X X X
Three more days passed and Ashinik said, "Mr. Bemish, if you wish to talk to the White Elder again, you should be in the capital, in the hotel Archan the day after tomorrow at the dew hour."
Bemish couldn't fall asleep throughout the night. Archan was unquestionably the Empire's most luxurious hotel. It was located in the Emperor's palace territory, where the place where the Cloud Houses for visiting officials used to be. Archan retained all the crazy luxury of the dwellings built for visiting provincial governors and judges of the ninth rank; additionally it acquired all the newest comforts, including computerized climate control. Evil tongues added that Archan also retained hidden passages that executioners had used to visit the governors called to the capital to receive capital punishment. The medieval spy holes had been adapted for communication equipment and much more modern surveillance hardware had taken over.
The fact that White Elder stayed at Archan and not at a five star Hilton demonstrated that the sect not only had considerably more money that Bemish had suspected before but it also had some patrons at the very top. Who were these patrons? Clearly, it was not Shavash. The old man spoke about Shavash with fresh disgust. Bemish was ready to swear that an informer of Shavash's had either been near Iniss or even attended the meeting itself and that crabs had already feasted on him.
Bemish lay in his bed and thought that maybe he, the main demon of the Empire, who never sent spies, never bribed and never intrigued, managed to succeed where the cunning official Shavash failed. He managed to make the White Elder, the Earthmen's enemy, reconsider his policy.
"You are absent-minded tonight," Inis said. "Has anything happened?"
Terence smiled in the dark.
"It's nothing. Sleep little one."
The woman carefully caressed his chest.
"Oh, Mr. Bemish, I can feel that you are troubled. I hope that it's not due to the accounting error I made yesterday. If it's something else, why don't you tell me about it?"
Bemish smiled slightly imagining Inis advising him. She, however, was right — he, indeed, needed advice.
Bemish climbed out of bed and, having walked to the bathroom, dialed a number. Surprisingly, he heard an answer immediately even though it was quite late.
"Mrs. Idari? This is Bemish. I need to talk to you."
"I am listening, Terence."
"It's not a phone conversation. I will be in the capital in two hours. May I see you?"
"Yes."
X X X
Idari met him in the large living room. Bemish didn't ask about Kissur's whereabouts — the majordomo had already whispered to him that Kissur was on a pub crawl accompanied by two barbarians and one bandit.
Idari wore a solemn house mistress dress — long black pants and a black blouse. The blouse's sleeves were embroidered with entwined flowers and stems. She was girdled by a wide belt of silver segments. She walked by Bemish carefully stepping on the beasts and grasses weaved on the rugs and Bemish felt as if her feet were stepping on his heart.
Bemish sat down in a soft chair in the small living room and Idari sat cross legged across him on the carpet.
"I am meeting the White Elder tomorrow," Terence said.
Alarm crossed the woman's face.
"Be careful, Terence, it has to be a trap. They can kill or kidnap you. You have tamed a kitten Ashinik but don't think that you have learned a forest tiger's habits."
"It's not a trap," Bemish said. "They can't set a trap for my body in that place. But… You see… The sect is ready to reconsider its policy towards Earthmen."
Idari smiled with her blue eyes.
"I… I was happy at first. I was able to do what Shavash couldn't. You know how dangerous they are. But now I am afraid. The White Elder is doing me a huge favor. He will ask something in return. An eye for an eye. I want to know what it will be."
"It's very simple," Idari said. "They say you are the foreigner who is the closest to the sovereign. The White Elder will ask you to persuade the sovereign to dismiss Shavash."
Bemish shuddered. The negotiations concerning the company that would obtain a half of Chakhar's ore deposits in exchange for taking responsibility of one of the state loans were proceeding at full speed. The company even had a name, BOAR project. Nobody knew about the project yet, but…
"But… But… Oh my God, it's impossible! Shavash will bankrupt me!"
The woman smiled imperceptibly.
"You should have realized what could happen, Terence, when you offered Ashinik a job. Or do you think that Following the Way would have let Ashinik serve a demon if they hadn't thought that the demon had made himself a snare they could catch him with?"
Bemish arrived at Archan at eight thirty.
The hotel's malachite columns gleamed and the mirrors on the lobby's walls were inlaid with the thinnest silver layers on top. Above the mirrors, where the gods had been depicted in the past, elegant clocks were now set; they showed the local time, Melbourn time — Melbourn being the Federation of Nineteen capital during this decade — and time in London, New York, Khoine and in a dozen other largest Galaxy's business centers.
A certain disturbance was taking place in the hotel's lobby, a palace guardsman in a green caftan (palace guardsmen were in charge of hotel security) was silently and forcefully pushing a journalist with a camera away. Bemish approached the registration desk and expressed a wish to talk to the resident of room number fifteen on the hotel phone. The girl behind the desk was quite surprised. A hand touched Bemish on the back and the hand's owner turned Bemish around to face him in a somewhat impolite manner.
"My dear fellow," he started unceremoniously and then he choked, thought a bit and asked tightly, "Mr. Bemish?"
"That's me."
The man with palace guard captain insignia was clearly nervous.
"Excuse me," he said, "do I understand correctly that you were inquiring about the resident of the room number fifteen?"
"Yes," Bemish said exasperatedly, "I have a meeting with him at nine."
"It's impossible."
"Why?"
"An hour and a half ago the man who stayed in the room number fifteen and two bodyguards of his were killed by a bomb that exploded in the room."
Bemish put his elbows on the desk and squeezed his temples with his hands in anguish and, right at that moment, a journalist hiding behind a large flower pot happily clicked his camera.
X X X
In half an hour Bemish rushed up Shavash's city manor staircase. The vice-minister was drinking his morning tea in the blue living room.
"What happened, Terence?" he stood up in astonishment, meeting Bemish.
"Murderer!" Bemish shouted.
"What's happened?"
"Don't play games with me!"
"Are you talking about the Archan accident? Terence, honestly, I have nothing to do with it…"
Shavash's face demonstrated sincere surprise and affection. Bemish's fist collided with this affectionate face maybe not at a half of his full power but definitely at one third of it.
Shavash flew to the floor. He squeaked, rolled on the carpet and jumped on his feet. His face burned and a red mark stretched across his left cheek.
"Listen, Terence," the official said, chewing on his lips, "you will fall out the zealots' favor this morning. It will be bad if you also fall out of my favor…"
Bemish sagged heavily in a chair.
"Well, tell me what happened."
"There is nothing to tell you. You know it all. This morning I was supposed to meet the White Elder in Archan. The White Elder was going to reconsider his attitude towards Earthmen. Now he is as dead as a wasted frog and, since it happened thanks to his meeting with an Earthman, the zealots will consider us demons just as they considered us before. They will also remain banned and, being more dangerous for the country, they will be less dangerous for you, Shavash."
The small official grinned.
"Don't you think Terence that if you meet a man who signed a death warrant
to your friend, you should let you friend know about it?"
"No."
Shavash threw himself back in the chair. His voice became flatter and less caressing.
"Suppose," Shavash said, "that somebody informed me about the White Elder's stay in Archan and his meeting with you. Don't I know the conditions of this meeting and what they asked you to do so that Earthmen would stop being demons?"
"They didn't ask me anything."
"They would have asked my resignation from you."
"And it's better for you to kill a man who could make a peace between Earthmen and millions of people that to resign, isn't it?"
"Oh, Terence, you don't understand anything. Tell me, what could you tell the sovereign that the sovereign could revoke my appointment?"
"What?! One tenth of what I know…"
"Exactly. You can get me to resign only based on the deals we have handled together. And if my part in these deals is known, would I keep silence about your part? And if your part is known, even the moderate newspapers will agree that you are a demon."
Shavash spread his hands.
"The White Elder had no intention of making peace with Earthmen. He was going to use you as a tool to cause my resignation and your own destruction while the sect's attitude would not change a bit. I think that this decision was made in Inissa during the same sect's meeting that you beloved Ashinik attended."
"This is bullshit," Bemish said, "This is bullshit that you don't believe, because if it had happened this way, you would have just talked and told me that the White Elder was leading me by my nose. Instead of that you killed him, because they came to another decision at the sect's meeting."
"Actually, I was going to talk to you," Shavash replied, "today, after your meeting with the White Elder. But somebody outwitted us both."
"Who is it?"
"It's Yadan."
"Who?"
"He is the teacher of your Ashinik, the number two man in the sect who will become the first one now. I bet that he was the only one who knew or suspected about the White Elder's plan to throttle you with your own hands. He killed him to take his position, knowing that in the current circumstances half Weia would blame me for the murder and the other half would blame you."
"Bullshit! I saw enough to be sure that it was a professional assassination. Should I believe that the same people who call all the Earth technology a phantom, used sinex explosives?"
"They call it a phantom but they can use it quite well, Terence. Don't worry. And they have many more opportunities to organize an assassination; I can bet my life that it was a suicide bomber."
X X X
Ashinik spent this night in the company director's bed with Inis, as he spent all the other nights when Bemish was away from the spaceport. He learned about the accident from the morning news report, right from one of the multiple screens hanging in a lounge that Ashinik was passing through.
Ashinik stood in silence boring the screen through with his eyes. A worker passed by and slid a note into the lad's hand. He unwrapped and read it; the note ordered him to attend a meeting at one of the sect's secret places — an old temple next to a tavern three hundred kilometers to the north from Assalah.
Ashinik paled and hurried to an exit.
They waited for him at the exit — two people in black and white uniforms of the security service silently blocked his way. Ashinik made an attempt to turn aside.
"Follow us, vice-president," an officer said quietly, "the boss would like to talk to you."
He raised his hand to his mouth and spoke into a round badge on his wrist,
"We are going upstairs, sir,"
Richard Giles, the spaceport security head was waiting for Ashinik in his white soundproof office on the tower's twelfth floor. When Giles saw the vice-president who actually outranked him, he didn't even move.
The people in black and white uniform seated Ashinik in an armchair and left at a sign from their boss. The office doors slid towards each other behind their backs with a soft hiss; Ashinik and Giles were alone.
"Have you introduced the White Elder to Terence?" Giles asked.
It was useless to deny it.
"Yes."
"Why haven't I been notified?"
"It's Mr. Bemish's prerogative," Ashinik answered, "If he had liked to, he would've let you know. When I came to work here, Bemish promised me that I didn't have to answer any questions and I haven't been asked anything so far."
"That was under different circumstances. What did Bemish and the White Elder talk about?"
"I don't know."
"What was discussed at your sect's meeting in Inissa?"
"I won't tell you."
"Either you, Ashinik, tell me what happened in Inissa or I will tell Terence in whose bed you sleep every night that he spends outside of the spaceport, including tonight."
Ashinik paled.
"And I can even show him some pictures." Ashinik sat motionlessly.
"What happened in Inissa?
"We… we agreed not to consider Earthmen to be demons."
"How interesting… Why?"
"It was my suggestion."
"Did everybody support it?"
"The White Elder agreed. That was enough."
"What about the others? Who was against it?"
"Yadan, Akhunna and a man nicknamed Garlic Dan were against it."
"Why did the White Elder agree?"
"He said that he would make peace with the spaceport's boss if the latter broke up with Shavash."
"Aha. So, who killed the White Elder, Shavash or Yadan?"
"I don't know."
"What will happen to you?"
Giles was silent.
"Ashinik, have you received anything from the sect after the assassination?"
"No."
Giles looked at the youth carefully.
"When you receive anything, let me know."
Ashinik was silent.
"Ashinik, don't you understand? You were the one who supported making an agreement with Earthmen! You will be the next victim after the White Elder. They will kill you if you are not with us!"
"I know," Ashinik said quietly.
Giles sighed.
"Listen, Ashinik," he spoke suddenly, "why have you gotten involved with Inis? She is a dumb broad; you can get a bunch of them for an ishevik."
X X X
In the evening Ashinik sat at the same table again, together with Giles and Bemish. Wind and engines howled behind a huge dark window, the glares of the beacons darted across the landing field and chunks of pollen from blooming nut trees traveled back and forth over the landing space. Technicians cursed under their breath — the pollen found its way inside all the hardware. Superstitious locals said that it was a bad omen. Pollen whirlwinds were always considered to be witches and the places where they moved particularly high were known to be damned.
On the space field open to the winds and to the powerful blows from plasma engines the witches danced their best.
"When are you meeting Yadan?" Bemish asked.
Ashinik was silent. He had burned the note long ago but its words still flared inside his mind. Should he answer or not?
But here Giles entered the conversation.
"We know that a courier from Yadan arrived in the spaceport territory. He gave you a note. When did it happen?"
"Nobody has given me any notes. Where is your courier? Have you arrested or photographed him?"
"No," Giles admitted.
"Why not?"
"Shavash's people saw him. They told me."
"Don't you understand that Shavash lied to you," Ashinik asked, "and that you can't believe a single word of his?"
"Listen, Ashinik," Giles said, "I know that after the death of your sect's head, the new head has to be elected in two days. And I know that as a member of the upper circle, you have to be there because otherwise the meeting will be invalid. Where and when do you meet?"
"I don't know."
; Giles grabbed the youth by the lapels of his jacket.
"Idiot! Do you understand that they called you there to kill you? You will get out of there alive only if you agree to kill Terence!"
Ashinik paled. His pupils suddenly dilated covering his whole eyeballs.
"Don't touch me, demon!" the youth suddenly screamed.
Bemish leaped up. Ashinik's face was contorted and foam bubbled on his lips — a fit started.
X X X
Ashinik was carried away and then an inner door to Giles' office opened and a man, who had watched the conversation from the next room, walked out of it; it was Shavash.
"Are you sure that a meeting will occur?" Giles asked.
"I am three hundred percent sure," Shavash replied. "The top of the sect will be there. It's our only chance — to pick them all and cut them down to a demon's snot!"
"It's your only chance," Bemish said through his teeth.
"Terence! We are both in the same shit here. Zealots are not like Galactic police. Nobody is gonna care whether it was you or me who sent the bomb to the White Elder. They will finish both of us off. Give me Ashinik."
"What do you mean?" Bemish inquired.
"Are you a child?"
And a private jail's owner made a straightforward gesture with his hand as if he was squeezing water out of a sheet.
"No," Bemish cut him off.
"Ronald will be very angry with you," Shavash purred. "He has already started the negotiations with the owners of large debt blocks. If you don't join BOAR stock owners…"
"I will think about it," Bemish said in a suddenly low voice.
Shavash didn't insist. He knew that the Earthman had never exchanged a friend's life before for a certain — even if very large — amount of money and he thought that a man had to get used to such a thought.
He stopped talking and he excused himself soon. Giles stepped out to walk him down. On the space field where nobody could overhear them, Giles whispered several words to Shavash and the latter smiled at the spy with his eyes.
X X X
Ashinik woke up late at night. He was in the medical room on the fifth floor and the sky blinked red and blue behind the window.
He didn't remember what exactly happened before and during the fit. It seemed like this demon, Shavash, demanded something from him. A demon? How could it be a demon? Shavash is a Weian. But Yadan is also a Weian and he killed the White Elder. Only a demon could kill the White Elder. Then, are the zealots demons? No, they only invent demons. But if you invent somebody, you will turn into him…
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