Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (40 page)

“I take it that he’s gotten this
far without any help from Santiago.”

“That is correct.”

“And that Santiago doesn’t want to
be found by the Angel?” continued Cain.

“I doubt that he’s given it any
thought whatsoever,” replied Silent Annie. “Protecting him is Father William’s
idea, not his.”

“Why would Father William help a
man with a price on his head?” asked Cain.

“That’s what I hope to show you
before you meet Santiago,” said Silent Annie, finishing her tea and pouring
herself another cup.

“Where does Moonripple fit into
all this?”

“She’s just a very pleasant little
barmaid, nothing more.”

“But she knew Santiago was on Safe
Harbor,” he pointed out.

“So did everyone else you spoke to
this morning.”

“And no one’s tried to turn him in
for the reward?”

“Actually, five or six people
have,” said Silent Annie. “You’ll find them buried in various cemeteries around
the planet.”

“Let’s get back to Moonripple for
a minute,” said Cain, trying to assimilate everything Silent Annie had told
him. “She’s been hitting a world a month for most of her life. Why did she come
here?”

“Just chance, nothing more.”

“And why has she stayed?”

“For the same reason I have,” said
Silent Annie.

“All right,” said Cain. “Why have
you
stayed?”

“Because Santiago is a great man.”

“Santiago is a thief and a
murderer.”

“It’s all a matter of viewpoint,”
she said.

“Viewpoint’s got nothing to do
with it,” replied Cain. “The man has been killing and plundering since before
you were born. The Democracy’s managed to implicate him in almost forty
murders, and there have probably been more than a hundred they don’t know
anything about. And I have it on good authority that he’s got warehouses filled
with stolen merchandise all over the Inner Frontier.”

“May I assume that your authority
is the Jolly Swagman?”

“He wouldn’t be risking his life
if he didn’t know they existed,” answered Cain.

“I’m not arguing their existence,”
said Silent Annie. “Merely your interpretation of them.” She paused. “And
incidentally, I don’t see the Swagman risking his life at this moment.”

“Is
he
a part of this, too?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied. “He
was once, but Santiago dismissed him.”

“A falling-out between thieves?”
suggested Cain.

“There was only one thief
involved,” she replied sternly. “And he no longer works for us. I argued in
favor of killing him, but Santiago chose to let him live.”

Cain leaned back and sighed. “All
right,” he said at last. “I’ve heard a lot of talk from you and Moonripple
about how Santiago is a great man. Suppose you tell me why you think so.”

“Fair enough,” said Silent Annie.
“You tell me that Santiago is responsible for the deaths of a hundred and forty
men. Let me begin by telling you that the actual figure is closer to eight
hundred.”

“That makes him a great man?” said
Cain ironically.

“How many men have
you
killed, Mr. Cain?”

“That’s not at issue here,” said
Cain.

“Tell me anyway.”

“Thirty-seven.”

“You’re lying, Mr. Cain,” she said
with a smile.

“The hell I am.”

“I happen to know that you killed
more than five thousand men and women on Sylaria alone.”

“That was war,” he said.

“No, Mr. Cain. That was
revolution.”

“Are you trying to tell me that
Santiago is a revolutionary?” he asked skeptically.

“Yes, I am.”

“A woman named Sargasso Rose
suggested the same thing,” he said. “I didn’t believe her, either. Who is he
supposed to be revolting against?”

“The Democracy.”

Cain laughed out loud. “Are you
seriously suggesting that he expects to overthrow the Democracy?”

“No, Mr. Cain. The Democracy
controls tens of thousands of worlds, and hold some ninety-eight percent of the
human population in the galaxy. There are more than thirty million ships in its
navy, and it has inexhaustible wealth and resources to draw upon. It would be
foolish to dream of overthrowing it.”

“Well, then?”

“He seeks only to neutralize it on
the Frontier, to eradicate its more heinous abuses.”

“By stockpiling artwork and
murdering small-time smugglers like Duncan Black?”

“Duncan Black was a traitor,” she
said coldly. “He was executed, not murdered.”

“The end result was pretty much
the same,” commented Cain.

“Have you never executed anyone
for deserting what you thought to be a just cause, Mr. Cain?” she demanded.

He was silent for a moment.

“Yes, I have,” he admitted at
last. “Keep talking.”

“
You
talk about stockpiling artwork, but it’s the Swagman that I hear speaking,”
continued Silent Annie. “In point of fact, he and Santiago had their
falling-out because Santiago refused to keep certain pieces that the Swagman
wanted, but sold them through the black market, where the Swagman would have
had to pay competitive prices for them.”

“To pay the troops?” suggested
Cain.

“Were you paid on Sylaria or the
other worlds where you fought?” she asked.

“No.”

“Neither are we,” she said. “The
troops, as you call them, work for free, Mr. Cain.”

“Then what does he need all that
money for?”

“You shall see.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

“Why not now?” he insisted.

“Because you caused a bit of a
commotion back in the village when you killed One-Time Charlie,” said Silent
Annie.

“Moonripple didn’t mention
anything about my killing him.”

She smiled. “I’m not totally
isolated here, Mr. Cain. Father William contacted me and told me what had
transpired before you had covered half the distance to my house.” She paused.
“At any rate, while you were totally justified in your actions, it was
impossible to keep your identity a secret.”

“I never tried to,” he
interjected.

“Let me amend that,” she said. “It
was impossible to keep your
occupation
a secret.
That was unfortunate.”

“Why?”

“Because a number of the
townspeople are willing to lay down their lives to protect Santiago. When
Father William is certain that none of them are coming here to try to stop you,
he’ll contact me again, and then we can leave.”

“If one of them shows up, I intend
to defend myself,” said Cain.

“That won’t be necessary,” she
said. “If need be, Father William will warn them off.”

“Why?”

“Because Santiago wants you
intact, and Father William will honor his wishes.”

“Even if it costs Santiago a
couple of followers?”

“It almost certainly won’t—but
yes, even so.”

“You’re not exactly making him
sound like a saint,” remarked Cain.

“He’s not. He’s a man who has been
forced to make more life-and-death decisions than any one human being should
ever have to make.”

“That was his choice.”

“That was his calling,” she
corrected him.

“What makes
me
so important to him?” demanded Cain.

“I should think that would be
obvious to you,” said Silent Annie.

Cain stared at her for a very long
moment. Finally he spoke.

“Why should I want to join him?”

“Because you yourself were once a
revolutionary.”

“The galaxy is lousy with men who
were once revolutionaries,” he said.

“Most of them have adjusted. You
haven’t.”

“I’ve adjusted better than most,”
Cain replied with a touch of irony. “I took what I learned and put it to a new
use. I used to kill men for free.” He smiled mirthlessly. “Now I do it for a
living.”

“He’s not interested in you
because of the men you’ve killed.”

“Then why
is
he interested in me?”

“Because of the men you
haven’t
killed,” said Silent Annie.

He frowned. “I don’t think I
understand you.”

“You let Quentin Cicero live.”

“He had a hostage.”

“You’ve given out other pardons,
too,” she continued. “You spent ten weeks hunting down Carmella Sparks, and let
her walk away.”

“She had three kids with her,”
said Cain uncomfortably. “One of them was still nursing. They would all have
died.”

“That wouldn’t have stopped
Peacemaker MacDougal or the Angel,” she said.

“Then maybe Santiago ought to be
talking to them instead of me.”

“He has no interest in men who
have forfeited every last vestige of their humanity. It is
because
you are still capable of acts of compassion that he wants you.”

“Yeah,” said Cain. “Well, I don’t
know if I want
him
.”

“You will,” she said confidently.
“He is the greatest man I know.”

“How did you meet him?”

“I grew up on Raxar Two,” she
said. “It had a large alien population, and we had a military government in
order to keep them properly pacified.” The muscles in her jaw twitched
slightly. “When I was eleven years old, I was beaten and raped by three
soldiers. The Democracy was having trouble getting more military funding, and
they didn’t want any incidents that might embarrass them and cost them their
money, so they covered it up. The three men were transferred to another world,
and were never punished. I spent two years in the hospital.”

“Is that where you got the scar?”
asked Cain.

“That’s just the one you can see,”
said Silent Annie bitterly. “Anyway, Santiago heard about what had happened,
and—”

“How?” interrupted Cain.

“He’s been out here a long time,”
she replied. “He has sources everywhere. Once he learned what they had done to
me, he had the three men killed.” She forced a grim smile to her face. “I
believe the late Altair of Altair was my particular angel of vengeance.”

“And then you joined him?”

“Wouldn’t you have?” she replied.

“I’d have killed them myself.”

“Not all of us are killers, Mr.
Cain,” she replied. “It requires a certain primal instinct that not everyone
possesses.”

“Does Santiago?”

“I don’t know for a fact that he
has ever personally killed another human being.”

“Given the number of deaths that
he’s decreed, that might be construed as cowardice in certain circles,”
remarked Cain.

“I won’t dignify that remark with
an answer,” Silent Annie said coldly.

“How did you find him?” asked
Cain, declining to apologize for his comment.

“He makes it very easy, when he
wants to be found.”

“I think I’d be willing to debate
that,” he said wryly.

“Do you honestly think you could
have found him if he hadn’t wanted you to?” she asked.

“Based on what you’ve told me,
no,” he admitted.

“He makes the way more difficult
for some than for others,” she continued.

“I’ll testify to that, at least,”
said Cain.

“For Moonripple, it was perhaps
easiest of all.”

“I thought you said she landed
here by chance.”

“It was pure chance that she
landed on Safe Harbor when she did,” explained Silent Annie. “But sooner or
later she was bound to arrive.”

“Why?”

“Her parents worked for Santiago.
The Democracy captured and killed them when she was only four years old.” She
paused. “He couldn’t reach out for her then, because there was too great a
chance that she was being watched. So he became her guardian angel. Wherever
she went, whatever world she worked on, there was always someone watching over
her, protecting her. Finally, when we were sure that the Democracy had given up
on her, it was subtly suggested that her wanderings should take her in the
direction of Safe Harbor. When she finally arrived, we waited to make
absolutely sure she hadn’t been followed, and then she was told the truth.”

“By you?”

Silent Annie shook her head. “She
doesn’t know I can speak.”

“By Santiago himself?” asked Cain.

“She’s never met him.” Silent
Annie paused. “She’s a very sweet girl, but our battle isn’t hers. She’s
already suffered enough casualties. The less she knows, the better.”

“Then why did Santiago endanger
himself by letting her know anything at all?”

“He wanted her to stay on Safe
Harbor, where he could better protect her should the need ever arise.”

“And if she wants to leave?” asked
Cain.

“She’s free to go.”

“Even knowing that this is
Santiago’s world?”

“Even so.”

Cain lowered his hand, lost in
thought. Finally he looked up at Silent Annie.

“I’d like to meet him,” he said.

“You shall.”

“I’m also aware that this could be
a trap.”

“Why would we use such an
elaborate one?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But
if you’ve been lying to me, he’s a dead man.”

“I’m not lying.” She walked over
to a communicator. “Father William should have given us the all-clear signal
before this. I’d better check in at the tavern and see what the problem is.”

“Maybe you’d better let me,”
volunteered Cain. “Moonripple might answer, and you’re supposed to be a mute.”

Silent Annie smiled. “If she
answers, I’ll just ask for Father William. Since she’s never heard my voice,
she’s hardly likely to identify it.”

“I stand corrected,” said Cain.

Silent Annie spent a moment
speaking in low tones, then broke the connection and turned to Cain.

“It’s all right,” she announced.
“We can leave now.”

“What was the holdup?”

“He got to drinking beer and
consuming food, and totally forgot about us,” she said with a semitolerant
smile.

“It sounds like him,” agreed Cain.
Suddenly he frowned. “We’ll have to put this off for an hour or so.”