He rose the next morning full of gloom. Ardan wanted to get back to his old work, without the confusing and distracting interruptions that seemed to crop up so often lately. This formal affair was not to his liking at all.
The day went quickly, for all that He was working with Lai and Nym again, putting a new Victorinto operational condition. The fine tuning of the neural helmet was a slow matter, and he spent hours in the 'Mech, testing the polymer muscles and weapons of the huge machine.
Dusk came before he knew the day was gone. Lai called up to him, "Sir, you have an engagement tonight. Remember. . .you asked me to remind you?"
Ardan sighed and climbed slowly down from his tremendous alter ego. "So I do. Remind me tomorrow that I have enjoyed it, will you? Ill never know, otherwise."
Lai chuckled, helping him on with his fatigue uniform. But Ardan didn't feel like chuckling as he made his way up the stair into the living quarters.
He found there a new dress uniform waiting for him. Hanse had evidendy sent it during the day. It was even more elaborate than the one he had worn into the dungeons on Argyle. What a get-up for a soldier!
He went into the Cleaner and came out scrubbed but still unhappy. The thing fitted perfecdy. He cursed Hanse's tailor. If it hadn't been a fit, Ardan could have worn a plainer outfit. Ready promptly at seven-thirty, he was waiting for his friends at the foot of the stair leading onto the walkway outside the barracks.
Hearing footsteps above, he glanced up. Then his jaw dropped. Sep was wearing the elaborate dress Prillie had chosen for her and that Efflinger had insisted she keep, Ardan now realized that he must have been so tense the last time she had worn the dress that he had not really looked at his second-in-command.
That had been-a major error. Sep looked stunning. She was, after all, a handsome woman, even sweaty and dusty as she went about her work. Now, her hair done high, her skin glowing with artfully applied makeup and the jewels that were the gift of Steiner blazing at neck, ears, and fingers, she might have been one of the most sought-after women of Davion's court.
"Close your mouth!" she snapped, seeing his face. Her eyes were twinkling, however, and her tone was not angry.
Though Ardan managed to compose his expression, his heart was jumping about in his chest. He had always known that Sep was nice to look at. He hadn't known she was beautiful.
Jarlik thumped him on the shoulder. "Get a move on, Dan. We don't want to be late. I suspect that the Prince is about to explain some things. I'm told that he has been investigating everything he could possibly burrow into during these past weeks. What I want to know is how the conspirators rigged those tests. That boggles my mind."
Ardan stepped out to keep up with his long-legged friend, but he was very aware that Sep, in her gold and white splendor, was just behind him. A delicate scent of flowers kept teasing him, and he didn't know if it came from the gardens or from her.
They arrived just on time. Lackeys were opening the wide doors from the terrace into the ballroom. A small group of people could be seen inside, already holding filled glasses that glinted with shades of golden and ruby wine. The three friends mounted the broad, shallow steps onto the terrace and entered the room.
"Here they are now," Hanse said. "Come in. I want to introduce my rescuers...and those who helped them in their dangerous endeavor." The Prince clapped his hands, and the people in the room quieted.
Ardan, looking about, saw Kolek and Prillie. He recognized a few other officers of the Guard, as well as several of the staff members of the Palace, now in their best as guests instead of servitors.
He felt increasingly uncomfortable. Was this some sort of award ceremony? He didn't like those at all.
But Hanse was speaking again. "I would have preferred to publicly thank all of you who assisted me in regaining my throne, but this is a matter best kept among ourselves." He glanced about the room.
"I ask each of you to speak little, if at all, of any of the matters we have experienced together over the past months. We know the truth. We won the day. Now we must keep the enemy from profiting by so much as a rumor."
There was a murmur of agreement in the room. Ardan, looking from face to face, knew that these were people of the most solid sort, dependable to the ultimate.
"There are many matters that have been troublesome, and some seemed inexplicable as well. I know that you have wondered, as I did, what really happened. We have now ascertained, as well as will ever be done, just how this sequence of events came about" Hanse motioned to waiters with trays of glasses.
"Refresh yourselves again, my friends...it is a rather long story. I will make it as brief as possible, however." He waited while his subjects accepted glasses, found chairs about the tapestried walls, and settled themselves. Then the Prince sat on the footstool before his own great chair and stretched out his long legs companionably.
"All this began, we have learned, some years ago when the Capellan Confederation began looking acquisitively at our frontier worlds on their border. Maximilian Liao, being no man's fool, cast about for a method of weakening the power of the Federated Suns.
"He was unable to do this militarily, for obvious reasons. Therefore, he put his head together with advisors from...other Houses...and they decided to remove me from the rulership of the Federated Suns by replacing me with a false Hanse Davion, who would gradually alter my policies to further their own cause."
He clasped his hands about his knee and looked grim. "It demonstrates the wide differences between our systems when I tell you that they took a man—just an ordinary fellow who happened to be of my build and coloring—and wiped his mind clean of his own life's memories. I may have indulged in political maneuvering at times, but I have never allowed any basic interference in the personal rights of my people, and I hope that I never will."
There came a shocked murmur from the small crowd. He nodded. "They obtained, through methods that I have now blocked permanently, holographs of me in every possible place and activity. And they put that unfortunate man through extensive plastic surgery, copying every feature as far as science is now capable of doing. When they were done, he was, to any observing eye, Hanse Davion. Then through their agents in the Palace they replaced all my medical records, retinal scans, DNA, blood type, etc. with that of the imposter's."
Hanse turned toward Ardan. "Before bringing their duplicate back to consciousness, they allowed Ardan Sortek, my childhood friend, to see him. He had been captured, treated,; and held solely for that purpose. He, being the one person I know who could identify me without fail, would be the one accused of treachery, while I would be called an imposter. That would remove both of us at once. A quarrel between us, which was fomented by vicious rumors aimed at Ardan's ears alone, seemed to be a viable motive for his falseness.
"They had, however, a few strategically located people who were genuine traitors. Cleery, my Maître of the Household on Argyle, was one of them. There were even some in my own pet project, the New Avalon Institute of Science, and it was they who substituted the physical specifications of the double for my own, long before the testing that proved that I was not myself, but an imposter."
"Ah!" Jarlik sighed. "I wondered mightily about that. We thought it was impossible to fool the testing procedure."
"Within the year, it would have been. Our security system has been improved and upgraded to the point where my brainwaves would have identified me immediately and without doubt. Which is the reason for their haste to put the conspiracy into effect as soon as the duplicate was completed and trained."