“Maybe they don’t. But once you’ve decided to opt out of Panoply’s protection, out of the democratic apparatus, what do you gain from staying inside the Glitter Band anyway?”
“Not much,” Dreyfus said.
“Which is why this can’t be an attempt at secession.”
“A hostage situation?” Baudry speculated.
“Fits the facts so far, doesn’t it?”
“For now,” Dreyfus allowed.
“But you don’t think that’s what we’re looking at.”
“You don’t take hostages unless there’s something you want that you don’t already have.”
Crissel looked pleased with himself.
“Everyone wants to be richer.”
“Maybe they do,” Dreyfus answered, “but there’s no way hostage-taking is going to achieve that for you.”
“So they’re not trying to become richer,” Baudry said.
“That still leaves a universe of possibilities. Suppose someone doesn’t just want to opt out of our system of government, but dismantle it completely?”
Dreyfus shook his head.
“Why would they want to? If someone wants to experiment with a different social model, they’re welcome to do so. All they have to do is recruit enough willing collaborators to set up a new state. Provided they let their citizens have the vote, they can even stay within the apparatus. That’s why we have freak shows like the Voluntary Tyrannies. Someone somewhere decided they wanted to live in that kind of place.”
“But like you said, they have to abide by certain core principles. Maybe they find even those basic strictures too stifling. Perhaps they want to force a single political model on the entire Glitter Band. Ideological zealots, for instance: political or religious extremists who won’t rest until they force everyone else to see things their way.”
“You might have something if we weren’t looking at four completely disparate communities. Thalia’s habitats have almost nothing in common with each other.”
“All right,” Baudry said, clearly wearying of debate.
“If it isn’t about forcing through a political end, what is it about?”
Once again Dreyfus thought back to the things he had learned inside the Nerval-Lermontov rock, including the possibility that not everyone in the room could necessarily be trusted. He had wanted more time to evaluate his position, more time in which to bring at least one of the other seniors around to his side and use them as leverage to put Aumonier back into the saddle. But the news concerning the latest attacks had forced his hand sooner that he would have wished. He had to say something or he would be guilty of withholding vital data from his own organisation.
“The prisoner told me something,” he said, choosing his words with exquisite care, like a man picking his way through a minefield.
“Obviously, I can’t be certain that she was telling the truth, or that her isolation hadn’t turned her insane. But all my instincts—all my old policeman’s instincts, you might say—told me she was on the level.”
“Then perhaps you’d better tell us,” Gaffney said.
“Clepsydra believes that some group or organisation within the Glitter Band has obtained intelligence concerning a coming crisis. Something worse than what we’re facing now, even given the latest news.”
“What kind of crisis?” Baudry asked.
“Something catastrophic. Something in the order of a collapse of the entire social matrix, if not the end of the Glitter Band itself.”
“Preposterous,” Crissel said. Gaffney raised a restraining hand.
“No. Let’s hear him out.”
“Clepsydra believes that this group or organisation has devised a plan for averting whatever disaster they’ve seen coming, even if that means denying us our usual liberties.”
Baudry nodded in the general direction of the Solid Orrery.
“And the blackout, the hostile actions we’ve just heard about?”
“I think we could be seeing the start of a takeover bid.”
“Voi,” Baudry answered sharply.
“You’re not serious. Surely you’re not serious.”
“Makes perfect sense to me,” Dreyfus said.
“If we couldn’t be trusted to guarantee the future security of the Glitter Band, what would you do?”
“But only four habitats… there are ten thousand more out there that are still ours!”.
“I think Thalia was the key,” Dreyfus said.
“Unwittingly, of course. Her code was contaminated. It must have been tampered with to open a security loophole that didn’t exist before. Thalia was supposed to make that upgrade Bandwide, across the entire ten thousand, in one fell swoop.”
“But she didn’t want to do that, I recall,” said Baudry.
“No,” said Dreyfus.
“She insisted on identifying four of the likely worst cases and running manual installations. That way she could correct errors in realtime, on the spot, and make sure no one was without their precious abstraction for more than a few minutes. Once she’d supervised those four installations, she could tweak the code to make sure the remaining ten thousand went without a hitch.”
“But those habitats have been without abstraction for hours,” Crissel said.
“That isn’t Thalia’s fault. Her diligence didn’t cause this, Michael. It prevented an even worse crisis. If Thalia had done the easy, obvious thing, we wouldn’t be looking at four habitats off abstraction, we’d be looking at ten thousand. The takeover would be complete. We’d have lost the Glitter Band.”
“Now let’s not get carried away,” Gaffney said, smiling at the others.
“We have enough of a mess to deal with without indulging in apocalyptic fantasies.”
“It isn’t a fantasy,” Dreyfus said.
“Someone wanted this to happen.”
“Why, though?” Crissel asked.
“What group of people could possibly organise themselves to seize control of the entire Band? It’s one thing to take habitats off abstraction. But the citizens inside won’t just roll over and accept that. You’d need an armed militia to actually subjugate them. Thousands of people for each habitat, at the very least. We’d be looking at an invisible army ten million strong just to have a chance of making this work. If there was a movement that powerful, that coordinated, we’d have seen it coming years ago.”
“Maybe it’s a different kind of takeover,” Dreyfus said.
“What did the Conjoiner say about the people behind this?” asked Baudry.
“Not much.” Dreyfus hesitated, conscious that every divulgence carried a measurable risk.
“I got a name. A figure called Aurora. She may have some connection to the Nerval-Lermontov family.”
Baudry peered at him.
“They lost a daughter in the Eighty. Her name was Aurora, I believe. You’re not seriously suggesting—”
“I’m not making any inferences. Maybe I can get more out of Clepsydra when she’s feeling stronger, and she’s certain she can trust us.”
“You’re worried about her trusting us?” Baudry said.
A knock at the door signalled the return of the operator. She entered the room with a trace less diffidence than before.
“And?” Gaffney asked.
“The drones have been requisitioned, sirs. First is scheduled to dock at Szlumper Oneill in eleven minutes. Within twenty-two minutes, the remaining three will have completed approaches to their respective habitats.”
“Very good,” Gaffney allowed.
“I’ve secured high-res visual feeds of all four habitats, sirs. I can pipe the observations through to the Solid Orrery, with your permission.”
Gaffney nodded.
