Changer of Worlds

Anton’s gaze remained steady. “Yes.” He spread his hands slightly. “Well… I wouldn’t call it code of ethics, exactly. It’s more like a code of honor—or, better yet, the code duello. Even the Ellington Protocol doesn’t allow you to just up and shoot somebody whenever you feel like it.”

“That’s true. But there’s an official sanction standing behind—”

“And there is here too, ma’am,” said Anton forcefully. “Any code of conduct has a practical basis to it, no matter how buried it might be under the formal trappings. Spies don’t go around attacking each other’s families, if for no other reason, because once you open that can of worms there’d be no end to it.” He grimaced. “Well, I’m putting the thing too sharply. Certain kinds of attacks are permissible—long hallowed, in fact. Seducing a spy’s spouse, for instance. But kidnapping a child and threatening to kill her—” Again, he set his jaws stubbornly. “It just isn’t done, Lady Catherine. I can’t think of a single instance, for all the savageness of this war between us and the Peeps, when anything like that has happened.”

He took a deep breath before continuing. “As for State Security…” Another pause; then: “The thing is much more complicated, Lady Catherine, than people realize. The image most Manticorans have of State Security is that they’re simply an organization of goons, thugs and murderers. Which”—he snorted—“they certainly have plenty of, God knows. Some of the foulest people who ever lived are wearing SS uniforms, especially the ones who volunteer for duty in concentration camps.”

Seeing the countess’ little start, Anton nodded. “Oh, yes. You didn’t realize that, did you? The fact is, ma’am, that State Security allows its people a lot more latitude in choosing their assignments than the Peep navy does. Or the Manticoran navy, for that matter. It’s quite a democratic outfit, in some ways, as hard as that might be to imagine.”

He eyed her shrewdly. “But it makes sense, if you think about it. Whatever else Oscar Saint-Just is, he is most definitely not stupid. He knows full well that his precious State Security is a—a—” When he found the metaphor he was looking for, Anton barked a laugh. “A manticore, by God! A bizarre creature made up of the parts of completely different animals.”

Again, Anton started ticking off his fingers. “A goodly chunk—undoubtedly the majority, by now—are people who joined after the Revolution looking for power and status. They’ve got as much ideological conviction as a pig in a trough. A fair number of those are former officers in the Legislaturalist regime’s secret police. That’s where you find your pure goons and thugs.”

Another finger. “Then, there are a lot of young people who join up. Almost all of them are Dolists, from the lowest ranks of Havenite society. Some, of course, are just sadists looking for a legitimate cover or angry people looking to inflict revenge on the so-called ‘elites.’ ” He shook his head. “But not most of them, ma’am. Most of them are genuine idealists, who believe in the Revolution and can see the gains it’s starting to bring their own class —”

Lady Catherine started to interject a denial but Anton drove over it.

“Sorry, ma’am—it has. Don’t ever think otherwise. A lot of people in Manticoran intelligence thought the Havenite empire would collapse, after the Revolution.” He snorted. “Especially in the diplomatic service. Bunch of upper class snobs who think poor people are nothing but walking stomachs. Sure, Rob Pierre’s war has brought Haven’s Dolists a lot of bloody grief—not to mention that he’s even frozen their stipend. But don’t think for a moment that those Dolists are nothing but mindless cannon fodder. For them, the Revolution also meant lifting the Legislaturalists’ hereditary yoke.”

For a moment, Anton’s eyes seem to smolder. Gryphon highlanders had chosen a different political course than Peep’s Dolists—like Anton himself, they were fierce Crown Loyalists down to the newborn babes—but no highlander had any difficulty understanding the fury of the underdog. Over the centuries, highlanders had had their own bitter experience with Manticore’s aristocracy. Anton himself hated the People’s Republic of Haven—for killing his beloved wife, if for no other reason—but he had never shed any tears over the Legislaturalists executed by Rob Pierre and his cohorts after the Revolution. In Anton’s opinion, a fair number of the Manticoran aristocracy would look pretty good, hanging by the neck. Half the members of the Conservative Association, for a certainty—with Ambassador Hendricks and Admiral Young right at the front of the line.

His innate sense of humor overrode the moment’s anger. Indeed, for a moment, he felt a certain embarrassment. The friendly-faced woman sitting across from him—whom he had approached for help, after all, not the other way around—was also a member of that same aristocracy. Very prominently, as a matter of fact. If the countess was ranked only middling-high in the Manticoran nobility’s stiff hereditary terms—all the stiffer for the fact that they had been artificially created when the planet was settled—the Tor fortune was greater than that of most dukes and duchesses.

Something in his thoughts must have shown, for Lady Catherine was suddenly beaming from ear to ear.

“Hey, sailor!” she chortled. “Go easy on me, willya? I can’t help it—I was born there.”

In that moment, Anton was stunned by how beautiful she looked. It was bizarre, in a way—a matter of pure personality radiating through the barrier of flesh. The countess’ face was not pretty in the least, beyond a certain open freshness. And while her figure was definitely feminine, its lanky—almost bony—lines were quite a ways outside the parameters of what was normally considered, by males at least, “sexy.” Yet Anton knew, without having to ask, that Lady Catherine had never even considered the body-sculpting which was so popular among Manticore’s upper crust. Even though for her, unlike most people, cost was no obstacle. As expensive as body- sculpting was, Lady Catherine could have paid for it out of the equivalent of pocket change.

It was just—the way she was. Here I am. This is how I look. You don’t like it? Then go—

Anton couldn’t help it. He was grinning himself. He could just imagine the coarse profanities which would follow.

The moment lasted, and lasted. Two people, strangers until that day, grinning at each other. And as it lasted, began to undergo what Anton, from his reading of the classics, understood as a sea change.

And so, his shock deepened. He had come here, carrying years’ worth of a widower’s grief and the newfound rage of a father whose child was in danger, looking for nothing more than help. And found—damned if it wasn’t true!—the first woman since that horrible day when Helen died who genuinely interested him.

He tried to pull his eyes away, but couldn’t. And as the grin faded from the countess’ face, he understood that he was not imagining anything. She, too, was feeling that tremendous pull.

The image of his daughter broke the spell. Helen, as a four-year-old girl, had been sitting on his lap at the very moment her mother died. Helen the mother had saved Helen the child. The father’s responsibility remained.

Lady Catherine cleared her throat. Anton knew that she was trying to leave him the emotional space he needed, and was deeply thankful. Yet, of course, the same uncanny intuitiveness just deepened the attraction.

“As you were saying, Captain…” Her voice was a bit husky.

Anton finally managed to look away from her. He ran a blunt-fingered hand through his stiff and bristly black hair.

“The thing is, ma’am—”

“Call me Cathy, why don’t you? Anton.”

He took the hand away. “Cathy, trust me on this. There are fissure lines running all through Havenite society. State Security is no exception. Oscar Saint-Just knows that as well—hell, better than— anyone in the universe. Except maybe Rob Pierre himself.”

He leaned forward, extending his hands. “So he’s careful to keep the sheep separated from the goats. More precisely—since no one has still been able to nail down telepathy—he lets the goats and the sheep separate themselves. The thugs volunteer for the concentration camps, and the young idealistic firebrands head for the front lines. Which, for spies, means places like Chicago.”

He nodded toward the window. “And that’s mostly the kind of State Security out there. In the lower ranks, at least. Tough, yes—even ruthless. But I know they weren’t the ones who took my daughter.”

Cathy leaned forward herself, also extending her hands. But where Anton’s movements had been tight