Deserter

by Mike Shepherd

  “It won’t go away,” Kris said.

  “Or someone doesn’t want it to.”

  “How is Bremen?”

  “No more deaths reported. And Earlic heard something very strange. They didn’t actually do autopsies on the ones who died. Just cremated the bodies.”

  “I thought Ebola was a pretty ugly way to die. Kind of hard to mistake.”

  “It is, though the medical team in Bremen is pretty basic. Still, the bodies are dust, and no one can find the blood samples they took for analysis.”

  “If they called it Ebola, they had to do blood tests.”

  “Yes, we have the computer reports of the tests, but no one can find the blood samples to run a second test. All lost.”

  “Are they sure it was Ebola?” Kris asked.

  “No question, they’ve got fifty-seven early cases of Ebola.”

  “Early cases?”

  “Yes.”

  “How early?”

  “Another interesting question. Since I only have Earlic’s word that he heard this from someone who picked it up from a good friend who happens to know someone who has a relative in Bremen, you can understand it’s kind of hard to get to the truth.”

  “In other words, a rumor.” Kris tried to squeeze the sarcasm out of her smile, but it still must have looked bitter as lemon.

  “Isn’t it a mess? We’re making decisions that could shape my daughter’s future. My grandkids’ future. And we’re doing it by guess and by God. We may not all have computers like yours that are smart enough not to waste my time giving me tonnage to the last ounce, but we have some very good ones, and I can’t say what’s happening five hundred miles north of here, or on the next star system,” Senator Krief said with a bitter laugh. “You know something? President Iedinka could be right, and I would never know it.”

  “Yes,” Kris agreed.

  The Senator spotted someone, waved to get his attention, then slipped by Kris’s security cordon and launched into an animated discussion. Kris nodded to Jack to drop shields and found herself being introduced to three vineyard owners by Ambassador Middenmite. She smiled prettily, complimented the wines they had her sample, and tried to diplomatically praise all three without saying anything that would end up in tomorrow’s advertising feed. When they moved off, the Ambassador held back.

  “I was so sorry to hear about what happened to my assistant who was working with you. Damn bad show.”

  “Have you heard anything about who might have done it?”

  “I’m sorry, but I have to admit I’m rather busy with other things at the moment. All those stories circulating about how Wardhaven has been favoring Hamilton over the years. I don’t know where they come from. They say they’re documented. There’s nothing in our files to support them.”

  “But the media has ‘full documentation’ on their story?”

  “Well, they say so. I can’t say that I’ve seen the stuff; you know how newsies are about giving away anything that might reveal a source. But I know what we’ve bought from Turantic, and it’s a good bit of business. I keep trying to get on shows, tell people all that we’ve done, but no one seems to be listening.”

  “Telling people what they already know isn’t news.”

  “That’s what they say. Damn, I wish I had more Wardhaven files. I assumed if we needed something we could order it from home. I didn’t want trade confidential files on my system. I’m told security is good, but you hear of this teenager or that cute six-year-old who wandered into this or that on the net.”

  “Hard to know what is a good risk and what’s too much,” she agreed as the old man wandered off, shaking his head. Kris spent the next half hour shaking hands at a more leisurely pace. Either there were fewer people here tonight, or fewer wanted to brag tomorrow that they’d shaken the hand of a real Wardhaven Princess. Kris suspected it might be the latter.

  An hour gone, Kris wondered if Hank might be getting near the end of his command performance. NELLY, COULD YOU RING UP HANK’S COMPUTER AND SEE IF IT WILL TELL YOU WHERE HE IS?

  “I don’t like that bored look on your face,” Jack said. “You wouldn’t be thinking it would be nice to spend some time with that good-looking trillionaire, would you?”

  “And if I was?” Kris sniffed.

  Jack scratched behind his ear, resettled his receiver in place, and shrugged. “I’ve been thinking of briefing Klaggath on the bad blood between your family and the Peterwalds. Wonder how he’d take to your spending time with—”

  “What, a security risk? Hell, Jack, Hank knows as much about how the universe spins as I do.”

  “How about a major threat to your life and limb? Kris, he showed up on Olympia, and you almost got killed.”

  “My office got rocketed while I was away at lunch with Hank. That saved my life.”

  “Kris, you know about the other times as well as I. Damn it, woman, you’re a big girl, now, and you need to start acting like one.”

  Problem was, Jack was right; she was acting like a big girl. Real grown woman. She whirled on Jack, wanting to ask him where he suggested she find a man, her man. Tommy was joining all the others that gravitated toward her since high school. They’d get near enough to her to get a good look, and look good, then grab onto someone else. If she was a bridesmaid to one more best of friends, she was going to . . . To what?

  Behind Jack, Hank hove in view. As he spotted her, his face lit up in a smile that just about took in his whole body. He waved. Kris snorted, trying to drive out all the mixed feelings, put on a smile of her own, and waved back. Jack forced a smile as he turned and the two security teams began a careful approach as their primaries rushed into each other’s arms.

  KRIS, WE HAVE A PROBLEM, Nelly said.

  “Hank, you got free early.”

  “Told Caley he could take some of his cronies and shove them. I had a dance card to fill up.”

  WHAT DO YOU MEAN, PROBLEM?

  THERE IS A FIRE AT THE TURANTIC CAPITOL.

  TURANTIC CAPITOL?

  THE CAPITOL HOUSES THE LEGISLATURE. THE BUILDING IS BURNING.

  Hank looked distracted two seconds after Kris found herself no longer staring into his eyes but off into space, both their arms slipping to their sides.

  “Sounds like a minor problem,” Hank said, but his voice didn’t reflect that.

  “They have, or had, a vote scheduled tomorrow on going to war with Hamilton. I hope the fire isn’t bad,” Kris said, but she could hear the doubt in her own voice.

  “My report says the building is fully involved,” Hank said.

  Klaggath signaled to one of his agents, who stepped forward and pointed his hand, palm out. A heliograph of the capitol appeared before them, both the dome and the two wings fully involved in leaping flames.

  “That building is stone,” Kris said. “It can’t burn like that, can it?” She glanced around.

  An agent on Hank’s team answered her. “There are reports of a lot of communications equipment, chemicals, not all listed on the authorized storage report, and more paper than anyone expected. Still, it’s going up fast, way too fast.”

  Hank shook his head. “As my father would say, ‘something is rotting in Denmark.’ ”

  Kris ordered her gut to change gears, even as it screamed and screeched. “One does not dance while Rome burns. Bad PR, I remember someone saying. Want a rain check on those dances?”

  “I see Caley headed this way. I get the impression you don’t much like him.”

  “He’s far down on my list of folks I enjoy,” Kris agreed.

  “Well, I’ll go his way and you go your way, and maybe someday we’ll end up in a quiet place by ourselves with nothing much to do.”

  “Sounds like a dream I have,” Kris said, but Jack was pointing over her shoulder. Senator Krief headed for Kris with three or four other people who looked important. “See you when I can,” she tossed over her shoulder without looking back.

  Kris did look back when the Senator expended a second
to measure the distance between her group and Sandfire’s. Hank’s elbow was in Calvin’s iron grip, and he was being towed quickly away. She and Hank shared raised eyebrows for a moment before they concentrated on what was so dear to those around them.

  “We have a problem,” the Senator said, taking Kris’s elbow and steering her toward Senators Showkowski and LaCross. The tall LaCross wore a light-green dinner jacket. The large woman senator was easy to spot in a bright-blue suit offset by an orange blouse and gay scarf.

  “They’ve arrested Kui and Earlic,” Showkowski blurted out.

  “They can’t,” LaCross said. “We have legislative immunity.”

  Father put up with some pretty shabby antics from members of his own party and the opposition. Kris had heard him, snarling under his breath, that he’d rather do that than set the precedent that you could use any old pretext to jail a congress-man and change a vote. “You start down that path, and you have nothing between you and tyranny. Nothing!”

  Someone was going flank speed down that path.

  “What are the charges?” Kris said as softly as she could and be heard among the Senators as they repeated and denied the same report. She repeated herself three times before they quieted.

  “They’ve just been hauled in. No charges yet.”

  NELLY?

  I AM SEARCHING. NO CHARGES REPORTED. THEIR APPREHENSION HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED ON ANY OF THE MEDIA.

  Kris had Nelly repeat that for the Senators.

  “He can’t do this!” came from three senators.

  “Someone has. Who?” Kris asked.

  Klaggath answered her. “It has to be President Iedinka. No cop would dare do that without express orders.”

  “I’m calling him this minute,” Krief said, staring at the floor. A moment later, she looked up, eyes wide. “He’s unavailable. Izzic is unavailable, and no one on his staff will take my call. Someone always has something to say to a Senator!”

  Today looked like a day where always or never didn’t apply. Kris glanced around. She couldn’t see them, but she didn’t doubt that anything said here was going straight to the President or to the type of security people who hauled Senators and congresspeople off to jail. Time to take this discussion off the record.

  “Excuse me,” Kris said, “I have a suite in the Hilton. I also have a security guard that can assure that what we talk about will be secure,” Kris said, glancing over their heads.

  “Oh,” “Right,” came back to her without much conviction for the need.

  “Why don’t we adjourn? And if someone decides any of you need arresting, I could at least raise Wardhaven sovereignty.

  “In a hotel room?”

  “Hey, I’m new at this Princess stuff. I’ve got a security team, and even if I don’t quite have the diplomatic power I think I have, it will slow things down and force a conversation.”

  None of the Senators seemed all that persuaded, but Kris was moving for the slide way and her agents with her. The Senators, caught up in her bubble, sidled along.

  Kris had started the day hoping just to get a few good pictures. She’d gotten them, distributed them, and gotten reactions. Turned out to be more reactions than she’d expected. Riding the slide car, Kris wondered if everything on this planet had the same tendency to slide away from you.

  18

  Ten minutes later, Kris was shushing the others while Nelly and Jack debugged her place. The senators were at first non-plussed, but as the crackles and zings added up, frowns took over. “Is this normal?” Krief asked as Kris served tea from a tray she’d ordered in while still in the ballroom.

  “One thing I’ve noticed since becoming a Princess,” Kris said, “room service is noticeably faster. Amazing. Hotels, at least, take this royal stuff seriously.”

  There was no more serious talk until Jack said, “I’m done.”

  NELLY?

  JUST A SECOND MORE. Something buzzed, then sparkled from high on the chandelier and began a death spiral. Jack snapped it up before it landed on the rug. “All done,” Nelly agreed.

  “Can we join you?” Tommy asked and, when only yeses answered him, helped Penny slowly into the room. This time, she was the one sitting in the overstuffed chair, he the one with his legs folded to sit beside her.

  They do make a good pair. Kris swallowed a sigh. When one is down, the other carries the load, and then they switch without a word. Not a bad basis for a lifelong relationship. No envy from me; I just would like a bit of the same.

  Kris did a slow sweep of the group. Abby stood in the doorway to Kris’s room, Jack next to her. Had they had a talk about all the rabbits that woman kept pulling out of trunks or whatever? Penny and Tom had the big chair. The two women Senators occupied ends of the couch. Senator LaCross sat in the straight-backed chair Abby normally used. Inspector Klaggath stood by the door, seeming unsure whether to stay or go. Kris wanted him here, so she cleared her throat and asked. “Where is Turantic headed?”

  That started two or three immediate discussions with at least one Senator talking to the room in general and no one in particular. Kris let it go for a few minutes, using a quick wave of her finger to bring Klaggath in from the door to stand beside her chair. When coincidence finally stopped the speakers at the same moment, she said into the sudden silence. “So, we don’t really know.”

  The Senators exchanged glances, then looked at Kris. “No, we don’t,” Showkowski agreed.

  “Inspector Klaggath, you have access to the police net. Does that give you any information to go on?”

  “No, ma’am. As I mentioned earlier, several special teams were directed to different nets that I didn’t know existed. My people can’t access them. I don’t know any more than you do.”

  “Senators?”

  “What do we know?” Krief said, glancing at the others. “Not much. I’ve had my staff calling around. They can’t locate eight Senators. I understand some Representatives are also missing. I know from eyewitnesses that at least four were hurried off by police special teams. But if they are under arrest, we don’t know for what.”

  “Does the news have this story yet?” Kris asked.

  Leaving the ocean sunset that filled the wall behind Kris undisturbed, Nelly turned the portion close to Tom’s room into five screens showing different news coverage. “The fire is the main news item,” Nelly said. “The two stations that were not covering the cat in a tree are claiming the fire department was slow to respond to the fire. The others are pointing out how training like the cat rescue helps the fire crews stay in shape.”

  “So the media is involved in a catfight at the moment,” Kris said dryly. There were several snorts in the room.

  “May I point out,” LaCross said, leaning his tall frame forward in the chair, “that we do not even know for sure our colleagues are under arrest. They could be under some kind of special protection. Maybe the President knows of planned attacks on them. We could be looking at this all wrong.”

  “Oh, Lord,” Krief prayed, “I hope you’re right.”

  “We may be about to find out,” Nelly said, and the sunset view on the wall screen behind Kris changed. Now it showed a close-up of the President seated at his desk. Occupying the entire wall, he looked to be six meters tall.

  “Nelly, bring him down to normal proportions,” Kris said.

  “I cannot do that, Kris. All media has been asked to carry this, and they have activated override so that it occupies the entire screen.” That didn’t sound all that good to Kris. A politician could get real used to that kind of power.

  “My fellow citizens, I have disturbing news for you tonight. As many of you are aware, fire is sweeping through our planet’s capitol. Despite the best efforts of our fire department, the capitol has been totally destroyed. But make no mistake, this was no mere accident. This was a planned attack. More than that, it is an attack on the most cherished institutions of our democracy.”

  The screen image changed to a different camera. President Iedinka lean
ed forward earnestly. “Worse, this nefarious deed was done by those you would least expect. By some of the very people who have lied to you and persuaded you that they served your best interests. Some of your very own Representatives. Some from my very own political party. These are the people who lit the fire that destroyed our capitol.”

  The screen flickered. Now it showed a distant shot of a score of bedraggled men and women as the President named them. “My God,” Kay breathed, “he has nine Senators. There’s poor Earlic. He’s lost his glasses.”

  “He has nine, ten, eleven Representatives as well,” LaCross counted. “Do you notice who they are? None in the leadership, but all of them are leaders of one of the independent caucuses. Every one of them represent a lot more than just their vote.”

  “How will the rest of their caucus vote?” Kris asked.

  “I don’t know,” Showkowski said. “It’s anybody’s guess, and I bet good old Izzic has his people out helping them make up their minds. You want to bet me this is only the beginning?”

  As if to answer the Senator, the President came back on. “We are interrogating these people with full respect for whatever civil rights people may have who sell out their planet, their sacred duty, and their constituents. While our police force is acting at its best, we all must recognize that the repeated attacks that have taken place on our economy and society have taxed our officials to the maximum. Therefore, I am this day calling up the planetary militia to assist the police in all matters relating to these attacks.”

  “Who’s the militia?” Kris asked.

  “Oh my word, not that old thing. It’s an anachronism,” Senator LaCross said, waving his hand as if throwing the militia away. “Something from the years just after the planet’s founding when we thought we might be fighting alien Iteeche raiding bans.”

  “Who is in the militia?” Kris clarified her question.

  “I have no idea,” LaCross said, glancing at the women Senators. “I certainly don’t know anyone in it.”

  “We use it as the legal fiction to provide structure to our police auxiliary,” Klaggath said. “There are six battalions here in Heidelburg. The first four are just old farts’ drinking clubs. Totally social. The fifth is our police auxiliary. I think the hospitals staff a major emergency response team with the sixth. Don’t know if there are any others.”