City on Fire (Metropolitan 2)

by Walter Jon Williams

  “I can’t say.”

  Aiah taps a pencil impatiently on her desk as she strives for clarification.

  “You can’t say because you don’t know, or because you decline to answer?”

  “I. . . ” The officer gropes for a response. “I can’t say,” he says finally.

  “We know you’re holding them,” Aiah says. “Please don’t try to deny it.”

  “All right.” The officer agrees amiably enough. Aiah restrains the impulse to sigh audibly into the mouthpiece.

  “Can you tell me,” keeping a grip on her patience, “if any charges have been filed against them?”

  “No. We haven’t received any instructions.”

  “Whose instructions do you need?”

  “Captain Albreth.”

  “Is he available? May I speak to him?”

  “No. He made the arrest, but he’s been out of touch since then.”

  “I suggest you let them go,” Aiah says. “They’ve committed no crime that you know of, you’ve held them for over twenty-four hours without a charge being filed, and your Captain Albreth may be dead or in jail himself for all you know.”

  “Well,” the officer says. “I don’t know if I have the authority—”

  “Let me speak frankly, sir,” Aiah says. “The coup against the government has failed. Gentri and Radeen and the others are either dead or in hiding. Their forces have fallen apart. The Palace is now in a position either to reward its friends or punish its enemies. Now, sir— which of the two are you?”

  “I’ll have to talk to some people about this,” the officer says.

  Aiah decides that the time limit on her patience has expired. “If you are a friend of the administration, you will let these people go," she says. “If you are an enemy, I’ll come down with a company of soldiers, and I’ll free my friends. And if I have to shoot every policeman in the place to do it, that’s what I’ll do.” She pauses to let this sink in, then adds, “The choice, of course, is yours.”

  “I . . . ” She can feel the officer struggling. “I’ll have them released,” he finally says.

  “I’m happy that reason has prevailed,” Aiah says. “Have Mr. Rohder call me when he’s set free.”

  She hangs the headset on its hook and observes Ethemark looking at her meditatively, nictitating membranes half-closed over his eyes. When she returns his gaze, his eyes clear and he turns away.

  “You’ve changed,” he says.

  “Not just me,” she says. “Everything is different now.”

  A man died in my arms, she thinks. He died to save me.

  One death, among so many, that she must not allow to be in vain.

  NEW CITY PARTY FORMED

  CONSTANTINE PROMISES "VICTORY AND LIBERTY”

  Finally. Finally. Finally she will see Constantine alone.

  He has moved his office to a part of the building facing away from Lorkhin Island, into a place in the luxurious Swan Wing. In the anteroom, bodyguards, soldiers, and messengers loiter on a priceless Kivira carpet and scatter cigaret ash on sofas glittering with gold and silver thread. All the windows have been polarized against both light and observation, but a chandelier, all chiming teardrop crystal, provides light enough.

  Aircraft drone overhead. They are bringing in mercenaries from the Timocracy, just as other aircraft are bringing other troops into Lanbola to reinforce the invaders’ strong point at Lorkhin Island.

  Plasm sings in Aiah’s head like a chorus of angels. A few hours ago she was exhausted, both from work and from her inability to get proper rest— during the course of a single shift’s sleep, random bursts of adrenaline would bring her awake at least two or three times. Sometimes the chemical alarm occurred in response to something happening— a crash of shellfire or a fire gong— but often as not she was awakened completely at random, as if something in her mind had concluded it was too dangerous to let her sleep for long.

  But the plasm circuits in her department have finally been turned on so that she can now surveil target plasm houses, and the first thing Aiah did was to get her t-grip and bathe in the stuff, burning away fatigue toxins, burnishing her mind, filling her nerves and heart with energy.

  The world does not seem as bleak as it had a few hours ago.

  Aiah sits in the anteroom among the guards and bustle. She has to beg Constantine for military police to take down the plasm houses, and must wait her turn like the other supplicants.

  The door opens and a small woman walks in. Heads turn, and there are double takes. Aiah feels surprise at the sight, then confusion as the woman recognizes her, then walks toward her with an outstretched hand.

  “Lady,” she says.

  “Lady” was Aiah’s code name during the final stage of Constantine’s coup. The other woman’s was “Wizard One,” but her real name is known to almost everyone in the world, for she is famous.

  She is Aldemar, the chromoplay actress, in person a petite figure with delicate wrists and ankles and bobbed dark hair. Across the world, a giant on screens three stories tall, she regularly fights evil in any of a series of third-rate melodramas with titles like Revenge of the Hanged Man and Rise of the Thunderlords. Her publicity has always maintained that her chromoplays are based on fact, hype that Aiah had never believed until she’d met Wizard One and found her competently directing Constantine’s secret plasm house.

  Aiah takes Aldemar’s hand. “My name is Aiah,” she says.

  The other woman smiles. “I know. Constantine has spoken of you. May I join you?”

  “Of course,” Aiah says, and she wonders in what context her name arose.

  Aldemar smooths her long dark skirt and joins Aiah on the sofa. Aiah sees flashes of jealousy radiate from others in the room and smiles inwardly.

  “Have you just arrived?” Aiah asks.

  The actress shakes her head. “Oh no. I’ve been here for two days, directing part of the plasm war.”

  Aiah looks at her in surprise. In an elegant long skirt and a white lacy blouse, her face a natural-seeming composition of artful cosmetic, Aldemar hardly looks like a general fresh from the wars.

  “You got here fast,” Aiah says.

  “I teleported in as soon as I heard the news. Had to shut down production on the new chromoplay, but I hope the additional publicity will mollify my investors.”

  Teleportation was one of the surprising skills Aldemar was revealed to possess in the aftermath of the coup. This ability had given Aiah greater respect for Aldemar’s skills as a mage than she’d ever had for her chromoplays.

  Teleportation is difficult and dangerous, and though there are mages who cheerfully accept large fees for teleporting equipment and personnel, few ever dare to teleport themselves.

  “What’s the new play about?” Aiah asks.

  Aldemar’s eyes glitter with amusement from beneath her black bangs. “Coincidentally enough, I play an actress who helps an idealistic and charismatic political leader overthrow a corrupt government.”

  “Is it good?”

  Aldemar dismisses the production with a little shake of her head. “It’s no Lords of the New City, but it will probably make everyone concerned a great deal of money.”

  They are interrupted by one of the soldiers, who asks for an autograph.

  Aldemar graciously complies, and this begins a general movement toward the actress, who signs bits of paper or the backs of official requisition forms for a few minutes until Martinus, Constantine’s chief bodyguard, steps into the room and calls her name.

  Aldemar rises, hands the last autograph to one of her fans, and turns to Aiah.

  “Let’s meet when there’s a lull. I’d like to talk to you sometime.”

  Aiah blinks. “Certainly.”

  “I’ll call your office,” Aldemar promises, and gives a little wave as she walks to her interview.

  Aiah sits back on the sofa and is aware of a new respect in the eyes of the other supplicants. Strange how exchanging a few casual words with a celebrity sho
uld suddenly make her so much more interesting.

  She wonders how Aldemar and Constantine happened to meet, and how long-term— and intimate— their relationship is.

  Time passes. Aldemar bustles out after a few minutes, waves to Aiah again as she departs, and then a whole group of officers are called into Constantine’s presence. After they leave, a number of Constantine’s staff exit the inner rooms as well and stand waiting in the anteroom.

  He has sent them out for some reason. Even Martinus stands waiting, his impassive armor-plated face showing no emotion.

  A slow chill crawls up Aiah’s spine. The hairs on the back of her neck rise in shivering terror.

  Perhaps it is intuition only, or perhaps there is some tangential connection with the plasm that still warms her blood. But somehow she knows the identity of Constantine’s visitor, the meeting so private he had to send even his intimates out of the room.

  Taikoen. The hanged man. The damned. The creature, once a man, now a disembodied entity living in the drumbeat of plasm.

  Cold terror fills the hollow of Aiah’s bones. The next minutes seem to last centuries.

  Suddenly the terror fades. Aiah looks wide-eyed at the others, wonders if any of them sense the creature’s presence.

  Apparently not.

  The door handle turns, and Constantine appears briefly in the partly open door.

  “Aiah,” he says briefly, then walks off, leaving the door open. She rises from the sofa and follows, closes the door softly behind her.

  Her every nerve is alight, straining for sign of Taikoen. But she senses nothing, and slowly she feels herself relax.

  “Is he gone?” she asks.

  Light shimmers from mirrored walls. Constantine stands in the center of the priceless carpet surrounded by boxes and stacks of files, the work from his office now stacked atop the glittering luxurious Keremath tables, chairs, and shelves. He seems unsurprised by her question.

  “Taikoen?” he says. “Yes.” He cocks his head, looks at her. “You are unusually sensitive to his presence.”

  Aiah hugs herself and shivers. “I wish I weren’t.”

  Concern glows amber in Constantine’s eyes, and then he crosses the distance between them and wraps his arms around her. She rests her head on his shoulder and tries to let her anxiety sigh from her lungs like a breath.

  “I’m afraid of him,” she says.

  He strokes her hair. “I will never let him harm you.”

  The words bubble from her mind, and she can’t stop them. “Have you sent him to kill?”

  “No. Since he can get through shielding, I have sent him to find certain people. The headquarters of the enemy soldiers, the communications center. So that we can disrupt them later.”

  “And you will give him his price.”

  “I will,” simply. “It will save lives, many more lives than Taikoen can inhabit in my lifetime.”

  Aiah presses herself to him, inhaling the familiar, comforting scents of his body, his leather jacket, the scented hair oil. “I wanted to touch you these last few days,” she says. “And I couldn’t.”

  “You were braver than I would have believed, than I wished to believe.” He kisses the top of her head. “I will arrange for some official thanks— a citation, a medal, something trivial but the best the state can do— but you must not take such risks in the future.”

  They fall silent. Aiah tightens her arms about Constantine, pressing herself as close to him as possible, wanting to annihilate herself, to dissolve into him. For once he shows no sign of impatience, seems content to allow the embrace to go on as long as Aiah wishes. Finally it is she who stands back.

  She wants to tell him about Sorya, but she can’t find a place to start.

  “I can take down almost a hundred plasm houses,” she says instead, “but I can’t use just my clerks— I need police to do it.”

  He considers. “I can take some of the military police guard from the Palace,” he concludes, “but they’re not the units you’ve worked with before— those are scattered throughout the metropolis, guarding vital installations.”

  “If you will tell the commanders to get in touch with me...?”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “Secondly, I have sprung Rohder from jail, and he’s either on his way to the Palace or, more likely, has already arrived.”

  “Excellent. Very fast work.” He turns, fingering his chin, and begins to prowl among the piles of boxes, thinking as he paces. “There is another thing I need you to do.”

  A weak little laugh bubbles up from Aiah’s throat. “Another?”

  His eyes are on her, intent and commanding as a pair of shotgun barrels. “You need to build your department,” he says. “Double it in size, triple it. And you must make it loyal to you.”

  “Yes.” She stands amid the clutter and feels suddenly alone. Objections, perfectly good organizational objections, spring to her mind. “Yes, but— expanding it so quickly, we—”

  He glides toward her, his expression so intent it frightens her. He leans close, takes her forearm in one of his big hands, bends toward her ear. “Do you recall the moment when Sorya was urging me to declare myself Metropolitan?”

  Fear crawls over Aiah’s scalp with clinging spider feet. He knows, she thinks. “Of course I remember,” she says, “but—”

  “I turned it down,” he says.

  “Yes, and I wondered why. Because she seemed to make sense—but now—” The words come reluctantly from her throat. “Now I realize,” she says, “that it was because you knew the coup is hers.”

  She feels him stiffen, and there is a dangerous edge to his words. “How can you know this? Do you have evidence?”

  “No. I just know it, that’s all.”

  “And so do I.” His words are meditative. “My dear one,” he says, “I wish you had not come to this realization. Because it is very, very dangerous for you.”

  “You’ve got to get rid of her,” Aiah says.

  He gives a tight-lipped smile and a little shake of the head. “Firstly, I have no proof of any of this, nothing but an insight that whispers to me that I am right. Perhaps evidence more concrete will turn up in time.” He takes a breath. “But more significantly, I can’t afford to act against her now. She miscalculated, you see— she must have intended that the coup miscarry, and then the perpetrators be disposed of, clearing the field not just of Drumbeth but Radeen and Gentri and everyone else that could possibly stand in the way of my ascension. But elements of the plot must have eluded her— she couldn’t have known the full strength of the enemy, or that the government of Lanbola would permit an invasion from their territory, that it would turn into a real war.” He stands back, rubs his chin. “But now that it is a war, I cannot afford to fight it without her. Having miscalculated and permitted this conflict to come about, she will do her best to win it. I can trust her to do that.”

  “But she’ll turn it to her advantage.”

  A calculating gleam enters his eyes. “So shall we all.”

  “You’ve got to look out for yourself,” Aiah says. “What if she decides that you’re standing in her way?”

  “That will not be anytime soon. Aside from her department, which no one trusts, she has no base of support here that does not come from me. She wished me to rise so that she could follow in my wake and gain power and adherents.” He ponders for a moment. “We will watch,” he says. “The war will provide us opportunity to build our own power, and it will also compel her to reveal her tools, her sources, and her methods. We will take note, and use the information when the time comes.”

  “Get rid of her now!” Aiah cries.

  He gives a minute shake of the head. “Unwise.”

  “And I suppose,” Aiah says, “you’ll be fucking her in the meantime.” For some absurd reason her eyes sting with tears.

  Constantine looks at her. Not coldly—not quite coldly— but appraisingly, objectively. “This has not bothered you in the past,” he observes. />
  Heat flashes red before Aiah’s eyes. “It’s always bothered me!”

  “The details of the arrangement were known to you before you entered it,” he points out— then shakes his head, throws up his hands. “But what does that matter? Arrangements can change...”

  He considers again, head down and frowning, and then raises a hand and points to the polarized window, the featureless black glass set into the wall. His dark reflection in the window confronts Aiah’s. “I am hiding in this building,” he says, “because there are enemy forces who would be glad to kill me. I cannot even look out a window for fear of some mage flinging a bomb or rocket or plasm blast. And in that world outside, which I dare not look at, there are nightmares forming. Familiar nightmares. Because I have been through all of this before.”

  He licks his lips. A vision of fear seems to haunt his expression as he stares at the black glass, and there is an unfamiliar wildness in his eyes.

  “If I misstep,” he says, “then Cheloki happens all over again here in Caraqui. Endless war, endless misery, a metropolis turned to wreckage, the destruction of all that I sought to save. I failed once—” Bitterness crosses his features. “Great Senko,” he cries, “I can’t let the nightmares loose again!”

  Aiah watches him in astonishment. She has never seen him like this, terror and rage so plain on his face. In battle, even while the assassins’ plasm rattled and boomed overhead, he had been cool and detached, ironic phrases falling from his lips as easily as commands. Now he almost seems someone else, a man overwhelmed...

  He turns toward her and advances, huge and powerful as a battleship, and then to her utter surprise falls to his knees in front of her, bent over like a supplicant, and takes her hands. “If I am to win this war,” he says, “if I am to keep the nightmares out, then I need my generals! Sorya is one, and you are another. I can trust her to fight well, if not faithfully, and you—” He kisses her hands. “You I trust absolutely. You are necessary to my success, to all that I hope to accomplish. You must let me arrange things, for now, the way I need them.”

  Aiah stands in wonder at the massive figure huddled before her. Hot tears splash onto her hands. “Yes, of course,” she murmurs. “Of course I will.”