by Ward Wagher
The admiral spoke again. “I am charged with keeping the peace in a sector with several billion human beings. Perhaps you are right in mistaking my obligations to individual people compared to humanity as a whole. I have to depend on others to watch out for the individuals. That is part of your job. What I am trying to get you to understand is that you are probably through here.”
“Oh, I know that. Monica is already packing up the house. We’ll go somewhere.”
“Would you like to stay?”
Foxworth glared at the admiral. “Would I like to stay? Yes, and I would like to retire in peace. And that is what has me so torn up. My wife and I love this place, in spite of what we went through with the duke. I would be delighted to spend the rest of my life here. But, some people still believe in Santa Claus too, Admiral. I kind of grew out of that.”
“I cannot run out here every time a wheel comes off. I need a stable government here. I still cannot believe you and Frank Nyman could not control a pissant duke. I am strongly tempted to just shoot the two of you myself and be done with it. Okay, so your problem has been eliminated. Can you and Frank Nyman and Joe Wilson run this planet and stay out of my hair?”
Is that the thrill of hope I am feeling? It’s been so long since I have felt it I don’t know. “The whole question will be moot once Carlo gets here won’t it? And besides, Joe Wilson was involved in the duke’s little plots too.”
“Carlo Roma will be very unhappy about his brother, but he is a realistic man. I think I can handle Joe Wilson. I’ve known him almost as long as Frank Nyman.”
“No.”
“I beg your pardon?” Admiral Krause said.
“I said ‘No!’” Carlo Roma placed two large hands on the table and leaned forward. “I refuse to countenance a solution with the very people who caused this mess. My brother’s murderer is probably in this room right now.”
Admiral Krause sat at the end of the large conference table in the room next to the prime minister’s office. Carlo Roma sat to his left. Next to him sat Commander Harold Stine and Prime Minister Glenn Foxworth. Along the right side Frank Nyman and Joe Wilson sat, along with Major Boodles. In chairs along the wall sat the supporting cast. Behind the earl and margrave sat the earl’s seneschal along with Hai Ciera, and Gerard Blakely. Roma’s private secretary and a Navy lieutenant sat behind them. The admiral’s flag lieutenant sat next to Stine’s assistant.
“We don’t have a brewer in town to haul in on murder charges,” Frank said.
“That’s enough, Captain,” Krause said.
“I refuse to believe my brother climbed into his bathtub and managed to drown himself. That just doesn’t happen.”
“There was no evidence of foul play,” Foxworth said. “I had the police comb the apartments thoroughly. The place was littered with liquor bottles. The doctor who did the autopsy was amazed he had the ability to climb into the tub with so much alcohol in his blood.”
“My point exactly,” Roma said. “He should have been passed out on the floor or in the bed or something.”
“From the looks of things, he polished off most of a bottle after he had gotten into the tub.”
“Come now, you cannot tell me you hadn’t heard of the death threats against him. That was all he could talk about in the comms he sent me.”
“I was on my way to kill him, one time, when my seneschal stopped me,” Joe Wilson said.
“The problem was not simple incompetence,” Frank said. “I mean, that’s why you sent him out here with a keeper.” He nodded to Foxworth. “This far out in the boonies, incompetent governance is a fact of life and everyone deals with it. The problem was he was murdering people in job lots. I’m amazed somebody didn’t manage to kill him sooner. In fact, I threatened him myself!”
“You surely cannot be serious, Nyman.” Roma said.
“He killed my brother and his wife, he attempted to kill me on at least two occasions. He wiped out a village in lower Montora. An armed incursion over the mountains killed a bunch of people.” Wilson turned red. “And finally he managed to have my wife killed.”
“You threatened him?” Roma’s voice went soft.
“Yes, I threatened him. He killed over sixty people in one of my villages. Wiped it out. I took a team in to his office and told him to stop or else. I should have killed him then. My wife would still be alive.”
Roma looked over at the Earl Paravel.
“I really hate to mention this, because I was such a fool,” Wilson said. But the duke talked me into attacking Montora for a share of the loot. His reaction to the deaths of some of my troop was that they were just little people and it really didn’t matter. I was on my way out to the aircar and my seneschal managed to stop me.”
“I was just happy I didn’t lose anyone during that little adventure,” Frank said. “I was pretty unhappy with the earl, but I have to admit he has been a man about it after the fact. But it was just one thing after another with the duke.”
“I am sorry about your wife and about the deaths in your territory. I can understand how this would upset you. But I don’t understand how you can assume my brother could do something like that. I know he could be difficult. That’s why Glenn Foxworth is here. But it’s a long stretch to murder.”
Nyman looked over at Foxworth. “Tell him, Glenn.”
Foxworth nodded sadly. “Mr. Roma, your brother was convinced there was large amounts of gold under Montora. When the previous margrave refused to sell out, your brother had him killed. I found out about it after the fact.”
Roma’s face went still. “I just cannot believe that. I sent plenty of money out here to keep things running”
“And he spent every bit of it on one scheme or another. He was constantly looking for ways to raise money for his projects.”
Roma drummed his fingers on the table. “Look, I know my brother was not terribly intelligent. But that is a long way from murder. He was always the gentle one in the family.”
“Kinsolver’s Disease,” Foxworth said.
“What?”
“Kinsolver’s. It’s a parasite or virus or something. It affects the brain – basically causes insanity over the course of a couple of years. It explains a lot.”
Kinsolver’s Disease had risen from some alien virus on Samothrace in the Garnet system. It had taken several years to isolate the cause and develop treatment. Meanwhile a significant percentage of the planetary population had perished. It still cropped up from time to time in visitors to Samothrace and was often too advanced when discovered to be treatable.
“How could you know that?”
“The autopsy. The doc confirmed it. He wouldn’t have lasted another year anyway. He was getting to the point where he would have required some type of full time care. It explains a lot. Guilietto was a challenge. No question about it. But I always got along with him pretty well up until the last year or so. He got increasingly paranoid and eventually shut himself away from everybody. He never drank to excess before, but in the last month or so, he really started pouring it down.”
Roma leaned forward to cradle his head in a hand. Everyone watched him in the uncomfortable silence. “I just do not believe this. Guilietto took a vacation out to Samothrace immediately before he took up the duchy. Who would’ve known?”
Admiral Krause cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Carlo. I know you loved your brother. But he left a mess for us to clean up. That’s why we are here this morning.”
Roma leaned back and spoke quietly. “I apologize, gentlemen. This has been personally difficult for me. I agree, we need to come to some sort of agreement to move forward.”
“I would like to put to bed the issue of the people the duke hired as his hit squads,” the admiral said.
Uh oh, Frank thought, here it comes.
“In each case they seem to have disappeared,” the admiral continued. “We have some knowledge about it, but I would like to discover how we know.”
Boodles leaned forward and tapped the t
able. “If you please sir, I can account for one of the teams. The group that murdered the villagers was moving through the countryside returning to Cambridge. My tactical team was able to trap them. In the ensuing firefight, all but one was killed. The single survivor was the leader and confessed to having been hired by the duke. He did not survive his wounds.”
“That’s convenient,” Roma said.
“But it does corroborate what the duke told me,” Foxworth said.
“That wasn’t the only team, was it?” The admiral said.
“The initial team apparently left Hepplewhite,” Foxworth said. “I heard about it after the fact, but the duke was yelling that they made off with the money he paid them and they didn’t deliver.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about all this, Glenn?” Roma said.
“Because you wouldn’t have believed me.”
Roma ran his hand through his hair and got up. He made an orbit of the conference room and sat down again. “Glenn, you are right, and you have my apologies. It just beggars the imagination to have my brother doing things like this. I am ashamed. I don’t understand why you couldn’t stop it.”
“I tried, Sir. I tried very hard. He got sly, Sir. When one of his schemes didn’t work, he would try other things. When he succeeded in killing the margrave’s wife he danced a jig in his office. In front of me. Uh, sorry Margrave.”
Frank slowly eased his head into his hands. Then he raised up with tears running down his face to look at Roma. “What would you do, Sir, if somebody killed your brother, his wife and then your wife?”
Roma stared at Frank and then looked down. “I think we need a break. A word with you, Admiral?”
Ten minutes later Krause stepped into the conference room where everyone was waiting. He pointed to Frank. “I need to talk to you.”
Frank followed him and they walked into Foxworth’s office. Roma was sitting in the sofa with his feet on the coffee table and nursing a tumbler.
“Sit down, Captain,” the admiral said.
“Admiral, I get concerned when you start using my rank. Let me guess, you cut a deal with Roma, here, and I’m getting sold down the river.” He started to turn toward the door. “I don’t even know why I bother to talk to you.”
“Siddown, Frank!”
He walked back over and sat down. “Okay, I’m sitting. What do you want, Admiral.”
Roma put his feet down and leaned forward again, looking at Frank. “Are you in a position to buy the duchy from me?”
“Buy it? You ought to give it to me. If this went into the courts, I would be asking for it as an award for the wrongful deaths.”
“There won’t be a suit, Frank,” the admiral said.
“So you are just putting a lid on this then? Where is the justice in that?”
“Can you buy the duchy?” Roma asked again.
Frank looked back and forth at them. “No. I’m tapped out in Montora.”
“Okay, then,” he said, “here is the deal. We return to status quo ante. I will assume the ducal role, but Foxworth will run things for me. I can’t afford to stray far from Earth. My instructions to Glenn will be to cooperate with the margraviate and with Paravel to get this planet on its feet. I cannot fund things at a greater level than current, but it seems to me that the economy is finally starting to pick up. I know there is a lot of bad blood here and I am realistic enough to know it won’t magically go away. But I also recognize a lot of this is my fault and I am willing to do what I can to fix things.” He got up and walked out of the room.
Frank watched the admiral for a few moments. “Why do I think there is another shoe waiting to drop?”
Admiral Krause looked over at the windows, then at the ceiling, at the door through which Roma passed through. Then he looked back at Frank. “I need you to leave Hepplewhite, Frank. Not right now, not today, but sometime in the next month or so. We would suggest you transfer the title to your son.”
“What? Just like that? I come here at your request and start to make a go of things and you want me to leave? That monster was responsible for the deaths of dozens of innocents, not to mention my family, my wife… what could you possibly be thinking?”
“Things are at a delicate state on Earth, Frank. There are rumors floating around about you and Roma. We don’t need the distraction. The Centaurans will probably move within the next six months to annex Earth. When that happens, they will also try to absorb the Merchant League Navy. Carlo is one of the key players. If we do not handle this just right, billions of people could die. We need the Hepplewhite situation settled down.”
“And meanwhile, let’s throw ol’ Frank under the jitney. And too bad about his wife. It’s only a few people. Who gives a…”
“Frank!”
Frank stopped speaking and glared at the admiral.
“You don’t have a choice. The decision has been made. We have got to get this quieted down.”
“Okay, Admiral. You win. I won’t make waves.” He got up and started across the room.
“Frank?”
“Yes, Admiral.”
“We will make this up to you. I will. Carlo will. I know you are overextended on your business. I can steer some very nice business your way.”
“Thank you, Admiral. I don’t have the character to refuse. But, can you bring Wendy back?”
Epilogue
“I cannot believe the admiral kicked me out of the Navy,” Franklin Nyman said.
“Out of active duty,” Daphne corrected. “You are still a reservist.”
“No, he had me resign.”
Frank crossed his legs as he sat in a sofa in the terminal building at the Montora Village Shuttleport. “It’s academic at this point. He fired me too.”
“He doesn’t have any right to do that. We have the freedom to own property and use it reasonably. Particularly after what you did for him. You didn’t have to come out here.”
“Yes I did. I needed to clear your uncle’s estate.”
“Tell me he didn’t encourage you to stay.”
“Son, there has been a huge amount of water over the dam. I cannot believe the admiral or Carlo Roma let things go this far; they both made several very bad calls. The poor duke was clearly insane. But life goes on and so shall I.”
Hai Ciera was sitting in the corner near the doorway. “This little adventure was completely screwed from day one, Franklin. I think it is on track now, but this was the admiral’s way of controlling the fallout.”
“The decision seems so flawed,” Franklin said.
Frank stood up. “Let’s take a walk, son.”
The two stepped out onto the paved shuttle port field and walked away from the terminal. The early summer weather had been spectacular so far and the tourists were happy. The sun reflected off the snow remaining on the upper parts of the mountains.
“I hope that shuttle gets in here before the storms do,” Frank said. “They build up over the mountains in the early afternoon. They won’t last long, but they tend to be ferocious.”
“What was it you wanted to say?”
“We need to pay attention to the bigger picture. The Centurans snapped up Tau Ceti fifteen years ago and they have turned their attention to Earth.”
“And Carlo Roma is trying to stop it?” Franklin said.
“No. No one really thinks it can be stopped. Roma is trying to arrange things so that the impact on the interstellar businesses is minimized.”
“Why should we care? If this sinks the plutocrats, so be it.”
“If that happens, son, the economies out here in the periphery will come apart. I am not fond of those big businesses, but we are still dependent upon them.”
“It seems you would have stayed here regardless. I mean, this is where Mom is buried.”
“Admiral Krause let it be known he would not ask some questions I didn’t want him asking.” Frank walked a bit further and stopped. “I am leaving you a good team and I trust you will listen to them. Ask Gerry Blakely to le
t you look at the Margrave’s Justice Records. They are technically public, although we don’t really pass them around. You will see in there what the admiral was suspicious about. I did some things which were technically legal under Montoran law, but the Navy does not allow. If it knew about it.”
“I assume you did whatever you had to do, Dad.”
“Here comes the shuttle. I hope to drop in from time to time, so this isn’t a permanent good-bye.”
“But New Stockholm is a long ways away.”
“That it is. I need to rebuild the family business – shipping, not governing. Things will settle down eventually and then we can get our heads together and decide what we are going to do.”