The staff car reached the town hall. The pilot was left in the outer office, but Amanda was ushered in past guards to the office that had been Piers', and was now hers. There, a large map of the district had been imaged on one wall and several officers of grades between major and brigadier general were standing about in a discussion that seemed very close to argument. Only one person in the room wore civilian clothing, and this was a tall, slim man seated at Amanda's desk, tilted back in its chair, apparently absorbed in studying the map that was imaged.
He seemed oddly remote from the rest, isolated by position or authority and willing to concentrate on the map, leaving the officers to their talk. The expression on his face was thoughtful, abstract. Few men Amanda had met in her long life could have legitimately been called handsome, but this man was. His features were so regular as to approach un-naturalness. His dark hair was touched with grey only at the temples, and his high forehead seemed to shadow deep-set eyes, so dark that they appeared inherently unreadable. If it had not been for those eyes and an air of power that seemed to wrap him like light from some invisible source, he might have looked too pretty to be someone to reckon with. Watching him now, however, Amanda had few doubts as to his ability, or his identity.
"Sir - " began the lieutenant who had brought Amanda in; but the brigadier to whom he spoke, glancing up, interrupted him, speaking directly to Amanda.
"You're the Mayor, here? What were you doing away from the town? Where are all your townspeople - "
"General," Amanda spoke slowly. She did hot have to invent the anger behind her words. "Don't ask me questions. I'll do the asking. Who're you? What made you think you could walk into this office without my permission? Where'd you come from? And what're you doing here, under arms, without getting authority, first - from the island authorities at South Point, and from us?"
"I think you understand all right - " began the General.
"I think I don't," said Amanda. "You're here illegally and I'm still waiting for an explanation - and an apology for pushing yourself into my office without leave."
The brigadier's mouth tightened, and the skin wrinkled and puffed around his eyes.
"Foralie District's been occupied by the Coalition-Alliance authorities," he said. "That's all you need to know. Now, I want some answers - "
"I'll need a lot more of an explanation than that," broke in Amanda. "Neither the Alliance nor the Coalition, nor any Coalition-Alliance troops, have any right I know of to be below parking orbit. I want your authority for being here. I want to talk to your superior - and I want both those things now!"
"What kind of a farce do you think you're playing?" The words burst out of the brigadier. "You're under occupation - "
"General," said a voice from the desk, and every head in the room turned to the man who sat there. "Perhaps I ought to talk to the Mayor."
"Yes sir," muttered the brigadier. The skin around his eyes was still puffy, his face darkened now with blood-gorged capillaries. "Amanda Morgan, this is Dow deCastries, Supreme Commander of Alliance-Coalition forces."
"I didn't imagine he could be anyone else," said
Amanda. She took a step that brought her to the outer edge of her desk, and looked across it at Dow.
"You're sitting in my chair," she said.
Dow rose easily to his feet and stepped back, gesturing to the now-empty seat.
"Please…" he said.
"Just stay on your feet. That'll be good enough for now," said Amanda. She made no move to sit down herself "You're responsible for this?"
"Yes, you could say I am." Dow looked at her thoughtfully. "General Amorine - " he spoke without looking away from Amanda - "the Mayor and I probably had better talk things over privately."
"Yes sir, if that's what you want."
"It is. It is, indeed." Now Dow did look at the brigadier, who stepped back
"Of course, sir," Amorine turned on the lieutenant who had brought Amanda in. "You checked her for weapons, of course?"
"Sir… I - " The lieutenant was flustered. His stiff embarrassment pleaded that you did not expect a woman Amanda's age to go armed.
"I don't think we need worry about that, General" Dew's voice was still relaxed; but his eyes were steady on the brigadier.
"Of course, sir." Amorine herded his officers out. The door closed behind them, leaving Amanda and Dow standing face to face.
"You're sure you won't sit down?" asked Dow.
"This isn't a social occasion," said Amanda.
"No," said Dow. "Unfortunately, no it isn't. It's a serious situation, in which your whole planet has been placed under Alliance-Coalition control. Effectively, what you call the Dorsai no longer exists."
"Hardly," said Amanda.
"You have trouble believing that?" said Dow. "I assure you - "
"I've no intention of believing it, now, or later," Amanda said. "The Dorsai isn't this town. It isn't any number of towns just like it. It's not even the islands and the sea - it's the people."
"Exactly," said Dow, "and the people are now under control of the Alliance-Coalition. You brought it on yourself, you know. You've squandered your ordinary defensive force on a dozen other worlds, and you've got nothing but non-combatants left here. In short, you're helpless. But that's not my concern. I'm not interested in your planet, or your people, as people. It's just necessary we make sure they aren't led astray again by another dangerous madman like Cletus Grahame."
"Madman?" echoed Amanda, dryly.
Dow raised his eyebrows.
"Don't you think he was mad in thinking he could succeed against the two richest powers on the most powerful human world in existence?" He shook his head. "But there's not much point in our arguing politics, is there? All I want is your cooperation."
"Or else what?"
"I wasn't threatening," Dow said mildly.
"Of course you were," said Amanda. She held his eyes with her own for a long second. "Do you know your Shakespeare?"
"I did once."
"Near the end of Macbeth, when Macbeth himself hears a cry in the night that signals the death of Lady Macbeth," Amanda said, "he says 'there was a time my senses would have cool'd to hear a night-
shriek …'remember it? Well, that time passes for all of us, with the years. You'll probably have a few to go yet to find that out for yourself; but if and when you do you'll discover that eventually you outlive fear, just as you outlive a lot of other things. You can't bully me, you can't scare me - or anyone else in Foralie District with enough seniority to take my place."
It was his turn now to consider her for a long moment without speaking.
"All right," he said. "I'll believe you. My only interest, as I say, is in arresting Cletus Grahame and taking him back to Earth with me."
"You occupy a whole world just to arrest one man?" Amanda said.
"Please." He held up one long hand. "I thought we were going to talk straightforwardly with each other. I want Cletus. Is he on the Dorsai?"
"Not as far as I know."
"Then I'll go to his home and wait for him to come to me," said Dow. He glanced at the map. "That'll be Foralie - the homestead marked there near your own Fal Morgan?"
"That's right."
"Then I'll move up there, now. Meanwhile I want to know what the situation is here, clearly. Your able fighting men are all off planet. All right. But there's no one in this town who isn't crippled, sick, or over sixty. Where are all your healthy young women, your teenagers below military age, and anyone else who's effective?"
"Gone off out of town," said Amanda.
Dow's black eyes seemed to deepen.
"That hardly seems normal. I assume you had warnings of us, at least as soon as we were in orbit.