerena asked her reflection in the window. "I'd better start thinking before I talk."
She made a call to her castle, then sat down to think. Would she stifle the Directors if she dealt with the Guardship?
Lupo was right. There was something bad wrong with it.
— 68 —
Haget had reverted. He was relaxing at attention. Degas and AnyKaat seemed numb. Vadja was in some sort of relaxing trance.
Unable to sit while WarAvocat thumbed through a mountain of hard copy, Jo approached Seeker. "Are you all right? Still feeling well?" His health had improved radically.
I am well, thank you. This is the man to convince?
"This is the man?"
WarAvocat flipped back and forth, comparing. He looked up. "Pardon my manners. I've just gotten a glimpse of a mystery that makes me uncomfortable. During your travels, did you hear anything unusual about the phantom trade, missing ships, or ships found empty on the Web? Other than apocrypha?"
"We heard a lot about the subject on IV Trajana," Jo said.
"I have Trajana's remarks here. Twenty-six hundred forty-one single-spaced pages, eighty-eight lines to the page, one hundred twenty characters to the line. A preliminary report, yet." Thin smile. "I wouldn't believe it even from a Guardship—from that one, anyway—if it weren't for incidents involving XXVIII Fretensis and VII Gemina returning from that end space."
WarAvocat checked a particular page again, shook his head.
"Sir?"
"We had to leave the Web to stabilize a drive well. Routine scan on local stations found an anomaly, a Traveler that had shown two identities, neither genuine. Just a nervous phantom, I thought. Till I spoke with WarAvocat XXVIII Fretensis.
"A few anchor points away, by chance, they stumbled on a Traveler caught on the Web. They maneuvered it into a rider bay, broke through a cargo hatch. Crew and passengers had been tortured and murdered and mutilated. Ritually, Fretensis suspects. Six passengers listed on the manifest were missing. So was much of the cargo."
"That doesn't make sense, sir. Pirates would put people aboard a Traveler, sure, but they wouldn't just kill everybody and leave the ship. A Traveler is worth more than any cargo."
"You're right. Ships are mostly what piracy is about. But. Trajana really talks ritual. And when you slide into the supernatural, you do leave all rationality behind. But I'm getting away from the subject. I want to hear what happened out there. Commander Haget?"
"Have you seen my report, sir?"
"I have."
"Then you're aware that I gave new meaning to the word incompetent."
"I didn't see that. Sergeant. Do you consider the mission a failure?"
"A grim time, sir, but not a failure, considering we had no fixed brief. And a success in that we established communication with Seeker. He still won't tell us anything substantive, but we might get it with a little work."
WarAvocat cut her off. Damn. She wished she were somewhere else.
"I have to explain why you've been isolated. There has been a catastrophic polarization among the Deified during your absence. Gemina fears you might worsen that."