Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (59 page)

"Graeme
and
his
Dorsai
used
military
force
to
stop
Prince
William,
and
they
broke
him—broke
his
spirit
and
broke
his
fortune."
She paused.
"Even
broke
his
mind." She
glared
at
Bleys.

"The
Prince
was
ahead
of
the
whole
human
race
at
every
turn," she
said
harshly.
"He
played
by
the
rules
of
business,
and
when
his opponents
couldn't
defeat
him,
they
turned
to
military
force!"
She subsided
in
her
seat,
as
if
worn
out.

"It
was
vile!"
Her
voice
was
quieter,
disgusted.

For
a
moment,
there
was
silence
in
the
room.

"I
don't
believe
William
had
any
family,"
Bleys
said
finally.
Before
he
could
continue,
Melin
Somosa
interrupted
him.

"That's
according
to
the
official
records,"
she
said.
"There're some
who
say
they're
of
the
Prince's
blood."

"The
Families?"
Bleys
asked.

"Not
all
of
us,"
Camille
Porter
interjected,
apparently
resigned now
to
having
everything
come
out.

Toni,
Bleys
saw,
was
now
wearing
an
expression
very
akin
to
her white-mind
face.
He
suspected
it
was
an
attempt
to
conceal
her thoughts,
and
he
hoped
no
one
among
the
Families
was
adept
in
the martial
arts.

Toni
held
her
peace
until
they
were
back
in
Favored’s
lounge; and
even
then
her
voice
was
quiet.

"You
must
be
aware
that
those
people
are
insane,"
she
said.
"Did you
know
about
them
going
into
that
meeting?"

"I
knew
who
they
were,
from
Deborah,"
he
said.
"She
wasn't aware
of
their
enmity
against
the
Exotics
and
Dorsai,
and
I
think she
was
as
surprised
as
we
were
to
learn
that
those
people
are
consumed
by
their
families'
involvements
with
Prince
William's
downfall."

"Their
fortunes
were
built
on
his
rise,
I
gather,"
she
said.

"William
was
a
mercantile
manipulator,"
Bleys
said,
"and
anyone who
followed
his
lead
probably
made
huge
fortunes.
Donal
Graeme was
only
interested
in
stopping
William
himself,
and
I
suspect
no
one tried
to
take
away
the
assets
of
his
followers—they
were
likely
well-entrenched
in
the
planet's
economy
by
then,
and
taking
them
down might
well
have
caused
a
depression
here."
He
thought
for
a
brief moment.
"And
like
many
plutocrats
before
them,
they
probably
had come
to
believe
that
other
sorts
of
power
were
their
right."

"But
how
could
an
attitude
like
that—and
a
resentment
like that—have
lasted
down
decades,
and
generations?"

"The
Families,
I
suspect,"
Bleys
said,
"were
so
wealthy
they never
had
to
deal
with
the
rest
of
the
world.
Their
children
lived
in a
world
in
which
they
dealt
only
with
each
other—intermarrying would
have
been
prized,
since
it
would
strengthen
the
connections between
the
various
families
even
more.
In
an
atmosphere
like that,
the
paranoid
views
of
the
parents
were
reinforced
...
views like
that
are
always
emotionally
powerful—particularly
if
they're not
countered
by
exposure
to
reality."

"You
can't
trust
them,"
Toni
said.

"Of
course
not,"
he
replied.
"And
they
won't
trust
me.
That won't
matter."

"I
think
I
see,"
she
said.
"It's
like
working
with
fanatics
like
that Militia
officer
you
had
chasing
Hal
Mayne."

"Barbage,"
Bleys
reminded
her.
"Yes.
As
long
as
I
know
what they
want,
I
can
trust
them
to
try
to
do
exactly
that."

"It
only
works
as
long
as
what
they
want
matches
what
you want,"
she
said.

"I
know,"
he
said.
"It
becomes
my
job
to
remain
aware
of
exactly when
our
interests
will
diverge."

As
they
were
eating,
later,
Toni
spoke
up
again.

"I
still
don't
see
how
they
could
have
had
the
power
to
have
such a
great
effect
on
the
situation
of
the
Dorsai
and
the
Exotics,"
she said.
"Planetary
economies
are
just
too
large
for
individuals
to
have much
force
against
them."

"Which
is
the
kind
of
thing
I
told
you,
earlier,
about
the
historical forces,"
he
said.
"And
you're
right—"

"Oh,
I
see!"
she
exclaimed,
interrupting
him.
"Because
you've been
thinking
about
the
historical
forces
for
so
long,
you
had
a—a mental
framework
that
helped
you
see
how
to
handle
the
Families, too!"

"In
a
way,"
he
said.
"You
probably
noticed
that
when
we
got
into
our
substantive
discussions
with
them,
I
purposely
fed
their
perceptions
of
their
own
strength—it's
the
kind
of
thing
rich
people hear
all
their
lives:
how
right
they
are.
But
as
it
happens,
they
did
have
some
effect
on
their
enemies—because
it
just
happened
that the
interstellar
economic
system
was
going
in
the
same
direction they
were
.
.
.
they
couldn't
have
stopped
it
if
they'd
tried;
and
instead,
they
rode
with
it."