Natural Selection

by Michael A. Stackpole

  The man remained standing. "Most is need-to-know basis."

  "I need to know."

  "He doesn't."

  Galen smiled. "Excellent point, Agent Curaitis."

  Galen started to get up from his chair, but Victor shook his head. "Galen can hear it as well. Whatever clearance he needs he has. If I can't trust him, I can't trust anyone.

  Curaitis looked at Galen, then shifted his gaze to Victor. "The assassin used a very sophisticated plan to defeat the security around Archon Melissa. He realized, as we did later, that the one weakness she had was for mycosia flowers. He used the pots in which they were kept to get to her."

  As the man spoke, Victor sensed his anger, but it seemed unfocused. Mostly it was revealed in the rigid way he stood giving his report. It made Victor uneasy at first, but then he imagined that anger directed at those who wished him harm.

  "We always varied your mother's schedule significantly to prevent an assassin from using a time bomb effectively against her. Whoever killed her knew that, and also knew that we use radio-frequency scanners to pick up RF modulations from the kind of computer chips used in a computer-controlled bomb. If the bomb's chips are shielded to prevent emission of RF mods, then they are also shielded from taking outside input through radiowaves. They have to be timers, but time bombs are unreliable."

  Because you varied my mother's schedule. Victor nodded as he realized that Curaitis was not going to explain everything twice, so he paid even closer attention to his words. "How did the bomb work, then?"

  "A plastic explosive—SX-497, manufactured on Hesperus II, in a lot lost in shipping—was shaped into a plant pot form. It was then baked to hardness and coated with an acrylic sealant to prevent sniffers from detecting it. The guts from four cellular visiphones were set up to start a magnesium-thermite fuse when a call came in to the number for which all of them had been programmed."

  The Prince sat back. "But the cellular units must have given off RF mods, correct?"

  "The pots were sealed with a semi-permeable rubber coating that allowed water through. The power supply to the cellular units was connected through a countdown timer that was itself powered by a water-conversion cell. When enough water leaked through the rubber to power the conversion cell, the connecting timer came to life and counted down. When it was done, the visiphones became live. All this happened after the last RF sweep on the room."

  "Why wasn't one done later?"

  Curaitis stared at Victor. "The digital watches, cellular phones, pacemakers, cybernetic limbs, and a number of the high-fashion gowns worn that night gave off RF mods. Sweeping later than five-thirty in the evening would have been futile. We believe the devices went live at six-thirty, half an hour after the doors opened and people started filing into the room. The assassin watched the speeches on the public-access holovid channel and made his call when your mother started to speak. Sometime thereafter the devices exploded."

  Victor's jaw fell open. "You have the assassination on holovid?"

  "Multiple angles. Review of the tapes are how we determined it was the pots that exploded and not the stand that held them."

  "I want to see the tapes."

  "Victor!" Galen half rose out of his chair. "Do you know what you're asking?"

  "Galen, there might be something there that I—"

  "No, Victor, no!" Galen almost leaped from his chair. "There is nothing on those tapes that Curaitis and the Secretariat specialists haven't already gone over. Just because you saw your father die does not mean you have to watch your mother die, too."

  "But, if there is something, Galen, I have to find it."

  "This is madness, Victor. You don't need to torture yourself."

  "I will have the tapes for you when we reach Tharkad," Curaitis said.

  Galen turned on him. "You can't."

  "Do you have a reason for not wanting the Prince to see them, Kommandant?"

  Victor saw Galen stiffen and for a half-second wondered what Galen had to hide. Why is Curaitis suspicious of Galen ? Why did he want him out of the room? Does Curaitis have evidence to link Galen to my mother's murder?

  Victor's aide straightened up and shook his head. "You're very good, Agent Curaitis. You see me as a risk and work to eliminate me. I applaud this principle, but not its application. The Prince is my friend as well as my lord and it is that which makes me think that perhaps, just perhaps, he is better off remembering his mother the way she always was, not after a bomb blew her to bits."

  Galen turned to Victor. "I know you, Victor. I know you think nothing gets done unless you do it yourself. That works in a military command, but not in government. Your responsibilities are greater now and will go unfulfilled if you mire yourself in the details of your mother's death."

  Victor looked up at his friend and heard the caution in his words. "You're right, Galen, but you also know I have no choice. I am who I am, and I cannot let her death go unavenged."

  "Vengeance will come when men like Curaitis finish their investigations, Victor."

  Victor nodded and shifted his gaze to the intelligence agent. "Do you know the assassin's identity?"

  "We know who he became while on Tharkad. We know where he worked and what he did for the last six months of his life. His records beyond that seem complete, but are false. We are dealing with a professional who has been working on this mission for a long time, and appeared to be prepared to work on it yet longer, had the situation demanded." Curaitis' Adam's apple bobbed up and down. "We do not yet have him, but yes, we know he was a man."

  Victor's eyes narrowed. "What has the public been told?"

  "Deranged, disgruntled bomber. His record showed a mother who is in a home for the care of the senile. She knows nothing and lives in a world of dementia. A state subsidy pays for her care and the facility is not the best one could hope for. This has been used to explain what motivated the assassin. We believe he is already off Tharkad, but the public believes he committed suicide."

  "If you think he's gone, then why the travel restrictions?" Victor saw Curaitis's head turn slightly. "I mean, I assume trying to limit the speed of my ship is a general regulation to help you find the assassin by screening all outbound passengers."

  The security man shook his head. "The public is very angry with you. Your mother lay in state for two days, as compared to your father's thirty-one day vigil."

  "But the bomb ..." Victor shook his head. "She could not have been viewed as my father was."

  "You missed the funeral."

  "Not because I wanted to." The Prince looked at Galen. "We left immediately and commandeered every JumpShip heading in this direction, and a few that were not. I am here as fast as I could be."

  Curaitis gave no sign of having heard Victor. "It is said your sister cut the viewing short and had the funeral conducted quickly on your orders."

  "I told her to use her best judgment in the matter."

  "Word is you told her to 'burn the witch.' "

  "I never!"

  "Peter, Arthur, and Yvonne made it to the funeral from New Avalon. They traveled five hundred and forty light years and made it faster than you made the two hundred-ten light-year run from Port Moseby."

  "Katherine thought it best that they be there," Victor snapped.

  "Some people even believe you plotted your mother's death because she did not have the good sense to abdicate in your favor. It is said she refused to abdicate because you were secretly married to Omi Kurita on Outreach." The security man looked over at Galen. "You must remember that one, for you are rumored to have been the best man."

  "That is outrageous!"

  "It may be, gentlemen, but it is exactly what is being whispered in taverns and bars, laundries and stores, at social gatherings and over the visiphone." Curaitis' face remained dead. "There is more. Did you know that you, Highness, actually tried to murder Kai Allard-Liao on Alyina because he advised you against pursuing your romance with Omi? It is becoming accepted as fact that he could have been taken of
f Alyina when you abandoned the planet but that you refused to wait for him. Men have sworn they heard his radio call but that you ordered the ships away."

  Victor slammed both his fists down on his desk. "No! That is preposterous!" He opened his mouth and tried to find words to express the extent of his disbelief and anger, but he could not. Everything is perverted! Lies are being manufactured out of the truth. "How, who, why?"

  Curaitis shrugged, for the first time the set of his shoulders easing a bit. "I do not know, nor do I care. You have enemies, and you have allies. Kai Allard regularly dedicates victories to you on Solaris. Your older sister is your best defender. Peter, while very earnest, does not have the temperament to help your case at all. The first thing Morgan Kell wanted to know when he came out of surgery was if you had also been attacked. When the orders to the Hounds went out over your signature, he put off his wife's funeral so the bandits could be destroyed. You are not alone, but you are exposed and it is my job to make certain no one does to you what they did to your mother."

  Victor swallowed hard and stared at the picture of his family on one side of his desk. My mother and father, gone. I feel so isolated. Is it too late to break through? He looked up and narrowed his eyes. "Agent Curaitis, you've mentioned my sister twice, but never called her by name."

  Curaitis looked at him but said nothing..

  "What is her name?"

  The security man's face remained unchanged. "Katherine."

  "Good." Victor nodded. "I am pleased to have you working for me. And I want to see those tapes."

  "I'll get them for you, but I want to correct one misconception."

  "Yes?"

  "I don't work for you, I work to protect you." Curaitis smiled, but it was not pleasant. "As we spend time together, you'll see the difference."

  "And if I don't?"

  "You'll be dead and you won't much care."

  25

  DropShip Lugh

  Nadir Recharge Station, Great X

  Federated Commonwealth

  10 July 3055

  Christian Kell pulled himself through the hatchway on the Lugh. "Came as soon as I could, Colonel. What's up?"

  Daniel Allard waved Chris over to the communications console. "It's about time for Conal Ward to find something else to bitch about. I thought having a witness here to offer some input would be useful. You're drafted because Colonel Brahe has already threatened to kill him if they ever meet."

  Chris laughed lightly, but he knew the Clansman must have been working hard if he succeeded in getting a rise out of the unflappable Akira Brahe, commanding officer of the First Regiment.

  A commtech's voice came through the console speaker. "Message coming in from the White Fang for you, Colonel Allard."

  Dan winked at Chris. "I can set my watch by him. Probably even has creases in his birthday suit." The Kell Hound commander punched a button on the console and the monitor filled with the image of a handsome man with a fierce scowl on his face. The anger in his eyes seemed to smolder from the depths of some dark, hidden place. "Good afternoon, Star Colonel Ward."

  "Daniel, I have to break this prohibition you have placed on extra-system communications."

  Dan Allard continued on as if he had not been interrupted. "I would like to present one of my battalion commanders, Major Christian Kell."

  Conal Ward looked over at Chris from the screen, his expression darkening even further. "I should have expected it. You are the half-caste, freebirth bastard of Morgan Kell's brother, quiaff?"

  Chris nodded. His face did not betray his shock at the words, but only because he knew Conal was trying to provoke him. Had the Clansman not added the word "freebirth" to his insult, Chris might have taken offense. That term, while a vile slur against any member of the genetically engineered Clan warrior caste, was meaningless in the Inner Sphere, where everyone was born "freely." To react is to give him power over me, and that I shall not do.

  The Clansman looked back at Dan. "Colonel, I am required to make a report to my leader, the ilKhan. Since you have coerced the spineless ComStar bureaucrats into clinging to this fiction that their hyperpulse equipment is damaged, I am prepared to use my own hyperpulse generator. "

  Dan frowned, as if confused, but Chris knew from years of association with the older man that it was a mask of deception. "Star Colonel, a prohibition on communications is in place for a reason. I think your report can wait."

  "And I think it cannot." The black-haired man pounded his fist into the palm of his other hand. "This is a military unit, Colonel. We have a chain of command."

  Dan's head came up at Conal's furious tone. "And this is a military operation, Colonel. Your chain of command runs through me. Request denied."

  "It was not a request, Colonel."

  "It is still denied, Colonel Ward." Dan turned from the screen and nodded to Chris. "The reason I asked Major Kell to be present was to inform you of the reason we've been sitting at this recharge station with our tracking signals identifying us as merchant vessels. I know I have tried before, but you do not seem to understand. Major?"

  Chris wanted to laugh out loud, but suppressed the desire. "Colonel, the desire for complete HP-communications silence is because we hope to make Great X a target for the raiders. We know what sort of information they were able to gather on Deia, and your transmission of the interrogation transcripts from the men you captured has been helpful. If we could debrief them, we think we could learn more."

  Conal shook his head. "That is impossible. Those individuals have been destroyed."

  Dan blinked and came back around to face the screen. "What? Destroyed?"

  "That is what we Clans do with bandits. They are obviously defective." Conal became smug. "We do not desire their presence" in the gene pool, so we expunge it."

  Chris stared hard at Conal Ward's image on the screen. "But in the transcripts they claimed that it was the Red Corsair who enslaved them and whose orders brought their release."

  "Disinformation. You can take nothing they said as fact."

  "But Hooper and Vandermeer both checked out as members of the Robinson Rangers. They were captured on Kooken's Pleasure Pit." Dan punched up data on an auxiliary screen. "Voiceprints matched the men you had."

  "Then they were traitors and became even more deserving of death."

  Dan Allard shook his head. "I think, from this point on, you will not be destroying any more prisoners. Consider that an order."

  Conal's face hardened. "I will take it under advisement."

  "You will deliver all prisoners to the Kell Hounds, Star Colonel. You will maintain radio silence until such time as the raiders have committed their DropShips to a run on Great X Four."

  Chris marveled at how Dan kept his voice level and under control.

  Conal seemed unimpressed. "Or what, Colonel?"

  "Do not challenge me, Conal Ward." Dan leaned forward and Chris saw his chest expand. "I was on Luthien when we crushed the Smoke Jaguars and the Nova Cats. My 'Mechs are the equal of yours and my warriors are experienced in the ways of Clan combat. If you really want that chip knocked off your shoulder, I have six times as many warriors as you do, and every one of them would love to avenge the Zouaves.

  "We're here to stop the bandits, Star Colonel. That comes first. When that's done, we can find some airless mudball where we can settle our differences. Until that time, you're under my orders, and those orders are to stick with the briefing we sent you earlier. Got it?"

  Before Conal could reply, a new image filled the console. It was the regional traffic control scan of the solar system, showing little symbols and codes to designate all DropShips and JumpShips in the area. Chris immediately noticed a new symbol located at a pirate jump point two days out from Great X Four.

  "Colonel Allard, we have a JumpShip arriving in-system. Prelim scan shows no IFF indicators and it seems to conform to previous scans made on the bandits."

  Dan hit a button his desk and an alert klaxon began to blare throughout the
Lugh. "This is it. To your machines. When the bandits commit, we make this their last raid."

  * * *

  Locked in the virtual world of the Red Corsair's base, Nelson Geist traveled alone with his thoughts. An internal conflict raged within him and it angered him because he knew that, on one level, the Red Corsair had engineered matters specifically to twist him up. That made him want to dismiss the whole lot and try to keep it out of his mind, but he could not.

  She had remained good to her word and released some of the other slaves on Deia. She had summoned those captured on Kooken's Pleasure Pit and told them that he had chosen those who could go free. Then she had selected three men who had been with the Robinson Rangers and turned them loose. Though Nelson was glad for those men, it tore him up inside to see the anger in the eyes of Spider and the other Reservists, who believed he had betrayed them.

  That, however, was a mere stone in the shoe compared to the other huge problem he faced. The Red Corsair had proved to be a voracious and skilled lover. She had kept him with her throughout the burn away from Deia and seemed almost drunk with happiness over having outrun the Wolves. In the intervening three weeks they had continued to spend their nights together, more often than not finally collapsing exhausted in each other's arms.

  Nelson had never known such a sexual partner. With her there was no compromise, no surrender. Within days of their first encounter they had blasted beyond the envelope of what he had previously experienced, and never looked back. Their lovemaking seemed to rejuvenate him, even healing the damage his male pride had suffered because of the maiming of his hand. In bed they were equals and even partners, consuming and consumed by what they were and what they became together.

  Yet when he awoke in her arms, the shock of where he was and who he was with would jerk him suddenly into crystalline consciousness. He was sleeping with the woman who had enslaved him. He was giving pleasure to the woman who kept his comrades in thrall and who forced him to kill others to prevent their deaths. He was drawing life from a woman who was a handmaiden to death, and finding rapture with someone who caused others to know grief and sorrow.