Crisis Of Empire - Crown Of Empire Part 35

said 'Rra. She and Helga were starting in on the mess that was the living room. "If they have, then-"

"Oh, they haven't," said Chaney with certainty.

"They've squirreled it away somewhere, in tri- ple-locked and twice-blind files. But not all of the Navy les are gone. Only Logistics. Sclerida doesn't have every card," he concluded with sat- isfaction. He punched up an action report.

Looking over his shoulder at the dancing holo- grams, lira raised an eyebrow. The quality of the images was dreadful and the action was jerky and skittering, people moving about the display as if escaping from a battalion of holographic fleas.

Cousin Helga was wrestling with the end of one of the long, barge-like sofas that had been mangled when lira's apartments were invaded.

Everything began to grow dim in the fading afternoon light. She looked over her shoulder at lira, sighing. "I wish I could find a better way to do this. But it wouldn't be correct to ask the staff

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to do it - if there are any left in the building - and it wouldn't be wise to use servobots, because their activities would register on various of the Palace terminals and that might lead to our dis- covery in a way we would not quite like. Still -"

She pushed with all the weight other slight form against the sofa; it failed to budge.

"We could b.u.m it up," Tira suggested, consid- ering the sofa.

"And the emergency services would come,"

said Cousin Helga. "And who knows who they would report to, or what they would say."

"A problem," lira agreed. She stretched and tossed her head.

"If I weren't so tired, I'd think better. Tira, darling; I'm tired, too. I think I'll just pop into my room and try to compose myself," said Helga.

Tira nodded distractedly, then slapped her fore- head. "What have I been thinking of?" she asked the air and hurried back to Chaney. "Have you tried to tap into the emergency services commu- nications? We might get a better picture of-"

"Who is where," Chaney finished for her. "And it would tell them we're here. You know that locator technique they use, don't you?"

"But if there are a lot of calls, we might have a long time before we have to hide or switch off or .. - whatever we'd have to do," she ended lamely.

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"Don't tell me. I realize that they could find us easily, and they would know we've been here.

Either they'd think it was looters, in which case they'd lock us in a Security holding cell, or they'd think I'd come back, in which case they'd put us in a Navy holding cell." Her hands slapped against her thighs, sending two small clouds of dust into the air.

"I don't need to say anything. You explain it all very well." He folded his arms as he stared down at the latest display. This one was sharper and steadier than the one before. "I think the Protec- torate Office has kicked in. And about time, too."

Tira looked shocked. "The Protectorate? I thought they must have gone to the Navy."

"Not the Protectorate. That's the whole idea.

I've been trying to find out what the rest of the Navy is up to," Chaney said- "I haven't got very far. It looks as if the Admiral has been trying to put a lock on everything that might compromise him." The steadiness of his features was belied by the sound of his voice, which was husky with fury.

"Chaney -" she began.

"He is!" he burst out. "He's doing everything he can to protect himself. And that isn't the end of it. He's casting about for those he can suborn, He wants to keep power even if he loses his t.i.tle

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and his ships," He took three long uneven breaths. "He's a dangerous man."

Tira made a gesture of sympathy, saying, "It's nothing you can change."

"No. I can't," he muttered angrily. He shoved at the display controls. "From what I can make out, all the rest of the Navy has turned itself over to the Earth Protectorate Office, but the Logis- tics Garrison continues loyal." He stared at the holograph. 'That is the word I want, is it?

Loyal?"

"What have they done," asked Tira, unwilling to be forced to defend Admiral Sclerida to defend his sons pride, "in regard to the Protec- torate?"

"The Logistics Garrison, do you mean? They've attacked the Protectorate at every oppor- tunity." He flipped through four displays in quick succession: in each of them Logistics Gar- rison Navy craft were battling with Protectorate ships.

"Oh, dear," said Tira, shocked at the destruc- tion being rained on the Protectorate ships.

"I've found clips and files that show most of the other Navy ships out beyond the s.p.a.ce sta- tions. We have about a dozen of the huge Bases on the far side of the moon. For the time being, Naval personnel are being escorted there until

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there is some resolution to this impa.s.se." He keyed in the codes.

In three-second clips the newest information was displayed on the holograph.

"How can you keep it all straight?" Tira asked as she turned away. "I can't do it the way you do."

"I'm trained for it, and I have a strong left- brain development." There was a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice as he spoke and he addressed her with far less deference than he might have the day before. "From what I can tell, the trouble with the military is mostly over. I think the Haiken Maru has lost too much to recover their position, so we shouldn't have to shoot any more Cemians for a while. I don't know what the Kona Tatsu is up to, but I'm beginning to think that maybe all those rumors - the ones we always laughed about? - that they were in charge of the Protectorate, those rumors just might have been right."

"You mean they haven't been trying to stop the Protectorate?" asked lira in some shock.

"Not that I can discover, no," admitted Chaney with a puzzled frown.

Tira nodded. 'Tou know," she said as a frown line moved up her forehead between her brows, "that could mean Damien Ver is the ... I don't know what?"

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"It makes me wonder," said Chaney. "For the Protectorate to move as quickly as it did to restore order probably means there was help inside the military . . . and since," he went on with greater confidence, "we suspect that the Kona Tatsu has agents in every military service, couldn't it follow that it was Ver who put them into motion when everything was blackest?"

"But why?" Tira asked. "He can't be doing this for love of my step-mother and he knows his birth isn't good enough to advance him any higher than hes risen already."

Chaney nodded, his heart somber. "But together -what if they're in this together? She can't make him High Secretary, but if they were married, it could be that his position would be strong enough for him to gain Senatorial approval to a fait accompli."

"And because he's Kona Tatsu, he might have secrets on the Senators that would strengthen his position? Is that what you mean?" She turned her back on the console where a dozen gunboats were transferring Protectorate officers to the navy craft.

"It's a possibility," he admitted. "I don't know how likely it is."

"Because you don't want to talk about things you might not like?" she challenged. "How well

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do you think I like them?" Her arms were folded now and her pretty features showed more strength of character than attractiveness. "You're thinking about the need for a diplomatic mar- riage, aren't you?"

"Well, there are several that could be possi- ble," he hedged, unaware until then at how keen her understanding was. His face felt hot and he was afraid - correctly - that he was blushing.