EMPIRE: Succession

by Richard F. Weyand

  All five fake Guardsmen went down. The rear two of them had gotten off wild shots as they drew their weapons. They didn’t hit anyone, but galled bits out of the floor surface in front of them.

  Bouchard rolled onto her knees and the heels of her hands, her pistols still at the ready. She pushed herself up onto her knees and scanned her three-hundred-sixty degree cameras for the backup squad, but didn’t see one. She jumped into a squat and stood up while keeping an eye on the men who were down. They all looked dead, but she was wary of fakers.

  “We good?” Parnell asked from the ground.

  “We’re good. I don’t see a backup squad. Here come the Imperial Police, though.”

  Parnell got up from the ground as an Imperial Police patrol officer ran up, pistol in hand.

  “You! Do you have an ID scanner?” Bouchard asked him.

  “Uh, yes,” the police officer said.

  “Scan these men,” Bouchard said, gesturing with her pistol to the faux Guardsmen.

  The police officer hesitated.

  “NOW!” Bouchard ordered.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  The officer holstered his weapon and took out his VR ID scanner. It was about the size of a deck of cards. He held it up to the head of each dead man in turn until he got a red light or a green light. The scanner could read the actual hardware-level IDs of the VR system of a person. It worked even if they were dead, as long as you got to them quickly enough.

  Parnell was collecting the other police as they came up and explaining what had happened.

  “They were impersonating Imperial Guard. That’s a capital crime. We expected something of the sort, which is why I had the major along today. She’s a master shootist. Shot from the ground so as not to hit bystanders. We need to hold the bodies for autopsy, including the uniforms. There may be evidence there. There will be an Imperial investigation of this. Imperial Guard has jurisdiction, but Imperial Police may be involved in that investigation, so make sure you make full reports.”

  The police officers nodded in understanding. Parnell’s cool detachment, his mentioning of investigations and jurisdictions and reports, all rang true with the police officers.

  The first officer on the scene walked up to Bouchard after he had scanned the bodies.

  “I got three of them, Ma’am. The other two took double head shots.”

  “Push them to me.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Bouchard broadcast one of her alias IDs, and the policeman pushed her three VR IDs.

  “Thank you, officer.”

  Bouchard changed magazines and mounted her pistols back in her forearm rigs while Parnell spoke to the senior Imperial Police officer on the scene.

  “We’re going on to the Imperial Palace. Round up these bodies and hold them unmolested for the Imperial Guard. We’ll send someone round to pick them up. And you can handle the follow-up work here?”

  “Yes, Sir. No problem.”

  “Excellent. All right. Good job, everyone. Thank you for your assistance.”

  Parnell nodded to them all, then he and Bouchard walked on to the escalators and took them down to the trains.

  Once on the train into the city, Parnell had questions.

  “How did you know, Marie?”

  “Non-regulation haircuts. Shoes not shined to standard. Two of them were wearing Imperial Navy decorations. One man’s fourragère was even stained. No way that group came from the Imperial Palace. No Guard superior would have let them out the door.”

  “How did you know all that, though?”

  “I had to research to wear this uniform for today’s charade. I didn’t want to make any mistakes. One reason I chose the MCU is because I didn’t have to worry about all those decorations, and I didn’t have to wear decorations I hadn’t earned. But I learned a lot about Imperial Guard uniforms. Enough to know they were ringers.”

  “A wonder that you saw it, and I didn’t.”

  “Most people see what they’re expecting to see. That’s part of pulling off a charade. Give them what they want to see and it doesn’t have to be perfect. I made it a point not to have expectations, and to evaluate them carefully as they approached. I saw it right away, but I had to let them get close enough the angle of my shots wouldn’t jeopardize bystanders.”

  “Well, that was masterfully done. It truly was. You’ve saved my life once again.”

  “Daniel, if someone is going to take you from me, they’re going to have to be a hell of a lot better than that.”

  Parnell led Bouchard up the escalators to the arcade level in Imperial Park West. She kept her surveillance going, but marveled at the shops and throngs of people about.

  “This is pretty amazing, Daniel.”

  “The street level is one level above, but it doesn’t pay to go up there as a pedestrian. All the storefronts are down here anyway.”

  They were riding the slidewalks from the Imperial Park West station escalators to the Imperial Park West entrance of the Imperial Palace.

  “Oh, look. There’s my alma mater. That’s where I got my PhD.”

  “Imperial University Center? I thought you got your doctorate on Verano.”

  “I did. It was a VR program. I got my PhD here, but I’ve never been here before.”

  They were heading east. Past the university, they came to a T intersection and took the slidewalk to the left.

  “That’s Imperial Park there,” Parnell said. “That’s why the arcade ends.”

  “So we’re close now.”

  “Oh, yes.”

  In the middle of the second block down this street, they came to a storefront with a black polished-marble facade, brass letters announcing IMPERIAL PALACE across the top, and heavy smoked-glass doors that slid aside as they approached.

  Bouchard stopped at the threshold of the door and looked out over the arcade. This was it, she realized. This was that moment when she entered the Imperial Palace and remained there for the rest of her life. After the episode at the spaceport, however, the outside world seemed to represent more threat than opportunity. She turned and followed Parnell into the Palace entrance.

  They walked across the lobby, nodding to the clerk behind the counter on one side. He nodded back. Parnell led Bouchard through the door on the other side of the lobby into a little underground tram station. There was a people-mover car there, a little electric car that ran on a track in a tunnel.

  The car doors opened, and Parnell waved her aboard the car. He followed her on, and the car doors closed. They sat down and the car moved off through the tunnel.

  “The controls are all in VR. Given Amanda’s jimmying with the VR, you probably have them if you look.”

  Bouchard looked through a set of menus under Imperial Palace, and she did see the controls for the people-mover, as well as for the inner doors to the people mover station from the lobby of the Imperial Park West entrance they had come in by.

  It only took a couple of minutes to get to the Imperial Palace people-mover station. By now it was mid-morning, and the rush of people into the Palace for the workday was long over, so their car didn’t have to wait its turn.

  They exited the car and walked through sliding glass doors into the second-basement level of the Imperial Palace. They walked across a broad hallway. Bouchard looked left and right and saw slidewalks that went a couple of blocks in either direction.

  “Those slidewalks are to the Imperial Research Building on the left and the Imperial Administration Building on the right,” Parnell said as they walked across the hallway.

  People moved purposefully about. Parnell and Bouchard went across the hallway into an elevator lobby. Elevator doors opened and they got on.

  “You should have elevator controls as well,” Parnell said.

  Bouchard looked in VR, and there were the controls.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Select the upper floor of the Residence Wing.”

  Bouchard did, the elevator doors closed, and the elevator started
up. When the doors opened, they stepped out into a hallway with widely spaced doors along its length.

  “Can you see our apartment?” Parnell asked.

  Bouchard looked left and right down the hallway. There was an icon overlaid on her vision halfway down the left side.

  “Yes. This way, right?”

  Parnell nodded and waved her ahead. When they got to the room door, Bouchard unlocked the door in VR and walked in. She had been used to the President’s Mansion and Il Refugio on Verano, so she wasn’t impressed with furnishings.

  “A bit stuffy,” Bouchard said.

  “I’ve been gone six months. Open the wall.”

  Bouchard saw Open Drapes, Open Sheers, and Open Wall in the apartment controls in VR. She selected Open Wall. First the drapes slid back, then the sheers slid back, then the entire glass wall opposite the entry door folded back into the walls. The entire width of the room ran out onto a glass-railed balcony that overlooked Palace Mall, Imperial Park, and the towers of Imperial City miles beyond.

  Bouchard walked out onto the balcony as in a dream. There was the cast-in-color statue of Ilithyia II on its pedestal, in the very middle of Palace Mall.

  “It’s beautiful, Daniel.”

  “The only better view is from two floors up, but you’ll have to wait for that one.”

  “That statue almost looks alive.”

  “Wait another hour or so. There are reflectors on the Throne Room down there that light it up at noon.”

  Parnell pointed out the reflector on this side of the Throne Room, the large Gothic nave, a relic of the previous palace, that extended out from the facade of this newer Imperial Palace.

  He walked back into the room and sat on the sofa facing the open window wall.

  “Well, I must say, it’s good to be back home. It’s been a bit of a wild vacation.”

  Bouchard walked in from the balcony and sat opposite him.

  “So it’s back to work. Speaking of which, the coronation is when?”

  “Next Friday. It’s usually on a Friday. Imperial Holiday. Three day weekend.”

  “And today’s Wednesday. If you want me to be in this dog-and-pony show, I need to get cracking.”

  “Yeah, Goulet wanted it this Friday, but I added a week for you to be able to get everything done.”

  Bouchard nodded.

  “Yes, two days from now would be impossible. I assume there are seamstresses and all that sort of thing available?”

  “Yes, but I would be surprised if Amanda doesn’t have everybody already working on all of that.”

  “We need to check in with her,” Bouchard said.

  “First is to get a shower and some lunch.”

  The door signal sounded then, and Parnell went to the door and opened it. It was a porter from Housekeeping.

  “Ms. Bouchard’s things, General Parnell.”

  “Ah, very good. In the bedroom, please.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Bouchard’s trunks were on an electric cart in the hallway. The two men from Housekeeping moved the trunks into the bedroom, then nodded to Parnell and left.

  “Now that my things are here, a shower and a change of clothes sounds good to me. You first or me first?”

  “You go first. You’ll need more follow-up time.”

  Bouchard nodded and headed off into the bedroom, peeling out of her MCU on the way.

  The Conspirators Assemble

  Parnell, in a fresh MDU, and Bouchard, in one of her senatorial business suits, waited in the apartment until noon. They sat out on the balcony and watched as the sun moved toward meridian. At a quarter to twelve, the Statue of Ilithyia II started to be illuminated by the sunlight bounced off the reflectors on either side of the Throne Room. At noon, the statue was fully lit and in its glory.

  “That’s incredible. She looks as though she were alive,” Bouchard said.

  “I’ve been told by people who knew her that it is a stunning likeness. In the recordings, you can see that when it was unveiled, the Emperor himself staggered from the impact of it.”

  “So noble. Her sword held aside to take the blow she knew was coming, that the Empire might survive.”

  “I’m surprised you know so much about it,” Parnell said.

  “History, my dear. I majored in history.”

  The sun moved on, the effect receded. Parnell took Bouchard’s hand.

  “Come along, Marie. Let’s go get some lunch.”

  They left the apartment but went the other way down the hall, to a different elevator. They took this one down three floors. It let them out across from the cafeteria on the lower of the two Imperial office floors.

  “This cafeteria is for the close personal staff of the Emperor,” Parnell said.

  Lunch today was a choice from several sandwiches, including hamburgers, Reuben sandwiches, breaded pork tenderloin, and barbecued brisket of beef, and turkey tetrazzini. There was a salad bar, fruit, breads, and desserts, including various flavors of ice cream, cakes, and pies. The alcohol bar was not open for lunch, but soft drinks, milk, coffee, tea, and juices were available.

  “Some cafeteria,” Bouchard said.

  “Wait till you see dinner. Think Il Refugio.”

  “Oh, my. Is there a gym as well?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good.”

  Parnell chuckled and they went down the cafeteria line. He took a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich with a garden salad on the side. Bouchard was going to go for the turkey tetrazzini, but thought better of it and did a side salad and a hamburger with no bun. She had to fit into, and look good in, a sleek dress only nine days from now, and it was discipline time.

  When they came out of the cafeteria line, they saw Amanda Peters sitting alone at a table for four. She noticed them and waved them over.

  “Hello, you two. Welcome to Imperial City. Have a seat.”

  “Thank you,” Bouchard said.

  Parnell and Bouchard sat side by side, across from Peters.

  “Are you two both alright? That was some scene at the spaceport.”

  “Yes,” Parnell said. “Thanks to Marie, we’re both fine. I didn’t even see it.”

  “He saw what he expected to see,” Bouchard said. “I was looking for trouble.”

  “I’m glad you were,” Peters said. “I had not expected them to be so bold. But weakness begets treason, and treason unanswered begets bolder treason.”

  Peters shook her head, then grasped Bouchard’s hand on the table and shook it.

  “Well, you’re safe here now.”

  “Are we?” Parnell asked.

  “Almost surely. Goulet dare not move against you now, and the Five Musketeers have no tentacles here.”

  “Goulet won’t double-cross us, Amanda?” Bouchard asked.

  “If he does, dear, I’ll have the staff throw him off his own balcony, and he knows it. Terrible accident. Just terrible.”

  Parnell chuckled.

  “Then again,” Peters said, “We owe Mr. Goulet and the Five Musketeers a great deal.”

  “We do?” Parnell asked.

  “Of course. A strong Empress is a huge asset to an Emperor, and, without their peculiar treason, you two would never have met.”

  That afternoon, Parnell and Bouchard received a request to meet with the Emperor. His Personal Secretary, Steven Dillard, showed them in to the Emperor’s office.

  “Be seated,” Goulet said.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty,” Parnell answered for them both.

  “First, let me say that I am happy that neither of you were injured in that incident this morning.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  “The whole thing is shocking to me. I never expected anyone to be so bold.”

  “They would have been successful without Ms. Bouchard, Sire.”

  “Yes, I’ve watched the surveillance videos. My personal thanks to you, Ms. Bouchard, for being so observant.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  “You’re very
welcome, Ms. Bouchard. It’s nice to meet you in person at last. I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but your avatar doesn’t do you justice.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  Goulet nodded, then turned to Parnell.

  “General Parnell, I want you to be in charge of the investigation. Jenny Beecher is head of Investigations, and she should be expecting your call. I think we both know what you’ll find, but let’s do a proper job of it. Report your findings to me personally.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “Ms. Bouchard, I have made the Emperor’s personal staff available to you for your preparations for next week. You should have the Imperial Residence floors available in your elevator controls now, as well as the listing of services available. If there’s any mix-up there, see Mr. Dillard about it.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  Goulet nodded.

  “That will be all.”

  They went out into the corridor outside the Emperor’s office, on the upper of the two Imperial offices floors, and headed for the elevators.

  “Well, I’m off to Investigations to see Jenny Beecher,” Parnell said. “She’s over in the Imperial Research Building.”

  “And I am headed upstairs to start working on next week. The services listing here is pretty unbelievable. So I’m going to pop up to the Imperial Residence and introduce myself to the seamstress and the hairdresser. Are they any good, do you think?”

  “They would have been hired by Amanda. I would expect them to be the best there are.”

  “Oh, good,” Bouchard said. “See you later.”

  Two elevators came, and Bouchard went up, Parnell went down.

  The Hairdresser and the Seamstress were both on the lower of the two Imperial Residence floors. They both had staff, the Hairdresser running a full-service shop that included manicure, pedicure, facial peels, makeup artist and other professionals. The Seamstress had a full-service tailor shop, with all the specialty machines, and could make up anything one could want from scratch.