Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (49 page)

Momentarily
startled,
Bleys
recovered
rapidly.
He
had
not
been expecting
her
to
be
so
succinct.

It
was a good idea, though,
he
thought;
these people are too edgy for any ordinary speech.

"Our
apologies
for
startling
you
like
this"—he
gestured
at
the

Soldier-lined
wall
as
he
spoke—"but
it
was
necessary.
Because we've
been
betrayed."

In
the
dead
silence
that
followed,
he
turned
his
head
to
look
at Gelica,
now
settling
herself
into
her
seat
next
to
him.

"Have
the
missing
nine
been
located?"

"No,"
she
said,
her
eyes
narrowing
slightly
as
she
looked
back
up at
him.
"No.
We
sent
staff—"

Bleys
cut
her
off
as
he
turned
to
the
rest.

"You're
shocked,"
he
told
them.
"Get
over
it.
The
harmless
little games
you've
all
been
playing
have
turned
into
a
war,
and
there've already
been
casualties.
It's
time
for
you
all
to
begin
using
those minds
you've
been
gifted
with."

The
faces
before
him
were
largely
blank,
but
it
was
hard
to
tell whether
it
was
the
blankness
of
shock,
or
camouflage.

"Think
about
this,"
he
said,
"if
you
want
to
stay
alive:
someone wants
to
kill
us."

Before
him,
a
couple
of
faces
seemed
to
go
slack
for
a
moment;
but most
continued
to
display
intense
concentration.
A
few
of
his
audience
seemed
to
square
their
shoulders
a
little,
and
there
was
a
good deal
of
resetting
of
feet—enough
to
produce
a
small
rustling
sound.

"You're
all
among
the
best
the
human
race
has
to
offer,"
he
told them,
seeking
out
faces
with
which
to
make
eye-to-eye
contact. "Most
of
you
have
received
the
very
best
training
we
could
give you—training,
in
particular,
to
help
you
use
the
talent
you've
been gifted
with,
to
persuade
and
lead.
You've
become
trusted
members of
our
family"—it
registered
on
him
that
Gelica
was
reacting
to something
at
that
point,
but
he
continued—"and
then
you
were sent
to
this
world
for
the
purpose
of
using
those
talents,
to
gain
influence
and
power
here,
as
your
fellow
Others
have
done
on
other planets,
for
the
benefit
of
all
of
us,
and
of
the
entire
human
race.

"I
know
some
of
you
haven't
had
the
training
I
mentioned,"
he continued,
and
smiled
at
a
couple
of
the
staff
people
he
saw
near the
front
of
his
audience.
"We
simply
haven't
had
time
to
give every
Other
the
training
we'd
like
them
to
have.
Nonetheless,
you, too,
are
Others,
and
members
of
our
family."

He
paused
for
a
moment,
scanning
the
faces
as
if
he
were
about to
smile.
But
he
did
not
smile
at
all.

"So
it
is
a
great
sorrow
to
me
to
have
to
say
that
some
of
you,
at least,
have
let
all
the
rest
of
us
down."

He
gave
them
a
moment
to
react
to,
and
recover
from,
that
statement,
and
then
continued.

"We
have
long
known
that
our
persuasive
skills
seem
not
to
work on
everyone,"
he
said,
"and
particularly
not
on
the
Exotics
and
the Dorsai.
Am
I
right?"

A
few
among
them
nodded,
but
he
ignored
them
and
plowed
on.

"We
have
discovered—never
mind
how—that
the
Exotics
and the
Dorsai
have
been
the
targets
of
a
secretive
economic
attack
for a
long
time—decades,
in
fact."

He
went
on
to
lay
out
for
them
the
basics
of
what
he
had
learned about
the
Ceta-based
attacks
on
those
two
Splinter
Cultures.

"The
proof
is
indirect,"
he
said,
"but
while
a
certain
amount
of those
three
planets'
bad
economic
situation
can
be
blamed
on
historical
forces
and
the
general
decline
of
the
old
order,
which
have resulted
in
changing
political,
military
and
social
conditions
making for
more
competition
for
those
planets,
and
less
of
a
market
for
their products
and
experts,
it
is
nonetheless
true
that
a
lot
of
their
declining
economic
situation
is
the
result
of
outside
factors."
He
was,
he suddenly
realized,
keyed
up—he
was
feeling
embarrassed
at
the droning,
pedantic
language
he
had
begun
to
use.
But
it
was
a
planned tactic,
chosen
because
he
knew
the
boring
style
would
be
reassuring to
the
nervous
ones
in
the
crowd.

"Exotic
ships,"
he
was
continuing,
"which
once—leaving
out Old
Earth—dominated
interstellar
trade,
don't
get
as
great
a
percentage
as
they
used
to,
of
the
cargoes
and
passengers
going
off-world
from
all
the
planets.
Who
do
you
think
has
benefited
from that?

"People
on
other
worlds
buy
less
of
the
Exotic
specialty exports—medical
technologies,
environmental
tools
and
so
on—" He
broke
off,
purposely
leaving
a
hanging
silence.

"A
lot
of
this
can
be
traced
here,"
he
said.
"I
mean,
to
Ceta.
Why didn't
you
tell
us?"

There
was
silence
in
the
room
for
a
long
moment.
Most
of
the faces
in
front
of
Bleys
were
stunned
and
dismayed,
but
there
were
a few
that
were
reacting
in
wariness
and
fear
...
and
most
of
those faces
were
seated
as
a
group
in
the
back
of
the
gathering.

"It
was
your
job
to
further
the
progress
of
our
movement,"
he went
on,
"by
extending
our
influence
on
this
planet
and
sending back
to
the
rest
of
us
information
that
would
be
of
use
to
us
all
in furthering
our
work
elsewhere.
But
it's
impossible
to
believe
that none
of
you
managed
to
pick
up
on
the
fact
that
a
large
and
powerful
group
on
this
planet
was
exerting
its
efforts
to
alter
the
balance of
interstellar
relationships."

He
paused
again,
to
let
them
draw
the
inevitable
conclusion
for themselves—and
just
as
he
was
about
to
resume,
a
tiny
rivet
set
in the
underside
of
his
wrist
control
pad
vibrated
silently
against
his skin
in
three
short
bursts.

Bleys
broke
off
his
remarks
and
turned
to
Toni,
on
his
right.

"Toni,"
he
said,
"would
you
go
out
to
Henry
and
ask
him
for
the disk
I
left
with
him?"

As
Toni
nodded
and
rose
from
her
seat,
Bleys
turned
back
to
his audience.

"We
have
a
recording
that
will
illustrate
what
I'm
talking
about," he
said—and
in
that
moment
Toni,
who
had
been
passing
behind the
head
table
on
her
way
to
the
door,
produced
a
small
needle
pistol
and
laid
its
muzzle
softly
against
Gelica
Costanza's
temple,
whispering
something
that
caused
the
woman
to
freeze
her
startled reaction.

At
the
same
moment
the
four
Soldiers
placed
along
the
wall brought
their
void
pistols
back
up,
to
point
directly
at
Bleys' audience—and
Bley
s
noticed
that
three
of
the
four
were
concentrating
their
attention,
and
their
aims,
in
the
area
of
the
group
that he
himself
had
earlier
noticed.

Bleys
kept
his
attention
on
the
audience
while
this
action
occurred,
watching
their
reactions,
and
was
pleased
to
note
that
only
a few
showed
signs
of
disabling
shock.
They
might
have
gotten
complacent
over
the
course
of
their
long,
quiet
term
on
this
planet,
but for
the
most
part
they
seemed—given
the
upset
that
had
marked the
last
few
weeks—to
be
recovering
the
abilities
they
had
been schooled
in
during
their
training.