Текст книги "Coupe"

Sian Commonality, Capellan Confederation

25 June 3029

The bright vermilion and gold bursts of fireworks in the sky and the sound of cheering from the palace courtyard did nothing to lighten Romano Liao's foul mood. The rocket fire burned red highlights into her hair, but as the shadows fell in an explosion's wake, her mood likewise darkened and deepened. Fools,she thought, looking down at the people gathered in the courtyard. You celebrate one minor victory as if we had won the war. Damn me to the Nine Hells, but you act as though McCarron's Armored Cavalry actually saved Sarna from conquest! They didn't. They just destroyed a Davion regiment. What about the other forty still breathing down on us?

Romano turned abruptly and stalked back in from her balcony. In a pout, she dropped into the chair set before her vanity. Picking up a platinum-handled brush, she idly worked it through her hair, then spun and hurled it against the wall. "You're all idiots! You're celebrating a delay of the inevitable. We must take action to capitalize on the opportunity we now have."

Romano frowned at her own reflection, then forcibly relaxed her fierce expression before it could set wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. They're celebrating the Interdiction as much as McCarron's destruction of the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers. You'd celebrate it, too, if Justin Xiang hadn't embraced it as an omen of disaster for House Davion.

Her green eyes flashed like an angry cat's as she thought about her sister's paramour. You chose incorrectly there, didn't you, Romano ? You thought, with Tsen Shang's war experience on the Marik frontier, that he’d share your hatred of the Free Worlds League. You thought you’d have a powerful ally in a full-blooded Capellan citizen. You thought a man raised in the Federated Suns would be too soft to establish a power base. And you thought wrong. Blood will out!

Romano let a sly grin tickle the corners of her mouth. What sort of a game is Xiang working? Does he know you sent Ling to kill him? Ling did shoot him, of that I'm certain, but did he tell Justin who gave the order? If so, why has Justin withheld the information from Candace? Is Xiang playing with her the same way Tsen Shang has become my plaything ?

She closed her eyes and summoned up one of her more disturbing but favorite fantasies. Justin Xiang came to her, his rage and contempt at her attempt to kill his father changed now into passion. They made frenzied love and she thrilled to the cold caress of his steel hand ...

The staccato string of explosions that mark the end of the fireworks display snapped her out of the phantom encounter with her sister's lover. With him as my right hand, no one could stand before me. With him to oppose me and back my sister, I will never gain the throne I so rightly deserve. Can I co-opt him, or will I have to eliminate him as I have eliminated other threats to the Capellan state?

The image of her dead step-mother lying half-decomposed in the morgue came to her, then was overlaid by another image. It was her step-mother and Colonel Pavel Ridzik rutting together like animals in a bungalow on Terra. She'd not seen it, but she'd heard about it from Tsen Shang. Alexi Malenkov reported it to Justin and Tsen while we were all at the wedding of Hanse and Melissa. Ridzik and Elizabeth weren't even cautious enough to make sure someone did not follow them to their tryst.

A sneer contorted Romano's beautiful features as she thought of Ridzik. You are a contemptible bastard, Ridzik. How could I ever have considered you as a consort to solidify my power base? You toady up to Hanse Davion so he doesn't snap up your precious Tikonov, then you decide to go off on a little crusade of your own. You strike out at the Free Worlds League instead of helping your master subjugate your old homeland. Are we so meager a threat as far as you are concerned?

Romano licked her lips. Yes, it's time to clean up some loose ends before I make my next move. You, Pavel Ridzik, have arrogantly dismissed the Capellan Confederation. My father tried to have you killed before, but he failed. I'll not have the sins of my father visited upon me. It is time for you die.Romano laughed softly as she wove together the final threads in a plot he could never escape.

BOOK III

DUTY

Never mind your happiness; do your duty.

–Will Durant

23

New Avalon

Cruris March, Federated Suns

19 July 3029

Riva Allard ran fingers back through her short black hair, then stretched. Something is definitely odd about this exam.She narrowed her blue eyes and read aloud the answer to a question about artificial stimulation of involuntary muscles from the viewer screen. "Though the technology of using electrical impulses to stimulate voluntary muscles and transform their tissue to resemble that of involuntary muscles has been available since the late twentieth century, the biomechanics of the change was not fully understood until 2947. Use of the transformation process information has made the manufacture of myomer muscles for internal organ transplant far more feasible." Nope, that answer was not like Bob Clark at all.

She looked over at her teaching assistant. "Julie, when we gave this exam in Biomech 104, the Thursday section, who was Clark sitting beside?"

Julie's brown eyes looked upward as she concentrated. "Linda Hoffmann, the transfer from the Lyran Commonwealth." She dug through a small pile of disks, plucking one from near the bottom of the stack. She tossed it across the narrow alley between their desks. "Here you go. She knows her stuff. I think I had her down for a 121 out of 128."

Riva deftly caught the disk and inserted it into the auxiliary disk drive. With a few quick keystrokes, she placed Hoffmann's answer for the question she'd been grading next to the answer offered by Bob Clark. "Deja vu! It appears Mr. Clark liberally copied from Ms. Hoffmann." She turned in her chair to face Julie. "Give me a good reason I shouldn't flunk him right into some front-line unit. . ."

Julie glanced down then up again with a sheepish look. "You should have seen him in the lab. He was in my section and really knew his stuff. He's a natural with the equipment, Riva. He did all the neural suturing for the myomer transplant on that dog earlier in the trimester . . ." She hesitated, searching for a word. "I guess I can only describe his performance as intuitive because he knew from the readouts others were giving him what needed to be done and what doublechecked. He also knew when one of the monitors had wandered out of calibration just from the data he was hearing."

Riva nodded slowly. I know he's good with the tools and can get the work done, but his performance has dropped off from where he started at the beginning of May."Do you have any idea what the problem is? His performance has deteriorated badly. He's still got the final exam, but even if he aced it and maxed your mark for his lab work, he'd still be looking at a 2.4 for the course. With those grades, he'll get chucked to a front-line unit faster than a shipment of coffee runs out these days."

Julie nodded, then sighed heavily. "I think things went to hell when he heard about the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers' getting hammered on Sarna. He's got a brother ... Tom ... who was in that unit. He's not heard from him since the attack a month and a half ago. Not knowing is killing him . .."

Riva glanced at the picture of her brother Dan sitting on her desk. Bob Clark's not alone in worrying about loved ones in this war, but we all have to persevere. He doesn't know what happened to his brother, and I get to see holovids of mine getting shot up!

She looked back at Julie. "All right. We'll play it this way. Tell him he's got five days to get me a 20k report on how he knew the monitor was out of whack during the operation, and the logical consequences of the problem. I also want a covering letter stating that his concern for his brother was what distracted him during the exam." I'll see if I can talk to my father and find out if Tom Clark is O.K., or what the story is. Bob Clark will be more valuable here learning how to patch people up from the war than he will be dying to get some Liao soldier a medal.

Riva jotted down a note about speaking to her father, then looked up and smiled as Kym Sorenson entered the office and perched herself on the corner of her own desk. The pretty blond woman leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment. Riva smiled sympathetically. "Bad down in the wards, huh?"

Kym nodded, her eyes still closed. "We got a new load of casualties from the front. Over a dozen are from Sarna, late of the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers. For them, being shipped to New Avalon is something worse than being sent to hell." Her blue eyes came slowly open. "But I think I might have two subjects who'd be willing to take a chance on your program."

Kym glanced at her small compad. "One was looking forward to a career playing Zero-G soccer. His legs got badly burned when his Warhammertangled with two Maurauders,and so the doctors don't think they've got enough neural tissue to make fully articulated limbs work. The other was a pianist who lost her left hand. She's got an allergy that makes her a poor candidate for a cybernetic hand, and she doesn't believe a metal hand would give her the feel she needs to play anyway."

Riva smiled. "Good. Dr. Banzai wants to tour the wards on Friday. I'll give him their names and case histories tomorrow. Anybody else look promising?"

Kym sighed heavily. "Not really. Only the usual clowns who claimed they needed 'special stimulation' and they'd be fine. I took their names for Julie ..."

Julie blushed and all three women laughed aloud. Riva shut down her computer and stacked the disks it spat out at her on the left side of her desk. "Nearly quitting time. What are we going to do tonight?"

Julie shrugged expressively. "I'm not going to go watch The Immortal Warrior, Part 47again. I don't mind looking at his body when they have him running around with no shirt on, but if I see him use a photon sword to cauterize that needier wound on his stomach again, I'll throw up."

Riva laughed lightly. "Second that motion. Every time I see the finale where he drives a Saladin Hovertank into that Phoenix HawkLand-Air 'Mech, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I also like the scenes where they didn't get around to covering the Kurita insignia with Liao insignia ... You can't tell what front they're supposed to be fighting on."

Kym affected an air of wounded artistic pride. "Don't you two get it? This is an allegory for man's struggle against ignorance." She shook her head, letting golden curls ripple down over her shoulders. "I'm with Julie—oiled pecs are fine for a while, but the rest of that film is creative graveyard."

"Graveyard, that's what New Avalon's been like since the Interdiction." Riva ticked items off on her fingers as she spoke. "We all knew publicly broadcast holovid programs were insipid, but now we're limited to those produced here on New Avalon. The difference between yogurt and New Avalon is that yogurt has culture—all we've got is diplomats, soldiers on leave, and aging holovid stars who can't get offworld because they've not got priority."

Julie shook her head. "You're setting your sights too high, Riva. I'd gladly settle for something more than surly service and bland food in a restaurant."

Kym nodded enthusiastically. "I understand the need for rationing, but some of the chefs are hoarding spices as if they're worth their weight in gold."

"Hey, on the black market, the spices areworth their weight in gold." Riva locked her hands into talons and lightly clawed the surface of her desk. "I'd kill right now for a bottle of Tharkad Nicht-lager or Timbiqui dark."

"All right, then, I'll find you a target." Morgan Hasek-Davion filled the office doorway for a moment, then he stepped into the room and kissed Kym. He nodded to Riva and winked at Julie, which set her to blushing again.

Riva smiled happily. "To what do we owe the honor of this visit, Highness?" He's looking better than he has since learning of his father's death, but he's still not his old self. Kym says he wants a command so bad he can taste it. It shows, too. He normally visits the wards on Thursday ... I wonder if he heard we got some people from his father's old unit?

Morgan returned her smile, slipping an arm around Kym's slender waist. "I came looking for some women who have dutifully put up with the deprivations this war has brought on all of us." He paused and glanced at Julie. "Last year, I had a complete set of the new Sherlock Holmes holovid series sent to Melissa Steiner-Davion. In return, on a diplomatic ship that arrived today, I got a shipment of a number of luxury items from the Commonwealth."

Riva shot a sidelong glance toward Julie. Kym is aware Melissa is here on New Avalon, and I know it because I was Melissa's companion while she traveled incognito to New Avalon after the wedding. But I think Morgan's story is good enough to withstand scrutiny.

Kym gave Morgan a playful punch in the shoulder. "Well, don't keep us in suspense, you fiend! What did she send to you?"

Morgan smiled like a predator. His long, reddish-blond hair fell over his shoulders like a lion's mane. "Well, soon-to-be Doctor Allard, they will probably put a kilo or two on her willowy figure because I've got three cases of Timbiqui dark that need a home. And Julie, well, there's a pile of new Immortal Warriorholodisks and a box of that white chocolate from Vorzel just waiting to be adopted."

Julie dramatically pressed the back of her right hand to her forehead. "It would be a strain, but I think I could handle accepting such into my home."

Morgan roared with laughter, then hugged Kym roughly to himself. "As for you, my love, the Archon-Designate had her seamstress make two gowns that she guarantees will turn the fashion world on its head and a round of that cheese from Nekkear that you fancied so much at the wedding."

Kym's smile faded into a mock pout. "If I eat the cheese, I'll not be able to fit into the gowns."

Riva shook her head. "No, Kym, you keep forgetting. If the food is a gift, it has no calories."

"Ah, how right you are." Kym kissed Morgan on the cheek. "I also understand that food consumed at a party won't fatten you up, either. I suggest we get together tonight to watch the holovids and sample the Lyran Commonwealth's largess. My place, in two hours?"

"I'll get the stuff over there," Morgan said, "but I'll beg off." He hesitated. "There's some work I want to do this evening."

Riva caught the loss of enthusiasm in Morgan's voice, and the quick flash of worry in Kym's eyes, but Julie missed them entirely. The teaching assistant smiled happily as she asked, "What did you get, Highness, if I may be so bold."

"A few things. Some programs and a case of Cuchulain Irish whisky from Arc-Royal."

Kym turned Morgan's face toward her with her right hand. "Are those the Nagelring programs you hoped would come?"

Morgan nodded. "I just want to check and make sure they survived the trip."

Riva kept her thoughts from her face. I know Kym's been worried about how hard Morgan pushes himself. Morgan wants to prove he could be useful in the field so the Prince will give him a unit to command, but he just doesn't realize the risk that would be for the Prince. If Liao captured Morgan before Melissa gives the Prince an heir, Liao could use Morgan as a bargaining tool to stop the war or cause the Capellan March troops to go neutral to save Morgan's life. Studying for the Nagelring exams and maxing them isn't going to change that one whit.

Kym looked up into Morgan's green eyes. "If that's all, why not check them on the computer at my apartment, thenjoin our little party. Please, Morgan? It will be good for you to relax."

Morgan was about to refuse, then let her concern melt his resolution. "I surrender," he said with a grin, "but I need three hours to play with the programs before we start. Agreed?"

Riva smiled slyly as an idea popped into her head. "How about four hours?" She waved a hand at her desk. "You can start working with them here because it will take us four hours to organize the party ... a real party."

The others looked at her with puzzled expressions, then Kym seemed to guess what Riva had in mind. "We're not talking about having a party at my apartment anymore, are we?"

Riva shook her head. "You said that being shipped to New Avalon to recover was like hell for many of the soldiers down in the wards. I think we should take the gifts Melissa sent and hold the world premiere of Immortal Warrior, Part 48right here in the hospital auditorium. It will be fun for the patients, and the publicity, along with the largess from Melissa, will help quiet some of the Prince's critics."

Pleasure shone in Morgan's eyes. "I like it. If we can't be out on the front, the least we can do is show our appreciation to those who are doing the fighting." He glanced at the computer on Riva's desk, then gave a slight shake of the head. "No time for playing games. We've only got four hours to organize that party."