'Do you mean nuclear weapons?' Severin inquired.
'I suggest doing what Kissur would do in our situation. He would not think for a moment about negotiating with an enemy. He would not think about it even if there were three thousand hostages! We should not do what Kissur expects us to.'
One general elbowed another quietly and asked him about the relationship between Bemish and the spaceport. Having found out that Bemish was certainly the owner of the property to be destroyed, he gazed at the businessman with satisfaction.
'I have a firm opinion,' Bemish continued, 'that we should not hold any negotiations with Shavash. This man doesn't even know what ethics is, whether is has wings or a tail. He treats people in the following way, 'If one parrot keels over, we'll buy another one.' He will cheat you because he will lie to you about the things that you take for granted. You wouldn't even consider checking them out as you wouldn't consider testing the gravitational constant.'
'Unfortunately,' a counter-intelligence officer spoke, 'there are six large paratrooper divisions currently in Weian orbit. They had all been called in just before the commandos switched over to Kissur. There are about ten thousand commandos there and eighty five hundred of them are Aloms. These ships rotate around Weia and we don't really know whose side they are on. As long as the Federation agrees to negotiate with Kissur, they are certainly the Federal troops. If the soldiers learn, however, that an order came out to use nuclear weapons against Kissur…'
'What will happen then?'
'We have certain reasons to believe,' the officer spoke surrounded by dead silence, 'that in this case our own commandos may commit a series of terrorist attacks similar to Kissur's. They may do it on Earth, on Vain, on Tennox — on the largest Federation planets.'
'So, we just don't have an alternative — we have to negotiate with Mr. Shavash,' Bemish summarized.
'Yes. We have to do it at the highest level, as they demanded.'
Truly, the delegation came out to be very impressive. It was led by the state secretary Khaime Khodsky, the third person in the Federation after the president. It also included the foreign affairs minister Camilla Leyson, the defense minister, two four star generals (one of them commanded the Fourth Space Army) and five senators.
They spent a while arguing about where to conduct the talks. Shavash told them to fly to Assalah — just land on the field and we'll meet you there. However, Bemish didn't like that idea. The belligerent financier somehow happened to become one of the key figures during the talks and he was especially appreciated by the army people who had insisted on immediate cancellation of the negotiations. Bemish claimed that as the Assalah spaceport director he couldn't guarantee the safety of the landing on purely technical grounds. It was not a joke — there were almost no qualified air traffic controllers left and the few that were still around had been crapping in their pants with fright for three days in a row.
Shavash declared that he would not go to the capital.
'Are you afraid that you will be arrested?'
Shavash briskly objected that he was afraid of nothing but he didn't trust a lot of people, first of all, Mr. Bemish who had learned some things on Weia.
'Who have I learned it from?' Bemish exploded right in the face that was smiling at him from the screen, 'Hasn't it been you and Kissur?'
'State secretary, could you please, get this mutt out of here?' Shavash demanded. 'He is not even a Federation official!'
Bemish silently turned away and left the hall without waiting to be shown to the door.
Behind the wall, in the foyer, General Ackles, the Fourth Space Army's commander, sat surrounded by all the military HQ small fries and silently studied the carved ceiling.
The ceiling was decorated with hanging grape bunches.
'That's a fancy room,' the general said. 'What does the writing above the door say?'
'It's the name of the room,' Bemish answered. 'It's the Hall of Seven Grape Bunches. It's quite a historic place. Here Emperor Attakh ordered the head to be hacked off to his most faithful military commander.'
'Why?' the general inquired.
'The people claim that it happened because of an imps' wedding. These local demons needed a place for a wedding and they bribed a palace official. The demons had fun in the hall all night and no correct decisions can be made here since. That's why the commander was executed.'
The general gave a long turbid look to the company director and then asked him,
'Have they arranged the meeting?'
'No. Shavash is afraid of coming to the capital.'
'Do you understand what he wants?'
'Hell knows what he wants,' Bemish said exasperatedly. 'He can't really want any territorial concessions, can he, general? And if he wants the Earthmen to get off Weia, he doesn't even have to ask us about it. I think that after what's happened, we will run away from this planet faster than a mouse runs away from a fox.'
'If they can't agree on where to hold the negotiations, it will all fall through,' the general noted.
Here, somebody carefully touched Bemish on the shoulder. The latter turned around — the minister of the police, Mr. Akhotoi stood behind him.
'They would like to talk to you,' Akhotoi said, 'Could you, please, follow me?'
Akhotoi walked Bemish down hotel corridors, where frightened brass gods squinted their eyes from the daylight lamps, and down garden paths covered with yellow sand. Akhotoi walked Bemish to a small pavilion with a roof that resembled swallow's wings and opened the doors in front of him.
A slim man with a white, almost transparent face and flying eyebrows sat inside the pavilion. Even though the man wore European dress, Bemish recognized the Emperor almost immediately and he was jolted a bit. It was quite surprising that during the last three days of the crisis when everybody — Kissur, zealots, governmental officials and even Earthmen — had the Emperor's name on their tongue tips the entire time, nobody, as far as Bemish remembered, heard anything from the Emperor himself. And nobody discussed anything with him. Or was that really the case? Did Kissur call the Emperor?
Another man stood next to the Emperor — an Empire's ex-first minister Nan also known as David Steighton.
'Bow immediately,' the police minister hissed from behind.
Bemish hurriedly created something between a bow and a one knee stand and as he was rising, he saw a sarcastic smile on Nan's face.
'Good day, Mr. Bemish,' Emperor Varnazd's voice was quiet as usual and it somewhat resembled a child's cry. 'I am glad to see you hale. Tell me, what,' here the Emperor stumbled 'does my vice minister of finance, Shavash, want from the Federation?'
'Is he still a vice minister? Hasn't he been declared a criminal?'
The Emperor looked sulky. That's right. Shavash had so many friends now that even the Emperor would not even dare to withdraw his appointment. Damn it, the man was blackmailing the whole Galaxy and his state was too timid even to kick him in the butt! That was no good. It looked like an authorized Empire official would be making demands of the Earthmen.
'It would be very hard for me to declare Kissur a criminal,' the Emperor whispered. 'What do they want?'
'I don't know. They will announce it only when they meet the delegation.'
'Nan is saying the same,' the Emperor spoke, turning his face towards the figure standing soundlessly next to a carved column. 'But he landed in Assalah.'
That was news for Bemish. He knew that the ex-first minister was flying to Weia but to land in the spaceport taken over by the terrorists…
'When will the talks start?'
'It's unknown. Our delegation is not going to go to Assalah and Shavash is scared to death of going to the capital of the county where he is an authorized official.'
