“I am?”
“To speak to Diana as you arranged with her, sir.” “I made no arrangement to speak to Diana.”
“It has been arranged, sir. It was assumed you had made the arrangement yourself.”
“All right, I’ll see to Diana. Will I see you later?” “If you wish, sir.”
“I wish.”
Patricia smiled, and then she got to her feet and left. Paul laughed. “I wish. I do indeed wish.”
He dressed in his uniform, snapped on the video monitor of his room, and went to the bridge.
Jeffrey was standing by the communications screen. “I assume I owe this honor in some way to you, Jeffrey.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“You should. It was presumptuous of you to contact Diana. I trust you will have a casualty report for me from your little debacle today.”
“News travels fast.”
“You have some explaining to do.”
“We’ll see who ends up explaining.”
Paul raised an eyebrow, and then turned to the screen.
The image of Diana appeared and the monitor assured him that she saw their images as well.
“Well, Paul. I’m surprised to hear from you.” “And I to be contacting you.”
“What is the concern?” Her tone dropped the intimacy and became abruptly harsh.
“Perhaps we should allow Jeffrey to speak for himself, Diana.”
“If he has something to say, of course. What is it, Jeffrey?”
“We have been in pursuit of the king-to-be, Hadad.”
“Pursuit?” Diana’s face held its calm, never betraying surprise, though Paul realized that she must have been surprised from her subsequent reaction. “I had thought he was dead. You know what you’re to do, Jeffrey.”
“Yes, Diana. I know what I’m to do. But there seems to be some question of authority.”
“I have given a general order for the elimination of all the priests. They speak foolishness and disturb the troops with their talks of passivity and acceptance. Eliminate him. What else do you need to know?” “Diana, that is your general order. But what about the specific order? As I say, there is a question of authority. I know the order that / carry concerning Hadad. But our illustrious military strategist has some other ideas. I defer to your judgment, Diana.” “What are these ideas he refers to, Paul?”
“Diana, Jeffrey has attempted to take over the whole operation of pursuit with regard to the priest. He has succeeded in missing him in three attempts, eliminating Earthlings that could have been processed, and wasting water that could have been pumped to augment the supplies on the ship. And he has lost track of Hadad’s whereabouts in the process. I have no intention of turning over the military operations of this ship to him, or consulting him on the strategies I have planned. Is that clear?”
“Perfectly. The priest will be eliminated.”
“The priest need not concern you, Diana.” “Exactly. Jeffrey, I release you from your life bond to Hadad. Since your superior has chosen to take the
responsibility for his death, he shall be accountable. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, Diana,” Jeffrey answered, and looked up at Paul.
For a moment Paul was not certain he had won. He had not known about a life bond to Hadad. What had she referred to? One thing was certain: The priest must die, or Paul must pay for the negligence with his life.
“Paul? Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, Diana.”
“Good. Is that all?”
“For now.”
“Until the next time, then.”
“Until then.”
The image disappeared. Jeffrey watched him.
“You may rest assured, Jeffrey. I know where he is. And he will die. And you may even watch him die. You deserve that, at least. But you will send no one from this ship without my orders. Is that clear?” “Yes, sir.”
“You may return to your duties. On the ship.” “Yes, sir.”
The junior officer left the bridge.
Justine was duty officer of the day. How convenient, Paul reflected.
“Justine. Bring me the duty rosters for the next seventy-two hours.”
“Yes, sir.” The tall brunette handed him the computer pad. The inoculation schedules were recorded there for all the ground crews and the military support personnel.
He noted the names of those marked deceased. He had lost good men. Seven other names were on seventy-two-hour hold. Justine’s was among them.
“Three days.” He looked at her, and she nodded. He would outline the plan to Patricia. This time
Justine would follow his directions. He smiled.
He returned to his quarters. Automatically he reached to switch the video monitor to prerecorded images to cover Patricia’s return, but something stopped him.
He set the machine to scan the last half hour. There was nothing unusual for twenty minutes or so of real time. And then the source of his concern appeared on the screen. Eleanor.
She had entered without difficulty, though he knew he had scrambled the code on the interleaving doorway as he left for the bridge. She had searched his room very thoroughly and carefully. He tried to reason through her actions what she was searching for.
“You needn’t worry. I found what I wanted,” her voice came from behind him, from his bath.
He turned, expecting to find her in full uniform. Instead, she was wrapped in one of the terry robes he kept by his tub.
“I see you’ve made yourself at home, my dear.”
“I thought under the circumstances you might prefer I take that privilege to some other.”
“Intimacy becomes you. What did you have in mind?”
She walked slowly, seductively, toward him. She reached up with her right hand and stroked his head, tracing small circles with a single finger down behind his ear, down his neck, down to the collar of his uniform.
“I think, most properly, it’s called blackmail, Paul.” “How charming. Are you sure you’re up to it, Eleanor?”
“It hardly requires effort.”
“Then it seems to me you must want something very much. I can’t imagine what that might be.”
He watched her reaction. His approach had thrown her. She had expected him to question her about what she had found. He knew she would tell him in time, her time. There was no need to ask.
The seduction took a different tack. She moved away from him, casually strolled the room, as if assessing it for future investment.
“I want power, Paul. And an end to these petty struggles between us. I don’t think our aims are so far apart. You need the prestige of my accomplishments. I need the authority of your position. We can work together. Or I can destroy you. It’s as simple as that.” “Nothing is ever as simple as that, Eleanor.”
“I’ve opened the temperate zones of Earth to you, Paul. Your next step is to organize part of the fleet, under your control, of course, and recapture the colder cities of the world. You’ve already planned the operation. Oh, don’t look so surprised. I’ve seen the maps you were working on today.”
“I didn’t know you cared about cartography, Eleanor.”
“I don’t. I care about power and how it is exercised.”
“Whose power?”
“Mine.”
“What an interesting thought, that you have power.”
Eleanor laughed. She had caught the gibe, but it had not hit home. So she did have something over him after all.
“All right, my dear, what are you proposing? What great alliance serves your scheme for power?”
“I want control, Paul. Total control. I choose the targets. You implement my orders.”
“So my contribution is to be strength. What could you possibly offer to match it?”
“Silence, my sweet.”
“Silence?”
“Yes. Silence.”
“About what, Eleanor?”
“To begin with, your plot to over
throw Diana.” “What plot?”
“Second, your sabotage of the fifth column.” “What an interesting idea.”
“And third, your participation in the fifth column.” “Your accusations suggest I’m a very busy man. Counter-counter espionage I think they call it. Dangerous business. One never knows whom to trust. What makes you think I would trust you?”
“You need me.”
“You think so.”
“I know so.”
“I had never suspected it. So you must instruct me, Eleanor. How do I need you? What could I possibly need from you?”
Eleanor started to laugh. She moved toward him again, pressed her body to his, and looked up at him. There was no submission in her look, though she placed herself below him so that he could feel his own dominance just in looking down at her.
“You need me to synthesize these.” She held up the capsule that held his supply of resistance antitoxin. So that’s what she was hunting for. “You need me to synthesize these for personal use only. The Bates laboratory could then be destroyed. The fifth-column efforts in the temperate zones would be eliminated. And your control of half of Earth would be complete.”
Paul considered the plan she outlined. He had not considered destroying Scientific Frontiers. That was Diana’s key to power. He looked down at the science officer whose body offered bed and whose mind offered trap.
“I’ll think about it.”
“I don’t doubt that at all.”
“Now, get dressed and get out of here. I have work to do.”
Shock and anger registered on Eleanor’s face. She had not expected his rejection. She recovered quickly. She turned the capsule in front of her and then palmed it. He was tempted to wrestle it away from her, but that would reduce the struggle to a petty physical battle. She was correct. He could use her talents, at least the ones in the laboratory. He let her keep the capsule and watched as she dropped the robe to the floor at his feet and then stepped back and walked with dignity to the chair where her uniform lay.
She dressed as seductively as many women undress, carefully, without awkward tugs or loss of balance. Each garment moved into place on her body as if choreographed to cover her while increasing her allure.
Fully dressed, she assumed the aloofness that she had always had with him in the past.
“Perhaps when you’ve eliminated the priest we can talk again.”
“Perhaps, Eleanor.”
The door slid open as she approached it and closed automatically behind her.
He reprogrammed the code to the one Patricia would use and reset the video monitor to preprogrammed images, his “Do Not Disturb” sign for the ship at large.
He stretched out on the bed to wait.
Eliminated the priest. There it was again, the challenge and the resistance to it. He tried to figure out why he was so reluctant to carry out the order. He had met the young man before they had come to Earth. There was nothing special about him. Paul hadn’t particularly liked him. He seemed aloof, too sure of himself, too obedient to The Leader. And yet each time the issue had come up over the last weeks, he had avoided it. He had let Jeffrey chase him, but he had hoped Jeffrey would fail. Had he merely wanted the privilege himself? And if he had, why had he avoided the pursuit? Now he had no choice. He was responsible for the death of Hadad. Responsible directly to Diana.
Patricia opened the door, checked the passageway again as she entered, crossed to him as the door closed behind her. She had expected him to be out of uniform, and as she crossed the room, she had reached up to undo her own uniform and join him in bed. When she noticed that he was dressed, she refastened the uniform and stood beside him, waiting. “You weren’t wrong. But plans have changed.”
“I understand, sir.”
“Perhaps better than I do. Diana expects the priest to be killed.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I want the information from him about the resistance here before he is dispatched.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Does that seem inconsistent to you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Patricia, I need the fifth-column support in this. The development of the antitoxin will open the northern states to the entire fleet. The resistance here must be strengthened. I can be of no assistance without the position I hold. If I do not fulfill Diana’s orders to eliminate the priest, I will lose my command.”
“I understand, sir.”
“The priest and the girl ... are they alone in the mountains?”
“Yes, sir. As far as we can tell, sir, the other cabins there are deserted.”
“Then a large force is not necessary.”
“That’s true, sir.”
“Good. We will take three craft. You and Jeffrey and I will take the lead. Make sure Justine includes all the personnel that Jeffrey has commandeered in this little rebellion of his. And the rest of the crew should all be of the fifth column.”
“Sir?”
“I don’t want to have to explain myself to anyone. Jeffrey and those he has influenced must be eliminated. He is an irritant; I can do better without him. We will stage an attack. It is important that in the first interchange of fire Jeffrey and his followers die. If there are only fifth columnists with us, there will be no witnesses.”
“I see, sir.”
“We will question the priest. We must know what bases the fifth column has in the northern states. We must know how he anticipated the purge, how he escaped the V-dust. His tactics and alliances will help us. Patricia, we must defeat Diana. Anything he can tell us about the resistance will be of benefit.”
“I understand, sir.”
“Inform Justine. We will wait the seventy-two hours until the appropriate people can return to the planet. Advise her that no one is to shoot the priest until I give the order.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And he must be killed. Let that be understood.” “If you say so, sir.”
“And, Patricia.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Eleanor just left with my supply of resistance antitoxin. Get it back for me. Without her knowing who took it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Patricia left his quarters. He was tired, but he had one more person to see before he could sleep.
He went to the console, reset all the controls again,
and summoned communications.
“Yes, sir.”
“Have Jeffrey meet me in the chart room.”
“Yes, sir.”
The chart room was the most brightly illuminated space aboard the ship. Large screens covered every inch of the six walls, and the conference table itself was illuminated, itself a screen on which maps could be placed for consideration and delineation of strategies. The walls and table were brilliantly white at the moment, no pictures or maps augmented the decor. Paul had no need of maps. He had selected the room for the meeting because of the absolute inviolable privacy it afforded.
Jeffrey stood at the far end of the long table as Paul came into the room.
“You wanted to see me, Paul?”
“1 did. I do.”
“Concerning?”
“My conditions for your participation in the elimination of Hadad.”
“I’m listening.”
“You will speak to no one about the mission. Is that understood? Only you and I will know the exact timing of this endeavor.”
“If you insist.”
“I do. And that includes Eleanor.”
“Of course.”
“You will ride with me and my pilot. I have no interest in having you at my back.”
“A reasonable precaution.”
“The duty officer will assign the crew without your interference.”
“Should I have reason to interfere?”
“We will leave in seventy-two hours.”
“There is no reason for that long a delay.”
“There is one reason for that delay, Jeffrey. One
and only one reason. I c
hoose it.”
There was a moment when Paul was not certain in which direction Jeffrey would turn. He had undermined Paul’s authority in other ways before. But something indefinable was already beaten in Jeffrey. Paul sensed it, and so without further consideration he turned his back on his opponent and walked from the room.
Chapter 18
The sun was warm on the water in the large tub. Hadad sat watching Ruth as she splashed the warmed water around her. She smiled. He had not seen her smile, it seemed, for days.
They had found the cabins easily. And as Ruth had predicted, they were empty. Locks secured the doors except one. There they had found rooms stripped bare of all but pieces too heavy to move.
The frame of a large bed filled a second room. A flat board remained that had cradled the mattress that was gone. Heavy curtains hung at the windows, faint reminders of modesty and privacy that had been important to the former customers of the mountain spa.
Ruth had played with the switches in each room, but no lights responded. Water ran from the faucets and the toilet flushed, but those were the last vestiges of technological sophistication.
Above the cabin they had found open was a large two-story wooden building. The doors were locked, but through the windows they could see tables in one room, couches and chairs in another. Behind the lodge were four large tubs, and water remained in them though branches floated on the surfaces.
Hadad and Ruth had picked the branches and leaves from the water in one of the tubs and then hastily put aside clothes and climbed into the naturally heated water.
Ruth splashed the water up around her and laughed as it sprinkled down on her head.
Water rippled through the riverbed, a constant murmur. A bird’s staccato echoed Ruth’s laugh.
She moved to him across the large hot tub, her body submerged, and reached up with wet fingers to touch his lips. She looked first at his face, then into his eyes. “I wish I could see your real eyes.”
“Are you sure? You know what happened the last time,” he teased her.
“Yes, I’m sure.” She lay back on the water, farther away, still watching him.
Hadad pulled back the heavy lids and took the lenses from his eyes. He held them carefully in his left hand.
She turned over in the water and moved closer to him again, bringing her face close to his, searching as she looked at him.
V 14 - The Oregon Invasion Page 17