The Iron Maiden

by Piers Anthony

  Forta spoke in French. She had entirely changed her hair, and she wore one of her masks, so that she resembled a young woman who would have been attractive except for her overly large nose. That nose resembled that of the General. She had become his daughter.

  The General looked stricken. He replied in French.

  She only gazed at him, shaking her head sadly.

  It was as if the General saw a ghost.

  “You support this man?” the General asked the ghost.

  Forta nodded in a special manner.

  “And if I agree?”

  Forta approached him, lifted her face, and kissed his cheek. Then she walked slowly out of the room.

  For a moment the General stood stunned. Then he strode after her. Spirit and Hope remained where they were, letting this play itself out.

  All that the General found in the other room, of course, was the secretary, Forta, who could in no way be mistaken for his daughter. Disgruntled, he returned. “You saw only your secretary?”

  Spirit and Hope nodded together, too polite to remark on his erratic behavior. The General’s vision had been his alone.

  He considered. “Gaul will support your project, Tyrant,” he said abruptly.

  “Your generosity and foresight are much appreciated,” Hope said. “The greatness of Gaul will long be commemorated.” They concluded the interview with the usual amenities.

  After that success, the others followed more readily. Hope interviewed the Kaiser of Prussia, and the Kings of Bohemia, Lithuania, and Etruria. There was no trouble converting Castile to the Dream; Castile had watched Hope’s progress on Jupiter all the way to the top, and had broken relations with Jupiter when he was deposed. It was a real pleasure to be welcomed where Spanish was the natural language. The others soon fell into place.

  On Titania, heir to the old Britain, there was another attempt to assassinate Hope. He barely escaped it, with Smilo’s help. Spirit hated being under such constant siege, but it was a penalty of Hope’s notoriety. One day, she knew, an attempt would succeed.

  Then they went out to Neptune’s moon Triton, to oversee the construction of the main base for interstellar travel. The Dream was proceeding well. Forta assumed the persona of Emerald, Hope’s first formal Navy wife before she became Admiral of the full Navy. And Hope turned out to have kidney disease, an evident complication of his poisoning some years before. His body resisted effective treatment. His time was likely to be limited. He had about five years before he ran out of dialysis sites that would not show.

  Forta learned how to dialyze him, so he could keep that aspect private. But he needed to bring the remaining planets into the Dream as soon as possible, knowing that there would not be a later chance.

  They went to Mars, the home of iron, and Forta manifested as Shelia. She had, she said, a score to settle with Big Iron. Spirit knew that Hope loved all his women, whether they remained alive or dead, but there were ways in which Shelia was the most special of the unofficial mistresses.

  She was special in this negotiation too. She made a ghostly appearance, warning Hope of danger. It was well known what part she had played in the Jupiter Iron incident, and its effect on the Tyrant. Hope did not see the ghost, but a bit of the Tyrant’s vaunted madness began to show. The Iron magnates hastened to complete the deal.

  Thus Hope managed to work out a compromise between Moslem Mars and Jewish Phobos. The elements were in place for the demilitarization of Deimos and the establishment of a major Titan base there, Saturn concurring. Mars iron would be donated and light-shipped to Triton for the Dream project, but the resulting squeeze on the availability of iron would probably triple the value of what remained, making the deal profitable. Phobos would receive a fee of half of one per cent of the value of the shipped iron. That was a formidable value.

  Their party went on to Planet Earth, which was now the Nation of India. Forta became Dorian Gray, Hope’s mistress during his captivity aboard the submarine. She was dead, but lived again in this fashion, and Hope was evidently satisfied. Spirit marveled anew at Forta’s versatility. She was enabling Hope to relive much of his life. Spirit was also intrigued to see what Dorian Gray had been like, get to know her, as it were. She discovered that she rather liked her, though it might simply have been Forta’s rendition that made Dorian Gray palatable. Still, it seemed that she had been a lovely young woman caught in a situation, who had done what she had to do. Spirit understood that sort of thing all too well.

  They met with the Prime Minister of Earth, who was a woman as tough and politically realistic as the one they had encountered on Phobos. There are not many women in power in the System, but those few were as competent as any man. She wore a colorful toga, looking native, but she addressed them in English, so that Forta did not have to translate. The formal meeting was physical—without holo—and private, with only the two of them. But Hope relayed the essence as soon as he was alone with Spirit and Forta.

  “She says Jupiter has not been the same since we departed. She advised me that, though Jupiter’s government remains nominally democratic, the predators have moved in. Bad things are happening there.”

  “Who is really in charge now?” Spirit asked.

  “Tocsin.”

  Spirit shook her head. “So the poison weed grows back.”

  “She gave me to understand that Earth would not find it amiss if the Tyrancy were to be returned to Jupiter. When Jupiter sneezes, the entire System shudders. She says I was always practical and fair.”

  “That was the effort,” Spirit agreed.

  “I reminded her that I represent Saturn now. She firmly reminded me that I represent humanity now, and that the project cannot succeed without the participation of Jupiter, and the present powers there will never accede to it. She urged me to reconsider my position.”

  “Perhaps we were naive to turn our backs on our planet,” Spirit said. “We had not reckoned with the sharks.”

  He shook his head. “The Tyrancy is over. Once all the other planets are part of the Dream, Jupiter will join, as a matter of expediency.”

  Spirit didn’t argue, but she found this news deeply disquieting. Hope continued, advising her of the deal that would be made with Earth: it would provide a hundred thousand qualified test subjects for the new light drive, in return for participation in the Dream.

  They also got to tour Earth, the origin planet of mankind. That was a special experience. Here there were actual open-air cities instead of bubbles, mirroring the cultures of the Solar System. And there was yet another attempt to assassinate Hope.

  Here, too, they received a most significant caller. “Visitor,” Spirit said as she recognized him. “From Jupiter.”

  “Jupiter isn’t speaking to me,” Hope reminded her. “Make sure it isn’t an assassin.”

  “No assassin,” she said with a smile. Then, to the screen: “Send him in.”

  Hope was in pajamas, ready for bed, and Dorian Gray was in a flimsy nightie that fairly radiated sex appeal. She jumped up, about to scurry into her room to change clothing and identities.

  “As you were,” Spirit said. “Robert won’t tell.”

  Their visitor arrived. “My, how you’ve grown!” Spirit said, stepping out to embrace the visitor. He was a solid, muscular youth in his teens, Hispanic, smiling somewhat foolishly. “Hi, Dad,” he said over her shoulder.

  “Robertico!”

  Dorian Gray dissolved into astonishment and dismay. She sought again to leave, but Hope grabbed her wrist.

  Robertico had been eleven; now he was fifteen, and that seemed to have added most of a foot to his height and fifty pounds to his mass. Hope had never formally adopted him, but he had become part of the family. Hopie had been first his baby-sitter, then his older sister, taking excellent care of him. Of course he was a welcome visitor!

  “I come with a message,” Robertico said. Then he faltered, staring at Dorian Gray.

  Hope smiled. “Dorian Gray, meet my ward Robertico.

 
Robertico, meet your mother.”

  For he had been the infant son of that woman. Now Dorian Gray had returned, in the only way she could. Of course she was young, in this incarnation, only a few years older than Robertico himself. But that seemed not to matter. She stared at him, knowing what this meant, and he stared at her, seeing his mother for the first time. Then he stepped forward, and she stood, and they flung themselves into each other’s arms and wept together.

  Spirit felt a tear of her own. Perhaps others would see this as a ludicrous scene, but Dorian Gray was as close to the original as it was possible to be, and Robertico was of her flesh. If ever a man could go back in time and meet his mother as a young woman, this was the occasion.

  In due course they got to Robertico’s message. “It is this,” he said. “‘Stay clear of Jupiter.’ They do not want you there, and they will execute you if you violate your exile.”

  They all laughed. This was no news at all.

  “Hopie sent me,” he continued. “And they let me go, because they knew you would see me. It isn’t the same there, now. They mean it; you can’t go there.”

  “But the Triton Project needs the support of Jupiter,” Hope said. “It is for the benefit of all mankind.”

  “They don’t care about that. They just don’t want you back.”

  “I wonder why?” Hope asked, as if ignorant.

  “My sister told me,” Robertico said. “It’s because the people would support you. Things were better when you were Tyrant.”

  “Things always seem better in the past.”

  “No, Dad, it’s true!” he insisted. “There are shortages all the time now, and a lot of police, and anybody who criticizes the government gets arrested and maybe disappears. It’s bad!”

  “Freedoms are being denied? What does the press have to say about this?”

  “The news media are being shut down. They don’t dare say anything.”

  “What about Thorley? Nobody could shut him up.”

  “He was arrested last year.”

  “What?” This time both Hope and Spirit were shocked. Indeed they had not been paying attention!

  “Well, first it was just house arrest, but when he wouldn’t shut up, they came and took him away last month. My sister said you’d want to know about that, even if he did criticize you a lot. She’s really upset.”

  Spirit exchanged a glance with Hope.

  They kept it polite, as though they hadn’t really reacted to the message. Robertico was there on a limited visa, and had to return promptly. “Tell them I got the message,” Hope said as he left.

  “Yeah,” he agreed darkly. “I’m sorry you can’t stop by there. Hopie really wanted to see you.”

  “Tell her I’ll do what I have to do, as I always have.”

  “And take care of yourself, dear,” Dorian Gray said to him, exactly like a mother.

  He left. Dorian Gray retired immediately to her room. Spirit knew she had been shaken by the turn her impersonation had taken. She had, for a moment, been a mother, and that was no light thing.

  Hope turned to Spirit. “Now I am satisfied. You know what to do.”

  She nodded grimly. “You prepare Forta.” Then she went to her own room. Forta wasn’t the only one who could do emulations.

  She was ready within the hour. She was now in male clothing, and looked like a man. “Give me ten minutes,” she said.

  Hope nodded. He summoned the hotel staff, and managed to distract the man while Spirit slipped quietly out in the guise of a hotel servitor, escaping undetected. Thus suddenly she was on her way, and no one would know she was gone. Forta would have to cover for her, emulating her as necessary, while Hope’s party went on to Planet Venus and planet Mercury, enlisting the governments of North and South Africa. It would surely be a considerable challenge for them to manage without Spirit, but they would rise to it. The need, after all, was dire.

  CHAPTER 18

  AFFAIR

  Spirit, in the guise of Sancho, caught a landbound cab. “Government office,” she said tersely.

  She arrived at the nearest sub-branch office of the planetary government, and entered the building. “I must speak with the representative.”

  The clerk questioned her briefly, checked her planetary visitor’s pass, then sent her to the local representative’s office. “Please, señor, what I have to say is most private,” she said.

  The man was evidently used to complaints. He touched a button on his desk, and the shimmer of privacy surrounded them. “How may I help you, citizen?”

  “May I rely on your discretion?”

  “If your need is legitimate.”

  “I am Spirit Hubris, sister of the erstwhile Tyrant. I must depart this planet secretly.”

  He did not flinch. “You have identification?”

  She opened her shirt, showing her bound breasts so that he could see she was female, and from an inner pocket produced her ID card. She had kept herself fit; she had good breasts, and did not want to argue about gender. “I’m traveling incognito.”

  His mouth quirked as he ran the ID. “You are sixty two? I took you for forty—and male.”

  “Thank you.”

  “The Prime Minister will see you now. Please enter the holo chamber.”

  She concealed her surprise at this efficiency. “Thank you,” she repeated, and entered the chamber.

  The wall became a window to the Prime Minister’s office. “Hello, Spirit Hubris,” she said. “I had supposed your brother had elected not to act at this time.”

  “He changed his mind.”

  “You wish assistance returning to Jupiter?”

  “I do, thank you.”

  “We trade with Jupiter and with Saturn. We can put you aboard a merchant vessel of either power.”

  Spirit considered. “We serve Saturn now. I think I had better consult privately with Chairman Khukov.”

  “Alone? Physically? Without your brother?”

  “This is hardly public business! Hope will continue to travel, and I will seem to be with him. My absence must not be known.”

  “A Saturn vessel,” the prime Minister agreed, understanding. “A car will come for you.”

  “Thank you.”

  As Spirit rode in the car, she mused about one trifling aspect of her dialogue with the Prime Minister. The woman had seemed surprised that Spirit should wish to meet with Chairman Khukov alone. Why? Khukov was their employer and most certain ally.

  In due course she arrived at Saturn, still traveling as Sancho. A courier ship met her at Scow, and conveyed her to an anonymous residential bubble.

  Mikhail Khukov was there, alone. “Spirit Hubris! You have come to me at last.”

  “We have met before,” she said, uncertain of his meaning.

  “And you do not know,” he said. “I apologize.”

  “I know that Jupiter is in trouble. I think my brother must take back the Tyrancy. But this can’t happen without your support. If you do not wish him to resume power–”

  “I would like nothing better. I will do what I can. But meanwhile I must say to you what you may not like.”

  “There is a price,” she said. There was always a price.

  “If you wish it.”

  “I don’t understand. We have a choice?”

  He faced her squarely. “You understand that my ability is similar to your brother’s. That is why I trust him, and he trusts me. We have read each other. We have similar aspirations.”

  “You share the Dream,” she agreed, knowing that this was not his thrust.

  “More. I, too, am a man for the women. The more remarkable the woman, the greater my desire.”

  “Yes, you understand his ways. You provided Hope with a remarkable mistress in Amber.”

  “You are the most remarkable woman I know.”

  Suddenly his meaning came clear. “Chairman, I am an old matron!”

  “A handsome woman. Even your scars have personality.”

  “You surely have
your choice of fresh young women. You hardly need to bother with–”

  “I desired you before we ever met. You were your brother’s backbone throughout his military service, and throughout the Tyrancy. Without you, he would never have prospered.”

  He was on target, to a degree. “But without him, I would never have prospered either. He has the magic.”

  “And your loyalty becomes you too. If you were mine, you would never betray me.”