Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (95 page)

In
the
meantime,
Dahno
had
continued.

"We
don't
have
any
targets
yet,"
he
said.
"But
we've
been
making some
useful
contacts,
and
we're
beginning
to
learn
some
unsavoury
secrets.
When
things
start
heating
up
here
with
concern
over
what the
Others
are
doing
on
the
New
Worlds,
we'll
be
in
a
position
to discredit
some
of
the
people
who
want
Earth
to
act
against
us."

"I
presume
that
applies
even
if
you
haven't
found
anything
to use
against
particular
people?"

"If
necessary,"
Dahno
said.
"But
of
course
it's
always
more
effective
if
there's
actually
some
truth
in
the
story."

"You
sound
hesitant
about
using
this
tactic,"
Bleys
said.

"It's
not
the
tactic,
it's
the
targets,"
Dahno
said.
He
shook
his head,
his
eyes
watching
the
traffic.

"We've
got
two
strings
to
our
bow,"
he
went
on—Bleys
noted
his brother's
use
of
yet
another
strange
Old
Earth
adage—"and
I
don't want
to
accidentally
break
one."

"What
do
you
mean?"

"Well,
as
we
discussed
before
I
came
here,
my
brief
is
to
find ways
to
disarm
any
potential
movement
to
mobilize
Earth
against the
Others,"
Dahno
said.
"There
are
two
ways
I
can
do
that,
and
I have
to
be
careful
to
keep
one
tactic
from
disarming
the
other."

"You
mean
that
in
some
way
attempts
to
discredit
Old
Earth leaders—"

"I
mean
I
have
to
be
careful
which
leaders
to
discredit,"
Dahno said.
"Because
the
dirt
that
I
get
on
some
of
them,
that
might
be useful
to
discredit
them,
also
might
be
useful
to
make
them
lean
in our
direction
when
making
certain
decisions."

"I
see,"
Bleys
said.
"And
if
you
use
the
'dirt,'
as
you
call
it,
to
discredit
any
particular
leader,
it
won't
be
possible
to
use
it
to
blackmail
him
or
her."

"That's
right,"
Dahno
said;
there
was
an
involved,
lively
gleam in
his
eyes.
"But
there's
another
convolution
to
consider."

"And
that
is?"

"We
still
can't
tell
which
way
most
of
these
leaders
might
hop— and
I'm
not
referring
only
to
political
leaders,
by
the
way—if
the matter
of
the
Others
suddenly
came
to
a
head
in
Earth
politics," Dahno
said.
"Some
might
be
inclined
to
favor
us,
or
have
other
motives
for
leaving
us
alone;
since
the
matter
hasn't
come
up,
I
can't tell
yet
exactly
which
ones
are
the
enemies
we'll
want
to
get
out
of the
way."

"So
you
need
to
learn
more
about
all
these
people,"
Bleys
said. "On
a
planet
this
large,
that
will
be
a
gigantic
task."

"True,"
Dahno
said.
"Can
you
imagine
how
stupid
we'd
feel
if we
destroyed
the
career
of
some
politician
who,
it
later
turned
out, would
have
been
on
our
side
anyway?"

"That
might
be,"
Bleys
said,
"but
we'd
probably
never
know
it. In
any
case,
I
doubt
you
can
get
a
dependable
reading
on
how
any one
of
them
is
liable
to
vote.
There're
just
too
many
variables."

"Yes,
that's
it
exactly,"
Dahno
nodded.

"The
most
important
thing
is
to
build
up
the
credibility
of
your groups,"
Bleys
said.
"I'd
suggest
you
need
to
pick
someone— probably
more
than
one
someone—to
destroy.
You
can't
wait
much longer
to
find
out
where
they
might
sit
on
some
theoretical
crisis
in the
future."

"That's
true,
too."

"At
the
same
time,"
Bleys
mused,
fruitlessly
pushing
his
long legs
against
the
front
wall
of
the
vehicle—he
felt
cramped,
and
suddenly
wanted
very
much
to
get
out
of
the
vehicle
and
pace
up
and down
one
of
the
streets
they
were
passing—"you'd
better
be
sure your
first
couple
of
exposes
are
dead
on
target."

"Absolutely!
It's
necessary
that
the
first
ones
not
only
be
big news,
but
confirmable."

"With
a
few
correct
reports
giving
you
credibility,"
Bleys
said, "your
later
accusations
will
have
more
staying
power
even
if
they can't
be
easily
confirmed."

"In
any
case,
it'll
take
time
to
debunk
any
that
we
manufacture," Dahno
nodded
again.
"And
in
the
meantime,
the
political
process will
be
slowed
down,
maybe
even
paralyzed."

"It
becomes
a
nice
question
of
timing,
then,"
Bleys
said.
"I'm sure
you
understand
that."