The Lotus Eaters

'The best that can be procured,' said Arias, 'to include extensive samples which will be found on the grounds of Carrera's home and the new presidential palace.'

'And the Navy of Gaul will prevent reinforcement from the island,' said Janier, 'and from the south. One battalion will seal off the road from the interior and another force the road from Cristobal. If I am satisfied with the rest of your operational planning' He looked directly at Pigna. 'Show me your target list and operational matrix.'

With a grin, Pigna withdrew from his lightly soiled pack a very small portable computer drive.

* * *

'I am satisfied,' said Janier. In fact, though, he was more than satisfied, he was impressed. Whatever course Pigna had taken in overthrowing a government had obviously been world class. 'But there is one other thing I need you to do.' He looked directly at Arias as he said so.

'And that would be, General?'

'One of my subordinates, the Castilian, Munoz-Infantes, is intensely disloyal, to me, to this command, and to the Tauran Union. For political reasons I won't bore you with, I can't get rid of him. So I need him kidnapped and killed, and the blame pinned on Carrera's legions.'

'That will leave me shorthanded for the other two grabs we must make,' Arias objected.

'Nonetheless, it is a condition for my support. I will have one or two people from his unit to help.'

'It's pretty dirty, too,' said Pigna.

The Gaul shrugged, 'So?'

Quarters 39, Clementine Road, Fort Williams, Balboa Transitway Area

Chapayev had become something of a weekly dinner guest at Coronel Munoz- Infantes' residence. It was even perhaps fair to say that he and the Castilian colonel had become friends.

I wish, thought Chapayev, that as much could be said for his daughter, Maria. She's barely civil and I really don't understand that. I've heard of love at first sight, even—to my cost— experienced it. But hate at first sight? That seems unfair.

Is it because the coronel and I talk too much shop over dinner? I like to talk shop. So does he. Where would be the harm in that? And she grew up in the Castilian Army. Surely none of this is over her head.

'So you were too young for Pashtia, Victor?' Munoz observed. 'I'm surprised your Duque didn't bring you over during his campaign there.'

'Standing policy, sir,' Chapayev replied. Though he'd never found a really suitable 'horizontal dictionary,' his Spanish—especially his military Spanish—had gotten quite good through sheer dint of study and practicing with his boys. 'The only Volgans from our regiment who were allowed in with the legions were the ones who spoke the language, one of the languages, and had good contacts there. Otherwise . . . well . . . there were a lot of hard feelings still and no love lost between us. The less we saw of each other, generally speaking, the better.'

'And things with your cadets . . .' Munoz began to ask before Maria interrupted him.

'If you'll excuse me, father, I need to go lie down.'

Munoz gave his daughter a half-dirty look, waved one hand dismissively, and said, 'Go then.' He stared at her back until she had nearly disappeared around the corner. When the colonel took his eyes away he found that Victor was still staring.

The Volgan coughed with embarrassment. 'Sorry, sir, I . . .'

The Castilian effected not to have noticed Victor's stare. 'I apologize for Maria's rudeness. She is a daughter of the regiment, my young friend, but she is also a product of the Tauran Union's educational system. The fact that you are turning young boys into something analogous to soldiers is just beyond the pale to her.'

'Ohhh.'

'Oh.'

Munoz always took an interest in Victor's job, training the cadets, but was also always very careful to stay far away from his genuine suspicions, that Carrera was training not only future soldiers but current ones, young ones, fanatical ones who would not be counted in the force ratios calculated at Building 59. Even as he avoided that subject, he also took invariable care to drops hints of anything that might be of interest to the legions.

'I'm afraid I'll have to call it a night, Victor,' Munoz said. 'We've got some new people coming in and early tomorrow I've a meeting with my quartermaster as to where we're going to billet them. They'll take up at least half a barracks by themselves, but there aren't so many as to take up a whole one. It's really quite awkward; the men don't even speak Spanish.'

Runnistan, Pashtia, Terra Nova

'We are going to keep this a secret from his parents, right?' asked Cano of his wife, in Spanish to keep it private. She seemed extraordinarily happy. Cano assumed it was because she was doing something for her Avatar of God.

The dirt of the Bushkazi field where Cano had won his bride, Alena, had been carefully packed down and smoothed. Ringed by torches, crowded with people wearing anything from legionary battle dress to black native costume to Balboan guayaberas, an oval opening had been left in which danced a dozen of the tribe's most lovely maidens, to the accompaniment of primitive music from equally primitive musical instruments. In the center of one of the long sides of the oval, on a throne of sorts, flanked by more torches, sat Hamilcar Carrera, watching the show. Hamilcar was young, barely eleven years old. The trees from which the wood for the throne had come were older. Some of the fittings and jewels of the throne had come from Old Earth. They were thousands of years old.