Plik registered surprise at the phrase.
‘I have found his company interesting,’ Wairoa continued. ‘It has lightened captivity and idleness for me. However, my principal motive has been ulterior. I meant to spy.’
‘What?’ Iern exclaimed. ‘How? What for? You could never get any information out to your people.’
Wairoa caught his gaze. ‘I could get it to you,’ he replied.
After a silence: ‘I had my strong suspicions from the beginning, an idea of precisely what to look for. Her Majesty’s Naval Intelligence has collected clues over the years, and especially during the last mission to Uropa. I believe Terai sought to tell you, but you rebuffed him, being by then dedicated to Ronica’s cause.’
‘Terai,’ Plik whispered. ‘Do you suppose he brought the Maurai down on Orion?’
Nobody responded. It was a question which had been asked many a time since the ultimatum was delivered. Wairoa proceeded, relentless: ‘While here, I convinced myself totally, but that was by means you would even more refuse to accept, Iern – body language, overtones, subvocalizations, a logic which is less inductive or deductive than intuitive. What I needed was tangible evidence.’
He laid the book on the table with a smack at which Iern and Plik started, Ronica flared her nostrils. The cat woke, yawned, stretched, jumped to the floor and thence to her mistress’ lap. Ronica patted her absentmindedly. She purred. The sound made a curious obbligato to Wairoa’s voice.
‘Early on, I learned the lock combination of his office vault. He had me turn my back, but hyperacute hearing can follow swiveling dial and clicking tumblers. I confirmed my result by dropping numbers casually into remarks to his subordinates over the days, and paying close heed to their expressions. Meanwhile I obtained Mikli’s permission to borrow books. Since I must report regularly to the officer on duty in the anteroom, it was natural that I go in and browse when he was not there. After the first few such visits, nobody kept me under surveillance. He never leaves important material lying loose, nor did I seem in any position to spy or sabotage. Rather, he wanted me to share his collection. I took care to give him commentary that he found amusing, upon the more outrageous parts of it.’
‘And at last you saw your chance to ransack the vault, when the officer went to the can or something,’ Ronica said hoarsely. ‘What’ve you found?’
Wairoa’s tiger-striped head wove to and fro. ‘My procedure was different. In these hermetic surroundings, security is lax because everyone assumes it can safely be. I entered the vault for several brief periods, reconnoitering, until I had identified what I sought. Tonight I lifted it.’ He gestured at the book. They observed the title: Pain: Concepts and Techniques Around the World. ‘This is my portfolio.’
Iern half reached for the volume. ‘What did you take, in Zhesu’s name?’ he asked.
‘Correspondence, memoranda, excerpts from reports – proof,’ Wairoa said, like a hammer striking iron. ‘It was never Yuan that supported Jovain and made his coup possible. Certain high Yuanese officers were involved, yes. They provided a conduit for messages and matériel. When the emergency of our capture by the Krasnayans occurred, they arranged for our transfer to Northwestern agents. But essentially, Iern, your secret enemy has been … the Wolf Lodge, the builders of Orion.’
The blood fled Ronica’s countenance. ‘No, you’re crazy!’ she yelled. ‘What earthly use to us – a Gaean regime, just when our trade with the Domain was getting well started – no!’
Wairoa maintained his erosive steadiness: ‘Mikli gave me the same argument. I lulled him by not disputing further. But the facts are otherwise.
‘The Yuanese in the cabal merely provided assistance and a front. They were ignorant of Orion, of course, but took for granted that certain Lodges in the Northwest Union were plotting to throw off the Maurai yoke. From their viewpoint, they were helping promulgate Gaeanity in Uropa, gaining Norrman allies on the far side of the rival Mong realm Bolshareka, and making a personal profit. Oh, yes, Mikli and his gang meshed them in a spider’s web, piece by piece. They became exceedingly vulnerable to blackmail. And some were Norries from the first, infiltrators passing for Mong and working their ways into key positions.
The impetus against Skyholm always came from here.’
‘But why, why?’ Iern stammered.
‘It would be to the benefit of the entire Union to abort an incipient close relationship between Domain and Federation,’ Wairoa said. ‘Why grant the Maurai a foothold in Uropa, profitable commerce, technological exchanges? Rather, get these for oneself, for the Northwesterners – as well as unhindered, unquestioned access to eastern Uropa, where fissionables are. Moreover, trouble in the Domain would distract the attention of the Maurai while Orion neared completion.’
‘But Gaeans are gut-set against our whole ph-ph-philosophy.’ Tears stood in Ronica’s eyes. ‘No such arrangement could last.’
‘Mikli and his associates were only interested in the short term. Once Orion was up, it would make little difference who reigned in any country.’ Wairoa opened the book. It had concealed a sheaf of papers. ‘Consistency has no relevance to politics, nor do loyalty or morality. Jovain must be horrified by the news of your undertaking, and ready to support my nation against you. The Federation in turn will accept whatever help it can get in this war. Ultimately, though, it would be glad to assist a more congenial party into power in Skyholm.
‘I think you are entitled to know who your enemies are, Iern.’
‘Let me see that!’ The Clansman grabbed at the file. Ronica’s chair tumbled and her cat sprang off, indignant, as she hastened to look over his shoulder.
Plik leaned close to Wairoa. ‘Why did you do this?’ he whispered. ‘What did you hope to accomplish?’
‘Perhaps nothing,’ the Maurai conceded. ‘But I must needs try.’
‘Oh, you did enough. You played your role.’ Plik hoisted his glass. What he had drunk did not account for the unsteadiness of his hand. ‘You opened the gates of the hell through which he must pass.’
‘Must?’ Wairoa asked.
Plik did not reply. Wairoa sipped sparingly and observed the readers.
At last Iern shoved the papers aside, raised his head, and pushed from his throat: ‘You appear to be right. What next?’
Wairoa collected his evidence, tucked it away again, and stood up. ‘For my part,’ he said, ‘I shall report as usual, prior to my curfew. I had better take the opportunity to return these documents, under guise of looking for another book to borrow. You know where to find me if you wish. Goodnight.’
He went out. Iern twisted around in his seat, toward Ronica. She stooped and received his face in her bosom. ‘Oh, darling, darling,’ he mumbled.
She ruffled his hair. ‘It’s bad, beloved, and I’m ashamed,’ she told him. ‘But things like this happen. We’ll make it right, I swear we will. Hang in there.’ A chant: ‘First the stars, your flight beyond the sky, a way outward for our children and their children, forever –’
Plik departed, mute. He left the bottle. They might need it worse than he would.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
In the morning, Iern went to the nearest telephone, called his team chief, and reported himself and Ronica sick. It was not really a lie. After the night they had had, they would be of less than no use on the job.
They dressed warmly and set out for the surface. ‘Looks like this clear spell is going to last a while,’ the guard at the head of the ramp warned. ‘The kanakas might come over.’
‘I heard they’d pretty well given that up,’ Ronica said. ‘Waste of good bombs.’
‘Yah, but you never know about those bastards. If they just fly a reconnaissance, the pilot might still take a fancy to a little machine-gun practice on a couple of Norries.’
‘No. They aren’t monsters!’ Iern snapped. His vehemence took the guard aback.
Besides camouflage, a stand of spruce concealed this door. Sunlight struck between towering clouds to glow on murk
y-green boughs and ruddy trunks. The air was cold in their shadows but held a faint sweetness that was theirs too. Beyond, the mountainside swept away toward neighbor peaks and steep-sided valleys. The snow on the ground was old, surviving in streaks and patches, wan of hue. Boulders and crags jutted above it and what winter-gray turf lay exposed. A flock of Dall sheep wandered in the distance, led by a splendidly crowned buck. Breezes whittered.
Here two persons might find peace.
Iern set out on an upward-slanting course. Ronica took note of landmarks before she joined him. Weather was not ordinarily severe in this country, thanks to the warm Kamchatka Current, but it was treacherous; rain, snow, or fog could close down the horizon without warning.
They strode for a while in silence, until she asked, ‘Do you want to talk about it now?’
Sleeplessness hoarsened Iern. ‘Didn’t we thresh things out till close to dawn?’
Her head shook within the hood of her parka. ‘Not really. We talked the obvious to death. And you –’ she squeezed his arm – ‘you told me a worldful about Skyholm and the Domain and your life, trying to explain to me what it has meant to you. Trying to explain to yourself as well, I think.’
‘I said I would continue in Orion.’
‘Well, you haven’t much choice, have you? I want you to continue willingly. As is, if you quit, it wouldn’t stop anything, with the ship all set to go. Nor would it let you out of here. You’d just make people wonder what ailed you, and that might lead them to Wairoa. We agreed his poor little attempt at sabotage doesn’t deserve the punishment Mikli would doubtless lay on him.’
‘Mikli!’ Iern spat.
‘That’s what I’m hoping to set you free of today, dearest,’ Ronica said. ‘It’s no good, you feeling like a prisoner. That would poison everything – yes, between you and me also.’
‘I intend to kill Mikli Karst.’
Ronica’s smile was a grim one. ‘An excellent idea in principle. In practice, not smart. You couldn’t get away with it here, and they’d probably put you to death, because, damn it, he is invaluable. I happen to know that the shore batteries that stopped the Maurai at Cook Inlet, and the stockpiling of war stuff and the scheme for irregulars to come north that saved our bacon on this peninsula – those were his ideas, and in large part his doing. The secret could never have been preserved this long without him, his tireless tightrope dance. I suspect he’s got more surprises up his sleeve.’
‘What he did to my country –’
‘I agreed before, that’s inexcusable. The end did not justify the means. Mikli is a sadist, and this must have been an irresistible prospect, playing Satan on a continental scale; so he persuaded the Wolf leadership it was desirable. I suppose from a strategic viewpoint it was. For one thing, it entailed suborning a lot of high-ranking Yuanese, and I imagine those fellows are frantically busy on our behalf, trying to blunt the Mong attack. But I agree, the Domain didn’t have to be made a sacrificial goat. It was doing us no harm, and Jovain’s gratitude has evaporated overnight, hey?’
Stones scrunched underfoot. A raven flapped past, blackness momentarily blotting out the sun, and croaked, startlingly loud.
‘But you know something, sweetheart?’ Ronica said. ‘I realize this isn’t a logical argument. Just the same, if you’d become the Captain of Skyholm as was your right, I’d never have met you. I can’t help my selfishness, I’m glad.’
He stopped. She did. They gazed at each other. He seized her to him. Her cheek was cool against his. ‘And I, and I,’ he avowed.
She stepped back a pace, took both his hands in hers, and said: ‘Okay, if we can revenge you later on Mikli, fine. But he isn’t worth a lot of trouble. What we should make our goal is giving the Domain a legitimate government, that’ll restore order and justice and hope. It can be done. It will be, Iern. Every report tells how shaky Jovain’s rule is. It may well collapse of itself. If not – after Orion has risen, a word from on high is all that will be needed. And that word can be yours, Iern, you who helped us in our dark days. We Norries are no angels, but we do honor our debts.’
‘Yes – yes – we discussed that last night –’
‘It deserves repeating today, when the booze is out of our heads. And I’ve thought of something else. I warn you, darling, this could be a shock.’
Iern flashed a grin. ‘Your shocks are generally high-voltage. I’m prepared.’
She became earnest. Her voice dropped, her eyes held as steady as if she were sighting over a rifle. ‘About that next Captain in Skyholm. We’ve been taking for granted he would be you. But do you really want it anymore?’
‘What?’ broke from him.
‘Think. You were rambling on last night about a heap of things. Including mention of how you’d always wished to travel around the world, and being Captain would nail you in place. But it was a duty, maybe, and a big challenge, certainly. Since then, however –wouldn’t you rather lead the way into space?’
He stood wonderstruck.
‘The Domain must be full of Talences who’d make suitable Captains,’ she pursued. ‘You’d fulfill your obligation if you saw one of them in Skyholm. We haven’t got too goddamn many genius pilots. And Orion isn’t: just for the Northwest Union. It’s all humanity’s last chance to get out into the universe.’
He was still for a minute or two before he said, nearly under his breath, ‘You were right. You have rocked me back.’
She kissed him.
He knuckled his eyes. ‘You read me truly,’ he sighed. ‘But, well, could be I’ve seen a little more of politics in action than you have, in spite of your haring around with Karst. I can’t be as idealistic as you about this undertaking here.’
‘After your experience,’ she replied low, ‘I wouldn’t expect you to be. Nor do I suppose we humans, any bunch of us, are more than glorified apes. Sure, we’ll fuck up in space same as we’ve done on Earth. The point is, we’ll be there, beyond the death of the sun.’
‘And learn, and do, and dare –’ Iern laughed aloud. ‘What a pair of orators we’re becoming!’
Again they stood silent in the wind.
‘Very well, Ronica, most beloved,’ he said. ‘I am with Orion … and my heart is. It’ll be a dreadful thing if we lose that: not the war, but Orion. Partly because I think we belong out there, partly because – you’re right – it’s what I most want to do in the world, except for loving you – and mainly because I do love you, and this is where your own heart is.’
She came back to him.
‘But I have swallowed as much as I can,’ he warned. ‘I will not condone any further monstrosities.’
‘Nor I,’ she promised through unexpected tears.
2
After the days-long turmoil of assembly and the two days and nights of horrible crampedness aboard a troop train, it was incomprehensibly marvelous to be out in the open again. Kal-Gar, railhead and frontier settlement in southwestern Chukri, was no shrine of grace or delight, and the ruins left from before Death Time made it melancholy in a way that the relics looming above big, hectic Chai Ka-Go did not. Winds blew bitter across whitened plains, dry snow whirled, clouds went in tatters or joined to hang low as the ceiling of a tomb. Yet Vanna Uangovna felt she had been set free.
In part, this was true. Back east, and still more on the train, they had incessant need of her – the young, scared soldiers, abruptly plucked from home and dispatched to a war they did not understand. Thrown together into a strange camp, then jammed together in the stinking, rattling gloom of freight cars, they engendered ghastly rumors. Ucheny and proróchina, she moved among them, spoke to them jointly and individually, led them in chant and meditation, made them remember that it was Gaea for Whom they fought. Fear bared its teeth at her, shrank, and scuttled off to chitter from dark corners. But she could not radiate serenity like that without draining her own wellsprings.
There was again uproar at Kal-Gar, as men and horses burst forth. There was more life to it than had been at the load
ing. For two days the troops got leave, by turns, to seek what wineshops, gambling dens, and joyhouses the outpost boasted; and Vanna could walk the prairie alone, breathing clean air, and return to her bunk and sleep. Meanwhile Orluk Zhanovich and his fellows in the leadership organized for departure.
The Western majority of his Bison Polk had come north through Bolshareka to join his command. Units from all the Five Nations assembled likewise, putting themselves mutually under a Yuanese Grand Noyon. These were the elite cadres and their drafts, that could be mobilized fast and efficiently. Their assignment was to invade the Northwest Union through several Rocky Mountain passes. They would seize positions bestriding both valleys of the Fraser River, and thus interdict enemy passage north or south. Concurrently, the rest of the regiments would gather their strength and bring it up. And then the Soldati would follow the routes of their ancestors, back to the Yukon Flats, before they swung down again to seize and bind Orion.
Few of them knew that that was the objective. The Maurai announcement had not reached many pastoral homes, and even a townsman might be excused bewilderment about the idea of a spaceship. The commonest impression was that the Norries had been hatching the same kind of evil egg as a generation ago, and this time the Maurai needed help in a new Power War. After that had been won, soldiers growled, the whole devil-ridden country should be occupied and domesticated.
The Mong army uncoiled itself into half a dozen serpents and struck west.
Vanna had never seen mountains before. Words and pictures had brought to her no ghost of their beauty. On the fourth day she rode with Orluk and the staff, about a third of the way back from the van. She would rather have been off by herself. Surrounded by men and their racket, she could not truly seek Oneness in the awe everywhere about, as she had been able to do earlier on the march. However, yesterday skirmishing had taken place between forerunner patrols and Norries who came down from the heights. Today spotter aircraft had reported enemy activity originating at a small fort some twenty kilometers ahead.
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