Buzz gave a gurgle of amusement.
‘Well, in colloquial terms,’ he said, ‘I believe he’s had more than enough evidence by now that the LIA is not impressed by his conduct of this mission.’
Alex gave a small nod. The LIA had certainly made their opinion clear, albeit indirectly. It was apparent that they were – understandably – extremely concerned about the security risks of the League’s most advanced warship being in a neutral port without defences. It was also clear that they were – less understandably – concerned about the possible security risk of a number of the Fourth’s personnel they considered to be either unstable or at a high risk of betraying secrets for some other reason. At no point, though, had they attempted to do any more than advise very strongly on the risks the Fourth was taking. Even Mister must have realised by now that he and the LIA were not on the same page of considering it justified to implement Imperative For League Security protocols and have their own ambassador assassinated.
‘He will never accept that he was wrong, though,’ Alex said and Buzz smiled regretfully.
‘No, of course not,’ he agreed. ‘He will hold to the belief that he was doing his duty and that he was the only responsible person involved, no doubt for the rest of his life. And the more people tell him he was totally out of order, the more of a martyr he will be in his own eyes.’
‘Hmmn,’ Alex acknowledged and after a thoughtful sip of coffee, ‘He does have some cause for grievance, though.’ And as Buzz looked at him enquiringly, ‘The LIA set him up to be exposed, knowing how stressful that would be to him as well as trashing his career.’
Buzz did not look sympathetic. In fact, a definite grin flickered across his face.
‘Nobody made him go to work for them,’ he replied. ‘And if he didn’t know what they were like before he joined, he certainly did after he’d been trained. Sacrificing low-grade agents like this is routine for the LIA – and if he was arrogant or stupid enough to believe that it couldn’t happen to him, that he was a rising star, well, life is full of learning experiences, isn’t it?’
Alex gave a reluctant little grin in response. ‘All right, I know,’ he said, picking up on the subtext of the teasing note in Buzz’s voice. ‘I’m being over-sensitive, feeling responsible for him. But I do just wish that things had worked out differently… it leaves a sour taste, you know?’
But if Mister was sour candy, the situation was about to reveal an unexpected sweet centre.
Two hours after the anonymous figure had been escorted off the ship, Alex took a call on a highly scrambled line from an unidentified caller.
‘I have to register a formal protest,’ said the distorted voice, once Alex had confirmed that he was alone in his daycabin with the door locked and all monitoring devices disabled, ‘It is apparent to us that your prisoner has been subjected to psychological conditioning.’
Alex’s jaw hardened. He could understand entirely why the LIA would want to frame this as their agent having suffered a psychological breakdown, which they would then inevitably blame on the Fourth. But Alex wasn’t about to either allow them to ditch their responsibility like that, or to lay another psychological collapse to his door. There was enough of a belief out there already that Alex broke people like that when they went up against him.
‘We have extensive medical evidence…’ he began, but the other voice overrode him.
‘Come off it, Commodore,’ it said and the harsh tones of anger were evident even with the distortion. ‘You only have to spend ten minutes with him. The man is raving! He’s talking about the Lost Library of Cartasay, making galaxies with glitter and a planet covered in cabbages!’
Alex was silent for several seconds. He was treasuring the moment, a surge of pure delirious glee welling up in him with such force that it took every iota of his self control to prevent himself from cracking into howls of laughter.
He had made the decision to keep the Library out of reports made to the local authorities, sending a full account of it only to Chartsey, coded for the eyes of just four people – the First Lord, the President, the chief of the Diplomatic Corps and the chair of the Fourth’s committee in the Senate. For everyone else, the report had merely stated that Trilopharus had transported them to an uninhabited system, location withheld.
‘Commodore?’ the voice snapped, with both suspicion and challenge, as Alex failed to respond.
Alex cleared his throat and passed a hand across his mouth as if physically trying to prevent the grin which was breaking through even his iron control.
‘I regret,’ he said and was quite impressed, himself, with how level and calm his voice sounded, when he was trying not to choke, ‘that I am unable to discuss details of our mission which are bound under…’
‘Come off it!’ the voice commanded, with a savage note. ‘Given the evidence that the man is not insane, that leaves only one possibility, that you have been subjecting him to psychological conditioning, filling his head with delusions!’ The tone of the voice became as scornful as it was furious, ‘Planets covered in cabbages! Tuh!’
And with that the call was ended, leaving Alex to throw back his head and roar with belly-wrenching laughter. ‘Oh!’ he gasped and ‘Oh!’ and as he envisaged what it was going to be like for Mister, frantically trying to convince his bosses that yes, they really had been on a planet covered in brassicas and fungi and yes, it was the fairy-tale Lost Library of Cartasay, laughter exploded again. ‘Oh!’
Twenty Eight
Later that day, with a grin still lurking around Alex’s mouth every time he remembered that call, Lady Ursele sent a singer to bring Alex to see her.
It was calming, going through the ritual of preparation and watching the flower float through spac. He was in a composed, attentive frame of mind by the time Lady Ursele addressed him.
‘I am told,’ she said, ‘that the embassy will be ready for our occupation by the seventeenth.’
Alex nodded. Construction was in its final phase, with internal walls being clipped into position. Suddenly the building was taking shape and all the more obviously because the external walls had not yet been fitted. It was emerging just as designed. The front part of the Embassy had a reception area leading through into the Hall of Veils and the chamlorn’s private apartments. These were all hugely spacious, four storeys high, with doors on a scale which made humans seem diminutive. The Hall of Veils alone was the size of a flickball pitch. Behind this the embassy stretched out in two wings, providing offices, workrooms and accommodation for the attendants as well as several suites of guest rooms. The space between the wings was a garden – a gravel and statuary garden, since Lady Ursele had decreed that no water was to be wasted here on growing plants when there were people in need of it to drink. Right at the back of the plot, then, concealed by decorative screening, were landing pads, a workshop-garage and other less aesthetic elements. Once the furniture was moved in and the external walls bolted into place, the embassy would be ready for immediate occupation.
‘Your grace,’ Alex confirmed, with a sense of calm satisfaction. He was ready, whatever might be asked of him, and so was the Fourth. They had taken it for granted that they would be here for longer than the three months Lady Ursele had initially requested and Alex had all kinds of contingency plans, too, in case she should change her mind and want some of their people to stay.
‘I will be holding an event on the eighteenth,’ Lady Ursele said, ‘to officially open the embassy. It would please me greatly if you will attend, so that I might express my thanks for the care and support you have given to me and to my attendants.’
‘That is very kind, your grace.’
‘If I was to express my gratitude as fully as I wish,’ Lady Ursele said, with the warmest of smiles, ‘the celebrations would last for many years.’
‘It is our privilege to assist your grace,’ said Alex, with simple sincerity, and they were both quiet for a minute or so, conveying much without the need for words.
‘Th
e event,’ said Lady Ursele, ‘will mark my thanks and my farewell. I would ask that you make all preparations necessary to depart immediately afterwards – to depart the system overnight, if that is possible.’
Alex realised at once that this was not a matter of her releasing them early out of concern or consideration for them, but a strategic decision. Lady Ursele wanted it to be absolutely clear that the Fourth’s only role here had been to support her in establishing her embassy. The moment that was accomplished, they were to withdraw from the scene and leave her to get on with her mission.
It was a good decision, as he recognised, sitting there and thinking about it in that quiet, unhurried way which characterised meetings with the chamlorn. He didn’t have to think fast. Instead, he could think deeply and for as long as it took for him to be sure of his response.
‘Whatever you wish, of course,’ he said and was conscious of a pang of something like disappointment. He was enjoying being here so much, playing even a small supportive role in such monumental events.
‘It is a lot to ask, when you are so engaged here yourself,’ Lady Ursele said. ‘But it is the best way in which you can assist and support me in establishing myself here.’
‘It will be hard to leave,’ Alex conceded, ‘when things are in such dynamic flux and my instinct is to want to be here to assist in any ways we can as situations develop. But you are right, your grace – it is best for us to leave. Though we will obviously leave you whatever personnel you may want to employ, should you wish.’
Lady Ursele smiled.
‘That will not be necessary, Commodore Alexis Sean von Strada,’ she told him. ‘My attendants will secure whatever supplementary services may be required from local sources and President Roll’em Moffaret, no doubt, will be of assistance in that regard.’
In other words, Alex recognised, no – Lady Ursele did not want any appearance of League involvement in her embassy, no hint that they might be secretly pulling the strings. The Fourth must do exactly what they’d declared that they were here to do and no more.
‘I understand,’ said Alex and kept down that part of him which wanted to protest. All his instincts were to protect her, his sense of responsibility towards her just enormous. If he’d had his way, Luce would be staying to head up security at the embassy, along with a good twenty five other volunteers already lined up to stay. Just leaving her and her attendants there, completely unprotected, in an environment where intelligence agencies routinely abducted and interrogated people under drugs, felt like abandoning them in the middle of a predator-infested jungle.
But Alex and the rest of the Fourth had learned not only to have great respect for Lady Ursele’s judgement, but respect for her attendants, too. They were highly intelligent, extremely adaptive, quick to learn and generally two steps ahead of everyone around them. And there was an effect, too, which Alex had noticed – a feeling not just of awe and wonder at Lady Ursele herself, but a sense of how precious she and her household were. Anyone who messed with them would find every other embassy on the Avenue giving them hell, that was for sure.
‘Thank you,’ said Lady Ursele, fully aware of how difficult it was for Alex to overcome his protective instincts. ‘It would please me very much,’ she said, ‘if you are able to return at some future time, perhaps to join us when agreements are being celebrated.’
Alex smiled, seeing the quiet confidence in her use of when. Lady Ursele had no doubt at all that she was going to succeed. And having seen what she’d achieved already, Alex didn’t doubt it, either.
‘That would please me very much too,’ he said and at that she smiled at him as one friend to another. They would meet again before the Fourth departed, of course. But this felt to Alex like a personal farewell as well as the moment when he realised that his mission here was over.
It felt anti-climactic, going back to the command deck with a sense of leaving just as things were really taking off.
‘But we have done what we came here to do,’ Alex observed, breaking the news that they would be leaving on the night of the eighteenth.
‘Yes, but…’ Eldovan was about to argue that there was so much more that they could do, even if they just stayed for another month, but then she caught herself up and she laughed. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I was going to say that we could just stay until, but this is such a huge, ongoing, rapidly-developing situation that there’d always be another until, wouldn’t there?’
‘And Lady Ursele always said that she only wanted us to stay until she was in her own embassy here,’ Davie observed.
‘These weeks have given her time to assess the situation and establish baseline relationships,’ Buzz said. ‘And I do believe that her grace has pinpointed the precise moment at which our presence would change from being accepted as supportive to being perceived as intrusive.’
Shion smiled. She had known for some time that the Fourth would be leaving the moment Lady Ursele was established in her embassy and was happy with that. There was no question, none at all, of Shion remaining with her aunt. Lady Ursele had never asked that and did not want it. And Shion had already made her choice.
‘It will be good to be heading home,’ she said, when Alex looked along the command table for her reaction.
There was immediate and heartfelt agreement, evident not only in the nods and murmurs on the command deck but a kind of collective oh, yeah from all around the ship. This had been the longest of long haul missions. By the time they got home they would have been gone for a year and six months, the longest mission the Fourth had yet undertaken. It would, indeed, be very good to be heading home again.
The only protest, therefore, came from Luce. She’d been so convinced that she’d be staying at Lundane when the Fourth departed that she couldn’t seem to accept it when Alex told her that she wouldn’t be required to stay after all.
‘But the security at that embassy is non-existent!’ She’d come to see Alex, having asked to meet with him as a matter of urgency. ‘I mean, seriously, Alex, there is not so much as a perimeter fence or security gate! Anyone, but anyone at all, can just walk straight into that building and the only ‘security’ there is will be attendants there to offer them refreshment!’ She spoke with the incredulity of someone who couldn’t believe, even now, that the Pirrellothians really could be that astoundingly irresponsible. ‘And it’s no good saying that everyone will respect Lady Ursele too much to do her any harm – you know better than anyone how much danger even one lone nutter can be!’
Alex couldn’t deny it. Fleet Intel, Diplomatic Corps security, Telethoran intelligence services and even the LIA had swung in with every conceivable precaution around him during the Fourth’s visit to Telathor, on maximum alert as Alex was under direct threat from xenophobic terror groups. And even with all their precautions, a lone nutter had passed completely under all their radar, made himself a home-made sniper rifle and fired two shots at Alex from a tower more than a kilometre away. Alex himself now had to accept that he would never be able to go out in public without prior clearance from security and a major cordon around him. So it was just terrifying to know that Lady Ursele would not even have a fence, a weapons-check door or armed security people.
‘President Moffaret will ensure that nobody goes onto embassy grounds without a security check,’ Alex reminded her. Lady Ursele had agreed to that, only stipulating that she would not permit such fences and guards on what was now Pirrellothian soil. ‘And you’re never going to get her to agree to having security systems or guards, Luce. That open-door policy is a core principle for her.’
‘I know, but some kind of discreet…’ Luce broke off, giving a heavy sigh as she saw the patient look on Alex’s face and recognised that she was wasting her time and his. ‘Yes, yes, I know – her decision and we must respect it. Have no choice but to respect it. We have no say, after all.’
‘No, we don’t,’ Alex agreed. ‘Which is the point, really. Lady Ursele needs it to be absolutely clear that our only role h
ere was to support her in establishing her embassy. Now that’s done, she needs us to bow out gracefully and leave her to hold centre stage by herself.’
‘I know,’ Luce said despondently. ‘But… oh, never mind. I know there’s nothing you can do about it. And our guys will do whatever they can to keep them all safe, of course. It’s just that… well, I never really thought I’d have to leave like this.’ She thought about it for a moment and grimaced. ‘Guess,’ she said, ‘I’ve let myself become more involved than I should have.’
Alex grinned at her. ‘Well, you’re not the only member of that club,’ he told her and as she worked out what he meant, she relaxed and grinned back, ruefully.
‘Is it always this tough?’ she asked. ‘Leaving a mission?’
‘Generally, no.’ Alex thought about it and answered honestly. ‘It can be hard sometimes when there’s so much more you want to do and you’re having to hand on to other people. But you have to recognise when you’ve achieved what you were asked to do, to draw a line and move on. And you, Luce,’ he pointed out, ‘have already done far more than you were expected to as a non-operational supernumerary.’
Luce laughed at that, which was an obvious leg pull. All of the supposedly non-operational command school class had ended up actively involved in operations, but none more so than Luce herself. Her background in intelligence had put her at the forefront as liaison to Fleet Intel.
‘I generally,’ Alex advised, ‘find it helpful to think about what our next mission is likely to be, to make that break and avoid post-mission blues. In this case, however…’
Luce gave another gurgle of laughter, more genuinely amused this time. She knew perfectly well what the Senate had lined up for Alex as the Fourth’s next mission. They were working on the basis that the Fourth would return from their encounter with Trilopharus with an agreement to establish a more conventional diplomatic point of contact either at the given coordinates or alongside the mission already working with the Gider. Either way, though, whether the Fourth was successful or not, the clamour from other League worlds to have them and Silvie visit was so insistent that the Senate had already agreed to them doing a run of courtesy visits. Exactly where they would go had yet to be determined, but it was apparent that they would be ricocheting around the League like a superlight pinball, hitting world after world whipped up into wild excitement by the quarian visit.
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