The lobby opened out into the dining room, replicating two copies of Kai that flanked him as he strode forward into a woodwork maze. Intricately carved lattices and delicate screens covered with rice-paper paintings separated the area into a series of discreetly concealed alcoves meant for private assignations. The low lights kept everything so half-hidden in shadow that only cinnabar highlights and the warm glow of burnished gold betrayed the alcoves as he walked through to the far side of the room.
The twined bodies of two dragons formed the arch over the threshold to his goal, their tails supporting the ceiling lost in shadow high overhead. At ground level the dragons snarled at each other across a three-meter gap. As Kai passed between them he heard a loud static hissing and felt a chill downdraft, but neither disturbed him. Both were part of a system designed to ensure that anything said within the Dragon's Realm would go no further unless any of the participants recorded it from within.
Only on Solaris would this work. The interior of the Dragon's Realm was decorated with artificial rocks on three of the four walls. Little grottoes held Taoist and Buddhist shrines as well as candles and delicately displayed orchids. Other plants clung to the rocks, and little streams burbled down from the shadowed heights to dark pools lit by the flashes of enormous koi striking at the surface.
The fourth wall was made of glass and looked out over Solaris City. In any other city, where the sun could be counted on to shine at least occasionally during the day, the cavernous room would have been transformed into a rocky outcropping suitable for a school children's picnic. In Solaris, where the clouds trapped the city's garish lights, and where the city itself appeared to be a transparent body with neon blood pumping through it, the Dragon's Realm truly did become an Olympian hideaway for those who would style themselves masters of the world.
"Welcome, my friends." Kai smiled cautiously, well aware that the group around him presented more danger than any two foes he might face in any arena. Taking his place at the head of the stout ebony table, he never stopped smiling. "I trust you were not inconvenienced in coming here. As it is my turn to host our meeting, I thought perhaps you would enjoy trying a new place."
The petite woman seated to his left graciously returned his smile and set down her glass of what looked like plum wine. 'This is different, Kai. I would have expected you to bring us to The Crane. It's supposed to be the best in Cathay."
"I think you will find that for atmosphere and cuisine, the Sesame Inn has no parallel, especially in its upper precinct." He pulled his chair out and sat. "George, the owner, is an old friend of the family. He lost his previous establishment on Sian and has relocated here."
"Another one of your charity cases, Liao?" The man sitting beyond Fiona Loudon scowled at Kai. "You take in more strays than the pound."
"I believe charity begins at home, Drew." It was no surprise to Kai that Drew Hasek-Davion and Fiona were sitting together. Both were from the Federated Commonwealth, though to call either one a Davion loyalist would have been a joke. Fiona, though shrewd—or perhaps because of being shrewd—avoided politics.
Drew used up her part of it and then some, having bought into the anti-Davion sentiment of his late uncle, Michael Hasek-Davion. Victor Davion often joked about Drew Hasek appropriating the Davion name as a suffix to his own surname. The prince said he let Hasek get away with it because it reminded people of Michael's fatal addiction to politics, thereby frustrating Drew's own his quest for power.
Thomas DeLon, Roger Tandrek, and Winslow Kindt completed the Compensation Committee of the Solaris Stable Owners Association. Kai had not met Kindt before, but he expected, at best, hostility from him since the man was acting in proxy for Duke Ryan Steiner. The fact that the man was talking so animatedly with Tandrek meant trouble for Kai; the Liaoist hated him and couldn't wait until Wu Deng Tang stomped Kai to blood and bones.
DeLon, sitting at the far end of the table, looked remarkably serene. That surprised Kai somewhat, because the man from the Draconis Combine had always been a focus of opposition to Kai and his policies. So far Kai had put it down to a misplaced sense of honor, in that fighters moving in and out of contracts amounted to mercantilism, not soldiery. What have you got up your sleeve, Thomas?
Kai signaled to George Yang and the staff began to serve dinner. Hot and sour spicy soup gave way to moo shu pork with plum sauce, sesame chicken, kung pao beef, and tangerine beef. Lychee nuts and brandy capped a meal in which the food was superior and the conversation a light overture to the discussions likely to begin once the meal was cleared away.
After the table had been cleared, Kai sat back in his chair and opened his hands. "I call this meeting of the SSOA Compensation Committee to order. We can waive viewing the minutes of the last meeting, I believe, unless Mr. Kindt has not had a chance to get caught up."
Winslow Kindt shook his head. He had a long face and a beanpole body that reminded Kai of what he'd felt like during one of the jumps on the way to Solaris. "I believe I am up to speed, both with what has gone on before and what Duke Ryan wants me to do."
"Good. Old business?" Kai glanced at Hasek-Davion. "Drew?"
"It's old business, though not really anything we can vote on, I suppose. Kai, do you really think it necessary to make public all the things that you do?" The portly man's face folded in on itself as he winced painfully. "There was no reason, for example, for you to go public about the counterfeit T-shirt deal. New Syrtis-Gap offered compensation in good faith, but then you went and exposed what they had done. Your announcement made them lose a lot of ground on the New Avalon Exchange."
Fiona laughed lightly. "Got our trust fund caught in a crack, eh, Drew?"
"It's not funny, Fiona. Stables are having to cut to the bone to make a profit, and I need my offworld investments to see me through lean times as well as the good. I've never had two simultaneous champions in my stable—none of us have except for you." Drew's dark eyes narrowed. "You really hurt them with the settlement you imposed."
"Good," said Kai, "because they really hurt the people with whom I had my licensing agreement. I saw NSGI offers for the right to distribute our logo and imageware throughout the Successor States, and I didn't like it. I had my people negotiate with local suppliers of sports apparel, and the expense for those negotiations came out of Cenotaph, not the SSOA. When NSGI started competing with my local people, it hurt them and hurt them bad. I hurt them back." Kai leaned forward on the table, his fingers interlaced. "And if I ever find out that the rumors about you getting kickbacks from NSGI are true, Drew, I'll go through your stable like a bullet through tofu."
"Oh, sure, Mr. Holier-than-thou! Who do you think you are?" Drew slammed a fist into the table, then pointed a finger at Kai. "You set up a charitable organization and then publicize the fact that a chunk of each purse you win goes to it. You also talk your opponents into contributing, which looks great for you, but makes the rest of us look like misers. You refuse to let NSGI sell off its inventory, and instead have that go to charity too. People down in the streets call you Steelsoul, and say it shields a heart of gold. Well, if you're so damned great, what the hell are you doing here in the ass-end of the universe?"
"Keeping you honest? It's a full-time job, you know."
"He has a point, Kai." Roger Tandrek leaned back in his chair, brushing the ends of his white mustache into place with one hand. "We applaud your efforts at charity, but publicizing it the way you do seems to cheapen it. Other owners have also commented to me about it, so it isn't only us. I know you think we're just a corrupt group of money-grubbing robber barons—"
Fiona patted Kai on the wrist. "I always knew you had twenty-twenty vision, Kai."
"—but not all of us are as affluent as you are." Tandrek shot Fiona a hard glance, but the diminutive redhead dismissed it with half-lowered eyelids.
"Roger, I understand fully and completely what you are. You look at Solaris and the games as a business. You look at profit and loss. In doing that you see fighters as the cos
t of training their replacements." Kai shook his head. "I don't."
"That is absurd. I know they are human beings and I treat them as such. Wynn Goddard is a personal friend."
Fiona smiled. "His preference for energy weapons does help that P and L bottom line when it comes to ammo expenses, doesn't it?"
"Fiona, I don't need your gibes." Tandrek's florid face deepened to an angry purple. "Kai, Wu Deng Tang is a good friend of mine. I get to know all my fighters and I treat them well. Yet, as much as I like them, I have to run the stable like a business. I have costs and I have investors to consider."
Kai shook his head. "I consider people, and my stable runs as profitably as any of yours—perhaps more so. I managed to find a solution to the training problem."
Drew snarled in frustration. "Sure, hiring veterans of the Clan War was smart."
"You could have done it."
"Yes, but then we would have had to match your salary offers to unproven fighters." Tandrek looked over at Kindt, then shook his head. "Your father would never have done business this way."
Kai laughed aloud. "If I were my father, I'd know even more about your operations than I do, and I'd own you all. What you don't realize is that the universe has changed, and changed drastically. For a long time Solaris was a stable source of entertainment and income. We pay taxes, those companies who market our merchandise pay taxes, and the people who buy our product pay taxes. We had a known quantity in our hands, something everyone wanted and we had no competition.
"Well, the Clans changed that. Our competition is raw footage shot by amateur cameramen during Clan raids on border worlds. The real thing competes with us. We no longer have it easy out there, so why should you have it easy in here?"
Kai looked over at Fiona. "She saw what was coming and planned ahead. Fiona's contracts with her fighters are ironclad, and people sign them because they get a long-term benefit for good service. I think her contracts aren't much more than a step up from slavery, but the people who sign them are adults capable of making their own rational decisions."
"You do know how to flatter a woman, Kai."
"The rest of you treat your pilots like they were jockeys riding prize race horses, not warriors risking their lives every time they strap themselves in for a fight. I appreciate the risk they take because it's the same one I have to take. I want to see them justly compensated for their activity, and that's what I do. And that's what you'll have to do if you want to compete here."
Winslow Kindt shook his head. "I realize I'm the new boy, but I must say. that I believe you to be in error, Mr. Allard-Liao. The SSOA Charter, to which Cenotaph is a signatory, clearly points out that you have violated the just compensation clause of our charter since your arrival here. I would suggest that this invalidates your membership in this committee and even calls for a full investigation of Cenotaph and forfeiture of your title to Victor Vandergriff of the Skye Tigers."
Roger Tandrek looked ready to explode, while Drew Hasek-Davion sat back, staring into space. Fiona swirled brandy around in her glass and laughed lightly. "Has the Achilles heel been found?"
"If the title is forfeit, it should go to Wu Deng Tang!"
"Oh, yes, very good." Drew's lips revealed yellow teeth in a ratlike grin. "The compensation distribution formula, I like that."
Kai refused to let any emotion show on his face and slowly let his moment of panic bleed away. "Would you care to be more specific, Mr. Kindt?"
"By all means." Kindt steepled his fingers and leaned forward to place his elbows on the table. "As Drew suggests, it comes down to the language used in the fighter compensation formula. It specifies that all income from purses, endorsements, and other bonuses and optional compensation plans be factored in together to determine the compensation paid to the lower-echelon fighters within a stable."
Kai nodded. "I am familiar with the wording. It was put in place to guarantee that the warriors who don't rank interstellar media attention can still profit from the stables' compensation by the broadcasting networks. We use the formula, and Cenotaph is the only stable that publishes a complete public audit at the end of each fiscal year."
"Commendable, to be sure, Mr. Allard-Liao, but as you will recall, a top fighter's compensation is limited to no more than four thousand percent over the top fighter on the next-lowest echelon. Even so, your reported income was something in excess of twenty-seven thousand percent higher than your next fighter."
The young MechWarrior nodded. "Ah, so you took the income I made as the owner of Cenotaph and combined that with my winnings and compensation as Champion, correct?"
"I am afraid so," Kindt replied apologetically. "What is good for the gander will, in this case, cook the goose."
"The compensation formula was never meant to apply to ownership earnings." Kai frowned. "Of course, the formula went in when there were no owner/fighters, so it was never tested. An interesting point, Mr. Kindt, but something that is more appropriate to a proposed charter amendment at our next general meeting."
"I beg to differ, sir." Kindt tapped his two index fingers together. "This Committee has the power to suspend a stable's license if we find and verify corrupt activity relating to compensation of arena fighters. Even if this is an oversight, I feel constrained to make a formal motion to suspend Cenotaph's license ..."
His words trailed off suggestively and Kai bowed his head in the man's direction. Kindt had read the gathering well. He knew that Kai and Fiona would likely vote against the motion, but the other four would vote in favor, supplying the two-thirds majority needed to pass the suspension. The Championship would be forfeit until the next general meeting of the Owners Association in two months. Tandrek, Hasek-Davion, and the others would present an immediate plan for an interim tournament, which the Championship Committee would likely approve and then allow to take place before Kai would be off suspension. With no one in the Cenotaph stable eligible to fight, all his people would be hurt.
Unless ... "What does Duke Ryan want from me?"
"Want from you? Just a chance to have a Champion, the same wish as any other owner. Your title defense is two months away. He proposes you fight against Victor Vandergriff a month from now. Given the schedule you met to attain the title, two fights in two months should not be that difficult."
There it is. Neatly packaged and nicely done. If Kai agreed to the request for the fight, Duke Ryan would make a small fortune on his half of the media rights, and that would help him recoup what he paid to buy out Oonthrax. In agreeing he would have Kindt's vote if one of the others brought up the motion, and the three-to-three deadlock would kill it. If he did not agree, he would lose the Championship and Cenotaph could be seriously hurt.
"It would be easy.. I've beaten Vandergriff before." Kai thought a moment longer, then shook his head. "But the only thing I would hate worse than losing the Championship to political games is giving Duke Ryan Steiner the satisfaction of making me dance to his tune even for second. No deal. Consider your motion for sanctions made. Any seconds?"
"I second the motion." Drew bounced in his seat like a child attending his first 'Mecharama.
Kai nodded. "Sanction votes are verbal and shall be recorded. Mr. Kindt?"
"Aye."
"Mr. Tandrek?"
"Aye."
"Mr. Allard-Liao votes 'Nay.' Ms. Loudon?"
"Nay."
"Mr. Hasek-Davion."
"Aye."
Kai looked across the table at Thomas DeLon. "The deciding vote is to you, Thomas."
"Iie."
Kai knew what he had heard, but he couldn't believe it. "In English, please, for the record."
"Nay. I vote no." DeLon remained impassive, though Kai thought he saw a momentary mischievous glance at Fiona after the vote.
Drew, Tandrek, and Kindt looked stunned. "By my count the vote stands at three in favor and three against. The motion fails to carry the needed majority."
Fiona smiled at Kai. "I move we adjourn."
DeLon nodded
. "I second the motion."
"All those in favor say 'Aye.' "
Tandrek switched sides from the previous vote and dissolved the meeting. Fiona led the trio of her defeated comrades out of the room, leaving Kai and DeLon at either end of the table.
Kai frowned. "I expected you to vote with Kindt. Hell, I thought you'd engineered his maneuver."
"It was his idea," De Lon said. "I found it clever and in the past would have supported it, even though I admired your courage at rejecting his deal."
"Why didn't you support it?"
DeLon smiled. "You are correct, Kai—the universe is changing. The Kobe sector has a visitor who has expressed a desire to sit in your box when you defend your title. She considers your granting her request a great honor."
Omi. Kai nodded. "I owe her my thanks."
DeLon stood and slid his chair back into place. "She is also impressed with your ideas for Solaris. Her opinion has opened my eyes to many things." He smiled. "Warring against opponents like Kindt and Hasek-Davion brings with it very little honor, but perhaps I will find some amusement in helping you accelerate the pace of the change on Solaris."
11
Zurich
Sarna March, Federated Commonwealth
4 February 3056
Deirdre Lear pulled the stethoscope from her ears, then draped the ear pieces around the back of her neck. She smiled at the little boy's mother and helped ease one of the four-year-old's arms through the correct hole in his T-shirt. "I think Jimmy will be fine. He has a little bit of a cold, maybe some allergies."
Deirdre glanced at the computer monitor built into the wall of the examining room. "Looks like he had a previous episode of this type of rhinitis last year and again six months ago. Do you ever notice his eyes watering or the runny nose starting when he gets near flowers or something else that's blooming?"
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