Changer of Worlds

and controlled, hers were jerky and expressive. “Anton, I can’t honestly say that I share your assessment. I don’t have your expertise in intelligence, of course, but my own work has brought me into contact with any number of young—ah, ‘firebrands.’ Some of them, I hate to say it, wouldn’t shrink from any blow directed at their enemy.”

Anton shook his head. “No, they wouldn’t. But they would shrink from using the wrong weapon.”

He held up the package in his hands. “This is the forensic report. You’re welcome to look at it if you want, but I can summarize the gist. The people who broke into our apartment and took my daughter—probably male and female both, judging from the chemical traces—left a clear genetic track. Crystal clear, in fact—the idiots were even careless enough not to eradicate skin oils from the note.”

“And they weren’t Peeps.”

“No. The genetic evidence carried not a trace of the normal Peep pattern. And it hardly matters, anyway, because the pattern they did carry is unmistakable. They were members of the Sacred Band—or, at least, people who came from that very distinct genetic stock.”

Cathy didn’t quite gasp, but her hand flew to her throat. “Are you serious?”

Anton was not surprised to see that Lady Catherine—Cathy—had not only heard of the Sacred Band but obviously didn’t doubt their existence. Most people wouldn’t have understood the term, and most of the ones who did would have immediately insisted that it was a fairy tale—a legend, like vampires. His suspicion was confirmed, and that knowledge brought him great satisfaction. There was only one way that the countess could have found out about the Sacred Band—she had been told by the very people Anton was searching for. The same people he had come here to find.

The countess was now staring blindly at the window. “But that makes no sense at all!” Her lips tightened. “Although I can now understand why you’re so insistent that this wasn’t a Peep operation.”

She gave Anton a shrewd glance. There was hostility in her eyes, but it wasn’t directed at him. “And— of course—I can understand why the ambassador and the admiral wouldn’t believe you.”

She sprang to her feet. “Fucking assholes!” The countess began pacing back and forth, waving her hands. “Fucking assholes,” she repeated. “Charter members of the Conservative Association, the both of them, God rot their souls. Since their only guiding political principle is gimme—”

Anton smiled grimly.

“—they can’t possibly understand people who take ideology seriously.” For an instant, like a prancing filly, she veered at him. “You’re a Crown Loyalist, I imagine.”

“Rock hard.”

Cathy brayed laughter. “Gryphon highlanders! Just as thick-skulled as their reputation.” But she veered even closer. “S’okay. I forgive you.” She ran slim fingers through his bristly hair before prancing away. Coming from anyone else except his daughter, that act of casual intimacy would have infuriated Anton. Coming from Cathy, it sent a spike down his spine which paralyzed him for an instant.

She was moving back and forth in front of the window, now. Her movements were jerky—almost awkward and ungainly—but they also expressed a fierce energy.

Anton was dazzled by the sight. The bright sunshine penetrated her skirt—a modest enough garment, in its own right, but not made of a heavy fabric—and showed her long legs almost as if they were bare. Very slender, they were, though the muscles were obviously well-toned. Anton felt a sudden rush of sheer passion, imagining them—

He forced that thought away. And, with his capacity for concentration, succeeded within seconds. But he retained a small glow in his heart. He hadn’t felt that kind of rush since his wife died. There was something pure about it, like an emotional cleanser.

Cathy came to an abrupt halt, spun around to face him, and planted her hands on her hips. Extremely slim, those hips. Anton suspected that they had been a lifelong despair for her. “Snake hips,” she’d probably muttered, staring at herself in a mirror. He thought, on the other hand—

Down!

“Shit!” exclaimed the countess. “No Peep I know would come within a mile of either a Mesan or a Scrag”—yes! She knew the pejorative nickname—“unless it was to blow their fucking head off. As much as they hate us Manticoran ‘elitists,’ we’re just Beelzebub in their demonology. The Great Satan himself is called Manpower Inc. and Hell is on a planet named Mesa.”

“Exactly,” said Anton. “However dictatorial and brutal they are, the Peeps are also ferocious egalitarians. You can get executed in Haven for arguing too hard in favor of individual merit promotion.” Again, he quoted from the classics: “ ‘All animals are equal even if some animals are more equal than others.’ There’s no room in there for hereditary castes—especially slave castes!—or for genetic self-proclaimed supermen.”

He sighed heavily. “And, in all honesty, I have to say that in this, if nothing else, the Peeps have a pretty good track record.” Another sigh, even heavier. “Oh, hell, let’s be honest. They have an excellent track record. Manpower doesn’t go anywhere near Havenite territory. That was true even before the Revolution. Unlike—”

“Unlike Manticoran space!” interjected the countess angrily. “Where they don’t hesitate for a minute. Damn the laws. The stinking scum know just where to find Manticoran customers.”

Anton scowled. “Cathy, that’s not fair either. The Navy—”

She waved her arms. “Don’t say it, Anton! I know the Navy officially suppresses the slave trade. Even does so in real life, now and again. Though not once since the war started. They’re too preoccupied, they say.”

Anton scowled even more deeply. Cathy waved her arms again. “All right, all right,” she growled, “they are preoccupied with fighting the Peeps. But even before the war started, the only instance where the Navy ever hit the Mesan slave trade with a real hammer is when—”

Both of them broke into wide grins, now. The news of the incredible mass escape from the Peep prison planet of Hell was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

“—when Harrington smashed up the depot on Casimir,” she concluded. The countess snorted. “What was she, then? A measly lieutenant commander? God, I love impetuous youth!”

Anton nodded. “Yeah. Almost derailed her career before it even got started. Probably would have, if Courvoisier hadn’t twisted some Conservative admirals’ arms out of their sockets. And if —”

He gazed at her steadily. “—a certain young and impetuous left-wing countess hadn’t given a blistering speech on the floor of the House of Lords, demanding to know why the first time a naval officer fully enforced the laws against the slave trade she wasn’t getting a medal for it instead of carping criticism.”

Cathy smiled. “It was a good speech, if I say so myself. Almost as good as the one that got me pitched out of the House of Lords entirely.”

Anton snorted. Although membership in the Manticoran House of Lords was hereditary, not elective, the Lords did have the right under law to officially exclude one of its own members. But given the natural tendency of aristocrats to give full weight to lineage, it was very rarely done. To the best of Anton’s knowledge, at the present moment there were no more than three nobles who had had their membership in the Lords revoked. One of them, the Earl of Seaview, had been expelled only after he was convicted in a court of law of gross personal crimes— which all the members of the Lords had long known were his vices, but had chosen to look the other way over. The other two were Honor Harrington and Catherine Montaigne, for having, each in her own way, deeply offended the precious sensibilities of Manticore’s aristocracy.

Anton cleared his throat. “Actually, Cathy, that speech is why I’m here.”

She paused in her jerky pacing and cocked her head. “Since when does a Crown Loyalist study the old speeches of someone who even aggravates Liberals and Progressives?”

He smiled. “Believe it or not, Cathy, that speech made quite a hit in the highlands. As it happens, one of our Gryphon yeomen was on trial at the time. Shot the local baron—eight times—for molesting his daughter. The prosecutor argued that a murderer is a murderer. The defense countered by quoting your speech.”

“The part about ‘one person’s terrorist being another’s freedom fighter,’ I should imagine.”