City on Fire (Metropolitan 2)

by Walter Jon Williams

  He puts his arms around her, pressing his head to her abdomen; she caresses his head, gazing down with a growing sense of astonishment, of a strange rising tenderness at this evidence of his need.

  There is a discreet knock on the door.

  Constantine disengages himself and rises, a startled look on his face. “Is it 17:00?” he asks. “I’m supposed to make a broadcast.”

  Aiah looks at her watch. “16:51,” she says, “yes.”

  “Damn.” He sighs. “I haven’t even worked out what I’m going to say.”

  “You’re good at this,” she says. “You’ll think of something.”

  She reaches for him, wanting to touch him again, to feel again that fragile tenderness. He holds her wordlessly for a long moment, then murmurs into her ear that it is time for him to go. She raises her head, feels his lips press hers, and then he is gone, walking away with his usual decisive tread.

  She looks at herself in the black mirror of the window, and wonders what thing it is, newborn and vulnerable as a child, she sees there.

  “WHAT FOOLS ARE THESE WHO FIGHT HISTORY?”

  CONSTANTINE’S BROADCAST RALLIES FREE CARAQUI

  Rohder is in her office when she returns, smoking the last of a pack of cigarets; the rest of the pack fill Aiah’s ashtray. He is in his shirtsleeves, with circular salty crusts under his arms, but otherwise seems unchanged by his time in jail.

  “Thanks for acting so promptly,” he says.

  “All I needed was to threaten every cop in the station with death,” Aiah says.

  “You seemed to have engaged their attention.”

  Aiah glances out the window for a moment— her office doesn’t face Lorkhin Island, and it’s safe enough to let in light— and then she sits in her chair and glances at the pages placed on her desk: a complete list of every plasm house in the files, a note from Ethemark clipped to the front reporting, “All we need now are some troops.”

  She looks up, sees Rohder watching her with his mild blue eyes. “Constantine wants you to get your team together and start moving buildings around,” she says. “Hire as many people as you need, and Constantine will also make certain you get enough computer time to complete your calculations.”

  “The calculations are already complete for the district where we made our first attempt,” Rohder says. “I can send our team in there tomorrow. But if I’m going to be closing off bridges, stringing up cable, and rerouting traffic, I’m going to need police, or people like police, to handle that for me, and I understand the police are not our friends.”

  Aiah runs her hands through her hair. “Perhaps we could call the Public Maintenance Department.”

  “I imagine they’re going to be busy repairing bridges and public services wrecked by the war, but I will call and see what can be arranged.”

  Aiah makes a note to herself. “I’ll have Constantine call their minister.”

  “That may help.” Dryly. “And the computer time will be useful. I will also need a large number of structural engineers to calculate the amount of mass in each building. Where do you expect we could get them?”

  Aiah stares at him blankly. “Structural engineers?” She shakes her head and writes it down. “I will consult,” she says. “For the moment, you might as well get a good shift’s sleep.”

  He stands, and then his eyes lift from Aiah to the window behind her. He stares for a moment, mouth dropping open in shock, and Aiah swings her chair around, afraid she will be staring straight at a hovering enemy helicopter, its weapon racks loaded with rockets.

  For a terrifying moment she fears it’s worse than that, for the horizon seems to roil with images of conflict. Aiah sees arms bearing weapons aloft, faces distorted in terror or rage, rows of sharp teeth, flashes like bursts of gunfire, shattered skulls in rows, all the images mingled together or following in swift succession, the display’s chameleon form altering too swiftly for any single impression to remain for long.

  “What is that?” Rohder demands. His voice trembles.

  “The Dreaming Sisters,” Aiah says. “They seem to have noticed that we’re at war.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  An endless round of exhausted labor follows, dreary days that leave Aiah feeling as if she has spent weeks slogging through a mud storm. Any restful sleep is impossible: it seems as if she has only to close her eyes for the Adrenaline Monster to jerk her awake and leave her staring wide-eyed into the darkness, nerves alert to any sign of danger, pulse beating in her ears, sweat moist on her nape. The endless hours and infinite frustrations of work are made possible only by periodic injections of plasm, jolts of fiery energy straight to the heart.

  But perhaps the entire government is running on plasm-energy, because things are moving quickly. Due to an unusual spirit of unity among the triumvirs, Rohder’s problems are solved with remarkable speed: Parq’s fledgling Dalavan Militia performs traffic control duties around Rohder’s crews— a task well within the inexperienced militia’s capabilities— and his teams of estimators are provided by engineering and architecture students, two senior classes of whom are simply conscripted for the duration.

  Aiah presents Constantine with a budget, and he signs it without even a glance.

  She gives everyone in her department, excepting herself, a raise of 25 percent— a nagging scruple prevents her from raising her own salary. Her deputy Ethemark now earns more than she does. She hopes the raises will do morale some good.

  While the Plasm Enforcement Division grows under emergency pressures, the war continues. The northeast horizon glows around the clock as more plasm becomes available to the contending mages. Droning fills the air as reinforcements shuttle through the aerodrome. Shellfire lessens as both sides begin to conserve ammunition for the battle they know is about to take place.

  As soon as he has his military units positioned, Constantine launches the Battle of the Corridor, designed not to attack the enemy strongpoint at Lorkhin Island, but instead to cut the Provisionals off from their support in Lanbola.

  It fails.

  HEAVY FIGHTING IN CARAQUI

  ENTIRE DISTRICTS AFLAME

  TENS OF THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES

  Aiah finds Constantine in his emergency suite, a place he stays when battle threatens, an old storeroom deep in the concrete-and-steel caverns beneath the Palace. It is near the command center and Plasm Control, so that he might appear in either place on short notice, but it is a dismal place, airless and cold, with moisture beading the scarred metal walls. Light comes from battered overhead fluorescents. The furniture is ornate and comfortable, scavenged from state apartments in the Swan Wing, but it is out of place in this tall, narrow, oppressively lit room.

  Constantine is sunk into a winged armchair, head bowed over his chest. His jacket is thrown on the bed, and great blooms of sweat darken the fabric beneath his arms. He glances up as Aiah enters. The expression of sullen anger on his face makes her hesitate, and her words dry up on her tongue.

  “Betrayed,” he says, and lets the word hang in the cold air for a moment; then he throws his head back, runs his hands over his face. “I should have anticipated it,” he says. “Lanbola has violated its own neutrality repeatedly to aid the Provisionals, but this . . . this last outrage!” His hands clench into massive fists; the cords on his neck threaten to burst his collar. “The Corridor was won, it was hard fighting but the Provisionals were beaten!” He stands, unable to keep his seat, the anger marching him up and down the narrow metal-walled room.

  Aiah bites her lip. She remembers Constantine being in this violent, reckless mood once before, when Drumbeth had checked him over Qerwan Arms. She doesn’t know how to curb this kind of rage, not when her every instinct is to leave now, or hide, until it is all over.

  “For Lanbola to permit the Provisionals’ mercenaries to make such an attack!” he roars. “Upon our flank, and out of their own territory! Such a prodigious violation of all law, all decency, all honor...!” He walks up to the metal wall and smas
hes at it with a gigantic fist.

  Aiah holds her breath as the room seems to give a leap. She is waiting for the cry of pain— her brother Stonn broke his hand in just this fashion, enraged over losing a bet on his favorite football team— but Constantine has judged the force of his blow well, and he merely draws back the hand, examines the bruised knuckles, and scowls as if he were angry that something had not shattered.

  “These wretched petty treacheries have followed me all my life,” he murmurs. “Checked me at every point, hindered every action, fettered every reform, compromised every victory. The gods trifle with me for their debased amusement, and the froward perversity of humanity is without limit. Enough!” He makes as if to strike the wall again, thinks better of it, lowers his hand.

  He looks at Aiah from under his brows. “What I wish to do seems so very simple,” he says. “Must I wade thigh-deep in blood to accomplish it? And is it worth the cost?”

  Aiah gropes for words. She had come to offer comfort, not to answer questions. “You didn’t start this war," she says.

  Constantine gives a low laugh. “Of course I did,” he says. “You helped me— you gave me the plasm for Drumbeth’s coup, and everything since, all this tragedy, has followed. And so...”

  He glides toward her, eyes glittering beneath his brow, like a great cat stalking its prey. Aiah feels a thrill of fear run up her neck. He moves close to her; she can smell sour sweat, feel the heat of his body.

  “What do you think of your gift now, Miss Aiah, that great well of plasm whose power you gave me?” There is a mocking tone in his voice. “Are you pleased with the result?”

  Aiah straightens her spine, looks at him coldly. “I think this is Sorya’s reasoning,” Aiah says. “She is the one who says that all wars are one war, that there are no truces, that it’s all one grand struggle for power, back to Senko’s day I suppose. I gave you the plasm, and I will take responsibility for that, but this war is not something I created. It is not mine. I decline to be answerable for it, and I don’t think you should try to make it my fault.”

  He looks at her for a long moment with that dangerous light still in his eyes, then takes a step back, and then another. He turns away and faces the far wall, head high, as if he were contemplating a view. His voice is a soft, penetrating rumble that echoes from the metal walls. “You humble me,” he says, “and you are right. I was finding the blame for this failure hard to bear,” he says, “and looking for someone to help me shoulder it.”

  “I will help you,” Aiah says, “but not by taking blame that isn’t mine.” She licks her lips. “And the blame isn’t all yours either. There are still Gentri and Radeen.”

  “No, there are not.” Constantine’s voice is cold. “They died, four days ago, as the offensive began, along with all their staff. And I am responsible for that as well, though it is a burden I can bear more lightly than many another.”

  “Taikoen,” Aiah says. In the metal room the name echoes louder than she would have wished.

  “Yes,” Constantine says. “My greatest weapon. But the purpose for which I used him came to nothing, and the use of such a weapon comes with a cost. . . .” He looks at Aiah over his shoulder, and his face is a mask of self-loathing. “I will be giving him lives, month after month, for years, and all for nothing, for worse than nothing: a military offensive that killed thousands and ended in stalemate.”

  He breathes deep, shoulders lifting as he fills his lungs, and then lets the air out. “I must report to the cabinet,” he says. “They have given me their trust, their resources. What can I tell them?”

  Aiah takes a step toward him. “Tell them that you couldn’t anticipate everything. Tell them you had the battle won, but Lanbola intervened. Tell them that you have learned, and that the next battle, you will win.”

  Constantine listens, his head cocked, and then he turns. The dangerous brilliance is gone from his eyes, replaced by mere exhaustion. “Yes,” he says, “I will tell them exactly that. What can I tell them but that?” He sighs again. “I will bring you to the meeting, and you can report on Rohder’s progress. I may as well season the bad news with a little good.”

  He walks toward her, wraps his arms around her, holds her against his barrel chest. Aiah closes her eyes, inhales the scent of him, flesh and hair oil and sweat, the scent of a man who has worked for days at a frenzied pitch and now is close to the end of his endurance.

  “I need you now, and desperately,” he says. There is a kind of mourning in his voice. “I can trust you, and there is no one else, no one to help me stand against the nightmares... all the dead of Cheloki who haunt me, and now the dead here, too, in their thousands...”

  Aiah presses herself against his weight. The need in his voice frightens her. She must be strong, it seems, even for him, even for the strongest thing she knows...

  And then cold terror floods her spine. She can feel her nape hairs spring erect and gooseflesh prickle her arms. Constantine stiffens, suddenly alert, and she hears his heart crash in his chest. There is suddenly a presence in the room, a terror, and the lights seem to go dim, as if viewed through a thickening fog.

  “Metropolitan,” says a voice, “I have done the thing you bade me.” The voice is deep and resonant, as if from out of the earth, as if it were calling through rock and magma and clay.

  Aiah’s knees go weak. Constantine supports her with his arms, shielding her protectively from the terror, from Taikoen the Great. There is a strange shimmering on the metal walls, swift and indistinct sensations of prismatic color, and Aiah doesn’t know if it is something Taikoen is somehow projecting, or his body, his being, somehow expanding through the room.

  “This is not a good time,” Constantine says firmly. “We are not alone.”

  “I have met the lady before,” says the creature— ice man, hanged man, the damned— and from around Constantine’s shoulder Aiah catches a glimpse of the heart of him, a deep shadow in the room’s corner, a shadow strobing with lines of silver and of color, as if plasm itself had taken on both form and evil intent... This place is well shielded, but not against a creature of plasm like Taikoen, who can creep through plasm mains at will, who can appear anywhere that plasm can be found.

  “I have come for my reward at the time appointed,” Taikoen says. “I have killed as you desired, Metropolitan, and now I desire my delight.” His voice turns silky. “I have delayed my reward to do this thing, and I would not delay any longer.”

  “I can’t help you now," Constantine says. "I do not have the means at present. Give me some few hours to prepare, and I will give you what you need.”

  “Do you think, Metropolitan, that I enjoy killing?” The creature’s voice is petulant. “I do your bidding for one thing only— I wish to clothe myself in flesh. I wish the joys and pleasures of matter. I wish to have on my tongue the gladness of a feast, to sense in my mind the delirium of liquor, to feel in my loins the ecstasies of love.”

  Aiah shivers uncontrollably in the cold that the creature seems to project, and she expects to see her breath blossom out in frost; but she can see sweat standing out on Constantine’s forehead as he faces his ally.

  “So you shall,” Constantine says firmly. “But I must have some time to prepare. I do not have a subject ready for you.”

  “This is the time appointed,” Taikoen insists. “Give me this girl, if you have no other.”

  Aiah gives a cry, her mind quailing, a shudder quaking through every limb. Constantine holds her upright through main strength.

  “I will not,” Constantine says. “I will give you someone, and in a short time, but this lady is vital to my purpose, and you cannot have her.”

  “It is the time appointed,” the creature insists.

  “Come back in three hours!” Anger snaps in Constantine’s voice. “Come to my apartment then. I will have someone for you— but not now!”

  Taikoen hovers for a moment and seems to swell, as if threatening to engulf them, and then he subsides, seems to slip
away like mist, fleeing as if from reality itself.

  “As you wish,” the creature says finally, and adds, with a touch of disappointment, and perhaps even sorrow, “It was the time appointed, Metropolitan.”

  Then Taikoen is gone, and Aiah can hear nothing but the uncontrollable chattering of her own teeth. Constantine walks her to the winged armchair, lowers her gently into it. She draws up her legs into a fetal posture, still shuddering. Constantine caresses her cheek, her forehead.

  “I am sorry,” he says. “I had lost track of time; I had forgot he would be seeking me.”

  “You must get free of him.” The words shivering out of her.

  Constantine looks at her sorrowfully. “It is not possible.” He touches her cheek again. “Besides, he may be useful yet.”

  She turns her head away, unable to bear his touch. He looks down at her pensively, teeth worrying at his lower lip, and then turns and walks to the door.

  “I must find Taikoen a villain to live in,” he says. “While I satisfy him, prepare a presentation for the cabinet meeting— as optimistic as you can make it.” He looks over his shoulder. “Optimism is in short supply, and therefore valuable. Make what fortune you can.”

  He walks away on his— on Taikoen’s— errand, and leaves Aiah in his armchair with only her terror for company.

  LANBOLA CLAIMS NEUTRALITY

  NO ATTACKS LAUNCHED FROM LANBOLI TERRITORY, MINISTER INSISTS

  The War Cabinet meets in the Crystal Dome two days later. The delicate glass structure has withdrawn for the duration into an armored vault, lowered on huge hydraulics into the depths of the Palace. Now Aiah knows how the room survived the violence of Constantine’s original coup.

  Smooth polished steel surrounds the cabinet room, forms a roof overhead. Fresh flowers in cut-crystal vases, placed at intervals along the table, serve only to make the room even more bleak by contrast. The War Cabinet is a reduced version of the entire cabinet, and consists of the three triumvirs as well as Constantine, Sorya, and Belckon, the aged Minister of State, all of whom cluster at the head of the long glass table. The effect is a sense of isolation, a cluster of defeated people, hiding behind slabs of armor in a room designed for three times their number.