The Forever Hero (55 page)

The shadowed man studied the arrangement.

The single guard sat in a shielded riot box set in the wall, swivel set high enough that he could survey the sloping lawn in front of the wall without his eyes being more than a slight angle from the screen that switched from snoop to snoop.

The chair itself was an indicator. Gerswin had watched as the present guard had replaced his predecessor, watched as the seat had lifted slightly when the guard's weight was removed.

From the shadows he dropped his glasses.

While he would rather have handled it personally, on a face-to-face basis, that was certainly what Carlina was expecting. She had obviously studied his past interactions and was counting on his reputed sense of fair play and direct action with principals.

He shook his head and slipped soundlessly back along the relatively unmonitored pathway he had tracked through the surrounding grounds, back to the flitter.

He took a deep breath as his quick and light steps cleared the unmarked boundary of the estate and as he entered the undeveloped tract where his flitter waited in the small clearing.

After a short flight to a more distant location, he changed craft, from a small black one to a larger black one. Once inside his ship,
and seated before the control console, Gerswin touched the communications studs. The picture remained a swirl of color.

He recognized the swirl as a scramble from the receiver, a protective pattern that blocked even his own command access codes. His lips quirked as he waited to see how soon and if the pattern would clear.

Fully two minutes passed before the abstract color patterns resolved themselves into the picture of a silver-haired woman, with a straight, firm nose and violet eyes. Gerswin knew both eye color and nose had been purchased from a high-priced cosmetic surgeon.

Before she had risen to become Administrator of CE, Limited, on El Lido, Carlina D'Aquino had displayed muddy brown hair and eyes, and a much larger and wider nose.

“Shaik Corso! I had not expected you. I thought someone was testing our security system.” Her smile showed the warmth that only years of accomplished insincerity could project.

“I regret the inconvenience, Carlina, but your recent reports have displayed a rather depressing lack of profitability, and I thought I might be of some service in assisting a rather rapid recovery.” Gerswin doubted that his smile was nearly as warm as Carlina's.

“Oh, dear Shaik, you shouldn't have bothered. I'm afraid there's little you can do to change that. You know, our overhead has increased so much. You remember all those fancy hidden entrances and gas systems that Delwar had installed—I assume it was Delwar—that led to his replacement? Well, I thought they were really too much of an invitation, and I thought about replacing them. But then I found a few others that even Delwar hadn't known about, and decided I would never know whether I had ever found them all. So I moved the headquarters, and I turned the old buildings into the administrative center for our latest ventures, and they're guarded by DomSec.”

“That showed a great deal of initiative, Carlina, especially since you were relying on my good faith.”

“Now that you're back, Shaik, you could call a meeting, but, you recall, under El Lido law the meeting would have to be held in headquarters unless you could get a two-thirds vote, and to do that you and I would have to agree.”

“That is true, and I might consider that.” Gerswin smiled. “How is Ferinay?”

“Poor Ferinay. He suffered a second and rather unfortunate stroke last month, and the doctors say he will never be quite the same again.”

“You have your own successor?”

“I don't plan on leaving in the near future, particularly since we have just landed the armor contracts for the Ministry of Domestic Security. They helped me with the design of our new headquarters. Did you know that?”

“I can't say I'm particularly surprised. How did you get around the rule prohibiting contracts with police and armed forces?”

“What provision was that?”

“I think I understand,” Gerswin responded. “And, of course, they believe that the Shaik Corso who founded CE, Limited, might be a fiction, or should remain a silent partner.”

“You do indeed understand. Perhaps a slight improvement in the reported profits might encourage that?”

“Might that have something to do with the fact that you are having difficulty tracing the origin of my call?”

“Dear Shaik, you are so suspicious.”

“Is there anyone else with you, Carlina?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I was hoping for a witness.”

“To what?”

“Just a witness, but it would probably be immaterial. Good day, Carlina. Remember that an honest thief stays bought.”

“Is that a threat, Shaik?”

“No. I make no threats. Good day.”

Gerswin broke the connection, then tapped out another combination and waited as the relay finished the circuit.

“Rodire and Fergamo.” The dark-haired receptionist was plain, but real, and a welcome sight after Carlina.

Gerswin smiled at her image. “Shaik Corso for Hamline Rodire.”

“Will he know you?”

“Hope so. I'm his landlord, so to speak.”

“You're
that
Shaik Corso? I'm so sorry, but I expected…”

Gerswin laughed, a single bark. “I know, you expected a dark and mysterious stranger who mangled words and sentences.”

“No…no…,” she protested, apparently unsure whether he was joking or serious.

He smiled. “Don't worry.”

“I'll get him.”

Hamline Rodire, Senior Partner, appeared on the screen. In spite of his mental picture of Rodire's aging since he had helped the then-younger attorney found an independent practice, he found it hard not to stare at the eagle-beaked and silver-haired advocate.

“Hamline…it's been longer than I thought.”

“With you, Shaik, I suspect it always is.” The older-looking man grinned, and Gerswin was reassured by the twinkle in the green eyes and the warmth in the voice. “You never age.”

“Are things going well for you?”

“Personally, quite well, although we only get the required minimum from CE, Limited, since Carlina consolidated her hold there. Most of that is boilerplate.”

“Yes.”

“Are you calling about Carlina?”

“Maybe time for—let's say I need to transfer some of my holdings—time to place some more local controls. A few strings, however.”

“Such as?”

“You'll have to vote my proxies when you call the shareholders' meeting.”

“The annual meeting was just two months ago.”

“There will be another shortly.”

“Carlina has made both her estate and headquarters into personal fortresses.”

“I understand, but you need not worry. After I complete my business, I do not intend to return to El Lido, not for some time, and I need to leave control in local hands I can trust. I trust your honesty, and you will see why.”

“You make things sound so mysterious.”

“Nothing mysterious at all. Since Carlina insists that might makes right, I merely intend to point out to her why that can be a dangerous philosophy.” Gerswin shook his head abruptly. “You still have that estate of yours?”

“Why…yes…”

“Still like it as much as when you first purchased it?”

“Probably more,” laughed the advocate. “You aren't…that is…I didn't exactly purchase it, you know.”

This time, Gerswin shook his head evenly and slowly. “Hamline, has Carlina managed to instill distrust all over this planet?”

“No…not exactly…”

“Excessive caution, I can see. Is she as well connected to the Ministry of Domestic Security as she implies?”

“Unfortunately…yes.”

Gerswin wondered if he ought to write off El Lido completely, since CE, Limited, had been designed as a profit venture and since he did not need anything beyond the proof that the plants did work in
wide scale production. But Hamline and a few others deserved a chance, if they would take it. He wondered if they understood the price, really.

“Remember the wonderful time you had with the windboards? And the place where you met a stranger who decided El Lido needed an independent advocate?”

“Yes.”

“Have lunch there tomorrow. Bring some transfer orders for CE, Limited, common and preferred stock.”

“What—”

Gerswin broke the connection. While his end could not be traced, he wasn't about to underestimate Carlina, or Domestic Security. Even so, they would have had a hard time, since he had tapped into the system from a reflector satellite he had deployed before leaving orbit. He doubted that the local technology existed to tap his beam without some knowledge of the
Caroljoy
's location.

He stood up and stretched. Then he sighed before heading toward the sealed and shielded locker. Dirty work required dirty weapons.

The man who had been a commodore bit his lip, but did not hesitate. Simple graft was bad enough, but to sell out to a central government with enough control to publicly name the secret police the Ministry of Domestic Security was beyond redemption.

Removing the two canisters from their long resting place in the hold took a few minutes. Setting up the gear he needed and checking them through the equipment in the hold took nearly an hour. Gerswin left both objects clamped in place and climbed out of the cramped three-by-three-meter space that was uninhabitable except when the scout was planetside.

He settled back in front of the console.

“Interrogative screen tap status.”

“Negative. No energies detected.”

“Interrogative satellite scan.”

“Negative. No energies detected.”

“Code Jam Trap Two. Code Jam Trap Two.”

His fingers touched the studs of the keyboard. Although the communications trap program was displayed, the trap code kept the AI from understanding the contents of the program.

“Interrogative open channel access. How many different commnet systems can you access simultaneously?”

“Private systems or public nets?”

“Some of each. Try an eight private to two public ratio.”

“Under operating parameters, ten per standard second for a maximum of three minutes.”

“Stet.”

Gerswin set up the modifications he needed, then accessed the official and unofficial maps of Lidora. As he expected, the headquarters of the Ministry of Domestic Security was clearly marked.

He smiled to himself as he ran the two locator programs for the two canisters that waited below to be fitted on the launchers of the armed flitter that waited outside in the other side of the hangar-bunker that temporarily housed the
Caroljoy
.

That done, he pocketed the course discs and returned to the sweltering space beneath what had once been the crew room to remove the two long canisters and to reseal the lockers and the equipment.

After closing the hatch plate, he left the
Caroljoy
and stepped into the cool air of the bunker, air that retained a trace of the mustiness of a space seldom used. The lands adjoining Rodire's estate were left unmanaged, and Rodire was responsible for insuring that the tax payments were made, that the land was posted, and that would-be settlers and squatters were quietly evicted on a periodic basis.

Wherever possible, Gerswin liked to set up such remote retreats. Usually after five or ten years even the people who had constructed them had forgotten where they were. After less than a year, most people had forgotten their existence, particularly since Gerswin used them so little and tried to arrive at night and as quietly as possible.

Two flitters waited on the far side. Gerswin directed his steps toward the armed and shielded one, not that there was any obvious external difference between the two. But with Carlina's allies, he would forsake some speed for arms and shielding.

He rolled one canister under the port stub, nearly under the intake cover, and returned for the second, which he edged under the starboard stub. Then he retrieved the tools from the adjoining bay.

His skills were rusty, and all in all it took him nearly three hours to convert the two missiles and to mount them to his satisfaction.

He completed the job, returned the tools, resealing them in their protected containers, and returned the empty canisters to the
Caroljoy
. After that, he climbed into the ship to stretch out and, he hoped, to sleep until morning.

Sleep there was, and dreams as well, dreams of dark ships dealing death, and of corvettes with orange screens failing, and of iceboats
disintegrating, and of landspouts hurling flitters into purpled-clay plains.

He shook himself awake once, trying to escape from the tumbled images of the past, but when he slipped back into slumber and restlessness, the images reappeared.

Caroljoy, young in the darkness, aging into a white-haired and fragile duchess as he watched, useless words caught in his throat. Kiedra, reaching for him and throwing herself into Lerwin's arms, then aging into sadness with her daughter's death. Young Corwin, their son, turning gray and disappearing into a cloud of ashes. And the other devilkids, Lostwin, Glynnis, each walking down a long dark tunnel away from him, marching proudly toward certain death as he urged them on.

A man in black smiling as he watched a hellfire flash across an airless moon to flatten a pleasure dome, smiling a smile of contentment, his lips quirking like a dark devil's.

“NO!!!!!!”

He sat up with the sound of his own scream in his ears.

Both his thin undersuit and the sheets on his bunk were soaked.

Slowly the one-time commodore eased himself off the dampness where he had suffered, and, without a word, stripped off his own damp sleeping clothes, then ripped the sheets from the bunk. He wadded all of the damp articles together in short and savage motions, then took them across the small cabin to the clothes fresher where he unceremoniously stuffed them inside.