The Octagonal Raven

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  Then another news story followed.

  … aftershocks of the earthquake in the Anatolian region …

  “With all those tie-ins, there will be others.” she predicted.

  Again, I had to wonder. I looked down at the sesame beef salad I hadn’t finished, then at the news screen that seemed to have so little effect.

  “There will be,” Majora insisted.

  I took another tasteless mouthful of salad. If something didn’t happen soon, I wasn’t sure it would matter. The Federal Union wanted UniComm and me to go away, and most people didn’t seem to care.

  * * *

  Chapter 85

  Kewood

  * * *

  On the next twoday, I was still watching news stories … and finding my food more and more tasteless, my trousers looser and looser, and my sleep less and less restful. We were getting on to nearly two weeks, and I could see nothing happening — except declining revenues and greater legal bills, and more and more complaints piling up with the regional advocate general.

  Tomas Gallo had already informed me that the regional advocate general’s staffers happened to be working on a way to come up with a “cease-and-desist” order, but were having trouble finding the legal basis for doing so.

  “They’ll find a way,” he’d said in leaving my office. “It may take a few more days, but they will.”

  The way things were going, it appeared that the only question was whether the assassins or the advocates got to me first. This was definitely a time when I wished I were the one with access to exploding monoclones or unfindable thugs — except I wouldn’t have even known how to use them. My only talent was using multimedia to get people to think, and I wasn’t doing all that well there, either.

  Then, I’d only been a hundred-rated edartist, and a hundred rating was like everything else I’d been doing — not quite good enough.

  I looked at Majora. “Things could be looking much better.”

  “They could be worse.” From the green leather chair by the conference table, she offered a cheerful smile.

  “I could be dead, or incarcerated and on my way to trial and brain-damping, which is where I’m likely to be before long.” I paced back and forth in front of the cherry desk, glancing toward the inner courtyard. A misty rain was falling, giving a gloomy cast to both courtyard and office — appropriately symbolic.

  I glanced toward the bookcase, then called up AllNews, which displayed an image of lava creating steam as it oozed into a very blue sea.

  … eruption continues here, less than fifteen klicks from Hylo …

  Devit Tal appeared at the door. “Did you hear?”

  I turned. “Hear what?”

  “There have been a series of riots in Ankorplex … the mob leveled the regional office of DGen — and in the Kievplex. The CA offices in both places have appealed to the Federal Union for backup. How do you want it handled?”

  I didn’t even have to think about that. “Straight reporting, except with a little emphasis on the cause of the riots, if we have anything to back it.”

  “One group issued a manifesto … claiming that it was time to end the pre-select cover-ups and half-truths.”

  “Make it the lead story on the half-hour headlines, and run cross-leads.” I shook my head. “You know how to handle that better than I do.”

  “Probably. Do you want a full push?”

  “Not yet. If we jump in with both feet … right off … it won’t feel right. Can we offer more questions? You know … is this just another indication of the dissatisfaction with perceptual testing in Ankorplex or a sign of something deeper?”

  Tal nodded. “That’s better. We’ll do it.”

  He was gone, and I looked toward Majora.

  “You thought nothing would happen.”

  “Ankorplex is more volatile than anywhere else,” I pointed out. “And Kievplex is almost that unstable.”

  “That means it happens first there, not that it won’t happen elsewhere.”

  I still had to wonder about what I had set up. If it worked … if … was I any better than Deng and TanUy and the others? Yet what else could I have done?

  The CAs wouldn’t look into anything and hadn’t been able to track anything. Eldyn was dead, and so were Elora, Gerrat, and Father. Was I just supposed to stand and wait until another monoclone finally succeeded in blowing me up? Or go begging to the PST types?

  I shook my head and tightened my lips and waited.

  It wasn’t until late afternoon that InstaNews even acknowledged the Ankorplex riots, and they downplayed those in the Kievplex. They didn’t mention that the CAs had refused to protect the AVida operations center or the Sante research facility.

  By then, there were a few other developments coming in — mostly on AllNews, but one appeared on InstaNews.

  … Anya St. Cyril denounced the failure of the Loire region Civil Authorities to protect designers at the multilateral’s health template center outside Orleans.…

  “Talented designers had to run for their lives, and the Civil Authorities did nothing. These riots were created by one man, and that man is Daryn Alwyn. Every person who is injured, every credit of property destroyed should be laid on him.…”

  The image flicked to one of me, taken at the stakeholders’ meeting.

  Daryn Alwyn is the director general of UniComm, and has been charged with using netsys material in an inflammatory and misleading matter. His actions have been brought to the attention of the advocate general.…

  “Once more, I’m the villain.” I snorted. “I can’t mention all the deaths in my family. Or the attempts on my life. They don’t count.”

  Majora nodded. I could tell she was worried, and so was I.

  That didn’t change on the next half-hour’s InstaNews headline stories.

  … Here in Chendu the people are bewildered by the series of explosions that rocked through the TanSen headquarters complex in the middle of the night. Even more surprising is the revelation that Darwyn TanUy, the multilateral’s director general, and most of the senior directors, appeared to be among the casualties. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the directors were engaged in a late-night meeting in an attempt to develop a strategy to counter the spate of recent news and netsys stories adverse to TanSen … stories maliciously planted by Daryn Alwyn’s UniComm net system.…

  “Once more the evil Daryn Alwyn strikes.”

  “That really bothers you, doesn’t it?”

  “These people are trying to install a tyranny — an even greater tyranny. They’ve used the current system to strangle any opposition. They’re responsible for the deaths of half my family, and no one can or will do anything, and I’m a villain for trying to expose them.” I laughed, bitterly. “And what’s worse is … they’re right. I’m using people, inciting them to strike where I can’t. Manipulating them, and some will die … because I couldn’t find any other legal or practical way to stop them.”

  “You admit it.”

  “Great! I know what a villain I am, and I’m using the power I can muster to try to bring about change, and it’s a lousy way to do it. It’s just that there aren’t any others.”

  My tirade got interrupted by the next story the gatekeeper flagged — back on AllNews.

  Nabul … private security guards using banned Federal Service rapid-fire slug throwers killed more than two hundred protesters who marched on the AVida product testing center here in Nabul. The protest leader — Hasad Alami — was among the first killed. Alami had charged that Mutumbe Dymke, the director general of AVida, had refused to promote qualified norms and insisted on perceptual-test-based loyalty screenings for all management positions in AVida.…

  A stock image of Dymke, doubtless taken from some public archive, appeared on the holo image.

  Dymke has refused to comment, and is believed to have fled the Nabul area after the massacre. Civil Authorities have announced that Dymke is wanted for questioning.…

  Now Dymke was wanted for s
omething. Before it was all over, all of us would probably be ready for incarceration — and worse.

  “Daryn …” Majora said softly.

  “Yes …?”

  “There’s nothing you can do now. Why don’t we go to my place and get something to eat. You need to get out of UniComm for a bit. Devit can always reach you, and there’s almost as much security at home.”

  She was right, as usual.

  So I smiled. “That’s a better idea than any I’ve had lately. Shall we go?”

  “Please.” The smile she offered was far warmer than mine, and I stepped away from the desk and hugged her as she stood, then held on for a time.

  * * *

  Chapter 86

  Helnya

  * * *

  Majora and I sat on the opposite sides of the table in her great room, looking out on a darkened garden. I looked down at my plate, and then at Majora’s. Her plate was as full of uneaten chicken, portobello mushrooms, and pasta as mine still was.

  “Worried?” I asked.

  “I’m as worried as you are.”

  “We have double security tonight, and the glider is right by the door.” I pointed out. “I’m the only real danger.” I tried to leer.

  She offered a wan smile. “That’s not why I’m worried, and it’s not why you are.”

  “I know.” I took a sip of the lukewarm Grey tea. “I have the feeling that things are getting out of hand.”

  “What did you think would happen?” Majora asked. “Really?”

  “A handful of demonstrations. Some legal scholars looking into things. The Federal Union council backing off the perceptual testing, and OneCys working to destroy me, bit by slow bit while most of the world yawned. I’d thought that the handful of riots and counteractions would run their course and be forgotten, if there were any demonstrations at all.”

  She tilted her head. “Then why did you invest all this effort … put your entire career, and all that you inherited on the line for this program push … if you didn’t think it would change things much?”

  “Well … I could be wrong. But I didn’t.… I don’t know.… Eldyn put everything out there, and he put together a plague that killed close to a quarter of a million pre-selects. I was trying to get enough exposure of the problems and the issues all at once. If I tried educating people slowly, it just would have been forgotten. Another alarmist story about how society is deteriorating. Ho … hum … yes, indeed.

  “I thought at least a blitz campaign would pull out enough issues that the secretary director would have to look at things and so that the PST types would back off UniComm. I hoped for more, but I didn’t think that much more would happen. As for why … that’s simpler. What happens next if things don’t change? Do we build higher and higher walls? Hire private armies to guard our homes and families? That’s where it’s heading.…”

  Majora caught my eyes with hers. “Daryn … don’t lecture me … please. I think I knew that before you did.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just … you’re the only one who listens. I even try to tell that to anyone else, and they’d laugh — or try to find some undetectable way to kill me. Well … they tried that even before I understood.” I leaned back in the chair, not quite meeting her eyes, not really wanting to face the honesty there, afraid of the judgment I might find. “It’s like …” I couldn’t find an apt comparison. “Between privacy rules and hard evidentiary rules, between the PST types’ ability to get around the system, and my having the entire system watching me, between their having all the time in the world to set me up, to change the entire way the world is run …” My words trailed off.

  Majora waited.

  “That’s not it, either,” I finally said. “Everything would look the same, and appear to work the same, but it wouldn’t be. More and more of the bright pre-selects would be not only perceptually tested, but the tests would be used to influence and guide them. Then the bright norms would find, when they were offered upper level jobs, that perceptual testing was required, and the same thing would happen to them.”

  “Can you be sure of that?”

  “The systems and the technology exist, and these people haven’t seemed too bothered about blowing up tube trains with innocents aboard, pushing people off cliffs, or evading the laws on monoclones. They’ve quietly pushed to implement perceptual testing as a requirement — oh, it would be voluntary at first, but when only those who volunteer get the university slots or the jobs or the promotions, it wouldn’t be voluntary at all.…”

  “You make a convincing case, Daryn.” Majora gave me a smile that was slightly lopsided. “Why are you trying to convince yourself?”

  “Because what I’m doing —”

  The gatekeepers — Majora’s and the one on my belt — blared with the alarm signal.

  “Security, ser! There’s a whole convoy of black gliders —”

  There was a harsh crackling sound, and the transmission ended.

  I grabbed the portable scanner off the side table, then Majora’s arm, and we ran for the door, then down the steps. I was already remote-unlocking the glider, glad that I’d at least had enough foresight to leave it by the door.

  I handed the scanner to Majora. “Once you get inside and strapped in, focus it on the house.”

  “Right.”

  I flicked off all the cutouts as the glider powered up, and secured the full restraint harness, then eased the glider northway, away from the guideway, and the attackers. We were less than a hundred meters from the cottage when lines of fire converged on it, and a wall of flame skyrocketed into the sky.

  “I’ve got all that,” Majora said.

  The glider shuddered and shuddered, and I had to work to keep it level and just below the tree tops.

  “Can you see if you can use your belt unit to send that back to UniComm?”

  “You want me to report that the house was torched?”

  “Just say that the place where I was having dinner was attacked and torched by unknown parties.”

  I finally settled the glider, still holding it just below tree-top level, and began to edge circuitously around and back toward the guideway, if almost a klick eastward of where the flames blazed into the night sky.

  “… is Majora Hyriss reporting. UniComm Director Alwyn was attacked again this evening as he ate dinner with a friend. You can see the destruction created by the attack. The identity of the attackers is unknown … more later.”

  “Good,” I murmured. Not perfect, but good and timely was best.

  “What are you doing?” hissed Majora.

  “Going to look and see.”

  “After that?”

  I was tired of running and scheming, but I didn’t say so, just concentrated on following the scanners and my own senses.

  There wasn’t much left near the cottage — the armed gliders had already slipped back away, and they weren’t on the guideway either, but running at close to ten meters above ground over the flatter vineyards to the south of Majora’s, and that meant they were really flitters of some sort.

  Using enhanced night vision I studied the line, then smiled. “Lock that harness. The little lever on the boss. Push it once … down.”

  Majora clicked the lever, and I fed full power into the magfields. A slight energy nimbus surrounded the glider.

  What I had in mind was simple. Tricky to execute but simple in concept.

  At the far end of the vineyards was a low berm. I was betting that rather than lift their modified flitter-gliders much higher, and possibly trigger alarm sensors in the skytors, that the four glider-type vehicles would maintain their low altitude, with bare clearance over the berm.

  I kicked in long-unused range calculations, personal systems left from piloting years, then maxed my modified glider into a steep climb. At a thousand meters, AGL, we went into a shallow dive — right toward the point where the trailing attack glider would cross the berm.

  My flare was perfect, and so was my aim.

  T
he trailing gray glider pancaked into the berm in a shower of sparks, but I was already streaking eastward and behind the low hill from which the berm extended. A single line of flame flashed toward us and sprayed off the rear shield just before we dropped out of the line of sight. I had to hope that they weren’t carrying some sort of seeker missiles, but I had to believe there was some limit on what could be used to evade FU limits.

  “I got the laser.…” Majora said.

  “Good. Don’t send it … yet.” Then I dropped the glider onto the grass.

  We waited for almost fifteen minutes before I eased the glider back toward the forced crash site, stopping where I could just barely see the berm.

  There were two gliders — the ruined one, and one hovering next to it. Two men were struggling to remove something from the downed glider.

  The scanners showed no other gliders nearby — not in direct range.

  “Can you get that?” I asked. “With the scanner?”

  “I can try … hard through the canopy at this angle.”

  I waited a moment. “Do you have it?”

  “Much as I could get.”

  “Fine. Hang on!” I snapped as I went to full power.

  “How —”

  Majora’s question was lost in the rush of air as we climbed again.

  The idea was simple. Use the ground cushion and flare as a concussive.

  A single line of flame flashed toward us, deflecting off the front shield as I flared.

  One figure went down like a tree snapped at its base.

  I wasn’t quite as precise, but even with enhanced night vision, low-level stuff in the dark is scary. The rear shields bounced slightly on something, but the system indicators remained solid, and I backed off.

  The second glider had nosed into the berm, and no one was moving. There were no EDI or energy traces.