The Temporal Void (ARC)

by Peter F. Hamilton

  'And Chiaran,' Dinlay said forlornly.

  'And Chiaran,' Edeard conceded. 'That means he's still out to get us, even more since the warehouse. It's going to get ugly.'

  'She was beautiful,' Dinlay said. He took off his glasses and polished the lenses intently.

  'We're all good, though, aren't we, Waterwalker?' Boyd said cautiously. 'Tell us that at least. Tell us nobody here tonight belongs to Ivarl.'

  'We're all good,' Edeard promised them.

  'Nanitte,' Macsen moaned, and slumped back into his seat. 'What about the others? Have any more girls belonged to Ivarl?'

  Edeard grinned. 'I don't have the time to keep track of that list.'

  'Nor your own, it would seem,' Kanseen observed archly.

  'Nor mine,' he conceded.

  'Lady, this is wonderful,' she muttered. 'We have to seek your consent for our lovers now. It's like I'm living at home again and getting my mother's approval.'

  'What were her criteria?' Boyd asked eagerly.

  'Well, she wouldn't have let you through the front door, that's for sure.'

  Edeard laughed. 'It's not that bad.'

  Kanseen gave him a level gaze. 'Yes it is.'

  'You don't have to tell me who you're with every night. And as of now, I'm not going to farsight. Just…'

  'Be paranoid?'

  'I was going to say cautious. If you want me to check out a new acquaintance, I will.'

  'Paranoid is good,' Boyd said. 'Unlike all of you, I, of course, chose very well.'

  'You had no choice at all,' Kanseen said. 'Saria chose you. She makes all the decisions for you.'

  'She does not! I am my own master.'

  Kanseen reached forward and plucked the sleeve of his remarkable frock coat. 'Did you choose this? Did you even pay for it?'

  Boyd turned red as the others laughed.

  'So what do we do now?' Dinlay asked.

  'And he does mean: "we",' Macsen said. 'That's right isn't it?'

  'Yes,' Dinlay stumbled. 'It's just… Chiaran.'

  'Get rid of her,' Macsen said harshly. 'She's not your girlfriend, she's his whore. Do it with longtalk, that's nice and insulting. In fact, I'll be happy to do it for you.'

  'Would you?'

  Macsen turned to Edeard. 'Do you want to use her first?'

  'No,' he said. 'No, it's tempting. But if we're going to do this I don't want us stooping to his methods.'

  'It's not going to be that clean,' Kanseen warned.

  'I know.' He smiled round at his squad. His friends. 'But we'll manage.'

  'So what exactly do we do now?' Boyd asked.

  'I've been thinking about this,' Edeard told them. 'The biggest part of Ivarl's income comes from the protection rackets. He has teams in every district intimidating shopkeepers and stallholders. I want to push them out. I want to start by making Jeavons clean, then keep going, force them to retreat across the city until we've got them penned up in Sampalok.'

  'Then what?' Kanseen said. 'And how would you make them retreat there? Do we intimidate them? They'll fight back.'

  'I don't know the details. We need to consult with Grand Master Finitan about how to begin such a scheme, and the politics behind it. We'd certainly need Grand Council support, maybe even a new law.'

  'All right,' she said. 'Even if you get him to support you in council, and we get all the station captains to play along, and a hundred other crappy impossible details sorted out, how do we find them? There must be hundreds of gang members working this racket. Are we all going snooping round the House of Blue Petals?'

  'Ah.' Edeard gave them a rather smug grin, and reached into his tunic to produce a thick black notebook. He put it down between all the beer glasses. 'You must be talking about this list I made of all the names I overheard.'

  * * * *

  'A grand alliance against gang-related crime,' Grand Master Finitan said. 'Nice idea.' He turned in his high backed chair to stare out through his office window.

  Edeard and the squad sat in smaller chairs in front of the big desk, all of them trying not to gape at the remarkable view offered by the office's vantage point.

  'Do you think the Council would support it, sir?' Edeard asked. If it hadn't been for the tea and biscuits served to them by the ge-chimps, Edeard could well imagine himself as part of some lowly apprentice class being lectured by the Grand Master.

  'If you went up to individual Masters and Representatives to ask them for help expelling the gangs, each and every one would look you straight in the eye and pledge their full and unswerving support, save Bise, of course. Privately, any new law to banish suspected gang members wouldn't even get read out in Council, never mind voted on.'

  'Why not?' Dinlay asked.

  'Expense. Legally proving a man is a gang member would consume a lot of time in court, and an even greater amount of lawyer's time, which never comes cheap. And what would you effectively be accusing them of? If you can prove membership you can prove felony, which can get them carted off to the mines anyway. No, you need some other way.'

  Edeard groaned. It had seemed like such a good idea.

  Finitan swung back to face them. 'Don't give up, Edeard. You're the Waterwalker. We all expect great things of you now.' He produced an enigmatic smile. 'More than creeping around bordellos at night, anyway.'

  Edeard blushed.

  'So what would you advise to get rid of them?' Kanseen asked.

  'If you want anything done, you need to make it to everyone's advantage. Support is essential, the wider the support, the better chance you have of succeeding.'

  'But the Council must have been trying to get rid of the gangs for years,' Edeard protested. 'Why has there been no progress?'

  'I'm going to sound boring on the subject, but: expense. Not just in financial terms. Consider how Ivarl's lieutenants control the dockers. The merchant families have a nice quiet arrangement with Ivarl, they pay him to keep the dockers in line. Take that control away, and the dockers will demand decent pay, and quite right too. It's a skill controlling teams of ge-monkeys to remove the contents of a ship's hold, or fill it. So they get more money, which has to come from the ship owner and warehouse merchant and shopkeeper. That cost will be passed on to the customer. The price of everything goes up. Admittedly not by much, but it's the start of an uncontrollable reaction, a destabilization if you like. Why shift the balance of power in an arrangement that works? And the dockers are just the tip of the iceberg. So many things would change.'

  Once more, Edeard remembered what Ranalee had said. External change is revolution. 'But the gangs are wrong,' he insisted. 'The law must prevail.'

  'Yes indeed. But you of all people should know by now how entrenched they are in the city.'

  'There must be a way.'

  'Find a method of gathering a broad spectrum of support,' Finitan said. 'From there you can go forward.'

  'I need the support of the Council.'

  'Ultimately, yes. But you must start at the other end, down on the street where the gangs are felt every day. Tell me, before you decided to mount your crusade, what was happening out there? I don't mean among the rich and worthless of my class, but people who were directly affected by the gangs and their violence? People who had given up looking to the constables for aid?'

  'They were forming street associations,' Boyd said.

  'Yes. Vigilantism, which the Council also frowned upon, not least because such associations circumvented the law.'

  Edeard tried to understand what Finitan was hinting at. 'We support the street associations?'

  'No. The station captains don't approve, for the simple reason that street associations undercut their authority, and that of the courts.'

  'Then what?' he asked, confused.

  'You can't support them, but there's nothing to stop you sharing a drink in the tavern after duty, now is there?'

  'Ah,' Macsen said. 'And we might just discuss who is going round traders to extort money and what they look like and where they live.'<
br />
  'Indeed you might.'

  'And those private citizens are within their right to call for assistance when the gangs do come calling,' Kanseen said.

  'If they knew for sure that a constable squad would come, they would be more inclined to cooperate,' Finitan agreed.

  'And if cooperation at that level were subsequently seen to work,' Edeard mused.

  'It would be supported,' Finitan concluded. 'A support among people who are not easily bought off by political horse trading. Pressure would grow on the District Representatives to continue and expand the campaign.'

  'But we're still back to the original problem,' Edeard said. 'Arresting them and hauling them into court. Each case takes weeks and costs a fortune. Not to mention tying us up as we sit around for days waiting to be called as a witness. If we remove one of them, Ivarl will send ten to replace him. I need to push the whole lot of them out of Jeavons.'

  Finitan eyed the genistar egg sitting on his desk. 'What you need is a legal option. Have you consulted a lawyer?'

  * * * *

  'This is the joy of a constitution that has reigned supreme for an unbroken two thousand years,' Master Solarin said contentedly. He was sitting behind his desk, which was piled with folders that strove to mimic the towers of Eyrie. Edeard had trouble seeing him they were so high. 'You can find a law to cover every eventuality. Politicians love to pass laws. It shows the people they are working hard on their behalf.' He coughed, and reached for a lozenge in the little brown paper bag under a skewed tower of green and blue folders.

  'Then it can be done?' Dinlay asked eagerly.

  Edeard had brought Dinlay with him, while Macsen and Kanseen went to meet Setersis. Not that he didn't trust Dinlay with anything, it was just that Macsen would be better suited to deal with the chief of the Silvarum stallholders association. Boyd, of course, was with Isoix, discussing their notion with the Jeavons chamber of trade.

  'Such impatience,' Master Solarin muttered disapprovingly. One of his ge-monkeys brought a thick leather-bound tome over to his desk, and placed it gently on the huge square of blotting paper in front of the ancient lawyer.

  When he'd been shown in by a legal apprentice, Edeard had thought the whole office had been built from books. Each of the five walls were covered from floor to ceiling in shelving, holding thousands of volumes of law. There might have been a window, but it had long since been blocked over. The ceiling had three blunt stalactites that shone orange, giving the books a dingy brown hue.

  Master Solarin opened the book. He licked the tip of his forefinger, and began to turn the pages. Edeard wanted to volunteer to help. It was all so painfully slow. He deliberately didn't turn to look at Dinlay.

  'Ah ha,' Master Solarin said happily. 'I thought I remembered this one.'

  'Sir?' Edeard asked.

  'I believe I may have found what it is you are looking for.'

  Edeard leaned forward. The page the book was open at had greyed over the decades, but the ink was still firm and black.

  'Here we jolly well go,' Master Solarin said. His shaky hand traced a line of the print, his mouth working silently.

  'What does it say?' Dinlay pleaded.

  Edeard shot him a warning glance.

  'It says, Constable Dinlay, that nine hundred and thirty two years ago, the Grand Council passed the by-law of district exclusions. This is an edict which allows the District Master or District Representative to declare the right of admittance revoked for any person deemed detrimental to the sanctity of the locale. Issuance of such warrant may be duly authorized by the District Master or District Representative on their own authority, without supervision by a judge or magistrate.' He looked up from the book. 'I believe it was proposed in Council by the District Master of Cobara so that he might prevent an over-amorous suitor from wooing his only daughter. If you remember your history, Constable Dinlay, the two young lovers in question were Henaly and Gistella.'

  'Really?' Dinlay said with a happy smile. He turned to Edeard. 'They eloped on the Oxmaine, and founded Love's Haven, and planted the vineyards there. That province still produces some of the best wines on Querencia.'

  'Wonderful,' Edeard said, resisting the impulse to use his third hand to give Dinlay a good smack. 'So we can use this law to ban gang members from coming in to Jeavons and Silvarum, without having to legally prove they're gang members?'

  'Any person for any reason, provided their name is on the warrant and signed by the District Master or Dist—'

  'Yes! The District Representative. How do I get them to sign?'

  'Oh Dear Lady, were my lectures completely in vain?'

  'You petition them,' Dinlay said proudly.

  'Indeed, constable Dinlay. I am glad not all of my words fell on deaf ears. As a resident of Makkathran you have under most ancient law the right to make a petition of enactment. Such that a District Master, or-' Master Solarin paused for emphasis, 'a District Representative, can require the constable station commander of their district to enforce whatever law the supplicant believes has been violated. Now, as the assistance of the citizenry is implicitly required, as stipulated in the articles of formalization of the constabulary six hundred and twenty-two years ago, this elder right of petition has subsequently fallen into disuse. However, it has never been retired.'

  'You mean we can use this loophole to get the District Master to sign the warrants?' Edeard asked.

  The skin of Master Solarin's ancient face produced even more creases as he frowned in disapproval. 'You will never become a lawyer, Constable Edeard, for which blessing my Guild will doubtless be most relieved. There is no such thing as a loophole. Lawyers merely advise our clients on how to apply laws and the precedents they establish.'

  'Thank you, sir.' Edeard rose from his chair.

  'A word of caution, my young friend.'

  'Sir?'

  'You can petition them to enact a law, but you cannot force them to undertake said enactment. To obtain those signatures, you will need their cooperation.'

  'I understand, sir. My colleagues are working on that.'

  * * * *

  It was a big petition. Edeard had to back up the initial street association meetings personally, persuading the stallholders and shopkeepers and tavern owners and merchants, and a dozen other tradespeople that his idea was worth trying. With his small base of political allies like Setersis, Ronark, and Finitan, and his own reputation, he began to gain the backing he needed. A week after the meeting with Solarin, the Jeavons chamber of trade, and the Silvarum chamber of trade simultaneously laid down a formal request to see their respective District Masters and Representatives.

  They convened in the library of District Master Vologral's mansion. Edeard had only met the Jeavons Master twice before, at formal events. There, they'd made small talk, trying to weigh each other up. He was heartened by the fact Vologral was an all of Finitan on the Grand Council.

  Vologral and the other three Masters stood behind a long table, listening to the official request as made by the speakers of the chambers of trade, then he turned to Edeard. 'Can this work?'

  'I believe so, sir,' Edeard said. 'We know probably seven out often involved in the protection rackets, certainly in our districts. Those are the ones we already have warrants for. If the gangs send in new faces to collect their money, we'll know who they are straight away, and we can add them to the list.'

  'But keeping them out…' Vologral looked apprehensive.

  'In total there are fifteen bridges into the two districts. Each one will have a pair of constables on duty from now on to enforce the exclusion. We just need the legal basis.'

  'And the mooring platforms? How many of them? You can't guard them all.'

  'There will be three permanent patrols inspecting the mooring platforms at random; in addition our ge-eagles will be scouting constantly. I'd point out that a court can levy a considerable fine to any gondolier who violates a city by-law. We'll need to make an example of the first few cases, possibly with confisca
tion of their craft. After that, they'll won't be so keen to help the gangs.'

  'I can imagine the Gondolier Guild's reaction to that,' Deveron, the Silvarum Representative muttered.

  'The Waterwalker is making an effort to help us,' Setersis said quietly. 'I for one am happy to cooperate.' Deveron looked at him, and said no more.

  'Very well,' Vologral said. 'I am provisionally inclined to grant your petition. I will sign the warrants. However, I give you notice, Waterwalker, that I will review the situation in three weeks' time, after the Festival of Guidance. If I am not satisfied that racketeering has subsided, or you are not holding the line against the gangs, they will be revoked. Do you understand?'

  'Yes sir. Thank you, sir.'

  'Do you have the warrants here?'

  Edeard beckoned Felax and the other three probationary constables who were waiting at the back of the delegation. Each of them came forward carrying a tall stack of paper.

  'Great Lady,' Vologral grunted when he saw how many warrants the young constables had brought. 'I didn't know I was excluding half the city.'

  'Seventy three people to start with, sir,' Edeard said.

  'Gentlemen,' Vologral said to his fellow Masters, 'let's hope we don't get writer's cramp.' He sat down at the long table.

  'What happens to the rest of the city?' Deveron asked. 'Aren't we just exporting the problem?'

  'They'll wait to see if it works,' Setersis said. 'If it does, they'll join in quickly enough. Decent people have had enough.'

  Vologral signed the first warrant. 'So suppose you do succeed? Exclude them from everywhere but Sampalok, for I know damn well that Bise will never sign one of these. What then?'

  'I imagine that will be up to the Grand Council, sir.'

  'Ha!' Vologral gave Edeard a sly smile of approval as he reached for another warrant. 'Not such a country boy after all, eh?'

  * * * *

  It began the very next morning. Ronark changed the squad shifts, which in itself was fairly historic; dispatching five constables to each of the bridges leading into Jeavons from Drupe, Tycho and Majate. Silvarum's station captain did the same with bridges to Haxpen and Padua.