The Mandate of Heaven (35 page)

“It was only two people; I think I could have encouraged them to keep quiet about it.”

“Two people in that room, and God only knows how many others listening in.  What about the surveillance people monitoring the room and any copies of the recording that might be floating around?”

“Listening in?” Jessica blinked.  “What sort of sick individual would be interested in recording what sort of sordid activities occur in a place like that?”

“You would be surprised at the varied tastes of some of their clientele.  I happen to know that Angela makes available the recordings, at a price.”

“Then I take it you never—”

“No,” Alex insisted firmly.  “Seeing as I know how you won’t let the matter drop.  That was where I grew up, at least until I was old enough that Granville took me under his wing.  He was a regular there, as he always had a bit of a soft spot for Angela.”

“That was where you grew up?” she repeated, appalled.

“I’m a bastard, where else do you think I grew up?  It was a better childhood than most who live in this sector.  At least I had somewhere to sleep and regular meals.”

“How old were you when you went to work for Lord Granville?”

“Nine.”

“Nine?  What on Osiris did you do for him at that age?”

“Oh the usual; pickpocketing, bag snatching, burglary.”

“You were a
thief
?  I’m beginning to see that you started young and have slowly been working your way up to grand larceny.  What with your most recent offences, including kidnapping and ransom.”

“Have you taken a good look around you?  There are no schools here, no jobs.  Only poverty, homelessness and destitution.  Those that have money, leave.  Those that don’t, eke out a meagre living until they are fortunate enough to die.”

“But not you.  You managed to survive.”

“Just,” Alex said bitterly.

She was rendered mute, unable to even imagine such a childhood.  At that age her world still revolved around dolls and the latest pretty dress from her father.  Anyway, Alex had made it perfectly clear that the last thing he wanted was her pity.

“I need to go out again tomorrow—” Alex began hesitantly.

“To renew more old acquaintances?” she interrupted scathingly.

“No.  Your father arrives the day after, I want to scout out possible locations for the exchange.  There’s a good reason I’m a survivor,” he added cynically.

“So you’re just going to abandon me, again?”

“Not likely.  I’ll talk to Granville in the morning, he can keep you company.  I doubt that you’ll be able to dismiss him as easily as you did your guard today.  Talking of which, where the devil did you send him?”

“On a small errand,” she said blithely.  Ignoring him, she purposefully turned away, so that he wouldn’t see her hurt from his casual dismissal.

“Jessica,” Alex called out after her.  “I never know what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone the day after, but one thing I’m certain of.  Don’t ever mention to Stanton what happened here today.  He and I are different, because from me you will never get more than a mild rebuke, but as for Stanton, he would kill you, if he ever found out where you’d gone today.  Please make sure that he never does.”

Jessica turned round, prepared to let fly a retort that at least her
real
husband-to-be would never enter such a house of ill repute, when she observed the bleak expression on his face.  Suitably chastised she simply nodded her head in understanding, turning to retrace her steps back to their temporary accommodation.

She lay awake all that night waiting to see if Alex would return.  He never did.

*****

Jessica was not surprised to find herself alone at breakfast the following morning.  She was intrigued, however, to find an envelope in the middle of her usual place setting.  It was resting in front of a large bowl, covered with a napkin.  She reached out and took the card, instantly recognising Alex’s scrawl.

Hope you slept well.  Sorry I can’t join you for breakfast, but left you something special.  I seem to remember you personally requesting it?

Laughing out loud, she whisked off the napkin, revealing a bowl full of strawberries and cream.  With a guilty expression, she plucked one from the bowl, covering it with cream before popping it into her mouth.  Her eyes went wide, as the taste exploded across her tongue.  The strawberry was juicy, as if just picked from the field.  The fresh cream, in all of its thick, silky glory, had a wonderful sweet texture.  When eaten together they bordered on the divine.  She wondered where Alex had acquired them from, but didn’t dwell on it, as suddenly feeling ravenous, she swiftly finished the lot.

She was still licking the bowl when the announcer sounded and hurriedly she put it aside.  After all it would hardly look lady-like if somebody entered, to catch her licking the bowl of cream like some new-born kitten.  She was only somewhat relieved to discover her guest was none other than her errand-boy from the day before, but this time come to escort her to Lord Granville.  She was amused to observe a further three guards fall into loose formation around her, as she stepped from the apartment.  It seemed that Lord Granville had sent reinforcements to ensure that she didn’t get lost on the way, she wondered if word of her earlier escapade had reached even his ears?

At least this time the guards remained outside his office.  After the last altercation she wouldn’t have been at all surprised to have been forcibly frisked and her fusion pistol confiscated, but perhaps Lord Granville was simply too polite to insist on such extreme measures?

“Lord Granville,” she curtsied politely, upon being ushered into his office.  Glancing around curiously, she noted that most of the damage from their last encounter had now been fixed.  In places, a few burn marks, were all that remained to indicate her earlier displeasure.

“Lady Jessica,” Granville responded cheerfully, coming out from behind his desk, to take her hand and usher her to one of his high-backed, leather bound chairs.

“Lord Granville,” she mused aloud.  “I must confess I don’t recognise the title.  Which branch of the great families do you spring from?”

“It’s more of an honorary title,” Granville confessed, flushing slightly.  “People refer to me as Granville, Lord of Thieves.  It’s a bit long winded, so most just abbreviate it to Lord Granville.”

“I see,” Jessica blinked in surprise.  “Alex mentioned that you were a pirate, but I didn’t realise that he was speaking literally.  What on Osiris did you steal to earn you that honorific?”

“This station, for one.”

“You stole an entire space station.  How may I ask?  It seems somewhat large to simply fit in your pocket and I assume people noticed it was missing?”

“I needed a base for my operations, or should I say for my business ventures.  When I first visited, it was bedlam here.  It was a complete free-for-all, with sector-vs-sector, everybody was up-in-arms, literally.  They needed somebody with a firm grip to take charge and set about imposing some sort of order.”

“I take it that you felt qualified to fulfil this role?” Jessica asked wryly.

“Nobody else seemed to be willing to step up to the challenge.”

“That’s when you met Lord Greystone?”

“Greystone?” Granville asked, looking confused.

“Alex.”

“Oh yes, little Alex.  I found him soon after, always hiding behind those whores’ skirts.  He was quick-witted, clever and smart.  Totally wasted there, so I put him to work.  Taught him everything that he knows.”

“How to pick pockets and snatch bags, you mean?” Jessica probed, with a dangerous lilt to her voice.

“Uh, yes,” Granville faltered.  “But also mathematics, reading and writing.”

“Helped you keep tally, did he?  You know, of all the things that you stole.”

“Only when I was able to drag him away from his books,” Granville groused.  “The boy spent every waking hour there, in my library.  Couldn’t have been good for him, filling his head with such nonsense.  But at least he had the occasional good idea, helped me better organise things around here for one.”

“Organise things?”

“Yes, tradespeople used to pay me a monthly stipend, you know, to provide protection for them.  Other businesses, groups or people considered beyond the law, often intimidated them, swindling, robbing, sabotaging or otherwise threatening decent, law-abiding people, who were just trying to make an honest living.”

“I bet you did all three.  I believe that the correct term is a
protection racket
.”

“That’s what Alex called it too.  Anyway, he helped me improve and streamline it.”

“Improve upon it?  What did he do, send out a survey soliciting customer feedback?” she asked sarcastically.

“No,” Granville shook his head. “He simplified it, by imposing a flat rate of tax on income or gross profit made.”

“A corporation tax?” she hazarded a guess.

“Yes, that’s what he called it.  Eventually most of the merchants signed up, those that refused, didn’t stay in business for much longer.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Jessica sighed, finally picking up on Alex’s earlier joke about the irony of calling this man respectable.  He was so far from it that even calling him a thief was a misnomer, as it imparted some sense of moral righteousness, which he obviously lacked.

“Probably the spate of fire bombings soon after,” Granville commented after a moment’s thought.  “In any case, since then, the level of violent crime has dwindled to almost nothing.”

“Congratulations.  It almost sounds legal.”

“Now, no need to be insulting,” Granville said with a hurt expression.  “Anyway, the tax is set at forty percent, which is still daylight robbery.”

“I find it somewhat paradoxical,” Jessica snorted, very unladylike.  “That Alex is caught stealing, once, and then forever banished from this station.  Meanwhile, here you are, blatantly boasting of your criminal exploits.  I would hazard a guess that Alex was becoming more than an able partner-in-crime, but a threat to your authority, or was it just your daughter’s virtue that was in peril?  At risk of choosing him, over you.”

At this accusation, Granville abruptly stood, turning his back on her.  Reaching out with his hands towards the fireplace—which, only at the very last minute, did he realise was no longer there, just a blackened scar against the wall, so instead he shoved his hands in his pockets, clearly ill at ease.

“You cannot possibly imagine,” Granville began earnestly, “what it was like.  To wake up one morning and find your life’s work, all you’ve ever accomplished, taken from you.  It was only little things at first, how when I gave instructions they would glance his way, as if in confirmation.  Soon after that they stopped asking me entirely, instead going to him.  But the final straw was my daughter, to one day catch her, staring at him like—”

“Like what?” Jessica prompted, leaning forward intently, unsure why his answer was so important to her.

“Like you do.”  Granville turned back to face her.  “With a look of such longing and adoration that you hang on his every word.  As if you’ve come to revere him, as some sort of divine paragon.”

“That’s not true,” Jessica refuted.  “If I look at him, it’s with nothing but affection and respect.  For he is decent, compassionate and honourable, unlike you, who is just a jealous, petty, thief.”

“You can lie to yourself as much as you like, but not to me.  I’ve met many liars, most far more accomplished than you.  You’re already more than half in love with him, and how long have you known him, days, weeks?  With my daughter I observed it day-by-day, every day.  I knew that if I didn’t do something to put a stop to it, she would be lost to me, forever.”

“So you set him up.”

“Yes, but I didn’t kill him.  Although a part of me knew that I should.  Even back then he was not the sort of man that you wanted as an enemy.  Instead I arranged for him to be caught by a delegation, who were here at the time visiting from High-Lord Stanton.  To ease my conscience, I gave him over to them to decide his fate.  It seems they gave Alex a choice; death or to enlist.  He chose the latter.”

“How honourable of you,” Jessica hissed between clenched teeth.  No wonder Alex didn’t trust anybody, why would he?  Everybody he’d ever trusted had betrayed him.  “And your daughter, what became of her?”

“I’d become aware that Alex had risen in social status, in many ways far higher than I ever could have.  He moved in circles that I could only dream of, so I reached out to him, asking him to find a suitable husband for her, titled and rich.”

“And he agreed?” Jessica asked incredulously.

“I offered him suitable recompense for his time and effort.”

“That was considerate of you.  I’m surprised that he agreed, knowing your true nature.”

“How blinkered are you?” Granville finally roused himself, having been lost in his thoughts.  “That you put him on such a pedestal of noble birth, decency and honesty, yet you know nothing about him, beyond the little titbits of information he’s prepared to divulge.  So let me enlighten you to his true nature.  Alex is a lying, thieving, murdering bastard.  He was born a bastard, will die a bastard and there is a special place in hell that is reserved for people just like him.  Unlike me, who fully admits to my faults and am honest about them, Alex is manipulative, always hiding his true nature.  He is like a serpent in the grass, hiding, until he is ready to strike and by then it’s far too late.”