Crown of Slaves

He pondered the thought for a few moments, then shook his head. 'Well, I wouldn't say there's any general catch-all secret. But in this instance, I happen to think there is a clear solution to Erewhon's problem. And one which would also suit the Republic of Haven, and-I think, anyway-the man you're working for.' Smiling, he wiggled his fingers. 'I will leave it unsaid, who that man might be. The captain or the governor, or both, I really don't care.' The smile faded away. 'And would also have the advantage of hammering Mesa and Manpower, who are truly the scum of the universe. And-this matters to me, even if it doesn't to anyone else-would start to correct a real injustice.'

Thandi's eyes widened. 'Ambitious, aren't you? Okay, Victor. Tell me what it is.'

* * *

After Victor told her, Thandi's eyes were even wider. 'You are clinically insane. Why in the world would Captain Rozsak-you didn't hear me say that name-go along with this?'

He told her. Now, Thandi's eyes were narrow.

'I'll give you this, Victor Cachat. You're gutsy as well as sharp. What makes you think you can say something like that and not get assassinated? Nothing personal, mind.'

'By you?' He shrugged. 'You'd never get out of this restaurant alive-well, not more than ten meters from it-and why would you do it anyway? You're certainly not personally offended. Neither will Rozsak be, when you tell him. I'm not accusing him of being anything but shrewd and ambitious, after all. That's hardly an insult, in Solarian circles.'

Thandi's eyes quickly ranged around the room, looking for the implied threat and not finding it. 'Being very shrewd and very ambitious is an insult, Victor,' she muttered. Never get out alive-not more than ten meters-what did he mean by that? There was no one she could detect in the restaurant who posed any real threat to her. 'Well, okay. Not an insult, exactly. Just dangerous.'

She dismissed the waiter immediately. She'd already gauged and dismissed the restaurant owner when she came in. One of the patrons, maybe? But she couldn't see any of them who'd-

'Relax, Thandi. It's nobody in the restaurant.'

She'd already reached that conclusion. 'Who's outside, then? Havenites? Can't be. We examined the Republic's assets here on Erewhon early on. They aren't much, even leaving aside the fact that your ambassador and FIS chief-of-station are incompetent. The best you could come up with on such short notice would be local goons. And-no offense, Victor, but I'm not bragging, either-I'd go through them like I went through the rolls and soup.'

He shook his head. 'Use your brains, Thandi. I already told you I always do my research ahead of time. Do you really think I'd be advancing this proposal if I hadn't gotten the agreement of the key players involved? I have and they did. In fact, early signs are that they are wildly enthusiastic about it. Enthusiastic enough, anyway, to provide me with an armed guard. And I can guarantee you that you wouldn't go through them easily, if at all.'

Thandi sucked in a long breath. 'Oh, Jesus. Victor, you are out of your mind to fool around with those people.'

'I am not 'fooling around' with them, for starters. And I already know them anyway, from…' He waved his hand vaguely. 'Back when. And spare me the lectures, given the people you and Rozsak are willing to work with. You look stupid, frankly, perched way up there on your moral high horse.'

She nodded, acknowledging the hit. 'Still…'

'Just raise it with Rozsak, will you? I think you might be surprised how he'll react.'

* * *

Thandi did, and she was surprised.

'We'll certainly pursue it,' Rozsak said instantly, as soon as she'd finished. He cocked an eye at Watanapongse. 'Jiri?'

'I agree. If it worked, in fact, it'd be ideal. Mind you, I think it's probably too tricky to pull off, but…'

They were meeting in the lieutenant commander's hotel room. Watanapongse looked at the computer in the corner desk. 'Then again, maybe not. I've been doing some research myself, for the past couple of days. Victor Cachat is… an interesting fellow. His record is completely murky, except for these odd little flashes of lightning here and there. The Manpower Incident on Terra, early in his career. Then, whatever he did in La Martine to keep that sector from rebelling against the new Pritchart regime. A couple of other episodes it's hard to make any sense out of, except that he was centrally involved.'

Watanapongse swung back to face Rozsak and Palane. 'Add it all up? The only reason for a record that murky is because Haven's been making strenuous efforts to keepCachat out of the limelight. And why would they bother, if he was just a run-of-the-mill agent?'

'He's not even an 'agent' at all, Sir,' Thandi half-protested. 'Nowadays he's supposed to be a cop.'

Captain and lieutenant commander, simultaneously, bestowed a certain look upon the most junior lieutenant on Rozsak's staff.

'Okay, you don't have to rub it in,' she grumbled. 'Sir and Sir. I was born yesterday, almost.'

Rozsak chuckled. 'We'll keep pursuing Cachat's option, for the moment. So stay in touch with him, Thandi.'

PART III:THE WAGES OF SIN

Chapter 19

'They're moving, kaja. All of them, it looks like.'

The soft voice in her earbug caused Thandi to sit up straight in her chair. She lowered her palm reader, staring unfocused at the wall of her room.

'Where?'

'Don't know yet. They're breaking into separate groups as they pass through the hotel. Three groups, one large, two small.' Before Thandi could ask, the woman on the other end answered her next question: 'We've got them covered. The men in the big group are all carrying overnight bags. Too small to shield any weapons from detection.'

'Maybe.' Thandi didn't share the former Scrag's confidence that modern search devices could really detect small weapons. Normal ones, to be sure. But leaving aside special high-priced weapons, Thandi simply knew too many ways that effective weapons could be jury-rigged. Of course, how 'effective' they'd be would obviously depend on their purpose. But if this was an assassination attempt getting underway… it was really awfully easy to kill a human being, when you got right down to it.

Still, an assassination attempt didn't seem too likely to her. Why involve the entire group, for one thing? There were over forty men in Gideon Templeton's special Masadan-Scrag task force. Mobilizing all of them for a straightforward assassination seemed like overkill. Besides, who'd be the target? Any target Thandi could think of on Erewhon would either require far fewer men-or couldn't be done at all with anything smaller than a battalion of professional assault troops.

'Numbers, please.'

'Thirty-five of them in the big group. That includes Templeton himself. Three in the smallest