Sword of the Lamb

by M. K. Wren

  Ransom nodded. “We’ll have our Rhea base, sooner or later. Jan, thanks for the tour.”

  “Sure. I’ll see you around the hangars in a few days.” He put out his hand. “And, Alex, welcome to Fleet Operations.”

  PERSONAL FILE: E. RADEK CASE NOTES: 27 AUGUS 3253

  SUBJECT: ALEX RANSOM

  I’ll be making my last report on Alex tonight. Tomorrow he begins his career in Fleet Operations. In retrospect, I can call the metamorphosis of Lord Alexand into Alex Ransom entirely successful. Almost too successful, except for the persistent warp associated with Adrien Eliseer.

  The test of Alex Ransom’s emotional equilibrium comes later this evening when I show him the ex seqs: the Ransom Alternative. I’ve asked Ben and Andreas to come to my office, too, but we’ll have to be circumspect in this and in subsequent meetings. Andreas objected to the late hour and the “sneaking about,” but not too strenuously. Even he recognizes the necessity of it.

  Alex will also recognize it, and won’t be as reluctant to face it. In a way, I’m also reluctant, because I must tell him that a threat exists that may shatter all his hopes and make his sacrifices meaningless. But we’ve all made sacrifices, and any of us who didn’t recognize the high risk of failure were deluded.

  6.

  It took nearly half an hour to cover all the sequences, including the subalternatives and contingency variables, a time of taut quiet broken only when Erica explained each new sequence, then subsided into silence while Alex studied it. He asked few questions.

  The screen was on the compconsole at one end of her office; their backs were to Ben Venturi and Andreas Riis, who were seated in front of the desk. But Erica was aware of them and their part in the silence. Waiting as she was.

  And now she watched Alex as he studied the last seq, absorbing the information as if he were himself a computer, analyzing and sorting, drawing instantaneous probability curves in his mind.

  “Is that all of them?” Even his voice had a flat, mechanical tone.

  “Yes.”

  He turned off the screen, but when it went dark, didn’t look up, apparently still concentrating on the graphs and figures in memory. But his blink rate was too fast. He was concentrating on her, and he didn’t look at her because he wanted privacy.

  She left him and crossed to the ’spenser. “Coffee, anyone?”

  Ben and Andreas seemed to find it difficult to shift their attention from Alex long enough to give her the expected murmured declinings. She punched for coffee for herself, then took the cup to her desk and sat down. Alex turned, and she was reminded of the first time she saw him on his arrival in Fina: the regal posture, a lifetime of training behind it; a child taught from infancy to hold his head high as his father did, and his before him. In his month at Fina, he’d become more relaxed, blending into his background, into his new identity. But his posture now wasn’t a reversion to his former identity, only indicative of a state of mental alertness.

  He looked at Andreas and Ben, but the silence remained unbroken. Still calculating. She felt something chilling in that cybernetic mindset. It wasn’t new, or a product of thirty-two days in Fina. It was only, like his posture, in some sense different.

  He was calculating potential opposition now; that’s why his attention was focused on Andreas and Ben. He was confident of her support. This she could have predicted, this establishment of a mandate of command at the outset. She watched as his gaze met and held Ben’s. Ben didn’t look away any more than he would back down, but he would accept leadership he could believe in; he was waiting for proof.

  There was a slight relaxation in Alex’s posture as he asked, almost casually, “Erica, why didn’t you elaborate on the Eliseer line in those ex seqs? Weren’t you sure I was capable of dealing with it objectively? You may all put your minds at ease on that score. Of course, if these ex seqs are implemented, we must try to keep the Lady Adrien free to honor the existing Contracts of Marriage with Lord Alexand. The political advantages of the union are obvious. However, the maximum time range in these ex seqs is ten years. It’s highly unlikely that Lady Adrien could be kept free so long, and that contingency is a very minor factor in the Ransom Alternative.”

  He crossed to the desk, his eyes moving slowly, with the leisure of confidence, from one face to another, but when he came to Erica, she wasn’t capable of meeting his gaze. She turned to Andreas, who was looking up at Alex in stricken bewilderment. A paradox, Andreas; so much a scientist, yet he counted the cost of every decision first in subjective terms.

  And Ben Venturi, the pragmatic idealist—his eyes were narrowed to slits, but the suspicion was gone. He found his proof in Alex Ransom’s ability to speak of the Eliseer match as if it were only a factor to be computed, from his denial of himself as Alexand. Exactly what Alex intended.

  “Dr. Riis,” Alex said, “I assume you’re prepared to act on the basis of these ex seqs?”

  Andreas answered, “Yes. The Ransom Alternative will put us in a stronger position far sooner than any other alternative available to us.”

  Alex began pacing a circle in the open area between the desk and the doorway, hands clasped behind his back, eyes apparently focused on the floor, yet she doubted he’d have missed it if Ben or Andreas so much as raised an eyebrow.

  Then he stopped and faced Andreas. “I must take exception both to the assertion that the Ransom Alternative will put us in a stronger position, and to the primary objective delineated in those ex seqs.”

  Andreas frowned questioningly. “I don’t understand.”

  “The primary objective is the reinstatement of the Lord Alexand with all powers intact as of his death. But the Lord Alexand will be your representative in the Concord; your tool. No amount of force will make a bladeless knife cut. If you simply reinstate Alexand, reestablish the old status, you’ll find yourself with an impotent tool. It isn’t enough.”

  Ben’s mouth was tight. “What is enough?”

  “The Chairmanship. Lord Alexand must be made direct heir to Galinin. It isn’t unreasonable. Alexand was in fact the real heir thanks to the blood link through Lady Elise.”

  Andreas frowned. “Still, Galinin named Phillip Woolf his immediate successor, and at this point the Directors are holding to that in spite of your ‘death.’ But to make you a direct heir—that would mean putting a known Phoenix member in the Chairmanship within a few years. They won’t be ready to accept that so soon; it’s too much to expect of them. And we’ll only get one chance at bargaining.”

  Alex remained clearly unimpressed and unconcerned with that argument.

  “If you consider it a lost cause, Dr. Riis, I advise you to give up the Ransom Alternative and concentrate on the Peladeen Alternative.”

  Erica stared at him. The Peladeen Alternative was Pri-One information, and Alex didn’t have access to those files. Then she almost laughed. She’d been foolish to think she could conceal that from him for a full month. At least she no longer had the problem of how to tell him about it and the threat it represented. Once he recognized the Peladeen Alternative, the threat would be obvious.

  Ben was shaken, too, and no doubt wondering about Alex’s source of information, but that didn’t concern Andreas.

  “Alex, do you consider your father that much of an impediment?”

  She saw a flicker of coldness, an ambivalent reaction outside calculation. But it wasn’t evident in his tone.

  “The Lord Woolf might have a change in attitude in the future. We know he’s been profoundly affected by the losses he’s suffered. But he may not change, or he may be driven to even more reactionary attitudes by his grief. In that case, he’ll be not only an impediment, but an insurmountable barrier. Except for Lord Phillip’s father, the Woolfs have been notably long-lived. Can the Phoenix afford to wait thirty or forty years before Alexand can even sit in a Directorate meeting? The next twenty years will be crucial for the Concord. Can you afford to wait that long to begin to initiat
e reforms? Consider it, Dr. Riis. Perhaps you should stay with Predis Ussher as your focus for Phase I.”

  Ben glanced at Erica, a question in his eyes: How much have you told him? But she ignored both his gaze and the question. She was wondering why Alex had chosen to use Ussher’s name. He might have used the term “Peladeen Alternative” again.

  Alex was looking intently at Andreas, and that was the answer. He wanted Andreas’s reaction to the name. And Andreas obliged him with an uneasy, uncertain frown.

  Alex said tightly, “Dr. Riis, I will not suffer this apotheosis or allow the Phoenix to waste its time and resources simply to reestablish a situation I know to be untenable. We must aim for the Chairmanship or give up the Ransom Alternative.”

  It was an ultimatum, and Erica saw Ben bridling at it, but Andreas stopped him before he could voice an objection.

  “He’s right, Ben. We aren’t in a position to assess Woolf’s attitudes or their results.” Then, as Ben subsided, he said to Alex, “We’ll have to take the chance that we can force the Directors to go beyond reinstating you. The Peladeen Alternative has too many disadvantages for us to consider it seriously now. We have no choice but to aim for the Chairmanship, as you suggest.”

  Alex’s expression didn’t change, although this was the recognition of leadership he wanted.

  He looked at Ben. “Commander, are you in agreement?”

  “I’d go with Andreas under any circumstances.” He hesitated, then nodded decisively. “But in this case, I go willingly. Yes, I’m in agreement.”

  It was a statement of faith that went further than Erica expected, and Alex seemed to realize that. It stopped him for a moment and even called up a hint of a smile.

  “Thank you, Commander. Erica?”

  That inquiry was only a matter of courtesy; he knew where she stood.

  “I’m in agreement.”

  He nodded and turned away to resume his pacing.

  “It would be a waste of time to make detailed plans for implementing the Ransom Alternative now. We’re faced with two major obstacles. First, we can’t go to the bargaining table until we have the long-range MT.”

  Andreas sighed. “Unfortunately, I can’t predict when we’ll have it. The ex seqs were based on the assumption that we’ll get a breakthrough within five years, and that’s within the limits of probability, but I can’t pinpoint it.”

  Alex took another slow turn, showing no dismay at that.

  “At any rate, we need time to prepare both Alex Ransom and the Phoenix. I can’t be foisted on the members as their tool or representative without their support. Perhaps we should be grateful to Confleet for equipping me so well for FO. It’s a natural springboard. I’ve studied the staff and matériel, and if I can’t work my way up to First Commander by the time Garris retires, I’ll fail you in my apotheosis.” He stopped and turned to face them. “We can also dismiss that problem for the time being, but there’s one problem we can’t dismiss: the second major obstacle to the Ransom Alternative, and the problem that brings us together in this clandestine meeting.”

  Andreas shifted uncomfortably, eyes averted.

  “Clandestine? Alex, we . . . simply thought you should be apprised of the ex seqs privately.”

  “No, Dr. Riis, ‘clandestine’ is the proper term, and this meeting marks the formation of a conspiracy. If it’s to be successful, we must be honest with one another. And with ourselves. Tell me, why isn’t the full Council considering these ex seqs?”

  “I didn’t think it wise to discuss them with the other councilors at this time.”

  “Especially not with Fer Ussher?” Then, at Andreas’s silent nod, “At least we’ve named the problem. Am I correct in assuming the main thrust of the Peladeen Alternative is to induce the Directors to restore the House of Peladeen with Predis Ussher as First Lord?”

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “And Ussher claims to be Elor Peladeen’s son?” Andreas only nodded again. Alex paused, then, “Is he Peladeen’s son?”

  Andreas pulled in a deep breath, frowning slightly.

  “Well, we’re as sure of that as we can be. The bodies of Lady Manir and Predis Peladeen were never found, of course, and there’s some physical resemblance to Lord Elor. Predis had some jewelry known to belong to Lady Manir, and related a few childhood memories. Not too much along that line, but he was only two at the time of the Fall.”

  “How did he survive it?”

  “A Fesh nursemaid took him in tow and later claimed him as her own child. She died a year before he joined us, so we couldn’t question her, but we have evidence that she was a nurse for the Peladeen child, and we couldn’t find any record of her marrying or having a child of her own. But very few records survived the Fall. That’s one problem we had in investigating Predis. For instance, there’s not a single fingerprint or VP record on Predis Peladeen to be found. Actually, we can’t prove his claim beyond a doubt. We only know it can’t be disproved, and for our purposes that was sufficient.”

  Alex asked Ben, “Are you convinced of the validity of his claim?”

  “His claim isn’t important now. We’ll have no trouble proving your claim.”

  “It might be important in terms of his responses and the loyalty he can command among the members. You’ve created a power vacuum in the Phoenix and it’s attracted a man of strong personal ambition. That’s inevitable. What makes him dangerous is that you’ll have to crush his ambitions, and he’s not the kind of man to willingly toss aside his own aspirations for Lordship in order to make someone else a Lord. Commander, how will he react if he knows the Peladeen Alternative is to be set aside?”

  Ben sighed. “He could be very dangerous. He’s unpredictable when he’s crossed.”

  Alex’s gaze shifted. “Erica?”

  “Predis was screened twenty years ago, and the information in the screening files isn’t too conclusive; our methods have improved considerably since then.” She paused, her fingers drumming on the arm of her chair. “My opinion is based on little more than day-to-day observation, but I do consider him dangerous. He could be highly disruptive, and we’re so vulnerable in terms of security and morale. I don’t know how far he’d go if he knew his ambitions would be crushed, but I’m sure he won’t accept it passively.”

  Alex walked back to the end of the desk and sat down on the edge, arms folded loosely, and only Erica was alerted by his casual tone.

  “So, Dr. Riis, here is a man capable of wreaking havoc within an organization vulnerable to betrayal from within and totally dependent on mutual trust. One dissatisfied member could destroy the Phoenix, either outright by betrayal, or slowly by fostering dissension. Predis Ussher is a threat to the very existence of the Phoenix. Perhaps you should give some thought to removing that threat.”

  Andreas stiffened, his eyes seeming to sink back into their sockets.

  “Removing him? What are you suggesting?”

  “There are always ways of removing a threat.”

  “We’ve considered all available means, and most of them involve the risk of engendering a schism in the membership—and that would destroy the Phoenix. He has a loyal following, Alex; remember that. There is no feasible alternative short of assassination, and we will not be reduced to that. The Phoenix never has and never will resort to bloodshed to solve its problems. When we go to the bargaining table, we’ll go with clean hands. And for any of us to sink to murder would be more damaging to the mutual trust that binds us than Predis could ever be. If he does represent a serious threat, we’ll have to deal with it as best we can, but we cannot resort to murder.”

  Alex studied him, eyes veiled, then turned to Ben, and the same conviction was in his face as in Andreas’s. Finally, he looked around at Erica and smiled.

  “Your survival is remarkable.” Then, to Andreas, “Dr. Riis, I will be guided in this by you.”

  Andreas needed a moment to recover, and Erica had to smile; he was only now awa
re that he’d been tested.

  “I’m . . . gratified, Alex.”

  Then Alex rose, frowning, hands propped on his hips. “The problem, however, isn’t solved. The question now is, if we’re stymied at doing anything about the Ransom Alternative for the time being, is Ussher also stymied?”

  Erica answered that. “Yes, I think he is, and I think the Ransom Alternative will just have to be our secret until you’re established in the Phoenix, and especially until we have the LR-MT.”

  He considered that, still frowning. “But the other councilors know my identity. Won’t some of them be a little curious?”

  “Undoubtedly, but Andreas can salve their curiosity without encouraging speculation or discussion. Before your potential in the Phoenix can be assessed, you must prove yourself as a working member.” She paused, giving him a slow smile. “And you’ll be proving yourself for a long time to come.”

  “Besides,” Ben put in, “Predis will help discourage any speculation about you in the Council. He doesn’t want them comparing the Peladeen and Ransom alternatives, because he’ll come out on the short end. And the Peladeen Alternative hinges on the LR-MT, too. He can’t do a damn thing until we have it.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow. “Can’t he? You mean he probably won’t do a damn thing until we have it.” Then he shrugged. “But I suppose a positive probability is better than a negative certainty. So, now we must work out some plans for the survival of our conspiracy. Tomorrow I begin my career with FO, and it will be some time before we can meet again without attracting undue attention.”

  He clasped his hands behind his back as he resumed his pacing. Calculating again, computing the variables. Erica felt herself relaxing as if a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Perhaps it was only that the lines had been drawn and there could be no turning back.