Sullenly, the would-be rebels returned to their places on the floor.
After a moment, when he was sure it was safe, Tshombase himself strode into the room.
The big man put his hands on his hips and looked around, a humorless smile on his ebony
features. His eyes fastened on Jules, and he nodded. “You were right, Brecht,” he said.
“A rat’s nest indeed.”
The recruits and the bodyguards alike turned to glare their hatred at the two newcomers
who had betrayed them. Jules ignored them and looked directly at Tshombase. “I told
you we could be of service to your organization.”
Scarface was cursing Yvonne loudly as she held him pinned down and helpless.
Tshombase turned in that direction and grinned at the man who thought to replace him.
“So it’s you, Luis. I thought you were smarter than this. Why must I always be
disappointed in people?”
He nodded to some of his men. “Take our friend Luis to the office and see if you can’t
persuade him to tell us who else has been playing his little game.”
Tshombase’s troops herded all their prisoners out the door, leaving the mayor alone with
the d’Alemberts. The big man looked at the two DesPlainians and said, “I really had my
doubts about you, but you delivered as you promised. Why did you decide to go along
with me instead of Luis? He would probably have offered you a higher position.”
“I prefer to bet on a sure thing,” Jules said, looking unafraid straight into Tshombase’s
eyes. And, in part, that was the d’Alemberts’ real reason. By proving their loyalty to the
present mayor, they were sure they could land a job of some sort in his organization,
which was already set up, rather than having to wait for Luis to arrange his own
administration-assuming that first he succeeded.
But there was more of a reason than that. Tanya Boros must already have contact
established with Tshombase, with regular channels of communication. If a new mayor
came into the village, there would be delays while new channels were created-and the
d’Alemberts had already had their fill of delays. That was why Jules had secretly
approached Tshombase and told him of the meeting tonight, to help him smash the revolt
before it even began.
Tshombase looked from Jules to Yvonne and back again. “I like the way you two work,”
he said. “Starting tomorrow, I’m going to make you the guards outside my office. It’s a
simple job-you just stand by and make sure nobody gets in to disturb me while I’m
working. Think you can handle that?”
The SOTE agents were thrilled; that was a far better assignment than they would have
dared hope for. It would put them right at the center of village activity, and allow them to
see exactly who went in and out of Tshombase’s office. “All smooth,” Jules said
confidently. “No problems.”
“Good. I don’t like problems. Report to duty first thing tomorrow-and you’ll be working at
double your present salaries, by the way. Tshombase treats his people right. In the
meantime, get some sleep; you’ve earned it.”
Over the course of the next few days, though, the d’Alemberts began to doubt whether
they’d been as lucky as they originally thought. Their job of guarding Tshombase’s office
turned out to be quite monotonous. They never had any trouble with unauthorized visitors
trying to intrude; perhaps people had learned long ago that Tshombase did not relish
interruptions. Those visitors who did come were either members of Tshombase’s gang,
with whom they were already familiar, or else villagers who came by to ask the mayor
for some favor or another. The walls of the building were thin enough that, by straining a
little, the d’Alemberts could hear every word said within the office but the business was
usually so trivial that there was no point. After a while they stopped listening to
everything, and only paid attention when there was a chance something important might
occur-but nothing important ever seemed to happen.
On a couple of occasions when Tshombase was out and the office was empty, Jules
took the opportunity to search the room while his wife covered for him outside. But the
searches proved as fruitless as the eavesdropping. There was very little paper of any
sort on Gastonia, and Tshombase had no incriminating evidence or useful information
lying around. His business dealings were all verbal; he knew full well that no one dared
double-cross him, so why bother to keep track of promises?
After more than a week on the job the d’Alemberts were beginning to despair that
anything would come of the promotion they had worked so hard to obtain. Then, when
they were standing guard one evening shift, they heard a distant humming sound that
made them exchange startled glances. As the sound grew closer it became more
distinctive: the low buzz of a personal copter coming in for a nearby landing. At last
Tshombase was going to have an important visitor.
As the copter landed outside and its motor turned off, Jules and Yvonne drew
themselves up to full attention. Moments later two people walked through the door and
up the stairs to Tshombase’s second-floor office. Both were clad in boots and slacks,
with heavy hooded parkas of thick white fur. The first woman Vonnie did not recognize,
although she assumed from her husband’s description that it must be Tanya Boros. She
paid little attention to the erstwhile Duchess of Swingleton, however, because the woman
behind Boros was far more important to them. On the other side of the doorway she
could almost feel Jules tensing while Lady A walked right up to them as though she
owned the building, and perhaps the whole planet. Vonnie had seen Lady A once before,
on Earth, but she’d been following someone else and hadn’t known Lady A’s importance
then. She did now.
Tanya Boros stopped before the door and stared at Jules for a moment. “You’re the
hunter who came to the house, aren’t you?”
“Yes, gospozha.” Jules was uncomfortable at having her attention focused on him.
“Why didn’t you tell me you worked for Tshombase?” “I didn’t, then.”
“Congratulations on your promotion,” Boros said cynically. Lady A snorted. “Stop wasting
time with the hired help,” she said. Brushing past Boros, she opened the door to
Tshombase’s office and strode confidently in, without either knocking or waiting to be
announced. She was obviously a woman used to going where she chose without
opposition. Neither Jules nor Yvonne made any move to stop her.
Tanya Boros followed her leader into the office, and closed the door behind them. Since
there was no one else in the hall to see them, the d’Alemberts had no qualms about
listening in on the conversation through the thin walls.
“Have you got the people I asked for?” Lady A demanded of Tshombase without
prelude.
It was amazing to hear Tshombase, the arrogant mayor of the village, speaking in
respectful tones to a woman half his size. “Yes, I’ve arranged it with the Governor. When
do you want them?”
“I’ll be staying at the house until the day after tomorrow. They can come on the ship with
me when I leave. I’ll send the copter over to pick them up sometime that morning.”
“Yes, Your Ladyship.” Tshombase paused, as though hesitant to continue. “Uh, Your
Ladyship, about my own transfer…”
“You’ll stay here for now,” Lady A said coldly. “When a person does a good job for me. I
keep him on there to continue doing a good job. When we are successful, the rewards
will be worth the wait.”
“I know, Your Ladyship,” Tshombase mumbled. “It’s just that this planet is so miserable
and cold. . .”
“And safe,” Lady A chided him. “At least here you don’t have SOTE checking down your
throat every few minutes. I don’t think they’ll ever know how important Gastonia has been
in our plans. They gave us a freedom here that we’d never be able to get on any ordinary
world.”
“Yes, Your Ladyship,” Tshombase said, having been properly upbraided for his mild
insolence. “Who will be on your list for next time?”
“There won’t be a next time.” Then-probably in response to some unvocalized
expression-she added, “That’s right. Operation Annihilate is almost ready. You won’t
have to worry about staying here that much longer.”
“That is good news, Your Ladyship.”
But not to Jules and Yvonne. As they stood at their posts watching Lady A and Tanya
Boros leave, they realized how desperately close they were cutting their margin of
safely. Lady A had sounded most confident that her uprising against the Empire would
succeed-an uprising to be launched by a campaign known ominously as Operation
Annihilate.
Chapter 12
The House on the Hill
The d’Alemberts had a great deal to discuss when they went home from duty that night.
“Tshombase mentioned the Governor,” Vonnie mused aloud. “He must be on Lady A’s