Rafe had never been in the Boardroom. As a small child, he’d been taken to headquarters, shown the office his father had then, had seen assistants and secretaries scurrying to do anything his father asked. One of them had given him candy. Now, armed with ID and credentials Vaclav had provided, wearing a new suit altered overnight to his measurements by one of Gary’s contacts, he pushed the float chair with his father up to the entry. They were flanked by four of Gary’s people.
“Ser Dunbarger!” the guard said. “The rest of the Board are all here. Ser Parmina said you wouldn’t be in today again—he said—”
“As you see, I’m here,” his father said. “Only a little the worse for wear. You won’t remember my son, Rafael—and these are my security—”
“They’re not ISC,” the guard said.
“No,” his father said. “For the moment, I’m using a private service.”
“I don’t know if I should—”
“You should,” his father said. “I vouch for them—can’t come from higher than that, can it?” He managed a grin; the guard finally smiled back.
“All right, Ser Dunbarger, if you’re sure. They’ll need tags once they’re inside.”
“Waiting for us,” his father said. He looked past the guard. “Vaclav—over here.” Vaclav Box, taller than Rafe by a head, waved and came forward.
“You said four tags…here they are.”
“Go ahead,” the guard said. Rafe pushed the float chair forward. The guard would no doubt report this to someone—possibly someone in Lew Parmina’s pay—when they were past, but that shouldn’t matter. The executive elevator was just ahead, its doors already open. They all crowded in.
Vaclav gave him a sardonic look. “You’ve changed, Rafe.”
“Time does that,” Rafe said. The edge in his voice would have sliced a ship hull; he tried to soften it. “I believe the last time I saw you, I was fourteen or fifteen, wasn’t it? Not my best year.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Vaclav said. He looked away. “This is going to be interesting. Are you ready for any…surprises?”
“Surprises surprise because one is not ready,” Rafe said. “I expect trouble, if that’s what you mean. He’s had years to set this up; we’ve had only a short time to unravel it. We’re bound to have missed something.” His hand wanted to slide into the suit, be sure of his weapons, but he made himself stand relaxed.
“You always were a confident so-and-so,” Vaclav said.
“He got that from me,” his father said. “Only in his case, the overconfidence was beaten out of him early.”
The elevator rose smoothly past floor after floor, coming to rest at last. The doors opened onto a carpeted space with a receptionist’s desk angled to give a view into the elevator. The man there was scribbling something on the desktop; he looked up, and his brows raised.
“Ser Box…the meeting started several minutes ago; didn’t you hear your page? And—” His face changed as he looked at the man in the float chair. “Ser Dunbarger! I had no idea you were coming! Ser Parmina said—”
“I know what Ser Parmina said,” his father said. “But I’m feeling better, and I decided to come in. Vaclav waited for me downstairs. No, don’t bother to announce us. We’ll just go on in.”
One of Gary’s people had stepped to the desk and had the receptionist’s hand in a grip that, Rafe knew, could tighten in an instant to excruciating pain. He nodded at Rafe.
The Boardroom double doors were not locked during meetings; there had never been need. Now two of Gary’s people pulled them open and stepped inside while Rafe pushed his father through. Vaclav walked beside him.
Lew Parmina, at the head of the table, had been pointing at a display hovering over the group. Rafe tipped his head; one of the guards stepped that way. Lew had gone white, but he recovered quickly.
“Ser Dunbarger—Garston—we didn’t expect you today. What a pleasant surprise!”
“Is it?” his father asked. Rafe didn’t look down at his father; he was watching Parmina’s hands. “It wasn’t a pleasant surprise when your goons abducted me and my family from our home, killed my son-in-law, and spent the next several tendays torturing us.”
“My goons? What do you mean? You’re confused; you—”
A stocky redheaded woman on the far side of the table spoke up. “You said Garston had to go into hiding for fear of his life, Lew. You said you knew where but couldn’t tell us, for security reasons…” Rafe’s implant informed him that this was Madeleine Pronst, senior vice president for human resources. Headhunter, hatchet woman, and yet not universally hated. Madeleine, his father had said, was ruthless with the incompetent, as willing to chop off a VP or division head as a terrified new hire, but oddly compassionate with those who had real problems, and fair-minded with everyone.
“He—I thought—that’s what I was told.” Rafe could just about see the gears whirling in Parmina’s head, trying to cover himself.
“Interesting,” his father said. “The men who killed my grandson—my daughter was forced into induced labor while captive, and the men then murdered the infant in front of me and my wife—told me with great pleasure that you had ordered it. And what you planned to do with the power you would gain as CEO of ISC.”
“I—he did it!” Parmina pointed at Rafe. “He’s been bad from the first; he’s jealous of me; he wants the power himself. He came back; he had you abducted; he had his hirelings tell me you were in hiding, told them he was acting on my behalf, and then he fooled you by pretending to rescue you—”
“It wasn’t pretense,” Rafe’s father said. “I would have been dead in a few hours if he hadn’t come. And I think I know my son better than you do. A lot of things make more sense now, Lew.”
Rafe watched Lew’s hand slide under the table. That would be the panel for the emergency response, his father had told him. “It won’t work,” he said, surprising himself by his own tone of voice: light, relaxed. “You have no communication with the outside world, Lew. No, not even your skullphone, as you’ve no doubt been noticing while you tried to buy time.”
“This is ridiculous!” That was Oster; Termanian and Wickins hadn’t yet moved, though they were sweating more than the innocent would. “Lew is a respected member of this corporation; he has been handling things since you disappeared. You can’t just walk in here and expect us to fall in line—” His hands, below table level, jerked up suddenly.
Rafe felt a surge of glee, drawing and firing his pocket needler before Oster’s weapon was clear of the table. Oster slumped forward, his face thudding onto the table’s polished surface. He had hardly taken his eyes off Parmina; he had felt Oster’s move as much as seen it.
“You!” Parmina said. All pretense gone now; teeth bared, he glared at Rafe. “You disgusting little leech! Why didn’t you die?”
Rafe pretended to blow smoke off the end of his needler and slid it back into its holster. “Only the good die young,” he said. “And you’re older than I am, Lew. Feeling lucky today? By all means, go for that pocket blaster. It’s a messy way to commit suicide, and it will make things hard for your family, if they care. I understand your daughter’s not fond of you…so my sister says. But you might be able to set it off before one of us drilled you.” He let his smile widen. The directors nearest Lew at that end of the table leaned away, ashen-faced.
“If I surrender,” Lew said, hands wide.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll surrender,” Rafe said pleasantly. “I think you’ll do something stupid, and we’ll have to kill you.”
“That’s murder!”
“Is it? Wasn’t what you did to seventeen skiers murder, when you set off that avalanche to kill my sister and her boyfriend and it also took fifteen others? Wasn’t what you did to the passengers in that plane murder, when you tampered with the instruments so the pilot flew into a hill and killed another of my sisters? I think it was.”
“You can’t take the law into your own hands!” Lew shouted. “It’s illegal�
�it’s—”
“Scared now, are you?” Rafe asked. He pulled out his needler again and pretended to polish it with his handkerchief, all without taking his eyes off Lew.
“You have to let me explain,” Lew said, standing awkwardly, trying to back away from the table. “You have to listen.”
Rafe cocked his head. He could feel everyone’s attention, including his father’s. The rush of anticipation merged with the rush of pleasure from shooting Oster.
“No,” he said, pretending to sigh, thumbing the selector over. “I don’t have to listen,” and he fired.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
“Murderer!” screamed Termanian as Parmina stiffened and slid down the ornate cabinet at that end of the room.
“Not yet,” Rafe said. “I merely use more efficient knockout drugs than most. You, on the other hand—” He thumbed the load selector again. Termanian threw himself back in his chair, hands over his face.
“He made me do it…he said if I didn’t…”
“Oh, be quiet.” Rafe nodded to the guard nearest Termanian. “Secure him, would you?” He looked down. “Father?”
“I think we might adjourn to the room next door while someone picks up the fallen,” his father said. The rest of the Board turned to look at him. “Now,” his father said. Rafe waited until the near side of the table was clear before moving his father down the room toward that door. Their last firm suspect lingered, looking around uneasily.
“I do know about you,” Rafe said. “But it’s up to you whether you want to cooperate or cause trouble.”
“I…I should’ve said something,” he said. “When Lew first came to me, I should’ve…but it seemed to make sense in a way—and he promised—and suddenly all my pet birds died, and he said how easy it was for pet birds to catch something, and I knew what he meant…”
“Did you know his plans for me, Wickins? For my family?”
“No,” the man said. “I swear I didn’t. I wouldn’t have—even scared, I’d have told someone. It was just Vote like this or Let this project run or Terminate that one.”
“I see,” his father said. “You will forgive me if I must delve a little deeper than that…I had not suspected Lew myself, and it makes me suspicious of others.”
“I understand. I’m sorry, I really am. I had no idea he was capable of anything like…like…”
“Torturing people and killing babies? Neither did I. But he did, and those who helped him in any way, knowing or unknowing, are going to be held accountable.”
“I will resign from the Board at once…”
“Of course you will, but I commend you for saying so quickly. I’m afraid you’ll have several unpleasant days, but I assure you they will not be as unpleasant as mine were. If you will go with these gentlemen—” His father nodded at the two of Gary’s people who stood ready.
“Y-yes. I’m sorry…”
“I’m sure you are. Rafe, let’s go in.”
The room looked more like a lounge, with couches and chairs arranged around the room and a bar at the end. The faces turned toward his father were all, as far as Rafe could tell, full of honest concern and shock.
“I want you all to know,” his father began, “that I had begun an internal investigation into some irregularities about two years ago. At no point in that investigation did I suspect that Lew Parmina had anything to do with the irregularities. I had known Lew for years, as all of us have. He was my protégé; I brought him into management myself, when he was an eager young intern. When we were abducted, I could not believe, at first, what we were told—that he was behind it. However, I was wrong. He was acting against the intent of this Board, and against me. In the days since Rafe rescued us, he and I have been able to crack some of Parmina’s files and see what he had in mind. This evidence—where it does not compromise our internal security—will be turned over to law enforcement. I wish to apologize to the Board for having brought Lew into our confidence, for not having realized what he was. I hope you will agree that I have been sufficiently punished…”
“Of course, Garston,” Vaclav said; others nodded. “None of us spotted it. He must have had incredibly good luck, or an accomplice within the firm, to keep it all so quiet.”
“He’s very intelligent,” Rafe’s father said. “My own guess is that his first goal was simply to rise in the company and end up as CEO; I’m not sure when his other goals became involved. But it was not recent. I’m now convinced that he was behind the attempted abduction of Rafe and his sister Penelope—the incident in which Rafe killed the invaders and saved himself and his sister. And behind the advice to send Rafe away. He wanted to eliminate the competition, as he saw it.”
“So…I’m assuming Oster was one of his people,” Madeleine Pronst said. “Termanian? Wickins?”
“Yes,” Rafe’s father said. “We have some of the other names, but not by any means all. However, more immediately, there’s the matter of the running of the company. As you can see, I am physically impaired. Doctors are unsure if I will regain all function. I am also mentally impaired due to damage to my implant, which propagated into the brain. It does not affect my language functions, and I have passed a competency test, but I am not at full capacity and in this crisis ISC needs someone who is. They tell me that for full recovery—if it’s possible—I must have my damaged implant removed, and I will be much more impaired then for some considerable time. No new implant can be installed until the brain damage has healed.”
“And we are all suspect,” Madeleine said, glancing around. “Perhaps not in your mind, Garston, but everyone on the Board must be, at least for a while.”
“Yes,” Rafe’s father said. “And that’s why I want you to agree to my next request.” He paused, glanced around, and went on. “I want you to approve Rafe as my successor, at least on a temporary basis.”
“Rafe! But he’s not…he has no background!”
“We need someone who knows the business—”
“He can’t possibly understand the complexity—”
Rafe’s father raised his hand, and the hubbub died down. “Hear me out,” he said. “Rafe was brought up in the business; his university studies, to the point at which he left, covered business topics—and ISC was the model used in classes. I know, because I checked at the time. He has done work for us as an undercover agent from time to time, especially in the last five years, investigating situations important to ISC in a number of systems. This has required him to live under an assumed name. Some of which—fortunately—Lew Parmina did not know.”
“Was he on the payroll?” Madeleine asked. “I don’t recall—”
“No. As some of you know, he received a remittance on condition of staying away from Nexus except for brief visits, not more than once every year. In part to protect his cover, I did not put him on the payroll. I found his data to be accurate, and there was no indication that he had ever breached our confidence.”
“I see. Well…” She gave Rafe a challenging look. “Do you think you’re up to this, young man? You’ll have your father’s advice, but—”
“In many ways, I’m not up to it,” Rafe said. “As several of you pointed out, I haven’t been working openly in the company, I don’t know all the right people and procedures. Any one of you—any division head, for that matter—knows more about how things work here at headquarters than I do. In other ways, I agree with my father that I am the only person for the job right now. I know things about ISC and its employees—out in the systems where our income originates—that none of you can. I can untangle the mess Lew Parmina left faster than you can, because I have not only the background but also offworld contacts you lack. ISC is in crisis, not only because of Lew Parmina. You don’t know this yet, but shipboard ansibles are now being used both by a hostile force intent on domination of systems, and by the force that opposes it. I saw the ansibles myself; I know they work. I know that they are being manufactured somewhere off Nexus II, though not yet where. Once tech
nology like that gets loose, as I’m sure you appreciate, it can’t be stuffed back in the closet. We are in a fair way to lose our monopoly, to be seen as an obsolete, inferior system of communication, useful only for those systems too poor to afford better.”
The shock he saw on their faces now was economic; all of them could see the implications of that.
“We have ruled the universe within hundreds of light-years by virtue of controlling communications,” he said. “We wisely did not bother with planetary governments—we simply maintained open communications and insisted on our monopoly. It was a great idea, and it worked brilliantly…until technology advanced. When every ship carries its own ansible—”
“But they don’t link with ours,” someone said.
“They didn’t link with ours,” Rafe said. “The ones we manufactured didn’t. But there was no technical reason why they couldn’t…it was ISC’s decision to limit connectivity to maintain control of the technology. We’ve lost that. At present, I haven’t personally seen a shipborne ansible with the capability to connect directly to our net, but if you believe it won’t happen, you believe in fairy tales.”
Stunned silence. One of the men—Bennett D’Argent, his implant informed him—raised his hand. “You talked about a hostile force. Do you know anything about that?”
“Quite a bit, but that’s not the first order of business. The first order of business is whether or not you’ll confirm me to my father’s role. I certainly can’t do what needs to be done without your support, and I believe I can if I have it.”
“You have mine,” Vaclav Box said. “But you knew that.”
“And mine,” Madeleine said. “I can see we’ve got a crisis; we need all of Garston’s input we can get, and Rafe seems to have skills none of us have.”
The rest fell in line with almost no more resistance; when they moved back into the main boardroom, all its messes cleared away, Rafe sat at the head of the table, with his father’s float chair at his left hand, and called the meeting to order.
Command Decision Page 23
