Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11

by Gordon R Dickson; David W Wixon

  "It's only a few blisters," he said.

  "I didn't mean it that way," she said. "What I meant was, are you up to dealing with Kaj? You've been pretty short with him from the start, but..." She trailed off.

  "I know," he said. "I think I'm past that now."

  She looked at him silently for a moment.

  "There's more going on here than I realized," she said finally. "But I can't believe you put in all that thought on your relationship with Kaj; so I think that's only a—a side effect."

  "You're right," he said. "But let's not talk about it now. Call Kaj and see if he's free to see me."

  "He will be," she said. "He doesn't let anything get in the way of his vocation."

  "I know," Bleys said. "It's one of the things I've realized—that he's more like me than I knew."

  She returned to her desk, a thoughtful look on her face, and made the call.

  CHAPTER 15

  When Bleys got back to the lounge an hour later, Toni was all business, giving him details on the results of the search for researchers. The list of candidates, although the joint project of the Soldiers here in the ship and the staff still locked up in the consulate, had, Bleys knew, been led and guided by Toni.

  There was speculation in her expression now, as she looked at him across the space between their desks, but he was sure she would not try to probe into his thinking unless she believed he needed that, somehow.

  "No one has made an approach to any of these researchers," she said. "So it's possible some of them can't, or won't, take on whatever project you have in mind. But we can pay well."

  "We don't want to offer so much more than the market as to attract attention," he warned. "In any event, we won't need all of them, so there's plenty of leeway for refusals. I'm more concerned about their locations—I mean, I want to use people who are scattered about the planet, rather than concentrated in one place, such as here in Ceta City."

  "I suppose you mean if they're dispersed, they're less likely to gossip with each other—people in a specialized field often know each other, after all—and perhaps get an idea of the extent of the project?"

  "That, yes," he said. "But it would also increase the chances that each will have access to peculiarly local information not available in other parts of the planet."

  He saw her visibly make an effort to stifle her questions as she returned to her briefing.

  "I assume you have no intention of either bringing researchers

  here to the ship, or going out to see them," she said; "so we'll have to instruct our people outside to make the initial approaches to the researchers."

  "That's right," he said. "We'll put together a prospectus for our people—by the way, they should be very clear that this is an undercover operation: they can't let the researchers know who they're working for... in fact, the researchers themselves would be wise not to let anyone know what project they're working on."

  "We'll have to give some thought to which of our people to give this job to," Toni said. "Most of the staff aren't really geared up for—what did you call it?—'undercover' work."

  "Run this through Henry," Bleys said. "He'll probably suggest using some of the Soldiers who were raised on this planet; they'll be more likely to have the right accents and mannerisms to be accepted as normal Cetans; with a suitable cover story, they'll raise less suspicion."

  "You're worried that if the researchers talk about what they're doing, it may draw interest from the wrong quarter?"

  "Certainly," he said. "But I also don't want the researchers to get themselves killed before they complete their work for us."

  There was a short silence in the room, before Toni continued.

  "So what is it you want researched?"

  "Actually, you have one more data-sort to do," he said. "I want you to separate out researchers who seem to have familiarity with something like image alteration or image recognition software."

  "That kind of information ought to be in their resumes."

  "Then go through our files on the organization's personnel here on Ceta," Bleys said. "I mean the files we brought along with us, rather than those in the local offices. Copy the photos of every staffer over forty-five years of age. Give those photos to about a half dozen of the imaging-qualified researchers, scattered around the planet. Those researchers should not be given any other information—not even the names we have for those subjects. We want the researchers trying to identify the photos with no preconceptions—understood?"

  "I see what you're saying," Toni said. "Could I suggest the researchers be told to think of the subjects as they were about twenty-five years ago?"

  "You're proceeding on the assumption that those staff people would have been most active in whatever they've been up to, when they were in their thirties or so?" Bleys said, nodding. "I was coming to that, but don't let the researchers overlook checking on the current faces."

  "I understand," Toni said. "And the other group of researchers?"

  "Again, give them nothing to base a preconception on," he said. "Simply tell them to dig up any information they can on any secret, semi-secret, or underground organization on this planet during the period between fifteen and forty years ago—particularly focusing on the areas of finance and crime."

  "That's a pretty broad mandate," she said. "It'll likely take weeks to get full results back."

  "True," he said. "I don't think we have that much time, but we don't necessarily need the full details, either; I'll be satisfied with sketchy reports if they come quickly."

  "Let me see if I can come up with some way to include in the package a requirement that the researchers report to the person who hired them once a day—it'll mean our people have to be reachable, somehow, which Henry won't like."

  "Maybe the researchers ought to make themselves reachable at designated times each day," Bleys suggested. "Most of the good research facilities have excellent communications equipment, and I'm sure Ceta won't lag in that respect."

  "Staggering the report times will make it possible for a single one of our people to deal with more than one researcher," she pointed out. "But would reports twice a day be better?"

  "Yes," he said. "The researchers can be told their reports back will help narrow the field of the research—I mean, that with their reports we'll be able to send back suggestions on where to focus their efforts."

  "All right," she said, nodding in her turn. "Anything more?"

  "No."

  "Then I'll get started."

  "Cheese?" Her voice came out of the starlit darkness of the bedroom they were sharing.

  "I wasn't really thinking about cheese''' he said, turning his head in her direction. He could see a pale shadow that was her body, faintly lit by the artificial starlight.

  "I knew that she said. "But if it's not too nosy, I'd like to know how that led you to—whatever it led you to."

  "I don't mind," he said. "But it's going to sound silly—maybe flimsy."

  "But you went somewhere with it, didn't you?"

  "I just started from there," he said. "The thought of how hard life has been, for so many on the Younger Worlds, reminded me that life is much better—even luxurious—for me now. And for the Others we've been leading."

  "I guess you could say you've raised the Others to an elite position," she said. "Is that bad?"

  "It might be."

  "You're saying we've been spoiled?"

  "I know I've gotten too used to the good life." He raised himself on an elbow, turning his upper body slightly sideways to face her.

  "That's not so—you work harder than anyone I know!"

  "That's kind of you," he said. "And it may be true—but in any case, that's not exactly what I meant."

  They were in a force bed, so he did not feel any movement when she sat up, but he could see her pale form rise a little, and loom closer. He rolled onto his back again.

  "Then you have to explain what you mean," she said, settling down while leaning against his side. He
had automatically raised his arm as she moved toward him, and now he brought it down behind her back as she raised her head to accommodate his shoulder.

  "Life has been going well for us—for our Others," he explained. "It may have led us into a sort of spiritual contentment—which, I guess, can look like simple laziness in some contexts."

  "How can you say that? The Others here on Ceta do work hard— they're always on the go!"

  "Yes, they are," he said. "At least, it certainly looks like it, on the surface. But what if they've gotten complacent, too?"

  "You mean, they've only been going through the motions?"

  "Well, as I said, the cheese reminded me that life has gotten much better for us—at least in the ways most people measure that kind of thing. Two things are responsible for that: we Others learned to work together for a common end, and people who might have opposed us forgot how to do that... oddly enough, I was speaking to Dahno about something akin to this just a couple of weeks ago; but at the time I never thought to relate that discussion to me, to us."

  "Us?"

  "Look," he said, "I started this expedition to try to figure out why our Others on this planet had not reported on the unknown group— I dislike that term, the 'secret people'—on this planet. Whoever they are. I was assuming that either our people were working dependably but the unknowns were amazingly good at keeping their doings secret, or some, at least, of our Others had been brought over to helping them."

  "Yes," she said. "I remember that the biggest obstacle to believing in the existence of these 'unknowns,' when you deduced it, was the fact it was so unlikely that a group that powerful could be so well hidden."

  "Occam's razor," he said. "A simpler explanation is more likely to be correct—or, at least, useful as a starting point: that our people— and everyone else on the planet, for that matter—did a less than great job of observation."

  "Hence the researchers you've commissioned."

  "Yes," he said. "And until I get some feedback from them, I'm only able to make estimates on what's been happening, and on what it means for us."

  She shifted position, rolling over to rest on his chest.

  "Sorry," she said. "My arm was going to sleep. But can you give me some idea of what your 'estimates' are?"

  "You mean you want my best guess."

  "All right, yes," she said. "Disclaimer noted. Now what do you suspect?"

  "Well, first," he said, "I think the Cetan organization—I mean our Others here—has been infiltrated. Not just manipulated from the outside, but infiltrated."

  "Some of the staff people," she said.

  "Why are you asking me what my guesses are?" he said. "You seem to be doing just as well as I am."

  "Don't be coy. That much was fairly obvious from the Soldiers' observations."

  "Which reminds me," he said: "the Soldiers have been very useful, working undercover, but I suspect they're limited in their abilities to carry out some kinds of tasks—we have to look into setting up some sort of independent group to handle such matters for us in the future."

  "A kind of—what did they call it in the histories?—'intelligence service'?—no, 'counter-intelligence,' it was! That term made me laugh, I remember."

  "I haven't thought this out enough to be able to say what we'll want such a group for," he said. "Just remind me, please, to think about it. Because I believe we're in a war—so far, just a sort of undercover war, perhaps, but we have to be as ready for this kind of war as for a more normal war of soldiers and ships ... it's just that this kind of war starts earlier than the shooting war."

  "All right. But back to the infiltration."

  "Just knowing that our organization here has been infiltrated is not enough," he said. "We have to find a way to determine who's working for the unknowns, and who's only misled and manipulated."

  "Particularly among the Others," she said. "But you know, some of the staff are likely innocent, as well."

  "You told me earlier that that staff person Pallas Salvador provided—Sandra Rossoy—had been unable to find the nine missing Others."

  "Yes, she reported on that even before we left Ceta City." "I know she did. But what did you think of her?" "Do you mean, do I think she's working for the unknowns? I do not."

  "Why not?"

  "She's much younger than the staff people we've had reason to suspect," she answered. "That's not—"

  "I know, I know, that's not much by way of proof. But it's corroborated by my reading of her character."

  "That was unfair of me," he said. "I only asked what you thought of her, and you could hardly be expected to provide proof of anything, at this point. But I think you liked her."

  "I did," Toni said. "She's a young mother who's put aside her career—or at least taken a step down—for her family, and she showed no bitterness at all. In fact, in the brief time we worked together I found her to be almost idealistic. I think she firmly believes in the Others, and is proud to be associated with us. I think it was only shyness, and maybe a sense of reserve, or dignity, that kept her from bubbling over about having met you."

  "I have another reason to believe in her loyalty," Bleys said.

  "What's that?"

  "Remember what Pallas Salvador said? That Sandra had been her most valuable assistant until she had to move when her husband was transferred?"

  "Yes, I remember."

  "Her husband's transfer opened up the place for Gelica Constanza to take over as Pallas Salvador's assistant, didn't it?"

  Toni was silent for a long moment.

  "I see," she said at last. "That's a little frightening."

  "It might be that," Bleys said. "It shouldn't surprise us, though, to find that these unknowns have the power to get Sandra's husband transferred; they've already shown they have a lot of power on this planet—but at the same time, that deduction gives us one more piece of information to use in filling out the picture of who those people might be."

  She was silent for another long moment.

  "The vanished Others are probably dead, aren't they?" she said at last.

  "It's likely," he said. "I think they're the only ones among the Others here that we can know remained loyal. It probably killed them."

  "That's sad," she said. "It's as if there's been a war going on, and we never even knew it. Some of our people died, and we never knew it until we stumbled on it by accident."

  "Well, there is a war going on," Bleys said. "There has been for a long time now, I think."

  Toni was silent for a long moment.

  "You're not talking about these people here on Ceta, are you?" she said at last.

  "No," he said. He sighed, feeling, suddenly, immensely weary.

  "War is a conflict of opposing forces," he went on. "I believe we're caught in the conflict of historical forces—a conflict that's been going on for a long, long time."

  "You've mentioned these historical forces before," she said. "It makes me feel as if you think we're slaves to some—some invisible thing we can't even see. Do you feel that way?"

  "Do you feel as if you're a helpless slave to gravity?" he asked.

  She took a moment to think that over; and then pushed herself up, to lean over him, propped on one arm.

  "Or the laws of physics or chemistry?" she said. "Or even time?"

  "I hadn't thought of time," he said. "That may be a very good analogy."

  Her elbow moved sideways, leaving her to fall on him, her chin thumping into his chest.

  "Sorry!" she said; but her apology was ruined by a giggle. "It's that gravity thing again!"

  He put the edge of his hand under her chin, and lifted it; and she lifted her face to meet his.

  CHAPTER 16

  They were both sitting up, their backs against the wall at the head of the bed.

  "I didn't mean to distract you," Toni said. "You were talking about war and the historical forces." She was tucked under his arm and leaning into him, cheek against his chest.

  "I never realize
d my mentions of the historical forces raised such bad connotations for you," Bleys said. "To me they're just a neutral force in the background of life. I was surprised when you talked about being a slave to the forces—that's impossible, you know."

  "Well, you changed my feelings when you mentioned gravity," she said. "I understood it right away, and it made me feel silly about my earlier reaction." She moved her arm out across his chest, and hugged him.

  "Slavery is something only people can create," he said, smoothing her hair gently. "It shouldn't be a worry for you; you just don't have it in you to be a slave."

  "I think that's true," she said. "Just being with you has shown me how powerful I am in my own right—and that everybody can be just as powerful if only they're set free to see the possibilities in them."

  "You had it in you before we ever met," he said. "It's a spirit of self-reliance, or maybe just self-responsibility... a lot of people seem to have at least some of it, but I want everyone to have it."

  "Why do some have it, while others don't?"

  "I don't have a complete answer for that," he said. "It seems to come from the way people are raised, but I'm not sure that's the whole answer. From what I've read, the Dorsai seem to produce a lot of individuals with that sense of responsibility—maybe you have your Dorsai ancestor to thank."

  "I do thank her," Toni said. "She was an important person in my life. But it's more than that; my non-Dorsai ancestors could never have been enslaved, either."