"Don't you understand?" Nakano asked, his voice softly penetrating. "It doesn't matter what happens to us. Come, I will go into the kelp with you. Let it take us."
Gallow backed two steps away from Nakano.
"Come" Nakano insisted. "The Chief Justice obviously is dying. The three of us will go together. We will not die. We will live forever in the kelp."
"You fool!" Gallow snapped. "The kelp can die! It was killed once and that could happen again!"
"The kelp does not agree," Nakano said. "Avata lives forever!" His voice lifted on the last sentence and a wild light came into his eyes.
"Nakano, Nakano, my most trusted companion," Gallow said, his voice pitched to its most persuasive tone. "Let us not permit the heat of the moment to sway us." Gallow sent an apprehensive glance toward the listening guards at the hatchway. "Of course the kelp can live forever ... but not in such numbers that it threatens our existence."
Nakano's expression did not change.
Keel, watching the scene through pain-glazed eyes, thought: Nakano knows him! Nakano does not trust him!
Twisp entertained a similar thought and knew he had found the ultimate leverage to use against Gallow. Nakano can be turned against his chief.
Gallow constructed a rueful smile, which he turned toward Keel. "Mr. Justice Keel, let us not forget that the C/P is still mine! And I will have the hyb tanks."
That's his best shot! Keel thought.
"I'll bet the C/P doesn't know it was you who sank Guemes," Keel managed.
"Can anyone carry such an accusation to her?" Gallow asked. He looked blandly around him.
Is that our death warrant? Twisp wondered. Will we be silenced permanently? He decided on a bold attack.
"If we do not return to the foil, they will broadcast that accusation and Bushka's statement confirming it."
"Bushka?" Gallow's eyes showed both shock and glee. "Do you mean Bushka, the Islander who stole our sub?" Gallow smiled at Nakano. "Do you hear that? They know where to find the sub thief."
Nakano did not change expression.
Gallow glanced at the chrono beside his communications terminal. "Well, well! It's almost time for the midday meal. Fisherman Twisp, why don't you stay here with the Chief Justice? I'll have food sent in. Nakano and I will dine together and consult on possible compromises. You and the Chief Justice can do the same."
Gallow moved to Nakano's side. "Come, old friend," Gallow said. "I didn't save your life to provide myself with an opponent."
Nakano glanced at Twisp, the thought plain on the big face. Why did you save my life?
Twisp chose to answer the unspoken question. "You know why." And he thought: I saved you simply because you were in danger. Nakano already knew this.
Nakano resisted the pressure on his arm.
"Do not quarrel with me, old friend," Gallow said. "Both of us will go to the kelp in time, but it's too soon. There's much yet for us to do."
Slowly, Nakano allowed himself to be guided from the room.
His muscles trembling so hard that his great head shook with visible tremors, Keel lifted his attention to Twisp. "We do not have much time," Keel said. "Clear that table at the end of the room and help me to stretch out on it."
Moving quickly, Twisp swept the objects off the table, then returned to Keel. Slipping his long arms under the Chairman, Twisp lifted the old body, shocked at how light the man was. Keel was nothing but thin bones in a loose sack of skin. Gently, Twisp carried the Chairman across the room and eased him onto the table.
Weakly, Keel fumbled with the harness of his prosthesis. "Help me get this damned thing off," he gasped.
Twisp unbuckled the harness and slipped the prosthesis away from Keel's back and shoulders, letting it drop to the floor.
Keel sighed with relief. "I prefer to leave this world more or less as I came into it," he grated, every word draining him. "No, don't object. Both of us know I'm dying."
"Sir, isn't there anything I can do to help you?"
"You've already done it. I was afraid I'd have to die in the midst of strangers."
"Surely, we can do something to ..."
"Really, there's nothing. The best doctors on Vashon have conveyed to me the verdict of that higher Committee on Vital Forms. No ... you are the perfect person for this moment ... not so close to me that you'll become maudlin, yet close enough that I know you care."
"Sir ... anything I can do ... anything ..."
"Use your own superb good sense in dealing with Gallow. You've already seen that Nakano can be turned against him."
"Yes, I saw that."
"There is one thing."
"Anything."
"Don't let them give me to the kelp. I don't want that. Life should have a body of its own, even such a poor body as this one I'm about to leave."
"I'll -" Twisp broke off. Honesty forced him to remain silent. What could he do?
Keel sensed this confusion. "You will do what you can," he said. "I know that. And if you fail, I am not your judge."
Tears filled Twisp's eyes. "Anything I can do ... I'll do."
"Don't be too hard on the C/P," Keel whispered.
"What?" Twisp bent close to the Chairman's lips.
Keel repeated it, adding: "Simone is a sensitive and bitter woman and - and you've seen Gallow. Imagine how attractive he would seem to her."
"I understand," Twisp said.
"I'm filled with joy that the Islands can produce such good men," Keel said. "I am ready to be judged."
Twisp wiped at his eyes, still bending close to hear the Chairman's last words. When Keel did not continue, Twisp became aware that there was no sound of breathing from the supine figure. Twisp put a hand to the artery at Keel's neck. No pulse. He straightened.
What can I do?
Was there anything combustible here to burn the old body and prevent the Mermen from consigning Keel to the sea? He looked all around the room. Nothing. Twisp stared helplessly at the body on the table.
"Is he dead?" It was Nakano speaking from the hatchway.
Twisp turned to find the big Merman standing just inside the room.
The tears on Twisp's face were sufficient answer. "He's not to be given to the kelp," Twisp said.
"Friend Twisp, he died but he need not be dead," Nakano said. "You can meet him again in Avata."
Twisp clenched his fists, his long arms trembling. "No! He asked me to prevent that!"
"But it's not up to us," Nakano said. "If he was a deserving man, Avata will wish to accept him."
Twisp jumped to the side of the table and stood with his back to it.
"Let me take him to Avata," Nakano said. He moved toward Twisp.
As Nakano came within range of those long arms, Twisp shot out a net-calloused fist, leaning his shoulder behind it. The blow struck with blinding speed on the side of Nakano's jaw. Nakano's heavily muscled neck absorbed most of the shock but his eyes glazed. Before he could recover, Twisp leaped forward and wrenched one of Nakano's arms backward, intending to throw the man to the deck.
Nakano recovered enough to tense his muscles and prevent this. He turned slowly against Twisp's pressure, moving like a great pillar of kelp.
Abruptly, the guards swarmed into the room. Other hands grabbed Twisp and jerked him aside, pinning him to the deck.
"Don't hurt him!" Nakano shouted.
The pressures on Twisp eased but did not leave.
Nakano stood over Twisp, a sad look on the big face, a touch of blood at the corner of his mouth.
"Please, friend Twisp, I mean you no harm. I mean only to honor the Chief Justice and Chairman of the Committee on Vital Forms, a man who has served us so well for so long."
One of the guards pinning Twisp down snickered.