by David Weber
Cathy brayed her agreement. “If that many!”
“But don’t think the Peep propagandists didn’t make hay while the sun was shining, Cathy. At least until Cordelia Ransom decided that there was more propaganda value in having Harrington ‘executed.’ ” Anton scowled. “That whole stinking Pavel Young affair was plastered all over every media outlet in the Havenite empire, for weeks on end. Hell, they didn’t even have to make anything up! The truth was stinking bad enough. A vile and cowardly aristocrat used his wealth and position to ruin an excellent officer’s career. Even paying for the murder of her lover—and getting away with it until Harrington finally cornered him into a personal duel. And then, when she shot him in self-defense after he violated the dueling code, the Lords blamed her? Because she shot him too many times?”
The highlander’s soul was back in charge, never mind the uniform. “A pox on all aristocracy,” he hissed. “Inbred filth and corruption.”
Belatedly, he remembered. “Uh, sorry. Nothing personal. Uh, Lady Catherine.”
“S’okay, Anton. I forget I’m a countess myself, as often as not.” She rubbed her sunburned nose.
“I—I’m really sorry we met this way, Cathy. I would have liked—I don’t know—”
Cathy placed her hand on his arm and gave it a little squeeze. She was a bit startled by the thick muscle under the uniform. “Don’t say anything, Anton. Let’s get your daughter back, shall we? The rest can take care of itself.”
He flashed her a thankful smile. They were now at the door, which Isaac was holding open in his best butler’s manner. Robert Tye had already stepped through and was waiting for Anton in the corridor beyond.
Anton and Cathy stared at each other for a moment. Now that they were standing side by side, she realized how much taller she was than the stocky captain. But, also, that the width of his shoulders was not an illusion created by his short stature. He really was almost misshapen. Like a dwarf warrior from the hills, disguised in a uniform.
Anton gave her a quick little bow, and hastened through the door. Then, stopped abruptly.
“Good Lord—I forgot to ask. How long will it take you—” He broke off, glancing quickly into the corridor.
Cathy understood. “I should be in contact with the individual quite shortly, I think. I’ll get in touch with you, Captain Zilwicki.”
“Thank you.” He was gone.
Helen
By the time Helen finished widening the tunnel enough to squeeze herself through, two-thirds of the dust in her makeshift hourglass had fallen through the hole. She had to wage a fierce battle to keep herself from leaving immediately.
That natural impulse was almost overwhelming. But it would be stupid. It wasn’t enough to simply get out of the cell. She also had to make her escape. And that was not going to be easy.
Again, Helen’s success had caught her off guard. She had never really thought about what she would do if she ever got out of the cell. But now she realized that she needed to think about it before she plunged into the darkness.
The darkness was literal, not figurative. Helen had stuck her head through the hole as soon as she widened it enough. And seen—
Nothing. Pitch black. Her own head, filling the hole, had cut off the feeble illumination provided by the cell’s light fixture. Helen had never experienced such a complete darkness. She remembered her father telling her, once, of the time he and her mother had visited Gryphon’s famous Ulster Caverns on their honeymoon. As part of the tour, the guide had extinquished all the lighting in their section of the caverns, for a full five minutes. Helen’s father had described the experience, with some relish—not so much because he was fascinated by utter darkness as because he’d had the chance to fondle his new bride in flagrant disregard for proper public conduct.
Remembering that conversation, Helen had to control herself again. She was swept by a fierce urge to see her father as soon as possible. If Helen’s long-dead mother was a constant source of inspiration for her, it was her father who sat in the center of her heart. Helen was old enough to recognize the emptiness which lurked just beneath her father’s outward cheer and soft humor. But he had always been careful not to inflict that grief on his daughter.
Oh, Daddy!
For a moment, she almost thrust herself into the hole. But among her father’s many gifts to her had been Master Tye’s training, and Helen seized that regimen to keep her steady.
Breathe in, breathe out. Find the calm at the center.
Two minutes later, she backed out of the hole and went through the now-familiar process of disguising her work. Since she had plenty of time, she took more care than usual placing the coverings over the hole and blending in the fresh fill. But her own ablutions were as skimpy as she could make them. Just enough to remove the obvious streaks of dirt.
Helen had no idea how long it would take her to find water in that darkness beyond—if there was any water to be found at all. So she planned to drink the remaining water as soon as she heard her captors approaching. That way she could save the new water bottle her captors would bring her. She might have to live on that water for days.
Or, possibly, forever. Helen knew full well that she might simply die in the darkness. Even if she could elude her captors—even if she found water and food—she had no idea what other dangers might lurk there.
She stretched herself out on the pallet and began Master Tye’s relaxation exercises. She also needed as much rest as possible before setting forth.
Breathe in, breathe out. As always, the exercises brought calmness. But, after a time, she stopped thinking about them. Master Tye faded from her mind, and so did her father.
There was only her mother left. Helen had been named after her mother. Her father, born and bred in the highlands, had insisted upon that old Gryphonite custom, even though Helen’s mother herself—a sophisticate from the Manticoran capital of Landing—had thought it was grotesque.
Helen was glad for it. More now than ever. She drifted into sleep like a castaway, staying afloat on the image of the Parliamentary Medal of Honor.
Cathy
As soon as Isaac closed the door on the departing figure of Captain Zilwicki, a huge grin spread across his face. “I should be in contact with the individual quite shortly, I think,” he mimicked. “Talk about understatements!”
Cathy snorted and stalked back into the living room. Once there, she planted her hands on her hips and glared at the bookcase against the far wall. It was a magnificent thing, antique both in age and function. Cathy was one of that stubborn breed who were the only reason that the book industry (real books, dammit!) was still in business. But she insisted on having real books, wherever she lived—and lots of them, prominently displayed in a proper bookcase.
That was so partly because, in her own way, the Lady Catherine Montaigne, Countess of the Tor, was also a traditionalist. But mostly it was because Cathy herself found them immensely useful.
“You can come out now,” she growled.
Immediately, the bookcase swung open. Between the piece of furniture’s own huge size and the shallow recess in the wall, there was just enough room for a man.
Not much room, of course. But the reputation of Jeremy X was far larger than his actual size. The vicious terrorist and/or valiant freedom fighter (take your pick) was even shorter than Captain Zilwicki, and had nothing like his breadth of shoulder.
Wearing his own cheerful grin, Jeremy practically bounded into the room. He even did a little somersault coming out of the recess. Then turned, planted his own hands on hips, and exclaimed admiringly: “Tradition!”
Turning back around and rubbing his hands in an utterly theatrical manner, he said: “Never met a Gryphon highlander before. What a splendid folk!”
He gave Cathy a squint that was every bit as theatrical as the hand-rubbing. “You’ve been holding out on me, girl. I know you have—don’t deny it!”
Cathy shook her head ruefully. “Just what the universe didn’t need. Slavering terrorist f
iend meets to-the-bloody-death Gryphon feudist. Love at first sight.”
Still grinning, Jeremy hopped into one of the plush armchairs scattered about the large room. “Don’t give me that either, lass. I was watching. Through that marvelous traditional peephole. You were quite taken by the Captain. Don’t deny it—I can tell these things, you know. I think it must be one of the experiments those Mesan charmers tucked into my chromosomes. Trying for clairvoyance or something.”
Cathy studied him. For all Jeremy’s puckish nature, she never allowed herself to forget just how utterly ruthless he could be. The Audubon Ballroom’s feud against Manpower Inc. made the worst Gryphon clan quarrels of legend seem like food fights.
Still, in her own way—dry, so to speak, rather than “wet”—Cathy was just as unyielding. “Dammit, Jeremy, I’ll say it again. If you—”
To her astonishment, Jeremy clapped his hands once and said: “Enough! I agree! You have just won our long-standing argument!”
Cathy’s jaw sagged. Glaring, Jeremy sprang to his feet. “What? Did you really think I took any pleasure in killing all the people I have? Did you now?”
He didn’t wait for a response. “Of course I did! Enjoyed it immensely, in fact. Especially the ones I could show my tongue to before I blew ’em apart. To hell with that business about revenge being a dish best served cold. It’s absolute nonsense, Cathy—take my word for it. I know. Vengeance is hot and sweet and tasty. Don’t ever think it isn’t.”
He grinned up at her impishly. “Ask the good Captain, why don’t you? He’s obviously a man of parts. Wonderful fellow!” Jeremy lowered his voice, trying to imitate Zilwicki’s basso rumble: “ ‘—and I’ll piss on the ashes of those who took her from me.’ ”
He cackled. “T’wasn’t a metaphor, y’know? I dare say he’ll do it.” Jeremy cocked his head at Isaac. “What do you think, comrade?”
Unlike Jeremy, Isaac preferred restraint in his mannerisms and speech. But, for all its modesty, his own smile was no less savage. “Isaac Douglass” was his legal name, but Isaac himself considered it a pseudonym. Isaac X, he was, like Jeremy a member of the Ballroom.
“I’ll bring the combustibles,” he pronounced. “The Captain’s so preoccupied with his daughter’s plight that he’ll probably forget. And wouldn’t that be a terrible thing? To fail of revenge at the very end, just because you forgot to bring the makings for a good fire?”
Isaac’s soft laughter joined Jeremy’s cackle. Staring from one of them to the other, Cathy felt—as she had often before—like a fish stranded out of water. For all the years she had devoted to the struggle against genetic slavery, and for all the closeness of her attachment to the Mesan ex-slaves themselves, she knew she could never see the universe the way they did. There was no condemnation of them in that knowledge. Just a simple recognition that no one born into the lap of privilege and luxury, as she had been, could ever really feel what they felt.
But neither was there any condemnation of herself. Decades earlier, as a young woman newly entered into the Anti-Slavery League, Cathy had been a typical guilt-ridden liberal. Like many such women, she had tried to assuage her guilt by entering a number of torrid affairs with ex-slaves—who, of course, had generally been quite happy to accept the offer.
Jeremy had broken her of that habit. That, and the guilt which lay beneath it. He was already quite famous when she met him, a romantic figure in the lore of the underground. Cathy had practically hurled herself upon him. She had been utterly shocked by his blunt and cold refusal. I am no one’s toy, damn you. Deal with your guilt, don’t inflict it on me. Stupid girl! Of what crimes could you possibly be guilty, at your age?
It was Jeremy who had taught her to think clearly; to separate politics from people; and, most of all, not to confuse justice with revenge or guilt with responsibility. And if Jeremy’sconclusion had been that he would have his justice and enjoy his revenge too—why not? As long as you know the difference—he had enabled her to do otherwise. Unlike most youthful idealists, Cathy had never “grown wiser” with age. She had simply become more patient. Close friends and comrades, she and Jeremy had become over the years, for all their long-standing and often rancorous quarrel over tactics.
Now—
“Stop joking!” she snarled at him. Then, at Isaac: “And you! Quit playing at your stupid butler act!”
Jeremy left off his cackling and plopped himself back in the armchair. Moving more sedately, Isaac did the same.
“I am not joking, Cathy,” Jeremy insisted. “Not in the least.”
Seeing the suspicion and skepticism in her eyes, Jeremy scowled. “Didn’t I teach you anything? Revenge is one thing; justice is another.” He nodded toward the door. “That marvelous officer of yours is about to hand me the instrument for my justice. In the Star Kingdom, at least. D’you think for a minute that I’m such a fool that I’d forgo it for simple revenge?”
She matched his scowl with no difficulty at all. “Yes. Damn you, Jeremy! What else have we been arguing about for the past how many years?”
He shook his head. “You’re mixing apples and oranges. Or, to put it better, retail with wholesale.” He held out his left hand, palm up, and tapped it with his right forefinger. “As long as my comrades and I only had the names of the occasional Manticoran miscreant, now and then, justice was impossible. Even if we’d gotten the bastards hauled into court for violating Manticore’s anti-slavery laws, so what? You know as well as I do what the official stance of the Star Kingdom’s government would be.”
Now, he did a sing-song imitation of a typical Manticoran aristocrat’s nasal drawl: “ ‘Every barrel has a few bad apples.’ ”
Cathy thought the imitation was a lot better than his earlier mimicry of Zilwicki’s Gryphon basso. Which was only to be expected, of course—he’d been in Cathy’s company often enough, and she herself spoke in that selfsame accent. She’d tried to shed it, in her earlier days, but found the effort quite impossible.
Jeremy shrugged. “There was no way to prove otherwise.” His eyes gleamed pure fury for a moment. “So better to just kill the bastards. If nothing else, it made us feel better—and there was always the chance that another upcoming piglet would decide the risk wasn’t worth the reward. But now—”
He studied her intently. “Tell me what you think, Lady Catherine Montaigne, Countess of the Tor. Tell me true. How many names of Manticore’s highest and most respectable society d’you think are on that list of Zilwicki’s?”
She shuddered slightly. “I don’t even want to think about it, Jeremy. Too damned many, that’s for sure.” Her wide lips pressed together, holding back an old pain. “I won’t be entirely surprised if I even see some of my childhood and college friends. God knows how far the rot has spread. Especially since the war started.”
She waved feebly at the door. “I was being unfair to the Captain’s precious Navy. Of all Manticore’s major institutions, the Navy’s probably been the best when it comes to fighting the slave trade. Since they’ve had their hands full with the Haven war, the swine have been able to feed at the trough unhindered. In the dark; out of sight, out of mind.”
“The best byfar,” agreed Jeremy forcefully. “And now—” He clapped his hands and resumed his gleeful, grotesquely melodramatic hand-rubbing. If he’d had mustachios, Cathy had no doubt at all that he’d be twirling them.
But Jeremy X had no mustachios, nor any facial hair at all. That was because K-86b/273-1/5 had been genetically designed for a life as a house servant, and Manpower Inc.’s social psychologists and market experts had unanimously decreed that facial hair was unsuitable for such creatures. Jeremy had once told Cathy that he considered that Mesa’s final and unforgivable crime. And the worst of it was—she hadn’t been sure he was joking. Jeremy X joked about everything, after all; which didn’t stop him from being as murderous as an avalanche.
“Everything will come together perfectly,” Jeremy chortled, still rubbing his hands. “With Zilwicki’s list in our han
ds, we’ll be able to kick over the whole barrel and show just how deep the slave-trade infection really is.” He spread his hands, almost apologetically. “Even in the Star Kingdom, which everybody admits—even me—is better than anywhere else. Except Haven, of course, but those idiots are busily saddling themselves with another kind of servitude. So you can imagine how bad it is in the Solarian League, not to mention that pustule which calls itself the Silesian Confederacy.”
Cathy frowned. “Nobody will believe—”
“Me? The Audubon Ballroom? Of course not! What a ridiculous notion. We’re just a lot of genetically deformed maniacs and murderers. Can’t trust anything we say, official lists be damned. No, no, the list will have to be made public by—”
Cathy understood where he was going. “Absolutely not!” she shrieked. “That idea’s even crazier!” She began stalking back and forth, her long legs moving as gracelessly as a bird on land. “And it’s fucking impossible, anyway! I’m a disreputable outcast myself! The only living member of the nobility cast out from the House of Lords except that fucking pedophile Seaview and—”
Her screech slammed to a halt. So did her legs. She stumbled, and almost fell flat on her face.
A very pale face—paler than usual—stared at Jeremy with eyes so wide the bright blue irises were almost lost.
Jeremy left off his cackling and hand-rubbing. But he made up for it by beginning a grotesque little ditty, sung to the tune of a popular nursery rhyme, and waving his fingers in time with the rhythm.
The ditty ended, replaced by—for Jeremy—an unusually gentle smile. “Oh, yes, Lady Catherine. Tell me again, why don’t you—now—just how likely d’you think it is that some holier-than-thou Duke or Duchess is going to get up in the House of Lords and huff and puff about just who belongs and who doesn’t. Today?After their most notorious outcast just shoved their own crap down their precious blue-veined throats?”