Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (66 page)

"Even
easier
for
us,"
Bleys
said;
"we
won't
have
to
try
to
raise popular
support
there.
We'll
simply
give
the
owners
and
managers of
those
companies
a
quiet
word
that
if
they
don't
cooperate,
we'll make
all
sorts
of
trouble
that
will
cut
into
their
profits."
He
turned back
to
the
map,
and
reached
up
to
point
to
the
Procyon
system.

"The
Exotics,
living
in
the
same
system,
of
course
have
always owned
a
large
slice
of
the
shares
in
Coby.
But
they
can
be
outvoted by
the
other
owners."
He
turned
back
from
the
map.

"Both
the
people
on
Coby
and
the
companies
that
control
every aspect
of
their
lives
have
essentially
cut
their
ties
with
or
citizenship
in
any
other
world.
The
people
are
the
only
ones
who're
willing
to
work
there:
the
outcasts
of
the
other
worlds.
They're
virtually slaves
already;
they
won't
even
notice
when
we
take
over.
And
the owners?"
He
shrugged.

"The
owners
long
ago
learned
their
profits
increased
if
they cut
their
ties
with
their
native
planets;
they
didn't
have
to
pay taxes,
and
no
other
planet
has
ever
been
willing
to
interfere
with how
they
treated
their
people—it
would
threaten
their
access
to Coby's
metals—allowing
the
owners
to
pay
low
wages
to
workers with
no
political
voice
at
all.
They
may
regret
that
strategy
when they
find
they
have
no
off
-
world
friends
to
rescue
them
from
us—all we
have
to
do
is
threaten
to
take
everything
if
they
don't
give
us control."

"Which
we
could
make
palatable
by
leaving
them
large
and
secure
incomes,"
Dahno
nodded. "For
the
moment,
anyway."

"What
...
?
What
did
you
just
say?"
Bleys
asked,
late
that
night. "I'm
sorry;
I
was
thinking.
...
I
guess
I
was
far
away."

"Do
you
want
to
talk?"
Toni
repeated.
She
was
lying
on
her
side facing
him,
her
head
propped
up
by
one
arm.

He
looked
at
her
for
a
moment.
She
did
not
usually
probe
at
him like
this.

"What's
on
your
mind?"
he
said.

"Tell
me
about
Hal
Mayne,"
she
said.

"Hal
Mayne?
I've
talked
about
him
before."

"You
have,
yes,"
she
said.
"But
mostly
you're
talking
to
Dahno about
how
dangerous
Hal
Mayne
is,
and
I
only
happen
to
be
in
the room."

"I
guess
that's
so,"
he
said.
"I'm
sorry;
I
don't
mean
to
be
leaving you
out."

"I
know
you
don't,"
she
said.
"And
you're
not,
really.
It's
not
so much
that
you're
not
telling
me—something—about
Hal
Mayne,
as that
I
can
see
there's
something
about
your
reaction
to
him—or maybe
your
feelings
for
him—that
I
can
see
the
edges
of,
but
you never
talk
about."

He
found
himself
at
a
loss
for
words,
and
the
silence
stretched long
enough
that
it
was
she
who
finally
broke
it.

"Maybe
it's
something
you
haven't
even
thought
about,
yourself,"
she
said.
"So
let
me
tell
you
what
it
looks
like
to
me."
She paused
to
raise
herself
off
her
arm
and
move
the
pillow
her
elbow had
been
nestling
in
to
his
stomach;
and
then
rolled
onto
it,
so
that she
could
look
down
into
his
face.

"To
me
it
looks
as
if
you
react
to
Hal
Mayne
in
some
way
you never
react
to
anyone
else—no,
wait!—that's
not
exactly
what
I mean."
She
took
another
moment
to
think.

"Something
about
him
makes
you
sad,"
she
continued.
"Not
the way
a
person
would
feel
about
an
enemy."
Her
finger
was
poking lightly
at
his
chest.
"I
know
you're
sad
a
lot,
but
this
is
different.... Do
you
understand
what
I'm
getting
at?"

"Well
...,"
he
said,
stretching
the
word
out
a
little.
"I
guess
I'm disappointed."

She
looked
at
him,
simply
waiting
for
him
to
continue.

"I
think
you
know—"
He
stopped.
This
is
hard!
Why
do
I
keep
running
into
these
hard
places?
"—no,
I
know
you
know,"
he
went
on, "that
I've
always
felt
I
can
never
have
a
friend."
He
was
looking now
at
the
ceiling
of
his
bedroom,
which
as
usual
was
set
to
display the
starry
night
sky.
Like
the
sky,
he
was
oblivious
to
her
reactions.

"I
know
that.
I've
always
known
it,"
he
went
on.
"I
accepted
it
as the
way
of
my
life,
long
ago.
But
for
some
reason
I
don't
fully
understand,
when
I
learned
about
him,
and
even
more
when
I
met him,
some
part
of
me
insisted
that
this
man
could
be
the
friend
I never
thought
I
could
have."

"Could
be—but
isn't?"

"Yes."
He
exhaled,
a
release
of
tension
almost
loud
enough
to
be a
sigh.
"Instead
of
my
friend,
he's
become
my
enemy—and
the most
dangerous
possible
enemy.
There
are
already
people
who
are beginning
to
pay
attention
to
him,
like
the
Exotics."