Oh, well.
It was no great matter; she turned to go, and then hesitated.
I've never actually been in here,
she thought.
No reason to visit the servants' quarters, really, except a sudden impulse to surprise… Nothing in the bedroom but a bed with a quilt coverlet; there was a signed holo of Gwen by the bed, and a book left open beside it. The sitter was a box-room about four meters by three, lit by a glowceiling, walls of foam rock and tile floor covered by throw rugs. A couch along one wall, a couple of spindly low-C chairs, cushions. The viewer screen, and a bookshelf with a dozen titles, mostly classics; a row of dataplaques beside it, with the garish covers of serf entertainment. The new perscomp on a table, with a chair still pushed back as if in haste; the screen was dark, but the indicator was on, something running.
"Careless," Yolande chuckled, and walked over to it. There was a wrap-robe on the back of the chair. The Draka picked it up and brought the cloth to her face; there was a faint scent or Marya on it.
Damn, I
wish she was here, Yolande thought, sitting and picking up the dataplaque lying on the table.
" 'Serving Pleasure
#15," she read, and laughed again. An erotic-instruction sequence.
No wonder she's
getting so
imaginative,
she thought, flattered.
Wonder what's on it
.
Impulsively, she snapped it into the port and hit the DIVIDE
command on the keyboard. The perscomp was a fairly capable one, the type midlevel serf bureacrats were issued. Embedded accounting, typescribing, datalink and display functions. A million-transistor logic deck, two hundred thousand bits of core storage besides, and a plaquereceptor.
The screen blanked to light-gray, then lit. Yolande watched in growing bewilderment. Sodomy? Basic Passive Sodomy? she thought, watching as the instructor showed the young buck how to brace his elbows on his knees before stepping behind.
What in
Freya's name is Marya doing with—
The screen blanked again, the grunting figures replaced by a man's face. In an Alliance uniform, with Brigadier's shoulderboards. American eagle, OSS flashes. Unremarkable free, square, rather dark, big-nosed; in his fifties, plenty of gray in the flat-topped black hair, eyes black too, so that the pupil didn't show. Deep grooves, ridged forehead, the face of a man hagridden for many years. Yolande heard her own breath freeze in a strangled gasp, felt a sheet of ice lock her diaphragm.
Him.
"Marya, my sister, you must realize from this how desperate the situation is."
Him
. India. The cool Punjab night, and the missiles arching up from the trees.
Psssft
-thud, and Myfwany's graceful stride turning to a tumbling fall.
"This plaque must be wiped as soon as you've read it. Likewise the others.
Those most of all
. Here are your instructions."
Him
. The face, under the upraised visor. That single glimpse.
"… je't'aime, ma soeur," the voice concluded. A moment of blank screen, and the instruction sequence cut back in. She touched the controls. Her own face reflected dimly in the darkened screen. Eyes gone enormous, lips peeled back until the gums showed. A trickle of hoarse sound escaped her throat.
"His
sister. His
sister. I've had his
sister
in my own household fo'
twenty-five years!
" A bubble of laughter escaped her, and she ground her teeth closed on it, feeling something thin and hot stabbing between her eyes.
I'm dead
. The thought was almost welcome.
I'm a walking
corpse
. Nothing and nobody could save her from Security after
this
. The message had mentioned previous drops; even if nothing vital—
there couldn't
be, I hardly talked to her for years until
—"Until she volunteered to play pony, gods damn me for a
fool,
why else would she suddenly decide she wants to lie down with me," she said. And now a sabotage operation.
I could kill her
, Yolande thought. Just one quick bullet, and call disposal. Or indent for some drugs, get the information, then kill her. Perfectly legal—
no the headhunters would smell
something immediately
. The Directorate of Security was an unofficial arm of the Militants, or vice versa. They watched the von Shrakenberg connections like vultures around a dying camel.
For an Ingolfsson to kill a houseserf was a break in the pattern, a red flag that something unusual was going on. They would ferret it out if it took them a decade.
No, it was her duty to report this. Put down everything she knew and suspected, write up a report, then one quick bullet of apology to the temple.
The family will be involved
, tolled through her with dreadful knowledge. A knot like the claws of something insectile hooked under her ribs.
Gwen will be
disgraced.
Duty—
"Oh," she breathed. There was a way to use this.
A spy you
know about is an asset, not a liability
, she reminded herself. A slow, calm smile touched her lips.
It's even personally fitting,
she reflected.
He's
known I had his sister as my serf. Used her for a
brooder,
probably knows she's been serving pleasure
.
Torture,
to a Yankee.
Her hands touched the keys; she would have to find out what the perscomp was running.
Carefully, Yolande,
carefully. She can't suspect, not for a moment.
This evening.
"You bit me, Mistis," Marya said.
Yolande bent and kissed the U-shaped bruise on the inside of the serfs thigh. The bedroom was dark, and she had set the wall for a winter landscape in Tuscany.
"I was excited," she said, lying back.
True, by Loki lord of lies.
I didn't expect that
. It was odd, she felt no hatred.
I suppose I
burned all that out long ago, for her.
"It usually dosen't take you like that, Mistis."
"It's the news," Yolande said. "Here, rub my back." She rolled on her stomach, felt the serfs breath warm on the damp skin of her neck as her fingers kneaded at the muscles along her spine.
"What news, Mistis?"
Yolande made herself hesitate. "Well, it can't hurt now. No point in bein' overcorrect. Remember the good news I got back when, in Archona?."
"I thought it must be important," Marya said calmly, with a hint of a wink. "Certainly set you at me, Mistis."
Are her fingers trembling?
Yolande thought.
Good. Sweat, a
little. Don't stop to think.
The Draka laughed. "It's our secret weapon," she said. "There really is one. I always knew they must have somethin' planned…
A biological, to disable the Yankee crews in near-orbit. Really nice piece of work; codename
Stone Dogs.
It's a stone killer, too!
Delicate trigger, modulated microwave emission. We go to War-Condition Alpha tomorrow."
The serfs hands
were
shaking now. Yolande put a raised eyebrow into her voice. "Whats the matter, Marya? Don't worry, yo' aren't in any danger. Should be a cakewalk, and anyways, this is the best-defended place on Luna." She pulled the other close and kissed her. "Think I'll get a landgrant in California, after,"
she continued. "Anyways, stay close to the quarters, the tubeways'll be closed down." The lights dimmed toward sleepset.
"On second thoughts, I've got a few things fo' yo' to do. There may be some surface damage, worst-case. That crate of Constantia '87 Uncle Eric sent, fo' that cruise on the
Mamba
."
She felt the serf jerk slightly at the mention of the yacht. "Be a shame to lose it, even if that damned toy's not here when Gwen gets back fo' the victory party. Go on out tomorrow, and supervise strippin' all the personal effects out, bring them back to quarters. No droppin' hints, now!"
"What?" Yolande looked up from her desk at the holo image of Transportation Central, the traffic control nexus for Aresopolis.
"The
Mamba
, Commandant. We would have appreciated notification of a lift!"
Yolande felt a cold pride at the expression of mild surprise on her face.
Of course, it's a good thing they don't have a medical
sensor going on me,
she thought stonily. The face in the screen was New Race; they could control their heartbeats. She wondered how it felt…
"So would I," she replied dryly. "Since I am
here
, and have authorized no such mission. Where is the pilot?"
"I…" The hawk-featured young face took on an imperceptible air of desperation. She knew the feeling; the sinking sensation of bearing very bad news to someone far up the chain of command.
"Yo' pilot is in his quarters, Arch-Strategos. That was why we assumed, ah—"
"Don't assume, Tetrarch, do. I presume yo've hailed?"
"Of cou—Yes, ma'am. No response."
There wouldn't be
, Yolande thought. She had very carefully had all the com systems decommissioned for preventive maintenance. An investigation would find that significant, but far too late.
"Well, well have to assume an unauthorized lift," she said, frowning with the expression of a high-ranking officer forced to intervene in trivial matters. "Issue a warnin' to the
Mamba
and whoever's aboard, to surrender or be fired upon. Alert the orbital platforms."
"Ma'am, it's, ah, the trajectory indicates a boost for transluar space. Mars is, well—"
"I'm familiar with orbital mechanics, Tetrarch," she said. "
Stop tormenting the poor boy."
Her fingers touched the desktop.
"On that burn, the Belt would be the logical destination. Hmmm.
The
Mamba's
fairly valuable, but there's nothin' on board we'd be all that embarrassed fo' the Yankees to get… W'orth a chance on not scrubbin' it. Dependin' on who's aboard. Get Merarch Tomlins on the screen, we'll see if we can set up an intercept.
"
"Yo' what?
Yo' pillowtalked a bedwench
that,
and then let her
escape?"
The Archon's image was alone before her. For a moment Yolande felt a sensation she had not known for many years: raw, physical fear.
He looked down at the copy of her report, and the fury on his face went cold and blank. "This had to be deliberate on yo' part.
Usurpation of command prerogative, as well as treasonous incompetence."
"She was an agent, Excellence," Yolande continued expressionlessly. "If yo'll examine the appendix to that report, yo'll see we found clear evidence of dataplague sabotage. No way of knowin' how long this has been goin' on, either." A skull grin split her face, below eyes that were edged in red. "We went aftah the Yankee personnel. They planted a, a virus in our comps.
Typical, isn't it?" Her hand twitched slightly as she reached for the glass of water. "The fact remains, Excellence, that we no longer have an intercept or strike option on the
Mamba
. Inside of three days, the Alliance craft
will
intercept, and shortly thereafter they'll know about the Stone Dogs."
She waited the seconds it took for light to reach Earth and return, on this most secure of links.
Eric von Shrakenberg rose behind his desk, and she felt his will beating on her like waves on a granite headland. "I will have yo'
shot
. I will have yo' fuckin'
shot!"
"That is yo' prerogative, Excellence," Yolande said.
And I don't
care nearly as much as I thought I
would
, she realized. Yes, the body reacted: sweat rolling down from her armpits, muscles tensing in millennial fight-flight reflex. But somewhere deep in her soul, she would accept it. "If yo' wishes to relieve the Commandant of this installation just befo' the… outbreak of hostilities."
She saw that ram home. "Use it, or lose it," she continued.
Silence, for long minutes. At last he looked up again, older than she remembered. "Why?"
"I—" A pause, while she considered how it could be said. "I disagreed with yo' hesitation, but I would have accepted that. On a professional level. But yo' gave me a weapon, Uncle Eric. And I decided to use it. Fo'… personal reasons. Love and hate." Another pause. "And afterward—if there is an afterward—" she laid her sidearm on the desk, in range of the receptor—"I'll save yo' the trouble, iff'n it's still important."
The ancient, weary eyes stared into hers. "The fete of worlds, fo'
personal
reasons?" he said, wonderingly.
"Are there any other kind?" she answered.
At last: "Go to Force Condition Seven, and await further orders, Arch-Strategos." With a touch of ironic malice: "Service to the State."
"Glory to the Race, Excellence."
DATE: 01/07/98
FROM: Supreme QHQ, Castle Tarleton
Archona, Archona Province
by order of His Excellence the Archon Eric von Shrakenberg Commander of the Destiny of the Race
TO: All commanders Classification 7-Z and above RE: Force Condition Seven
Be advised that as of this instant the Domination is moving to Force Condition Seven, as per War Plan Zebra-Kohln. Sealed orders are to be opened and all prepared measures taken. An Archonal Decree of War Emergency Status is in effect as of this communication, and all civil and Security organs are to consider themselves under the authority of the Supreme General Staff and the Directorate of War. Where necessary, exemplary measures may be taken to secure public order and the speedy implementation of evacuation. The highest readiness must be maintained, but on pain of immediate execution no hostile measures toward the enemy are to be taken until the receipt of orders moving to Force Condition Eight or until the enemy initiates action.
This is no drill
DRAKA FORCES BASE ARESOPOLIS
MARE SERINITATIS. LUNA
NOVEMBER 2, 1998
0600 HOURS
"Whew." Yolande collapsed into the chair. For a few minutes she forced herself to sit quietly, breathing, letting the wash of cool air from the vents help her body flush out the hormonal poisons. Then she reached for the communicator.