for their share of the Pax; to give their leaders advice as occasion
warranted, and not use his marines to see that they followed it unless
he absolutely must; to speak on their behalf to those officials of the
Crown with whom he dealt; to cope.
He had not done badly. It was not his fault that demons haunted the
planet which were beyond his capability of exorcising, and might yet
take possession of it.
“No, sir, they wouldn’t give notice. Seldom do. Abominably poor manners,
but that’s policy for you, what?” Flandry nodded at his credentials,
where they lay on the desk. ” ‘Fraid I can’t be too explicit either.
Let’s say I’m on a special tour of inspection.”
Lagard gave him a close look. Flandry could guess the resident’s
thought: Was this drawling clothes horse really an Intelligence officer
at work, or a pet relative put through a few motions to justify making
an admiral of him? “I will cooperate as far as possible, Captain.”
“Thanks. Knew y’ would. See here, d’you mind if I bore you for a few
ticks? Mean to say, I’d like to diagram the situation as I see it. You
correct me where I’m wrong, fill in any gaps, that kind of thing, eh?
You know how hard it is to get any proper overview of matters. And then,
distances between stars, news stale before it arrives, n’est-ce pas?”
“Proceed,” Lagard said resignedly.
Flandry discarded his cigarette, crossed legs and bridged fingers. No
grav generator softened the pull of Diomedes. He let his added weight
flow into the chair’s crannies of softness, as if already wearied. (In
actuality he did his calisthenics under two gees or more, because thus
he shortened the dreary daily time he needed for keeping fit.)
“Troublemakers afoot,” he said. “Distinct possibility of hostiles taking
advantage of the disorganization left by the recent
unpleasantness–whether those hostiles be Merseian, Ythrian, barbarian,
Imperials who want to break away or even overthrow his Majesty–right?
You got hints, various of those troublemakers were active here, fanning
flames of discontent and all that sort of nonsense. How’d they get past
your security?”
“Not my security, Captain,” Lagard corrected. “I’ve barely had this post
five years. I found the sentinel system in wretched
condition–expectable, after the Empire’s woes–and did my best to
effect repairs. I also found our civil strife was doing much to heighten
resentment, particularly in the Great Flock of Lannach. It disrupted
offplanet commerce, you see. The migrant societies have become more
dependent on that than the sedentary ones like Drak’ho which have
industry to produce most of what they consume. But please realize, a new
man on a strange world needs time to learn its ins and outs, and develop
workable programs.”
“Oh, quite.” Flandry nodded. “At first you’d see no reason to screen
visitors from space. Rather, you’d welcome ’em. They might help restore
trade, what? Very natural. No discredit to you. At last, however, clues
started trickling in. Not every transient was spending his stay in the
outback so benignly. Right?
“You asked my Corps to investigate. That likewise takes time. We too
can’t come cold onto a planet and hope for instant results, y’ know. Ah,
according to my briefing, it was sector HQ you approached. Terra just
got your regular reports.”
“Of course,” Lagard said. “Going through there would have meant a delay
of months.”
“Right, right. No criticism intended, sir,” Flandry assured him. “Still,
we do like to keep tabs at Home. That’s what I’m here for, to find out
what was done, in more detail than the official report”–which was
almighty sketchy–“could render. Or, you could say, my superiors want a
feel of how the operation went.”
Lagard gave the least shrug.
“Well, then,” Flandry proceeded. “The report does say a Commander Bruno
Maspes brought an Intelligence team, set up shop in Thursday Landing,
and got busy interrogating, collating data, sending people out into the
field–the usual intensive job. They worked how long?”
“About six months.”
“Did you see much of them?”
“No. They were always occupied, often all away from here at once,
sometimes away from the whole system. Personnel of theirs came and went.