e obsolete or banned due to political
reasons or due to the activities of peace mongers.
The rumors traveled around the base that the oldest units in storage
were shells from the First Moon War. What Denny Hill, a technician at
Nordwest, knew for sure however, was that retired Cassiopeia missiles were
stored at Nordwest.
These missiles had caused a major military scandal at some point. The
missiles were equipped with S-field generators capable of twisting space
around them. It meant that, once launched, they could not be intercepted.
Any wall, defense screen or field can, in principle, be destroyed. To
destroy something, however, you have to interact with it. Interaction means
passing through space but it's impossible to pass through twisted space.
Ten years ago, Gera had raised a great hassle demanding the ban of all
types of offensive armament equipped with S-field. It had been calculated
that the construction of one S-field missile cost as much as the
construction of twenty five subsidized houses for the underprivileged.
The world shed tears. Instead of building missiles and employing the
same underprivileged as a workforce - that would enable them to buy their
houses with their earned income - the Federation signed a treaty offered by
Gera and started constructing houses for the poor.
Now Gera now didn't have to build expensive missiles and it put
everything into an effort to develop alternative types of S-field that would
not be covered by the treaty and would be cheaper.
Some missiles had been destroyed outright and some had been partially
disassembled and brought to a "relatively disabled" stage. The missiles from
three bases - Arcon, Mino and Delos - had been transported to Nordwest.
The accompanying documentation pointed out that there were one hundred
forty six "relatively disabled" missiles. The whole Galaxy thought that
there were one hundred forty six of them. Only Denny Hill, a civilian
technician at the base, was energetic enough to take a count of the newest
(though disassembled) missiles and he found out that there were one hundred
fifty eight of them. The missiles were stored in a huge depositary area
where the alarm system had been disabled by a local anaerobic life form and
Denny Hill was supposed to take a census of the storage once a month.
Formally speaking, it should have been a committee made out of three local
employees and federal inspectors but the army didn't have any money for all
these stupid committees and the base didn't have enough employees. That was
why Denny Hill conducted the census on his own.
X X X
In two weeks on a planet with the beautiful name of Grace, two people
approached Denny Hill who was spending his vacation there. Denny would have
ever taken them for students - both guys were well-built and lean like
pedigreed greyhounds and the senior guy had an old horrible scar above his
neckline. They were Kissur and Khanadar.
"Lore sends you his greetings," Kissur said.
"Hello," Denny Hill said guardedly. "Why are there two of you?"
"You are seeing only one person here. Consider the other one to be his
shadow."
Denny Hill was not completely satisfied with this explanation and he
continued sipping on his soup silently- the meeting was taking place at a
restaurant table.
Kissur sat still. He wanted Hill to start talking first.
"Is it true that you would like to buy goods?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Twelve."
"Three million a piece."
"One million nine hundred."
"Two seventy five."
"One million eight hundred."
"Two fifty. It's manufacturing cost."
"Nobody sells stolen goods at their manufacturing cost."
"When these birdies fly to their destination, the counter-intelligence
will be ready to cough up ten million for information about their original
residency."
"They won't fly anywhere," Kissur said.
"Lore told me something else."
"Who cares what Lore said? I am an Emperor's servant. Do you think that
a sovereign of the Amaride Dynasty and a man of the White Falcon clan will
buy your toys to bust a supermarket? Don't you know that we are a Federation
ally? The Federation won't go nuts if it learns that its ally obtained these
trifles."
"Well, that's different," Denny agreed. "I want two million a piece and
a new passport because I won't like to be here when they start figuring out
who should get a medal for providing a Federation ally with military
support."
X X X
In a month, the next scheduled ship arrived at Nordwest bringing food
rations in bright boxes. The ship was going to take retired scanning
equipment away. Loading was completely automatic and the only person at the
dock was Denny Hill. Theoretically, the regulations required the presence of
two people, a civilian and a military operator that would track each other's
actions. But only a quarter of the positions was currently filled at the
base and the only thing that the regulations were good for was taking memory
in the computer.
Denny Hill counterfeited a backup copy of the loading papers and locked
it in a safe. He was not able to fake the files in the computer itself - the
computer was protected too well.
Three days later Denny shoved Jack the Ripper virus into the computer,
the virus overwrote all of the files' headers and Denny's boss told him to
clean the computer up and to recover all the documentation from the backup
copies.
Denny pulled the fake backup copy out of the safe and wrote it to the
hard drive removing the last traces of his real activities.
It took three hours for the cargo ship Antei, license number 284-AP-354
registered at the planet of Agassa, to reach Lakhan spaceport. Lore Sigel
was in charge of freight shipping at the spaceport. A while ago, Lore had
been a very promising young man but his social-anarchy tendencies interfered
with his career. He spent three days in jail for offending the public - he
attempted to register a pig bought at a pig farm as a candidate on the
presidential elections in Austria. He was a witness at a number of notorious
terrorist trials and he had a habit of constantly moving from one place to
another. All this finally brought Lore to this small provincial planet where
he worked as a cargo department manager.
Lore employed as longshoremen five or six friends that nobody else
would hire since the central department of security wouldn't recommend it.
Not surprisingly, the unloading of the ship with license number
284-AP-354 started very late, after the ship's yawning crew walked away to
sleep in a hotel next to the port.
Lore and his friends unloaded the boxes with the retired radio scanning
equipment. There were twelve more boxes in the ship than had been
registered. The identification numbers on the extra boxes were removed and
the boxes were packed in the new containers and sealed. The new containers
were loaded on the ship Astra flying to the planet Issan. Accordingly to the
documentation, the new containers housed geo-physical equipment for the
company Ambeko.
The containers, however, never reached the planet Issan. Three hours
after the ship's departure, the captain extracted a box out of his pocket.
Out of the box, he extracted a paralyzed lightning beetle, a dweller of
Lakhan deserts known for its ability to generate 370V electric sparks. The
beetle was placed under the front panel cover of the control room. Having
regained its senses the beetle discharged, causing minor damages to the main
flight control system. The ship had to exit hyperspace and the crew began
repairs. While the technicians were digging out the beetle and fixing the
problems, twelve containers were dumped off the ship.
The ship soon continued its way. The reason for its deviation off route
in deep space was documented and presented to the authorities in a bottle
with formaldehyde. The authorities reprimanded the crew for its lack of
attention that had let the malevolent representative of the local fauna
infiltrate the ship and the captain didn't receive a bonus.
X X X
Meanwhile, a small ship picked up the containers; since the ship was on
a charter flight, it didn't really require all the justifying paperwork. The
ship's name was Laissa. The documentation accompanying the twelve containers
was changed again and the containers were now marked as medical equipment.
The ship was flying to the planet of Weia, to the Assalah spaceport.
X X X
On the seventeenth of the month of rains, Terence Bemish got a phone
call in the evening. Shavash was on the line. They discussed a Chakhar
nickel facility construction project for a while and then Shavash advised
his friend to sell Inissa Logging Corporation stocks in case Terence had
them.
"Oh, by the way, Shavash recalled, "a charter ship Laissa will arrive
at your spaceport tomorrow. Could you make sure that customs don't bother
them too much and check that their freight could be stored in some nice
storage facility."
"All my storage space is crammed," Bemish replied.
"Why don't you load it into 17B?"
17B storage was empty - it had been built for military equipment and
its walls, covered with lead sheets, insulated all irradiation.
"What about Giles?"
"Giles won't object," Shavash snorted.
X X X
The next day, the phone rang in Bemish's office. It was Ashinik.
"A charter flight has arrived," Ashinik said...
"Is it Laissa?"
"Yes."
"Send them to 17B storage."
In half an hour Ashinik came to Bemish to get storage "keys" - its
electronic locks required an ingenious system of codes and, additionally, it
had a microprocessor that could recognize the owner's retina pattern. The
lock could store ten retina patterns in its memory but it currently had only
two - Bemish's and Giles'. Only Bemish, however, knew the password.
The cargo delivered by Laissa was registered as medical equipment. That
was not surprising. Every day, three hundred tons of medical equipment
passed the spaceport. Accordingly to Bemish's calculations, every Weian
peasant had by now one and a half CAT scanner.
Medical equipment was the only hardware that could be imported without
tariffs and a lot of stuff entered the planet registered as such. It would
be pretty hard to transport an oil drill, even disassembled, in cardboard
boxes from Pepsi-Cola.
This time the cargo was too heavy to be unloaded by a forklift. Bemish
watched for a while loading platforms with huge cubes, sealed and painted in
green color, moving inside the classified storage area.
"Who owns the cargo?" Bemish inquired.
"Ascon Company."
Having returned to his office, Bemish checked Ascon Company out. It had
been registered two months ago and it was an IC offshoot. Out of its
cofounders, two were anonymous - they were probably colonel Giles and
Shavash.
That's our Giles, that's our fighter for democracy! No surprise here
that he won't object about his offshoot company using his storage area!
X X X
In three days, a party took place in Lore's house that was located half
an hour away from the spaceport. Lore, five longshoremen, and Kissur were at
the party.
Lore said, "I don't have to introduce our old friend to you. I will
only say that two thousand years ago, a man named Irshahchan achieved at his
planet what Marx wrote about five centuries ago and Shrainer half a
century... Of course, Irshahchan was limited by his epoch and culture but,
generally, his actions were correct. And I don't think that anybody has
achieved more for the recovery of Irshahchan's and Marx' ideals than Kissur
has. Now, we - six Earthmen - should be proud that we are helping, albeit to
a small degree, to fix the world that our countrymen, obsessed by the spirit
of capitalism, have corrupted."
Everybody agreed that, generally, the sovereign Irshahchan had thought
a lot in unison with Marx and Shrainer - half a century ago - even though he
had been somewhat backwards compared to the abovementioned thinkers. He had
still been a despotic ruler of a patriarchic society.
By the midnight the company had gotten pretty high and Kissur suggested
driving around. They loaded in Lore's Dodge and rushed downhill on a
mountainous road. At a zigzag turn Lore, driving the car, suddenly saw a
beetle shaped truck blocking the road. Lore lost his wits for a moment and
Kissur, sitting next to him, swerved the steering wheel to the right and
having opened the door, jumped out of the car.
None of the other passengers had Kissur's reflexes. The car smashed
through the guard rail, dived into the gulf, flew two hundred meters down to
the rocks and exploded. The explosion wouldn't have happened all that
easily, if Kissur had not put an extra hydrogen tank in the trunk. This tank
went off.
Kissur looked beyond the torn guard rail, made sure that everything was
fine, climbed into the beetle shaped truck and was gone. Khanadar the Dried
Date was at the truck's steering wheel.
The death of Lore Sigel and his friends didn't cause any suspicions. He
had had at least eight crashes before and he had been quite high every time.
And now they also found LSD in the blood of the magnificent six.
Nobody found anything connecting this episode and an unfortunate
accident that happened two days later on a provincial planet Issan. Denny
Hill, a technician from Nordwest base, was on the vacation at a local
resort. He swam too far out in the local ocean and drowned.
The Twelfth Chapter
Where the Emperor of the Country of Great Light finds out the real
purpose of the Assalah construction from the opposition press and expresses
his confusion.
In the beginning of May a large article filled a quarter of a page in
one of the most influential newspapers - MegaMoney. A well known economy
journalist and a Ronald Trevis' fan Christopher Blant figured out (or got a
hint) to perform the simplest calculation - he took secondary balances that
large banks had to publish and added up all the credits granted to the
Empire of Great Light.
The result was that this year Weia had to pay off about one hundred
forty million dinars on all its foreign and domestic loans; at the same time
the total sum of all taxes collected this year would be only one hundred
twenty million dinars. "The real total of all the Weian loans is probably
higher," Blant wrote, "and it's clear that the only way Weia can make
payments on its loans is to obtain more loans at a higher interest rate. It
can't go on forever. Weian economy will crash and Weian ishevik will be
devalued."
The investors clutched their heads. They demanded the Weian government
to publish the real debt figures. During next week, the government published
three different figures - eighty, hundred and hundred and thirteen billion -
all of them signed by the finance minister.
It only spread the panic further.
Somebody started a rumor that the payments on the two billion dinars
credit obtained by Weia from Galactic Bank would be postponed first - this
credit had been turned into securities and distributed on the market after
the bank had gone public.
The quotes went down by a factor of two and after that Weian government
came out with a restructuring plan.
The two billion loan would be taken over by a new company BOAR that
would obtain in exchange - at no cost - one of the largest nickel and other
non-ferrous metals deposits in the Galaxy where the government had already
built an ore enrichment facility. The concern and all the other companies
registered at its territories would not have to pay anything towards the
state's budget.
Three very influential Weian entrepreneurs and Terence Bemish were the
company's cofounders. Even by the most modest estimate, the profit from the
export of non-ferrous metals would be three times larger that the payments
on the state's debt that the company would have to make. The bond prices
skyrocketed at once to 97% of their face value.
The bankers were tearing their hair out in shock. The newspaper article
resulted - without any responsibility from the Weian government's side - in
devaluation of the bonds. Their value could have dropped to even 30% if
somebody hadn't bought devalued securities through Ronald Trevis.
Inissa governor came, probably, the closest to the understanding of the
true reasons behind the panic; he didn't really like Shavash and he sent him
a birthday gift - a disinfectant can with a label "for avarice."
Bemish started visiting Earth often on BOAR business and every time he
would wonder at a skyline awkwardly constricted by the buildings and a
meager lonely moon. Once, in June, Trevis remarked that the calculations
that Bemish held in his hands had been done by Ashinik and the lad had an
internship in the head office during his holidays.
"How is he?" Bemish asked unaffectedly.
"He is trying hard," Trevis said, "but he is very disappointed."
"What is he disappointed with?"
"He is disappointed that nobody kisses his boots. They kissed his boots
on Weia when he led the sect, didn't they?"
"No," Bemish answered, "they didn't kiss his boots. They gathered dust
where he walked and gave it to the pregnant and to the sick to drink."
"Well," Trevis said, "he is disappointed that nobody gathers his dust."
"How is his wife doing?" Bemish asked unexpectedly.
"Is he married?" Trevis was surprised.
Bemish didn't answer.
Bemish had a bit of time after his meetings and before the ship's
departure; he ascended to his hotel room and connected to the White Pages
website via a computer. The computer thought for a while and then belched
forth several green lines. On the black screen, they resembled a rim of
meson irradiation formed around the exhausts of an interstar ship. Bemish
sat on a coach motionless for a while and then he ordered a taxi and rode in
it to the address that he got in the White Pages.
Ashinik was renting an apartment in an old building and there was no
camera at the entrance, only intercom buttons bristled to the right. Bemish
pushed the button number 27.
"Who is it?" Ashinik's voice replied.
Bemish let the button go. He expected that Ashinik wouldn't be at home
at daytime, only Inis would be there. His expectations proved to be wrong.
There were two more hours left before the ship's departure; Bemish turned
and walked away.
Only when the ship pulled into the orbit and was almost out of the
regular T-phone reception range, Bemish called Trevis.
"Listen," Bemish said, "I looked through the papers prepared by Ashinik
and I found them to be pretty good. Send him to me."
Trevis said that he would like to have the young Weian in his office
due to the growing number of Weian deals.
"This guy cost me ten percent of a company with a yearly export size of
forty billion dinars," Bemish said, "and he will work it all off for me."
Trevis asked something else but then the receiver croaked and hissed
and the connection broke off.
X X X
Ashinik returned to Weia in three weeks. He looked completely
different. Instead of a skinny frightened young lad that had left the Empire
eight months ago, a confident man with cold blue eyes and wide shoulders
walked into Bemish's office.
"I am sorry that I pulled you out," Bemish said, embracing the youth,
"but I need you. It concerns BOAR."
Ashinik lowered his head. When half a year ago, half-dead from torture
he heard Shavash's voice offering his master to choose between him, Ashinik,
and a twenty five percent controlling BOAR stock block, the company name
couldn't tell him anything. Now the word BOAR decorated the financial
newspapers' front pages and Bemish's share of the company was perfectly well
known to be fourteen percent. Ashinik knew for sure that neither his direct
boss nor Trevis nor even Ashinik himself would have exchanged the control of
the deal of the century for a man.
"I...I...," Ashinik muttered. Bemish took the youth's hand.
"It doesn't matter. Where are you staying?"
"I am staying in a hotel," the lad replied turning to a window. There,
behind the burned caramel color glass and sharp points of the ships, a huge
glass body of a luxurious hotel was melting in the sun.
"You can move to my villa," Bemish said. "How is Inis doing?"
"She is with me," Ashinik replied. He paused and added, "I don't want
to leave her alone. She shouldn't wave her skirt around.
It became quiet for a moment in the office, and then Bemish said,
"I left her alone often and nothing good came out of it. In three
hours, Giles will meet people from Chakhar Trade Bank in the capital. Could
you go with him?"
Ashinik went to the capital. He took part in the talks and stayed at a
party celebrating the third year anniversary of Sadd Company. Giles
introduced him to the economics minister.
Ashinik's hands went cold when, having approached a cluster of people,
he saw in its center the beautiful, slightly corpulent face of Shavash.
"How is your health," Shavash asked abruptly, interrupting his
conversation with an Earthman and nodding welcomingly to Ashinik.
"I am well, thanks," Ashinik heard his own voice as if it was coming
out of a phone receiver.
"How is your wife doing?"
Ashinik uttered something about his wife being also fine.
"I recommend you this young man," Shavash said, "He helped us a lot
with BOAR company."
The people who crowded around Shavash but stood to far to start a
conversation with him moved slowly and started surrounding Ashinik.
In a while after Shavash had left, Ashinik realized suddenly with cold
curiosity that he felt good about Shavash's nodding to him - the same
Shavash that he had been trained in his previous life to exterminate like a
mongoose exterminates snakes. In the hierarchy of his new life this nod
immediately distinguished him out of the other young people and it was as if
a small beacon lit above Ashinik's head and the guests flew towards this
beacon as moths fly towards light.
The door slammed behind Ashinik and Bemish still sat the same way
looking absent-mindedly at a field through the window. He picked up a lot of
Empire's customs in his two years on Weia. One thing he hadn't apparently
done yet - he had never killed a man because he wanted his wife.
Now, in seven months after their last meeting, Bemish didn't have any
feelings towards ex-zealot Ashinik who started to resemble, frighteningly, a
polished novice broker. He only felt quite annoyed thinking about the lost
BOAR shares. On the other hand, the accident brought Bemish certain
benefits. It had somehow leaked out - probably via Shavash who didn't find
anything appalling there - and it improved Bemish's reputation tremendously.
The biggest people on Weia knew that the Earthman hadn't turned his friend
into for money and it was a Weian custom not to betray friends. It would be
fine to send an innocent man to the gallows to help your friend or to
embezzle money from the state treasury but to betray your friend was not
nice.
Bemish didn't need Ashinik. But he realized with a surprise that he
needed Inis. While his concubine had been next to him and he could take her
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.
X X X
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!"
X X X
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!
X X X
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.
X X X
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. Sw