Empire of the One (Wine of the Gods Book 14)

by Pam Uphoff

  "Neither did Arlw." Izzo sighed. "And apparently only some of Endi's cells have the drop mutation, so he tests usually as a Halfer, but in fact he collects power."

  "Really? Now that could be useful. Nothing like being underestimated. You picking up a stable of errand runners?" Glue sounded wistful.

  I hate this game. "I wouldn't know what to do with one. And Endi? I think I'm more likely to end up being used." Izzo flicked a glance at the clock. Four more hours and I can pick Xiat up for dinner, and forget all of this, for just a bit.

  Glue shook his head and withdrew.

  But since I have to play, I am going to win.

  Point One. Endi made tactical sense. Is the War Party serious about attacking Earth, or is it smoke, covering political maneuvers? Are political power and positions here their real goal? Does it matter? Izzo felt his mouth screw up into a scowl. Of course it matters! I don't give a damn about political power, if it's not for the purpose of furthering a war with Earth. Well, or the Good of the One. Well, there’s no point in war, just because we can. If there’s no reason, then we’re the Bad Guys, aren’t we?

  Point Two. Is Forty-two just a good place through which to attack Earth, or does it have intrinsic worth that I don't know about? Is it all about honor, or is there yet another self-serving reason for attacking them. I need to find out. Because I don't give a damn about their personal aggrandizement.

  He settled down and called up everything available about Target Forty-two. The results were pretty damn thin, and definitely superficial. He called Xiat, then headed for the Palace. She was already there, and they settled down to read the small number of restricted reports she had access to.

  I am going to play. And I am going to win.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Paris, European Region

  25 Qadah 1396 yp

  Urfa thought about it, off and on all day, then invited Endi to come speak with him at Government House, before a meeting with his insiders.

  "I don’t understand why you don’t want to work for the Directorate." Urfa glanced irritably to the right as the door opened. Orde walked in, Qayg on his heels. Xiat with her pet Analyst, Idlo, Ahba and Rael bringing up the rear, looking worried.

  So much for a one-on-one before the meeting. Urfa sat back, resigned. With Orde leading the way, he couldn’t even complain about his so-called executive secretary doing nothing to warn him of an interruption or to slow them down. He abandoned his desk and moved to the table, sitting to the left of the head. And pointedly stabbing a finger at Endi, and a chair. Endi sat down, looking wary. That's right, Endi, you are part of an insiders meeting.

  Orde snorted, but sat at the head of the table. "So, what threats to the security of the One have come up?"

  "Well." Urfa glanced at his notes. "That interesting encounter at the Jiha Street Gym was followed by a War Party meeting, with eight men forming a merged circle. This is definitely dangerous, and I’ve half a mind to bring the matter up to the One. If their merge is simply to keep party secrets, all well and good. But it seems excessive to me. Any comments?"

  Everyone looked at Endi.

  The com on his desk gave a sudden squeak. "Director . . ." overridden by the door crashing open.

  Agni Withione Gerund Canary, head of the Exterior Relations Directorate. Looking really pissed.

  He jolted to a stop as Qayg swept into his personal space, his eyes dropped toward her left hand, concealed from Urfa’s view. Xiat was half a step behind and to the side of her, the two women effectively blocking any possible access to the president. Rael was standing beside the President. They were glowing and the air shimmered faintly; multiple shields up and hard held.

  "One damn it! I’m mad, not stupid!" He pointed a finger past Qayg at Endi. "What is that person doing here after putting Subminister Arlw in the hospital?"

  Urfa leaned forward. "Being recruited into my Directorate. Fortunately for your blood pressure, he doesn’t seem terribly interested."

  Agni’s furious gaze transferred briefly to Urfa. Then back to Endi. "What, the Boy Toy doesn’t want to get a serious security check? Doesn't want to come clean? Why not?"

  Endi was looking quite cool. Thoughtful. He nodded, as if he’d made up his mind, and leaned forward. "I am not at liberty to discuss that."

  Agni curled a sarcastic lip. "Oh, yeah. That sounds good, but you’ve made the mistake of saying it in front of the one man who can override any actual security orders."

  Endi turned his gaze to Orde.

  "Endi, as President of the Empire of the One I order you to disclose all relevant information. Now."

  Dewulfe’s mouth turned up in a faint smile. "I was in the army. Specifically, I was at the battle two years ago, on Target Forty-two. Injured. I missed the end of the battle, fortunately for me." He leaned his chair back and stared at Agni. "How much have you, and the War Ministry, told the President of the Empire? I think you and the Minister of War are withholding a whole lot of crucial information. History. Did you tell him there were no Earth forces there? Did you tell him the Natives have magical abilities? Did you tell him that lasers were nearly useless, drained of power in minutes? That projectile weapons couldn’t penetrate their shields? That they have invisibility spells so strong they can’t be detected? That they pop out of nowhere? Did you tell him the Natives beat the crap out of us? Did you advise him that it was going to take an army of battle trained Withiones, just to deal with the Natives?"

  Everyone started from him, to Agni. Orde stood up and walked to stand between Qayg and Xiat. "Agni? Is this true?"

  The big man was red faced, clearly furious, and on the defensive. He very nearly squirmed. Grit his teeth. "Yes."

  "What else?"

  Shrug. "They closed the gate, we don’t know how the battle ended."

  "What? You didn’t have a remote observer? I thought the Karista Post head went forward. Perhaps you ought to review your files and check on that. When you have the time. In between doing things that are more important than gathering accurate intelligence for a cross-dimensional war." Endi leaned forward. "How about what happened nineteen years ago? Has the President been informed at all, let alone thoroughly?"

  Squirm. Agni glared at Endi, Urfa, downward.

  "Look at me and tell me what happened nineteen years ago." Orde’s voice was icy.

  "I was just the subdirector of Grand Canyon, I don’t know the details." He flinched back from what he saw in Orde’s eyes. "I didn’t know then. According to the reports I've read since, we worked with a Native who claimed to be one of what they call ‘Old Gods’ and stole the Earthers' gate anchor. We ambushed the next Earther party that came through, and used the gate to invade Earth, using mostly the native forces we’d trained and equipped. The gate closed. The two beacons the Priest took through were never detected. We never found out what happened."

  Orde stalked around the table and over to Urfa’s desk. Sat down and stared at the far wall for a long moment. No one spoke.

  He shifted finally and looked back at Agni. "Somehow I fail to recall a Declaration of War. Was this some dark project you and the War Ministry cooked up? Perhaps with a bit of collusion with some War Party Councilmen?"

  Agni scowled, but didn't speak.

  Orde showed his teeth in a nasty non-smile. "So we clandestinely tried to do exactly what the War Ministry is recommending we do openly next year?"

  "Using the army, not unreliable natives."

  Endi snorted. "Except . . . the Earth soldiers there now give every sign of being marooned, don’t they, Director? So all you’re going to do is attack a world full of really pissed off magicians. It’s not physically possible to attack Earth through their own gate."

  Agni’s head snapped around. "You’re forgetting those very advanced gates, aren’t you?"

  "The ones your Agents have never seen any Earthers coming and going from? Just sitting there, with only a few Native guards on a few of them?"

  "They’ve probably got one down in Fascia
. Who are you? You shouldn’t have seen any of those reports, dammit."

  "Oh, and don’t forget to tell the President about the Action Team sent to kill everyone in that village with the high concentration of magicians, what, twenty-eight years ago? Two hundred men, women and children, they were ordered to kill them, right down to the babies. Don’t you think the President should know about a mass murder of civilians that his predecessor ordered?"

  Agni leaned and glared. "I know that information was not leaked to the army. What was your position in the Directorate? I should recognize anyone with that information. And it didn’t happen the way the survivors were made to think it happened. Hallucinogenic magic, or possibly drugs."

  "Yeah. I heard a couple dozen unarmed teenage girls killed three experienced Action Teams. Why doesn’t the President know about this?" Endi’s eyes were half closed. Contempt, not lethargy.

  "Because it didn’t happen that way, that was part of the hallucination."

  "But eighteen trained killers, trained in magical battle, most of them Withiones, somehow failed to return, didn’t they? And you haven't briefed the President at all, have you? Oh, and how about the theory of Those Left Behind? Don’t the Native magic genes bear a shockingly close resemblance to the Prophets' genes?"

  "That stupid theory, which was floated by a single Info team member, a green child on his first serious assignment, is . . . just as stupid as all the rest of the hallucinations."

  "Stop it." Orde snapped, and stalked around to look at Agni again. "What evidence is there, for and against, the Earthers being in control of those new gates?"

  Agni’s mouth flapped a couple of times, tightened. His eyes stared holes in the opposite wall. "We have no verification of any Earthers at that site. Ever."

  "What evidence is there, for and against, the known Earth troops on Forty-two being marooned?"

  "In the last nineteen years there has never been a new influx of troops, or any sort of rotation of personnel. They appear to be marooned."

  "So we cannot attack Earth by repeating the tactics that failed last time. In fact it sounds as if our attempt might have been partially successful, and damaged Earth’s gate mechanism."

  Agni shifted. "Or they just cut off contact after being attacked through that world. Like we cut off Granite Peak." His voice was defensive, rather than aggressive. "They were back, trying to work spies in here, five years later."

  "Is there anything else?"

  Agni shook his head. "We still have our end of the advanced gate. They didn’t close it, they switched it to another world." He flicked a glance over at Endi.

  "By that point, I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention."

  Orde snorted. "Right. Agni, go home. Send me what I need to know, about these gates. About Target Forty-two. Come up with some ideas about how to verify that the so-called test area of the new gates is, or is not, under the Earth’s control. Figure out how to check on the Earth forces and determine whether or not they are marooned. You will bring these ideas to me, and we will discuss them before you take any actions. And be damned glad I’m from a small party with no one I want to replace you with. However tempting it is to find an eight year old with loyalty to the One and the Empire. And the ability to read regulations."

  Agni winced as he started to turn; Qayg reached out and grabbed his ear, jerked him back. "If you come through a door like that, at Orde, ever again, I will kill you. And I won't bother regretting it, later."

  He paled and stood very still. When Qayg released him he eased away, then hustled out the door.

  Urfa pretended he hadn’t noticed either the knife in her other hand, the slice in Agni’s suit coat, nor the dark stain seeping through below it. And he didn’t know whether to hope the cut was deep, or not.

  Orde was studying Endi. "Thank you. Do you want a position in my directorate?"

  "No sir. I’m sorry, but I . . . just need to work with horses and stop even thinking about politics for at least a couple of years. I may be driven to end this massive stupidity, but sometimes I just can't . . . can’t deal with . . . things." He looked wistfully at the door, and Orde nodded.

  "You’re free. Thank you for that illuminating information."

  Urfa snorted as the door shut behind Endi. "Well, well. That felt like the truth."

  Qayg strolled back to her seat. "Amazing how a knife in the side and physical contact with a trained princess can encourage telling the truth."

  Orde smirked. "Yes, between you and Endi he's had a bit of a shock. Thank you for not killing him. I think."

  Xiat and Rael sat down.

  Urfa studied his "in group."

  Ahba and Idlo have suddenly realized that the seating order isn't a dominance play. Or rather, they've realized there is a layer they hadn't seen.

  Izzo hadn't given the matter any thought, had only noticed that he wasn't sitting by Xiat. But now all three of them realize the princesses were all right where they needed to be. And both Endi and Izzo were seated where Qayg and Xiat could see every move they made and Rael was across the table with the door under her eyes, and herself between the visitors and the President.

  And they barely registered Agni in the room before the princesses were finished reacting.

  Agni. One Damn him.

  Urfa crossed his arms. "I wish to hell I could have been the one to knock the foundations out from under Agni."

  Orde rotated his shoulders and paced. "We’ll be lucky if it lasts half way back to Gate City. One Damn. All right, I’ll be having a series of serious discussions with the Minister of War and the Prime Councilor, and no doubt lapping out from there."

  Izzo shifted and caught his eye. "Pardon me, but I seem to have tripped over something I hadn’t realized. Am I correct in thinking that we don’t know where Earth is, that we can’t find it with the gate generator?"

  Orde nodded. "Correct. And now it seems that capturing the Earth’s gate anchor on Forty-two and attacking through it has already been tried. Unsuccessfully. And is now impossible: there's no gate to attack through. Attacking Forty-two is a complete waste of time, money and above all, lives. For better or worse, we’ll just have to keep on hoping to find Earth though blind exploration."

  Izzo shifted again. "And I take it that we have an example of a new type of gate anchor?"

  "No." Urfa glanced at the president and received a nod. "We have an actual transdimensional gate. It seems to be a permanent phenomenon, needing no power to maintain it. It has been in continuous existence for at least three years. The terminal point switched during that disastrous battle two years ago, shredding the tank that was transiting. But even that didn't collapse it. The Earth had, still has, most likely, seven others of these permanent gates at that location. And after studying the one we've got for three years, we still don't understand . . . anything about it. Best guess is that it's a natural phenomenon they have learned to control. And having tested it on a world where they didn't have to worry about any unforeseen problems with it, whatever equipment they used to make it has been removed."

  "That's . . . permanent gates? No time limits, no power costs?" Izzo looked stunned.

  Idlo and Ahba just looked more baffled than concerned. They don't have enough experience to be able to see the ramifications. Izzo does . . . and he's pretty damn sharp.

  Urfa rubbed his face. "There have been three definite gate attachments from Earth, all on Colonies. The dates . . . fourteen years ago, eleven, and ten. We detected a magnetic anomaly each time. And each time their agents were obvious. No mental shielding at all, they fairly broadcast ‘I am a spy from Earth’ as they walked around. We got the spies, shut down their anchor as quickly as possible, but they certainly seemed to have our range. But these new gates change everything. As Agni said, we’ve got one of them to study, and it hasn’t done us a bit of good. The magnetic signature is so weak, satellite detection is impossible. If they attached in a built up area with an electric grid, we probably wouldn’t detect it from more than five hu
ndred meters distance."

  Idlo shifted. "So, we know there was a four or five year gap in Earth’s investigation of us after that first attempted invasion. But given the random nature of interdimensional searches that means there might not have been any damage to the Earth gate mechanism. But if there was . . . could that be when they invented this new type of gate?"

  "But if they knew we were responsible, surely they would have focused even more time and gate searches our direction, after we attacked them." Izzo fished for a toothpick. "I think we must have damaged their mechanism. And these new gates are only recently in widespread use, as they were using the old type as of . . . ten years ago."

  That got nods around the table.

  Only Xiat disagreed. "What little we know of Earth's cross-dimensional relations is that they have dozens of colonies and hundreds of mining worlds with natives as slave labor. Even a brief loss of gate capacity would have been a disaster. They would have been reconnecting with colonies, putting down slave rebellions for years. And if any rebels on a world captured and destroyed their beacon, that world would have been lost. Hunting down the One World was probably well down their list."

  Orde nodded. "Theorizing about Earth is all well and good. Right now we need to concentrate on Forty-two. Exterior needs more people on the ground there, to be sure there isn’t any gate activity. To watch for anyone returning to check on their experiments. That’s the crucial point for now." The president got up and paced again. "And after the invasion of Forty-two, I suppose diplomatic contact might be rejected by that polity, but what about the others? There were five nations. Two presumably hostile, now. Three possibly open to talk."

  Izzo grimaced. "What is the likelihood anyone there will trust us, given the One’s history of capturing and consuming every inhabited world we’ve ever found?" One corner of his mouth tucked in wryly. "What are the odds the council won’t want to invade anyway. They got their pride dented. And we have no idea how to peacefully co-exist."