Jinx on a Terran Inheritance (57 page)

Ash had a rejoinder but forgot it, and paled. Corva had emerged from the lock and turned to help Sintilla down.

"How dare you," Ash said in a dire monotone. "A Srillan. Whatever happens to you now, you'll have earned. Say whatever you came to say. So, this is what Weir wanted us to have."

"No; this is." Floyt opened the satchel, showing the documents and data. "And this is!" He held out an old holo 2-D of a conference table. There were officials of the vanished Terran Union Armed Forces and the Spican Colonial Fleet—and Srillans. Faces and poses indicated that it had been taken covertly.

"Two hundred years ago it started, when Earth was devastated," Floyt maintained, willing his voice to ring true. "But, Citizen Ash,
it's still going on today
! We have the proof; we know where there's more to be had. Do you understand what I'm saying? Earth wasn't overwhelmed, wasn't beaten; she was sacrificed. She was betrayed. And Terra is not in reduced circumstances by the natural order of things.

She is being held there."

He offered another document, an agreement signed by the original Camarillans. Sintilla interwined her fingers with Alacrity's and squeezed. Ash had been gazing at the 2-D. Slowly, unwillingly, he reached out and took the second document from Floyt. And a third. A fourth.

The chuteshaft indicators lit up. A moment later doors slid aside and Alpha-Bureaucrat Stemp rushed out along with Alpha Chin and Supervisor Bear, flanked by senior peaceguardian brass and some of the biggest rankers Floyt had ever seen.

"Stand where you are!" Stemp bawled, charging at them, pushing a couple of peacers out front for cover.

"This illegal meeting is terminated. All offworlders and Functionary Third Class Floyt are under arrest!"

Ash watched them come, and when they were near, held up the flat of his palm to halt them in that odd gesture Alacrity had seen him use before. "Come no further; I am conducting an inquiry here."

The peacers in the lead were massive, bull-necked colonels, but they slowed, looking to Stemp for further instructions. Stemp shoved them aside. "There are no grounds for an inquiry by the executioner's office! There has been invasion, unprovoked attack, and con—that is, collusion, with intent to subvert."

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"You were about to say 'conspiracy,' " Corva corrected in an undertone, but they all heard it. Bear and the peacers weren't sure what to do at the sight of the Srillan except pop their eyes at him. Stemp went back on the offensive.

"You traitors!" he sneered at Floyt and Alacrity. "You, Fitzhugh! We gave you back your life and this is how you repay us and keep your word. And as for you, Floyt, you're living proof that
offworld
is poison to Earthers. Look how you've stabbed Terra in the back! A Srillan! And you tried to land a
starship
!

You're a pack of mad dogs!"

"We brought back the Terran Inheritance," Floyt countered.

"We were just showing it to Citizen Ash, would you like to see?" Alacrity challenged.

Stemp had gone white, but Alpha-Bureaucrat Chin rallied. "That's not the issue here! You and your cohorts are under arrest! Officers!" She prodded one of the peacers.

Ash was frowning a bit now, looking stubborn. He waved a finger at the peacers, metronome fashion, keeping them back. "I think I will hear more about this Camarilla."

"This isn't in your purview—whatever it's about," Stemp argued. "Your official powers don't extend to this. What we have here is a case for the High Bench itself. Yes, this is a matter for the peaceguardian investigators and the Justice Division. You have no authority in it. Even you operate under certain constraints, bear in mind."

One of the colonels coughed tentatively. "Alpha-Bureaucrat Stemp is quite right, sir. This case has not been referred to your office." He faced Alacrity with one hand on his gun.

The surveillance pickups and weapons installations—Alacrity could see that was what they were—were all aligned at the confrontation now. The colonel said, "Hand over that weapon and any others you people may have, and surrender. You're under arrest."

Ash said, "This is a suspect proceeding. I petition you, peaceguardians and Alpha-Bureaucrats, to deviate from official procedure. I'd like to resolve my misgivings here and now."

"Petition denied," Stemp rapped, regaining his confidence. "Be advised: you yourself are obstructing justice."

Ash looked about him, at the Alphas, peacers, at Corva and Sintilla, at the
Harpy
—and at Floyt and Alacrity last of all. An air of melancholy was on him. The powers of the executioner were conferred only in conjunction with deep and powerful behavioral engineering administered by the Office of the Executioner—passed along by Ash's predecessors.

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"They—he's right," Ash confessed. "I function within certain limits. My authority doesn't extend to this situation, though I wish it were otherwise. I can't help you."

He made to give the evidence back to Floyt, but Stemp came forward, hand extended. "I'll just take that.

The cop was about to demand Alacrity's gun again. Alacrity eyed the peacers and the pylon installations, calculating his chances in a Shootout. He calculated them as just about nil.

Floyt moved suddenly, desperate that Stemp not get the satchel. He found himself shoving away an Alpha-Bureaucrat. Stemp staggered back into the arms of the cop colonel. The peacers advanced on Floyt.

"Wait! Listen!" Floyt shouted at Ash. "There's something else: Alacrity was framed! For that murder at Macchu Pichu! We have proof; I brought a copy of the message here, somewhere … "

He riffled frantically, knowing what would happen to himself, his friends, and the evidence once the Alphas had them. The peacers were closing in as he thrust into Ash's hands the excerpt mentioning Project Shepherd's entrapment of Alacrity.

Ash took a quick glance at the excerpt, then pulled Floyt to him and behind him. The cops wavered.

"I will take charge now," the executioner announced. "Citizen Stemp, you are now an interested party—

an implicated party, since your agency was involved in the case. You and these other bureaucrats will withdraw at once and hold yourselves ready to give testimony."

Stemp's face colored. "The devil you say!" He motioned to the peaceguardians. "Take them all into custody! Go on, do as I order!"

The cops were working themselves up to obey. Ash lowered his head at them like an angry bull. "I warn you one last time: this situation is concerned with an adjudicated homicide case. That takes precedence even over charges of sedition and collusion."

Stemp had been speaking into his Alpha-model accessor. "One more chance, Ash. Then I have the installations open fire!"

Ash looked around. The cops moved back, knowing what that would mean. Alacrity tried to decide why they hadn't just been told to shoot. Then he remembered Ash's behavior when Alacrity had first met him.

He was pretty sure the executioner was concealing something a lot more dangerous than underwear beneath that sinisterly dapper attire.

He might be safe from Terran handguns, but nothing man-portable's gonna hold up against heavy
weapons.
Still and all, Ash didn't look worried.

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"Stay near me," was all Ash said to the four. They lost no time closing up tightly behind him. Floyt somehow didn't find it odd to have Corva almost on top of him, hands on Floyt's shoulders. In fact, it was reassuring.

Stemp's face was purple-red. Chin and Bear were watching in profound fury, that of people who are afraid their emotions will shift to solid fear very soon. Stemp brought his accessor up.

He uttered a string of syllables and access code ciphers that made no sense whatsoever to Floyt, who'd been dealing with Terra's systems all his adult life. The Alpha ended with "Fire!"

Ash's voice cracked like a nervefire lash as he yelled directly at the audio pickups on the pylons,

"Cancel!" He added a string of the same arcane codewords.

The weapons began realigning, and Alacrity understood why Ash had picked that particular spot for the showdown. Stemp looked as if he'd been given a jotting. Chin started edging back for the chuteshafts and Bear seemed about to faint.

Stemp tried more commands, rattling them into his accessor, and, when that had no effect, screaming them at the pickups, thinking to imitate Ash's magic. All to no avail.

"The cops. He's gonna try the cops on us next," Alacrity muttered to Floyt in a low voice. His gun hand was hidden by Ash's body. He pulled the Captain's Sidearm, still hiding it.

The peaceguardians were irresolute. Ash was speaking cryptosounds to the empty air. The surveillance pickups were all operating, recording the scene, despite Stemp's command for a blackout. Stemp lowered his accessor, baring his teeth at Ash. "What are you doing?"

"The pickups are patched through to override," Ash explained evenly. "This incident is being transmitted everywhere."

Cynthia Chin found that the chuteshaft doors wouldn't open for her and began babbling into her own accessor. It did no good.

Stemp had already come to the same conclusion Alacrity had, and began exhorting the peacers to do their duty. They were still used to jumping when an Alpha gave the command. Floyt had a wild moment in which to picture people everywhere watching the face-off. The cops went for their weapons.

It was a hopeless crossfire but Alacrity just felt like he'd been through too much to go down without a fight. He held his gun up, moving Ash a little with his free hand, about to take a bead on Stemp.

Ash beat the arm down with surprising strength, showing a dark wrath. "You fool! Do you want to be the death of us all?" He plucked the pistol away easily and tossed it aside, far. The peaceguardians, file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...aley%20-%20Jinx%20on%20a%20Terran%20Inheritance.htm (305 of 320)19-2-2006 17:12:31

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momentarily daunted, brought their weapons up.

Ash shouted a sound. The weapons installations volleyed from all sides with impressive accuracy, an abrupt, brilliant crisscross of the kind of neuroparalyzer Alacrity had been shot with at the Earthservice conditioning clinic, so long ago.

The peacers were outlined in bright coronas, some convulsing for a moment, all toppling to he unmoving on the roof.

It became very quiet, except for a Terran breeze. Stemp began backing away, lost in a mental disarray, with no notion of what he was doing. Bear was still frozen in place. Chin stood by the chuteshaft doors, arms folded across her chest, resigned and waiting.

"How long have you had
that
one up your sleeve?" Alacrity asked in a small voice.

The executioner didn't look aside at him. "Some things one learns from one's predecessors; some things one learns in the course of investigations, or because someone wants to buy their way out of a dilemma, make a deal. Believe it, my office has its impediments, but it also has its resources."

"And some pretty good trump cards," Floyt reflected. The words brought the ever-thinking, ever-observant Ash back to matters at hand.

"Yes. Well. You have a lot to tell me, I hope, Hobart Floyt. I hope you all do." He picked up the satchel and weighed it in his hand.

"Umm," Alacrity said, nodding his head toward Stemp, Bear, and Chin.

"Oh, yes," Ash said as though he'd completely forgotten them. "You men give them a hand, if you'd be so kind? We don't want them hurting themselves."

CHAPTER 25—OFF KEY ON CAUSALITY'S HARP

"This one's it, I bet," Alacrity said, shading his eyes, watching the approaching aircar. "Looks new and shiny; it better be ours."

"Ours'll probably be disguised as a hazardous waste transporter," Floyt disagreed. "Half the population of Earth thinks we ought to be drawn and quartered for starting all this trouble."

"Drawn and quartered?"

"Capital punishment as practiced by people without access to airlocks."

"Oh." The car didn't seem to be headed toward them, though. Floyt wore the tuxedo he'd carried all the file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...aley%20-%20Jinx%20on%20a%20Terran%20Inheritance.htm (306 of 320)19-2-2006 17:12:31

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way to the stars and, somehow, back—white tie and black tails—along with his Inheritor's belt.

Alacrity's suit was the trusty ice-blue one, and he had on his venerable pathfinders.

"I've just called; your vehicle will be here shortly," Citizen Ash said, coming up behind them. Floyt hoped he hadn't heard the capital punishment crack but doubted it; Ash missed little. "Can I rely on you both to show up in time for the next deposition taping? Don't fail me; I'm having enough trouble holding things together as it is."

He gestured to dozens of second-level Earth rulers waiting to one side of the landing stage in a gaggle, hoping for a few moments of Ash's time. They were kept back by a squad of peaceguardians who reminded Floyt of Severeemish. With the evidence in hand and virtually all Earthservice media under his usurpation, and all Alphas now under close arrest, Citizen Ash was de facto head of Terra's government. The Solarian, Srillan, and Spican forces canceled one another out and stayed out of the crisis for the time being.

Earth was poised for change. The Alphas were falling over each other trying to make deals with Ash; his position was secure for the moment. To the relief of Floyt and Alacrity, among others, Ash, too, recognized the need for a new shape of things and showed no inclination to become dictator.

"We won't," Floyt promised. "And tell Corva and Sintilla, if you will, that we'll be back by the time their tapings are over."