Mountain of Mars

by Glynn Stewart

  The room was silent.

  “Suresh Granger had the means and the opportunity to convince Desmond the Third to break protocol and fly Des up with him on the same shuttle,” Samara concluded. “If our Nemesis knew about the assassination attempt on Damien Montgomery, then they had more than enough to blackmail him into making that happen, giving us motive.”

  “I guess there’s only one way to know for sure,” Damien said calmly, trying to process everything he’d just learned.

  “What’s that?” Kiera demanded.

  “I need to talk to Councilor Granger,” the Lord Regent replied.

  “The Councilor is a trained Combat Mage, a veteran of Tau Ceti’s defense forces,” Romanov warned. “You can’t confront him like—”

  “If there are Guards in the room, he will sense a trap,” Damien told his bodyguard. “No, Denis. Kiera and I can call him to us in terms he cannot deny, but we must meet with him and confront him alone.”

  “You would put both yourself and the Mage-Queen at risk?” Gregory demanded.

  “There are ways we can keep Kiera safe, but yes,” he confirmed. “For this task, no one else will do.”

  “So be it,” Kiera told them, her tone decided. Damien smiled sadly to himself as he heard her father’s tones in her voice. “My Lord Regent and I will meet with Councilor Granger and establish the truth of this.”

  Damien knew that tone. The advisors might argue, but the Mage-Queen of Mars had made up her mind—and the only person who could override her was him. And this was his idea.

  39

  As Suresh Granger stepped into Damien’s office, the Lord Regent was studying him with an eye he hadn’t applied to the Councilor in the past. The old Tau Cetan man moved like an old man, every gesture carefully calculated not to strain himself.

  Damien’s Sight marked other concerns as he watched Granger approach the desk. Granger was a Jump Mage, with the runes carved into his palms that would let him interface with a jump ship’s runic matrix. He didn’t have the projector rune of a Marine Combat Mage, but his record showed he’d been trained in combat magic for the Tau Ceti Self-Defense Force.

  There were many more dangerous mages on the planet, but Suresh Granger was quite capable of defending himself. Nonetheless, Damien gestured for the Royal Guards to leave them and the door closed on a room that contained him, Granger, and the Mage-Queen of Mars.

  “Welcome, Councilor Granger,” he greeted their suspect. There was no way Kiera was talking to Granger. She was barely managing to keep a civil face and, from the way Granger was carefully eyeing his Queen, she wasn’t entirely fooling him.

  “We appreciate you making the time to meet with Her Majesty and myself,” he continued, gesturing Granger to a seat. “I know how busy my schedule is, and I can’t imagine a man wearing as many hats as you do is easily available.”

  “You and Her Majesty have the highest priority on my time,” Granger told them. “All of the hats I wear in Sol boil down to different reasons to speak to the Mage-Queen. I am at your disposal.

  “How may I serve the Mountain?”

  “You can speak frankly,” Kiera said, her tone iced gravel.

  He blinked and bowed his head slightly.

  “I do my best to speak frankly at all times,” he told them. “I know the situation with the Committee’s attempt to reset the negotiations after your father’s death must have been upsetting. We are not entirely fans of the structure His Majesty agreed to, but that was an inappropriate way to handle matters.

  “You have my deepest apologies for my own mishandling of that matter.”

  “That’s a factor in why Kiera summoned you,” Damien told the Councilor, filing away the tacit admission that most of that particular dance had been Granger’s idea. “But it’s not what we wanted to talk to you about or what we require your complete honesty on.”

  “I am at the Mountain’s disposal,” Granger replied. “What do you need, my Lord Regent?”

  “I need you to explain, in detail, the events and reasoning that led to your contribution to the assassination of Desmond Michael Alexander the Third and his son.”

  Damien could see the moment that Granger realized what he was saying—about halfway through the word assassination. There was no surprise in the other man’s face, but the blood drained from it with spectacular speed.

  “I have no idea what you—”

  “Bullshit,” Kiera snapped. “You convinced my father to take Des up on a shuttle that shouldn’t have held them both. You nominated the prosecutor whose blind spots allowed her to miss that an assassination even happened.”

  “And you were responsible for a negotiated agreement that was carefully not put in writing,” Damien said quietly. “Like you expected Desmond to be dead before an actual document was signed. Most of all, Councilor Granger, you aren’t surprised to be accused of this.”

  Granger flung himself backward.

  “I will not stand for these…these malicious accusations!” he barked.

  “You can answer the questions around Desmond’s assassination, Councilor, and we might come to a deal,” Damien told him. “Or you could not…and we’ll find a judge prepared to hang you for the attempted assassination of one of His Majesty’s Hands.

  “We can prove beyond any doubt that you were the man who contracted the assassin Alexander Odysseus to murder me. And while I will forgive many things, Suresh Granger, your list of sins grows long for even my mercy.”

  Power flashed around Granger and Damien’s Sight grabbed on to it. He wasn’t sure if it was a defensive spell or an attack, but he was not going to permit Granger to wield magic in this room.

  Damien’s own power slashed across the room, using the runes that filled the Mage-King’s office to smother Granger’s spell before it could take form.

  The Lord Regent was not Desmond Michael Alexander—but he had learned from that worthy, the most experienced Rune Wright of their time. He’d fought Samuel Finley, a self-taught Rune Wright who’d mastered several tricks Damien had never learned from Alexander.

  With Desmond’s death, Damien might not be the most powerful Mage alive—that title rested with Admiral Jane Alexander—but he was the best-taught Rune Wright alive.

  He was on his feet, one black-gloved hand pointed at Granger as his power wrapped around the Councilor’s and squashed it. Not the spell he’d been trying to cast again—Damien now recognized the long-range personal teleport of a Jump Mage in trouble—but every scrap of the Mage Gift the other man possessed.

  “You don’t get to leave until I say you get to leave, Councilor Granger,” he said softly. The Councilor was backing away, staring at him in horror.

  “It’s an interesting trick that Dr. Finley mastered, isn’t it?” Damien continued. “The man was a psychopath, but he was extraordinarily gifted and he’d learned quite different ways of suppressing magical power than we had.

  “Sit. Down,” he ordered. “You will answer our questions or you will be tried and sentenced for regicide. There will be a list of other charges, but that one means there’s no question of the penalty that will be applied, is there?”

  “Please,” Granger half-whispered. “I…I had no choice.”

  “Sit the fuck down,” Kiera snarled. “Because Damien can make all the promises he wants, but I am the daughter of the man you killed, and I am the one you need to convince to spare your miserable life.”

  Damien waited for Granger to sit down. He was more likely to spare the man than not…but Kiera wasn’t wrong in claiming the final decision on whether to send him to a trial without a deal.

  He’d be tried under Protectorate Law, not the laws of the Kingdom of Mars. The Protectorate Supreme Court was slightly less likely to shoot him than a Martian Court, but it was still a near-certainty unless the old man made a deal.

  From the way he slumped into his chair, Granger had run the same calculation. He didn’t meet either Damien or Kiera’s gaze, staring down at the floor beneath him.
r />   “I truly thought you were a threat to Mountain and Protectorate,” he finally said, slowly. “The rest of the Council was going to use you as a club to break the Mage-King—and I was Desmond Alexander’s man, no question about it.

  “So, I tried to remove a threat he was blind to.” He was silent for several seconds. “If I’d succeeded, I’d be dead myself now. The irony is not lost on me. I thought I’d buried everything and was going to write it off as the worst idea I’d ever had.

  “Then a man showed up in my office. I didn’t know him. He introduced himself as ‘Nemesis.’”

  “I’m familiar with the name,” Damien replied. “What did he look like?”

  Damien had fought the man the Legatan spies they’d captured had IDed as “Kay,” who had also seemed to operate as Nemesis.

  “He was an older man, probably older than me,” Granger told him. “Pure white hair. Skin like translucent parchment… That stuck in my head.

  “He knew everything about the attempt on you. And…other things, nothing of similar weight, but let’s not pretend anyone makes it to Councilor with clean hands.”

  “Most do, actually,” Damien murmured. The description sounded very familiar. “They really do.”

  Granger seemed taken aback by that. Damien wasn’t entirely surprised. Most people who were corrupt seemed to assume everyone around them was also corrupt. He’d just never taken Suresh Granger for that type.

  “Older man, white hair, super pale skin?” he finally asked. That wasn’t Kay. “You sure he called himself Nemesis? Do you have any images of him?”

  “The one time I met him in person, my entire office security system was down,” Granger admitted. “Everything after that was text-only communication.”

  “And he asked you to assassinate the Mage-King of Mars?” Damien said flatly. He heard Kiera hiss next to him and doubted the sound went unnoticed by his captive.

  “I can tell you…everything,” Granger said slowly. “I know more than he told me. I didn’t take being blackmailed lightly, Lord Regent, but I need something in exchange for those truths.”

  Damien gestured to Kiera.

  “Your call, Your Majesty,” he said quietly. From the way Granger’s gaze switched to the young Queen, he’d been hoping Damien didn’t do that.

  “Why should I make you any promises before I know the depth of your crimes?” Kiera asked coldly, anger dripping from her tones. “You murdered my father, Suresh Granger. If I even let you live, it will be against my better judgment.”

  “I did not kill your father,” Granger said desperately. “Yes, I convinced him to take Des with him to the Link unveiling at the last minute, so they’d have to take one shuttle. I suspected they were going to attack him there, but I didn’t know, I swear.”

  “You knew,” Kiera countered. “You can argue that you only ‘suspected,’ Granger, but you knew there was only one reason to put my father and brother on the same shuttle. Don’t pretend otherwise.”

  He tried to straighten in the bonds of Damien’s magic but only ended up looking more pathetic.

  “If you’re going to kill me anyway, what reason do I have to help you?” he asked.

  “Well, for one, you can help us put an end to Nemesis,” Damien pointed out. “They were behind the attack on Council Station. Forced you into this position. You could blame them for your own actions, even, though my personal philosophy calls for more responsibility than that.”

  “I can give you Nemesis,” Granger told them. “They were in intermittent contact with me for two years. I have been tracing those calls, that data, the entire time. I can give you Desmond’s killers.”

  “I have the man who rigged the shuttle in a cell right now,” Damien replied. “His aid in tracking you down earned him his life. What more do you need?”

  “We both know the assassin isn’t Nemesis,” Granger said. “Nemesis said he’d met you. You know who you’re hunting. I can give him to you.”

  “I have several possibilities for who I’m hunting,” the Lord Regent said calmly. “One of those people is definitely you.”

  Granger went silent and closed his eyes.

  “It’s Kiera’s call, not mine.” Damien looked over at the Mage-Queen of Mars. “My Queen?”

  “Spare him if you must,” she finally snapped. “But he never sets foot in Sol again.”

  “Do you hear her, Suresh Granger?” Damien asked their captive.

  Granger nodded.

  “If—and only if—your information delivers Nemesis into the hands of the Protectorate, you will be spared,” he told the older man. “In that case, you will be taken from Mars to your estate on Tau Ceti e, where you will be chipped like the criminal on probation you are and you will spend the rest of your life under house arrest.

  “But you will not be executed and you will not face a public trial. This is your trial—and your sentence is by the will of the Mountain. Is that enough for you, Suresh, or should we give up on this conversation and proceed with chemical interrogation?”

  Damien was holding the man suspended in the air, supported on the same bands of force that held him in place and blocked his magic. He’d left Granger limited mobility, but it was enough for the man to slump in defeat and nod.

  40

  As Damien allowed Granger to sit again, he summoned Samara to join them and dug into his own files for something in particular.

  “What are we waiting for?” the Councilor asked after a near minute of silence.

  “Several of my best people have been on this file, and I’d prefer to only have you tell us all of this once,” Damien replied. “First, though, was this the man you met?”

  The picture wasn’t great. It had been taken through the binoculars of a sniper’s spotter, one of several teams positioned around the restaurant where Damien had met the man named Winton. The white-haired and pale-skinned old man had kidnapped Roslyn Chambers to get Damien to the meeting—the meeting where he’d offered Damien Montgomery the throne of Olympus Mons if he joined the Keepers.

  Damien had nearly killed Winton for that. Letting the man go had allowed them to retrieve Chambers unharmed, though, so he couldn’t quite regret letting the man live.

  “That’s him, yes,” Granger said after a moment. “I’ve met a few old men of similar coloring, but that’s definitely him. Who is that?”

  “He introduced himself to me as Winton, back when he was trying to recruit me to join the Keepers,” Damien replied. “I have reason to suspect, now, that that was part of a plan to turn me against the Keepers and weaken them. A plan, I have to admit, that worked perfectly.”

  “It would fit,” Granger admitted, twitching slightly as the door opened behind him. Damien had let the man sit but was still holding him in place with magic and suppressing the other Mage’s gift.

  Romanov and Samara had been expecting the call and calmly took chairs on either side of Granger, allowing themselves to both listen to Damien and keep an eye on the Councilor.

  “I believe you are familiar with Voice Munira Samara,” Damien told Granger. “I don’t believe you know Guard-Lieutenant Denis Romanov, the commander of my personal detail.

  “Now, when did Nemesis—Winton—contact you?” he asked.

  “It was less than two weeks after the attack on Council Station,” the Councilor told them. “He was in my office here on Mars. The embassy security systems were down for our entire conversation, but he didn’t show up on them before or afterwards, either.”

  “Live-edited security feeds,” Romanov guessed. “They tried the trick in the Mountain, too. The Royal Guard has both more resources and more paranoia than most security teams.”

  “That isn’t possible, is it?” Granger asked.

  “It requires very good software and Hand-level overrides on government computers,” Samara said grimly. “Recent evidence suggests that both Hand Ndosi and Hand Octavian left our target in possession of significant numbers of one-time codes for that purpose. Both of them are dead,
but their betrayals live on.”

  “My research suggests that Nemesis began as a branch of the Keepers,” Granger told them. “That would…line up.”

  “And explain why Nemesis destroyed the Keepers,” Damien agreed. “Winton actively turned us on them to cover his tracks. But…a branch of the Keepers? You believe Nemesis to be an organization, then?”

  “A powerful one, too,” Granger admitted. “They had their tendrils in my own office. In the Keepers. In the Mountain itself. I don’t think there’s many of them, but I think they have access to a lot of reserves the Keepers had hidden away over the years.”

  “And with the Keepers dead and their archives destroyed, we’re never going to find those,” Samara concluded. “We know of Nemesis through a Mage who operated as ‘Kay.’ Did you ever meet anyone else?”

  “Just this Winton,” Granger said. “There was a limit to how much digging I could do without revealing myself. I believe my own office was compromised in advance of them making contact.”

  “I received several text communications over the last two years, directly to my personal inbox, bypassing the entire consular information systems architecture. Mostly requests for information, delivered to digital dead drops.”

  “And you obeyed, compromising yourself further,” Romanov guessed. “Pretty standard asset-acquisition tactics, really.”

  “That wasn’t lost on me, Lieutenant,” Granger said dryly. “I played my own game in turn, trying to track them. I was planning on handing them to His Majesty on a platter, counting on that to be enough to protect me from his anger over the attempt on Montgomery.”

  Damien snorted. He’d have argued to forgive and forget in exchange for that kind of intelligence coup, even if Alexander had wanted to be stubborn.

  “But they dropped the demand to get the Desmonds on the same shuttle before I had enough,” he admitted. “I couldn’t prove anything about them, but they had enough evidence to get me shot.”