They had succeeded in escaping from Newton, although at great cost; and in the time since, while Bleys was recovering from both his poisoning and a wound received during the fight to reach the ship, Henry, although wounded himself, had been trying to find replacements for the men and women he had lost.
Lost was too innocent a word for what he had done, he reproached himself now. His actions had led directly to their deaths.
Now Henry dropped back behind his latest batch of recruits, as, moving in a straggling group, they neared the edge of the trees and began to cross the grassy apron, beyond which waited the three vans that had brought them here. No one was in sight.
Henry watched keenly as Steve Foster, who had been on one edge of the group ahead of him, slowed his pace for a fraction of a second—before picking that pace back up again while making a casual, angling turn that put him, within seconds, on the other side of a public sanitary facility. He paused there, as if thinking about answering a call of nature.
Ahead of him, four more of the recruits had stopped, raising their heads to look about—and in that moment, seven armed figures rose from behind various vehicles parked in the area, while two more came around from behind the waiting vans. Their weapons were still being raised when the recruits began to scatter, some leaping for the nearest bit of available cover, two reversing their course to dash back toward where Henry stood at the edge of the trees—and those who felt themselves to be too far from concealment dropping to the pavement while reaching into their carry bags—
"All right, all right!" Henry yelled. "It's just another test!" The armed figures who had been waiting in ambush prudently ducked out of sight, in case someone failed to hear Henry's words; and Henry himself refrained from striding into the midst of his recruits, until he could be sure their brains had all had a chance to override their instincts.
A few of the recruits actually managed to get in a few trigger-pulls, only to find that their weapons had been rendered inoperable; but no experienced Soldier was going to let himself be killed by some sort of mistake in the carrying-out of that particular bit of sabotage. So, in the end, no one was hurt.
Except, perhaps, for some feelings, Henry told himself. Being ambushed generally caused warriors to feel foolish, and no one liked that, even if the ambush had been totally unavoidable.
Henry wanted people he could depend on, and he knew that picking the right people required more than simply getting those whose alertness might have tipped them to the possibility of an ambush; he also wanted his people to be able to handle sudden floods of the hormones and emotional reactions engendered by alarms and humiliations, without losing their judgment.
Henry, along with all of his senior Soldiers, had been watching the reactions of these recruits—and of the other two sections of recruits, who were elsewhere at the moment—since they arrived; that evaluation process would continue as long as any of them were Soldiers.
It would take more than simply being caught flat-footed by this test ambush to get a recruit dropped from the class; just as it would take more than having done well here—or on any other test—to be accepted.
Henry had the recruits loaded into the vans, and on their way back to headquarters, within moments. He wanted them to be still in the reaction stage as they went back, so that they could be monitored and studied while they thought themselves free to relax.
Henry loved this job.
God help him, he knew that some of these young people would die as a result of his choosing them . . . but then, they were all in God's hands at all times, in any case.
Pallas Salvador, head of the Others' organization on Ceta, was awakened by the shocking shrillness of her bedside communicator's EMERGENCY tone. Groggily peering at the time display, she fumbled hurriedly for the control pad, driven by that gut-level, unthinking fear that accompanies any sudden alarm in the night. But the fear gave way to irritation as she saw the call was from her own office.
Before answering she glanced reflexively behind her to be sure her companion from earlier in the evening had indeed left. Then she punched at the ANSWER button with a stiff, forceful index finger.
"Pallas Salvador, here," she said. "What is it?" Professional. Be professional.
She tried to begin some breath-control exercises, recognizing that her irritation was showing.
"My apologies for disturbing you at this hour, Pallas Salvador," a calm, contralto voice said in her ear. There was no reproach in that voice; perversely, that irritated Pallas Salvador even more.
"Gelica? Is that you?" Pallas had recognized the voice as that of her assistant, who was normally in the office during conventional daytime working hours. "What are you doing in the office at this hour?"
"Yes, Pallas Salvador. The night communications officer called me first when a message arrived, in accordance with our procedures."
"A message? Why didn't you—yes, yes, what is it?"
"A communication has arrived, sent ahead from an incoming star-ship. It is from Antonia Lu."
Her irritation instantly wiped away by apprehension—along with her breathing exercises—Pallas took a short moment to think.
A message from Antonia Lu was for all intents and purposes a message from Bleys Ahrens, the de facto head of the Others.
"I'll be right in," Pallas said. Communications from the home office were not to be casually discussed over open comm circuits.
Starships were still the fastest way to send messages at interstellar distances, the now fully awake Other was thinking as she climbed into an automated cab twelve minutes later, but light-speed radio beat a starship that was on its approach to a planet. For that reason, the fastest—and most expensive—way to get a message to a planet under another star was to give it into the care of a ship's communications officer, paying extra to have it radioed ahead when the ship came out of its last phase-shift.
She wondered what could be so important that Bleys Ahrens would have sent her a message in that manner.
The Others' headquarters for Ceta was located in the city of the same name, comprising two floors of a tall office tower within walking distance of the government center, and nestled near the heart of the cluster of corporate campuses that made this city the commercial hub of the planet, and thus of a lot of interstellar trade. Pallas arrived there twenty-one minutes after being awakened.
She immediately learned she had every right to be apprehensive: the superscript on the message indicated it had been sent from Burning Bush, one of a number of starships of which the Others' organization was the majority owner. And Antonia Lu's message confirmed that both Bleys Ahrens himself and Dahno Ahrens were on board the vessel.
Bleys Ahrens, the message said, wanted to meet with all of the Others' top leadership on the planet as soon as he landed. All of them. A confirmation was required.
This was unprecedented. And unprecedented was invariably bad.
She grimaced, recognizing there was no choice but to comply. "Send a confirmation to Burning Bush—just that, no more," she told Gelica.
She looked at her assistant challengingly, almost willing the gray-haired, stocky figure to make some gesture of rebellion. Gelica gave her nothing but a crisp nod.
"I want all the headquarters staff here within twenty minutes," Pallas continued, ignoring the fact that she herself had needed more time than that to make the trip, and her staff all lived farther out. "Then wake the top two caterers and get two spreads set up, one—wait: first call the port and get an estimated arrival time for Burning Bush—"
"I already have," Gelica said. "They say around ten and a half— and they also say they expect there to be a brief welcoming ceremony."
"Oh, that's right," Pallas said, "Bleys Ahrens is now a political dignitary, isn't he? All right then, the catering: one spread to be fresh at noon and the other at thirteen. Top-level spreads for a minimum of—let's say seventy people, just to be on the safe side."
"Who do you want alerted to attend the meeting?" Gelica asked.
"I guess you can't do it all at once," Pallas said. "When the first staff arrive, start—no, I'll do it. Just forward our complete TO to my screen right now, and then make those calls. While you're doing that I'll draft a list of attendees and send it back to you, and you can get them alerted—some will have to come around the planet, of course, so you'll need to get started."
She strode toward her office, then stopped and turned around.
"While you're waiting for the staff to arrive, start drafting a plan for the layout we'll need in the large conference room."
She closed the office door behind her, but Gelica's intercom beeped almost immediately.
"Yes, Pallas Salvador?" Gelica said.
"You'd better count on spending the day here, too," Pallas said. "I don't know whether Bleys Ahrens has it in mind to see any of our staff as well as the top leadership, but you're senior staff, so you'd better stay close."
"I will," Gelica said.
Alone in the front office, she smiled as she called up from the data files the table of organization Pallas Salvador had ordered. There was a great deal of trouble on the way, but it might be worth it. . . .
Having been met at the landing pad and recorded having his hand shaken by a variety of officials, Bleys was finally turned loose to be convoyed into the city; and he and some of his party, after quick greetings to the junior staff in the reception area of the Others' planetary head office, were led into the conference room some minutes after noon, local time. Many of the waiting Others' leadership— even those for whom this was the middle of the night—were visibly pleased to see Dahno, for whom they had all developed a great fondness during their time in the training program he had run them through on Association.
Bleys was quickly introduced to the more senior staff people, including some who had flown in with their particular bosses. Bleys was polite to each of them, but Dahno, he saw, was off to one side working his usual genial magic on all comers.
"And finally, Bleys Ahrens, this is Gelica Costanza, my top administrative assistant," Pallas Salvador said, as they at last reached the head table. Bleys found himself exchanging greetings with a short, blocky female figure with graying dark hair and a reddish complexion. Her gray-blue eyes, he saw, were sharp and alert.
"Are you from Ceta?" he asked her.
"I've spent much of my life here, Great Teacher," she said. "But I'm a crossbreed, too, born and raised on Mara."
Bleys knew she was too old to have gone through Dahno's training course, so she must have been a local hire, one result of Bleys' program to increase the size of the organization by reaching out to untrained Others. Apparently this one had worked out well.
On a sudden impulse, he turned to Pallas Salvador:
"How many of your senior leadership are here?" he asked. "Do we have any empty seats?"
"We called in forty-four," she said. "But only thirty-five have arrived so far."
"Nine are missing? Didn't they have enough time to get here?"
Standing behind Pallas Salvador and engaged in another conversation, Dahno turned his head. He said nothing as his eyes met Bleys'.
"They've all had at least seven hours' notice," Pallas Salvador said, embarrassed. "We've had no word from any of them, and their staff all say they don't know where their bosses are."
"Is it possible they're out on their routes?" Bleys asked. His question showed that he had been studiously reading the reports sent in from the Cetan Others: on this large planet, the small number of senior Others had developed a pattern of spreading their individual attention over a number of states, between which they moved like nomads tending their flocks.
"Their staff people would know where they were, in that case," Pallas pointed out. Then she grimaced, embarrassed at her own temerity, as Dahno moved over to stand beside Bleys, looking down at her.
"That seems strange," Dahno said, ignoring her discomfort. "Has anyone gone looking for them?" "There's been no time."
"Can you have someone follow up right away?" Bleys said. "Have someone call the various transportation facilities; and if the missing people aren't found, arrange for dependable people to catch the first flights out to each of those offices."
"I'll do it myself," Pallas Salvador said, starting to turn away; Bleys put a hand on her arm.
"Not you," he said.
"I can do that," Gelica said.
"Not you, either," Bleys said, suddenly aware that he had been overlooking something. He turned to Pallas again, as Dahno silently moved off once more, to be greeted by another group of his old trainees.
"I want to start the meeting right away, and I want you both there. Toni—" He turned to look, and found she was right at his side and had been listening. "Can you do this?" he asked her.
"Of course," she said, "if I can borrow some of the local staffers who won't be wanted in the meeting." She was looking at Pallas Salvador as she said that.
"Certainly," Pallas said. "Gelica, find Sandra for us, won't you?"
"Right away," Gelica said; and raised her wristpad to her face, turning away slightly and activating the HUSH setting that kept her voice from being overheard as she spoke into the pad.
"Sandra used to hold Gelica's job," Pallas said, in a lower tone, to Bleys and Toni. "She left us when her husband was transferred to Azul, and has been working part-time in Janet Bovovo's office there. I suggest her for that job, Antonia Lu, because she has a lot of experience with our organization and will be obeyed by the junior staff, but is no longer considered senior staff, since she's just been working part-time.. . . Here she is now."
Toni left for the front office immediately, Sandra in tow, and Pallas and Gelica turned their attention back to Bleys. He was watching curiously as Toni and Sandra left.
"If she's only a part-timer in an outlying office, why is she even here?" he said as he turned to look at Pallas again.
"Janet—that's her boss—had to move fast to get here," Pallas said, "and she told me she just grabbed the nearest couple of staff people to accompany her." She leaned toward Bleys and continued in a confidential whisper: "The fact that Sandra's parents live here in Ceta City, and that her mother's been ill for some time, might have entered into the choice."
Bleys nodded. "I assume she's capable of the job?"
"Of course," Pallas said. "I depended on her, until she had to leave." She looked sideways at Gelica Costanza. "I didn't think I'd find someone able to replace her, but Gelica has been very good, too."
"That's good to know," Bleys said. "And since there are some open seats in the meeting, let's have some of the senior staff in there with us, too—but only," he raised one finger in emphasis, "Others, and only if you're sure they're absolutely dependable and committed to us."
A bit shocked, Pallas agreed; and between them, she and Gelica quickly winnowed through the list of senior staff on hand.
While he waited, Bleys rethought his idea of inviting some staff members to sit in. The idea had only just come to him, and he had had no time to think it through. If the notion was a good one, it had to be carried out quickly; and he had learned to trust the ideas that sometimes sprouted full-blown from the back of his mind.
His initial plan had been to use shock tactics on the Others' leaders attending the meeting, suspecting that one or more had been lazy, irresponsible or even corrupt; Pallas Salvador was the most likely candidate, in fact, given her top position here. But Gelica Costanza's presence, and her apparent importance, had suggested that local staff were more important in the Ceta operation than were staff on other worlds; so he decided to widen his range of inquiry to include them.
In less than ten minutes, almost everyone who was not invited to sit in had been shooed out, Toni making her way through them to come back into the room. The remaining chatter died swiftly as Bleys, who had remained standing, silenced Pallas Salvador's welcoming remarks with a gesture. He himself remained silent until one of his own staff signaled that the room was free of listening devices— and then that
staffer, too, left. Now only Bleys, Dahno, Toni, the Association-trained Others and some of the senior Cetan staff were present.
"You may have heard," Bleys began, his voice soft enough that they almost—but not quite—had to strain to hear him, "that our people on New Earth, Newton and Cassida are now in strong position to influence the leaderships of those worlds."
Some in the audience nodded, and all their faces were intent. They had heard, in fact, that it was Bleys who had orchestrated a series of negotiations that resulted in those alliances—and they also knew that influence was not a strong enough word to describe the position the Others now occupied on those three planets.
"You've known," Bleys continued, "since soon after you joined this organization, that our ultimate goal has always been to become the ruling force on all the worlds." He paused, turning his head to look at Dahno, seated near him at the head table; he knew that the very drama in that pause would convey his message as effectively as any words he could speak.
Some had already caught on, he saw; and he looked about the room, making note of faces showing perception and eagerness.
"You are the ones who may find yourselves in at the very beginning of a new Ceta," he said, finally. Beside him, Dahno, playing his part, smiled broadly.
For the next few minutes Bleys eased his audience into the notion of taking control of the planet. It had to be done that way, he knew, because for all that they had been introduced to the idea of controlling the Worlds long ago, it was a very different thing to suddenly have the prospect looming up before them. Some of the faces in his audience showed fright, he thought; but even those also showed interest.
Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 Page 6
