Ashinik sat up in bed with a jerk. He remembered now. He, as a member of the first circle, was called to the sect's meeting. If he doesn't arrive, he will be outlawed. What if he arrives? It's crazy. The Earthmen are watching him. He will act as a bee leading them to its beehive and they will burn the beehive out with their rocket launchers.
Ashinik looked around. The room wasn't large and though he couldn't see anything out of ordinary around him, Ashinik felt as if the closed circuit cameras were zooming in at him from all directions. Ashinik dug in his clothing hanging on a chair next to him and fished out a flat pebble with two holes. They had given him this pebble at Inissa meeting and told him that the pebble had been bewitched and it would render all Earthmen electronic eyes impotent.
Ashinik smiled bitterly; he knew all too well that no sorcery would help against a video camera. "If I don't come and use surveillance as a reason they will accuse me of unbelieving into the power of the holy talisman," a thought glanced in his mind.
Why would they watch him though? He usually stayed in bed for a day or two after a fit. Who would figure it out that the foam on his lips came from a "foamy nut" that he had chewed on and that he fainted from this nut for a couple of hours at most.
At the same time he needed to leave due to a very simple reason. Ashinik couldn't rely on Bemish's behavior. It's true that the Earthman had been very magnanimous so far but it had also been in his interest. Now Bemish was utterly interested in the destruction of the sect and he would doubtfully be particularly nice to Ashinik.
Ashinik stood and pulled on the door handle. It was not locked but the corridor it led to was blocked by a closed department door in two or three meters. Ashinik knew it for sure that unlocking this door would be dangerous. It was connected to the night alarm system in case of thieves and other accidents.
Ashinik stuck his nose into a couple of offices. They were mostly filled with medical equipment. Two rooms teemed with plastic paint buckets and other construction paraphernalia — they were being furnished. Sharp paint smell hadn't disappeared completely yet and the workers laboring here during the day had left a window ajar.
A couple of disgustingly dirty worker overalls lay on the floor.
The next moment, Ashinik's eyes gleamed and he rushed to where the paint was. Yes! A small white roll, about an elbow wide, was there, behind the plastic buckets. It was not a rope, no; it was just sound resistant insulation tape that was used for seal soundproofing linnit blocks. Ashinik knew, however, that the tape was incredibly strong — the construction workers loved to sell it on the side to the peasants who wove horse harnesses out of it. The tape length in a standard pack was sixty meters but the workers had already utilized some. By Ashinik's estimate, about one sixth of the tape had been used. It should be enough for eighteen floors. Ashinik pulled torn overalls over his pajama, walked to a window and wrapped the tape's end around the window frame. He briefly prayed to the White Elder and climbed out of the window.
The descent was hard. The tape was sticky just to the right degree and it was unwrapping slowly under Ashinik's weight. Sometimes it got stuck and Ashinik had to pull the tape off jerkily with one hand while hanging from the other one.
In five minutes, Ashinik jumped down onto a sidewalk and ran at top speed across stiff and booming thermoconcrete. This spaceport's sector was relatively empty — two helicopters stood next to its border and a hefty trans-galactic liner was being loaded far away. With an open mouth, Ashinik stared at the containers floating into the cargo hatch for several moments. What if he just crept in the ship and flew away from this damned planet? At least, nobody would kill or betray him there.
Ashinik raced to the fifth sector, squeezed through a hole in the fence and ran down an unpaved road, illuminated by silvery moonlight, to a small jeep that was perched at the curb. Earlier, he had asked a worker to leave a car there.
Ashinik jumped into the jeep and stuck his hand under the driver's seat. Thank God — the car keys were right where they were supposed to be, wrapped in a dirty rag. Ashinik turned the ignition on and a cold gun barrel touched his temple and somebody said quietly, "Be nice and drive straight, cutie."
Ashinik glanced aside — he could see the speaker in the rearview mirror. Ashinik recognized him to be a personal bodyguard of Shavash's, one out of five that he was rumored to hold in his complete confidence.
"Go!"
The jeep started moving slowly. The guard got his radio out and quietly reported,
"The fish is on the hook. Meet us behind the bridge." Ashinik ground his teeth.
"Just wait," he uttered, "my master will learn that you seized me and you will get you butt kicked!" The guard laughed.
"Firstly," he spoke, "it would be difficult for Bemish to find out that we caught you because you escaped on your own. But if you are really interested in it, it was Mr. Bemish who handed you over to us. He told us where the jeep would be and suggested that we trapped you.
Ashinik's heart plummeted.
"You are lying! The master wouldn't do it!"
"Eh, my dear, the master didn't do it while he still hoped to make peace with the sect. And now he can only hope to find out where the Meeting of Choosing will occur and burn them all out with a laser or with DDT. We can learn where it is from you, right? Of course, Mr. Bemish could skin you himself but Bemish is a squeamish Earthman. Why should he get his hands dirty if there are other people around? That's why he sold you out, Ashinik."
Ashinik drove silently. Nearby, the spaceships' exhausts hissed warming up and signal lights blinked behind the spaceport wall. The unpaved road finally ended, the jeep climbed onto a six lane highway and rolled towards Lannah Bridge.
"So, where is the meeting?"
"I don't know."
The car raced over a ramp next to the spaceport eastern gates; a passenger car's lights blinked below.
"Ashinik, why are you so stubborn? Don't you understand that you are the third one on their extermination list, right after Bemish and my boss? You aren't crazy. You don't believe that Yadan was born out of a golden egg, do you? Tell us and we will let you go because my masters are normal people and yours are nuts!"
Ashinik suddenly swerved the steering wheel all the way to the right. The car hit the concrete sidewalk, jumped and hit the fence head-on. The guard shot and the bullet burned Ashinik's hair and made a neat hole in the windshield.
"Ouch! What are you doing, bastard?!"
The rail caved in, bursting. Ashinik threw the door open and rolled out. He was barely able to grab the poles at the ramp's edge.
The busted rail links glimmered on their way down and the car followed them spinning in the air. Ashinik heard it hitting the ground; the sound of a muted explosion came next.
Ashinik climbed onto the ramp and ran as fast as he could.
The next morning, barefoot Ashinik dressed in peasant clothing with a sack behind his shoulder stepped out of a bus three hundred kilometers away from Assalah.
In half an hour, he entered a village tavern on Mer Lake shore.
Five people in simple clothing sat in the tavern. It seemed that none of them paid any attention to Ashinik. It was as if not a man came through the door but just a bug flew in. "Why have I come," a thought desperately beat at Ashinik's mind, "Why have I come? They will kill me like they killed the White Elder." Ashinik sat on an unoccupied chair. Now all six chairs at the table were taken.
"Rashan is dead," one of the seated people stated quietly. "He is dead because he desired to make peace with the demons and the man who advised him to do so is responsible for his death."
Rashan was the White Elder's name and it was forbidden to say it while he held this position. Since this name was mentioned, it meant that the White Elder had already been elected and Ashinik's heart shuddered when he realized that it had been done without him.
All five people turned and started looking at Ashinik.
"Rashan's soul is lonely; those that defiled it should follow it," Dush said
; he sat next to Ashinik.
Two small seven-year-old boys entered the room and started walking among the people with two goblets, a white and a black one. Everyone put his hand into one goblet and then into the other one.
Dush also lowered his hand into the white goblet and then into the black one. He had a dry bean in his hand — he was supposed to drop it in one of the goblets — nobody could see in which one. Ashinik didn't have any difficulties, however, guessing that Dush chose the white one.
The boys walked around all six people and then they turned the goblets over onto the table. There was nothing in the black one and there were five beans in the white one. Five out of six people sitting here voted for Ashinik's death. The sixth one abstained.
Ashinik observed himself with a cold curiosity. His mind separated in two halves and both halves were watching the current events independently. One half was Ashinik-Assalah vice-president, the youngest Weian manager, the man who earned ten times more money than all the other people here combined. Another half was Ashinik-zealot who put the Elder's orders above his death. What's the value of one life if there are so many of them? It's better to die with honor and come to your next life into a good family than to die as a coward and be reborn as a spider.
Two men in red hoods picked Ashinik up by his hands, dragged him for several steps and put him on a rug unrolled between two tripods. One of them threw a sturdy rope noose over Ashinik's neck quickly and efficiently. "No!" Ashinik wanted to cry out as an Earthman would have cried at his place.
"Let me put my hair in place," Ashinik heard his own voice and his hands rose and removed several hair curls from under the rope."
One executioner pushed him closer to the altar and the other one started unhurriedly putting the candles' flame out with a wooden board. Ashinik knew that he would be killed when the last candle dies.
Ashinik stood on his knees immobile and watched how darkness was slowly conquering the room. Soon only one flame tongue was left…
"Leave us alone," a voice spoke suddenly.
The rope on his neck was loosened up. Ashinik heard the chairs and door squeaking quietly. He turned his head slightly and saw that he was left alone with Yadan. He realized that Yadan was now the White Elder by how quickly his order had been obeyed.
"It's not right to kill a man," Yadan said, "who can serve our purpose still, however guilty he is. You want to serve our purpose, don't you?"
"I want it with all my heart."
"Do you agree that you are responsible for Rashan's demise?"
"Yes."
Ashinik answered automatically. He knew what he would be told to do now. He would be commanded to kill Shavash or his master.
"The demons taught you a lot. Can you return to Terence Bemish?"
"No. Bemish betrayed me."
"It's not important that Bemish betrayed you," Yadan noticed sarcastically. "It's important that Bemish betrayed Rashan. He will answer for that."
X X X
Two days later, when Bemish flew to hunt with Khanadar, he heard that yet another assassination attempt had been made on Shavash's life. This time, it was no longer amateurs. A car packed with serit explosives had been parked in Shavash's car path and it exploded exactly when the cars were next to each other. The assassination attempt had been organized very well; the criminals had clearly studied all of the vice-minister's possible routes and they had maintained constant radio communication. Once it became clear that Shavash would drive by Azure circle, the corresponding order had been given. The car with explosives had been parked literally five minutes before the official drove by.
Shavash was saved by a freaky accident. Just a moment before the explosion, a doll rolled onto the road and an eight-year-old girl rushed out there after it. The driver stepped on the brake sharply trying not to hit the girl and the car spun across the road.
Right then the explosion hit. Since the car faced the blast with its back instead of its side, it was hurled forward for several meters and it hit a glass shop window (while it was already disintegrating) head on. It bounced backwards, jumped and its trunk hit a small electric auto that was quietly hurrying to the Cheese Precinct.
The car leaped quite nimbly on the electric auto with its rear wheels, jumped from its hood onto its roof, froze there for a second, tipped over and banged into the road cover face on.
The driver banged his forehead on the steering wheel and hurt himself quite a bit. Shavash obtained a minor concussion and got the driver's blood all over his excellent suit. The bodyguard had been sitting in the back seat, against the regulations, and he was not so lucky — he sustained a rib fracture and a lacerated spleen.
Having learned about serit explosives, Bemish went cold. This particular explosive had been used often in the earlier stage of the spaceport's construction.
Quite a crowd gathered in the foyer in front of Bemish's office. Bemish walked into his office gesturing to Giles to follow him. The security service director's face acquired a wooden expression and he came after Bemish.
"Ashinik hasn't showed up, has he?" Bemish asked Giles.
"No," the latter said.
"Dick, run a check on the used explosives up to the last milligram," Bemish said quietly.
"If I was you, I would not address this issue," Giles answered just as quietly even though they were alone.
"Being me, I will not wait till Shavash addresses this issue."
In an hour Inis entered Bemish's office. Bemish raised his eyes and got a surprise — Inis was very serious, her eyebrows were furled and her face was pale. She even wore a skirt that almost reached to the ground though it was somewhat transparent.
"Terence," she said, lowering her eyes, "Ashinik has been arrested. He had just being sitting in a tavern and they jumped upon him and drove him away."
"How do you know this?"
"I got a phone call."
Bemish paused.
"Terence, I swear to you that he is not guilty! These people… they just used him as a dummy front! It's their technique — they decided to get rid of the man who is half Earthman already and they decided to do it with Shavash's hands!"
Bemish was astonished. Inis could well be correct. But how did this girl figure it out? Who suggested this to her? Bemish almost asked her this question and then he went pale. He understood what had happened. It was not "who" it was "what."
"You should go to Shavash," Inis said.
"Why?"
Inis suddenly put her hands on her hips.
"Three months ago you would not ask, "Why?" You would know that you couldn't control the workers without Ashinik. Now Ashinik has performed his function and you can give him away! He taught the workers to be rich and sated and nobody will betray you anymore!"
Oh my God! Inis was no longer a bedding girl, content with her dresses and sweets. Bemish leaped from his armchair and grabbed her by her shoulders.
"Why are you asking for him? Why do you care about my deputy? Why have they called you and not me?"
Then, Inis burst into tears. She kneed, embraced Bemish's legs and wailed confusedly, "I… I can't be without him…"
Bemish paled.
"Are you lovers?"
Inis was crawling next to his feet. Bemish ran his hands over the table and the woman cried out and leapt up. She looked at the intercom button with horror as if she was expecting Terence Bemish to push it and order the spaceport's security service director to find a jute sack somewhere, stick the unfaithful lover of the general director in it and sew it up.
Bemish turned and rushed out of the office.
When Bemish got to Shavash, the small official was eating a breakfast. "You've arrested my employee!" Bemish declared at the doorstep. "On what grounds did you do it?"
"He is a zealot and he was involved in yesterday's assassination attempt."
"Where is the proof?"
Shavash grinned.
"The arrest comes first. He will supply us with the proof later."
"If I w
ere you, I wouldn't particularly trust to a testimony obtained under torture."
"And I would never," Shavash said, "trust a zealot's testimony obtained without torture. Why are you looking at me as if a live carp is stuck between my teeth?"
"You are a scoundrel!" Bemish shouted.
"You have said it before, Terence."
"And you are shaking with fright and rushed to arrest everybody left and right!"
"Terence," Shavash said, "we are now on one side. Look, Ashinik had run away from you and he never came back to you. Why? Because he was ordered to wring our necks."
"If he had returned to Assalah," Bemish noticed, "it would have been much easier."
"If he had returned to Assalah, Giles would take him apart in half a minute."
"Shavash, I know Ashinik a little bit. Listen, if he had set this assassination up, you would not have survived. He would have used three times more explosives. He would not let any accidents get in his way."
"It's possible," Shavash said, "but you see, if you arrest a fool that carried out the assassination, he can only tell you what a fool knows. If you arrest Ashinik who is not particularly strong in his faith, thanks to your efforts, he will tell us everything. Three days later, after Ashinik tells us everything, nothing will be left of the sect."
"Nothing will be left except the reasons for its existence — poverty of the people, embezzling officials and rude Earthmen."
Shavash grinned.
"You are a strange man, Terence. If I were you, I would thank a man who arrested my concubine's lover."
Bemish paled. Even that was out. Damn it, everybody, including the zealots, knew it except for him…
"You, of course, do not love Inis. You love another woman. But still it's not a reason to appeal on Inis' beau's behalf."
Shavash yawned and covered his mouth with his hand.
Bemish shouted in such a voice that the glass doors in a cabinet clanged.
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