In the event?Sula wondered if any one of Hong’s audience didn’t know that one of these things had already happened, and that the other was inevitable….
Hong made a chopping gesture with one gloved hand. “Each of the lords governor has been ordered to establish a General Council, composed of members of all loyal species and of all sectors of society. This council will aid each governor in administration, and provide support to the Convocation and to the successful conclusion of the war….”
And to keep an eye on each other, Sula thought. And as for “all sectors of society,” she thought she could name a few that wouldn’t be seen among the councils of government.
“Each governor is also instructed to appoint a deputy governor, a loyal citizen who will act in his stead if the governor is forced to surrender to the enemy. The deputy governor is authorized to appoint a secret council to aid him in this endeavor, as well as to make military appointments. The deputy and his aides will fight on in the event of any Naxid occupation.”
And will keep an eye on the General Council, Sula thought. The knowledge that the councillors were being observed by secret appointees, some with guns, would no doubt have a chilling effect on any attempts to get cozy with the Naxids.
“On Zanshaa, however, the arrangement will be slightly different.” Hong marched to the front of the verandah and gazed down at his command with his hands clasped behind his back and his chest thrust out, a picture of confidence and mastery. “Zanshaa isalready under a military governor,” he said. “When the Naxids come, Fleet Commander Pahn-ko and his entire staff and council move into a secret facility now being prepared for them. The fleetcom will remain in command of our units and much of the civil administration. So you can rest assured that any order you receive fromme will have thedirect authority of the governor. And you should know that your efforts on behalf of the Praxis will be brought to the lord governor’s attention for commendation and promotion.”
He withdrew a fist from behind his back and brandished it, waist-high, to emphasize the importance of this statement. Sula hadn’t actually been worried on this score, but now she began to think that worry might have been the appropriate reaction all along. It was unclear how an elderly fleetcom in hiding was going to control all these elements of society without making himself conspicuous, especially considering that the Naxids were going to be looking for him anyway.
Let’s hope Pahn-ko never meets anyone face-to-face, Sula thought. Let’s hope they have all the codes worked out. Let’s hope that nobody up the line has a complete list of all of us written out with our names and addresses.
Thus inspired by Hong’s speech, the trainees were then given a false backup identity, and then left the Villa Fosca for Kaidabal, a city of two million south of Zanshaa. They were split up into three-person Action Teams, eleven of which made an Action Group—Sula was amused to see that the organization charts manifested the old Shaa love for prime numbers. Sula’s Action Team 491—another prime—consisted of herself as leader, Engineer/1st Shawna Spence as technician and demolition specialists, and Macnamara as a runner and general backup.
The city was distracted by the First Fruits Festival, and amid the crowds of celebrants the teams experienced no difficulty as they took on their cover identities and practiced hiding, infiltrating, communicating through cutouts, and assembling at certain places, at certain hours, in order to conduct mock operations. The pace was somewhat more relaxed than at Villa Fosca, and Sula took a few days to travel to Zanshaa and create a small, privately held company under her cover identity, one that dealt in used machine parts. Ownership of her crates of cocoa, tobacco, and coffee were transferred to this company, and the crates themselves shifted to new warehouses. En route the labels on the boxes were changed, and now read:Used machine parts—for recycling . She couldn’t think of any label less likely to raise curiosity or encourage theft.
No one recognized the businesslike, dark-haired, dark-eyed woman as Lady Sula. Not even when she put on her uniform, took off her dark contacts, put the black hair under a uniform cap, and went to her bank to withdraw all her remaining funds in cash. The bank clerk, no doubt used to cash withdrawals by now, stifled a yawn as she handed Sula her money.
It was then that Sula produced her special warrant from the military governor. “Now,” Sula said, “I want you to erase my thumbprint from your records.” Anyone on an Action Team was authorized to order any critical records erased—loans, bank accounts, lines of credit, and especially the thumbprint that would present conclusive and legal identification.
The clerk blinked. “My lady?”
“I’m closing the account. You have no reason to retain my print, and I’d like to see you erase it. In fact,” showing her special warrant, “thisrequires you to erase it.”
“That’s not our procedure,” the woman said. “We keep everything.”
“Do itnow, ” Sula said, but the clerk had to call her manager, who viewed Pahn-ko’s order and then shrugged his shoulders.
Sula watched as Caro Sula’s old print vanished into electric oblivion, and took comfort that another piece of the past was safely buried.
The Action Group moved to Zanshaa City, where they continued to conduct exercises. A rather amazing amount of specialized assassination equipment and explosive went into storage lockers all over the city. Team 491 was placed in a middle-class corner apartment in a Terran district of the Lower Town, a neighborhood called Grandview. They were on the top floor of a four-story building, with a small terrace and windows looking out over two street. It was a pleasant enough place, plainly furnished, and once all the gear was tidied away to Sula’s satisfaction, the furniture rearranged, and the place given a general cleaning, she began to feel a growing optimism about her mission.
The Naxids rather obstinately did not come. Sula wished she’d known they would take their time: she would have managed a much less chaotic evacuation of the Zanshaa ring.
One morning the door chimed, and Sula answered to find the concierge, an elderly man named Greyjean. Both his upper incisors were missing and he suffered from a consequent habit of misplacing certain consonants.
“Are you finding everything suitable, my lady?” he asked.
“Everything’s fine.” Sula, remembering her cover identity, added, “You don’t have to call me ‘my lady.’ I’m a commoner.”
The old man seemed surprised. “My mistake, miss. I got a different impression from the constabulary.”
A warning bell sang a clear note in Sula’s mind. “Constabulary?” she asked. “What constabulary?”
“The military constabulary who evicted the previous tenants,” the concierge said. “They said they needed this apartment for some Fleet VIPs.”
Sula stared at the old man. “Ah. Ha,” she said.
We are in such fucking trouble,she thought.
ELEVEN
Steadied by the arm of the rigger who helped him rise, Martinez dragged himself out of the boarding tube into the airlock, then braced briefly to answer the salute of the lieutenant who stood before him. She was nearly as tall as Martinez, and had a heart-shaped face and brown hair drawn into a knot behind the head and twined around a pair of gold-enameled chopsticks.
“Captain Martinez reporting aboardIllustrious, ” he said.
“Welcome toIllustrious, lord captain,” she said. “I’m the premiere here, Lady Fulvia Kazakov.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Martinez offered her his hand, and she took it.
Alikhan pulled himself out of the tube behind Martinez, placed his feet carefully on the deck, then braced in salute. “My lady,” he said.
“This is Alikhan,” Martinez said. “My orderly.”
Kazakov briefly returned the salute, and nodded to the rigger. “I’ll have Turnbull here show your servants to their quarters, and to yours,” she said. “But I know that the squadcom would like to meet you now, if that’s convenient for you.”
“Certainly,” Martinez said. If it hadn’t been for the month of acceleration, his transit toIllustrious aboard theDaffodil might almost have been pleasant.Daffodil had been designed to pamper high company officials, and there were showers, a laundry, private cabins, a large range of entertainments, and a full kitchen stocked with
