allowed Edna to succeed him. In his hands, he carried his own personal Great Seals of
State which had been purposely defaced; this act signified that he could no longer
execute documents and laws as the Emperor, and his power was at an end. Edna had
her own official seals. At any given moment, there could only be one person holding the
supreme authority, or the Galaxy would dissolve into chaos.
William Stanley stood proudly on the platform, watching through mist-laden eyes as his
daughter made the same long walk he had taken forty-six years ago. Scores of
memories, happy and sad, flashed through his mind as he waited for her to reach the
platform, but he did not regret in the slightest his decision to hand over the power to her.
He’d seen his daughter in action often enough to know she would make a wise and fair
ruler-and how many monarchs had ever been blessed with such knowledge of their
successors during their own lifetimes?
Edna reached the base of the platform and started slowly up the stairs, aided by her
ladies, being most careful not to make the slightest slip in these unfamiliar clothes. This
moment must not be spoiled by anything so trivial. When she came to the top, Edna
walked to the center of the platform, placed her sword upon the altar next to the crown
of state that was already there, and knelt with her head bowed. Her ladies removed the
mantle from her shoulders and retreated backwards down the stairs. The archbishop
then came over and stood on her right side, her father on her left, and together both men
began the invocation to start the ceremony.
The d’Alemberts had seen almost nothing of the rites; their duty kept their eyes focused
on the audience rather than on the ceremony itself. It was at this point that both were
relieved by others and told to report back to Colonel Takanabe at the security
checkpoint. Puzzled-and a little alarmed by this unexpected change-they obeyed.
Takanabe was terse as she took them aside and explained the situation. “There is a fleet
of spaceships materializing in the solar system, out of the ecliptic plane and beyond the
orbit of Mars-but they are coming toward Earth in a hurry. Do you know anything about
this?”
The d’Alemberts exchanged startled glances. “They weren’t supposed to attack until
tomorrow?” Vonnie exclaimed.
“Well. someone forgot to tell them,” Takanabe said grimly. She turned to a special
microphone and repeated what she’d told the d’Alemberts. This connection went to a
receiver planted in the Head’s ear, so small as to be unnoticeable unless one knew
precisely what to look for. The Head had also been equipped with a subvocal microphone
so he could speak to the checkpoint if necessary without disturbing those in the audience
around him.
The Head listened quietly to Colonel Takanabe’s terse recitation. “Are Wombat and
Hedgehog there?” he asked when she’d finished.
“Yes, sir,” Jules spoke up instantly. “What do you make of this?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible they changed their plans-but that information we
had was gotten under nitrobarb.”
“Are you sure?” Those three words came across the air waves and hit the agents like so
many bullets.
Vonnie slapped a hand to her forehead. “Mon Dieu! We could have been injecting her
with distilled water!”
As the magnitude of what had happened began to sink in, the d’Alemberts felt sick at
heart. They had been so proud of themselves for finally capturing Lady A, for finding out
how the leaks from SOTE were accomplished, and especially for learning the details of
the plan to attack Earth. They had escaped from Gastonia alive and delivered their vital
information on time. And all the while they had been operating under a ruse perpetrated
by one of the craftiest villains who’d ever lived.
Looking back on it, they could see step by step everything that had gone into setting
them up. Shortly after Jules discovered the house-something he was bound to do
eventually they had been elevated to a high position within Tshombase’s regime … a
position that just happened to put them in the right place to overhear Lady A saying that
she would be staying at the house for a few days. Their attack, with almost no
resources, against a well-defended house had been absurdly simple, and they
encountered no resistance once they broke in. The one door unlocked on the top floor
had been the entrance to Lady A’s office, where a vial of “nitrobarb” was conveniently
lying in a drawer, waiting to be found!
As soon as the scene was set, Lady A stumbled in alone and allowed herself to be
captured most easily, knowing the only real alternative the agents would have was to use
the planted “nitrobarb” on her. Under the influence of the supposed truth drug she could
tell them anything and they would believe her implicitly. Then, when she had told them
precisely what she wanted them to know, guards broke in and chased the agents away
to a conveniently waiting spaceship.
Jules felt like a classic fool. “I’ve seen rookies fresh out of the Academy with more brains
than we have,” he moaned. “I refuse to let you wallow in self-deprecation,” the Head said
sharply. “It’s no dishonor to lose to the best-and now we know exactly how good our
Lady A is. She took great pains that you would believe her. At every step of the game
she made sure it was just hard enough to give you a good challenge, so you wouldn’t
think you were given things too easily. She played every hand perfectly; I only hope we
survive to win a rematch.” “But what can we do about it now?” Vonnie asked.
“At the moment, the principal fight is out of our hands.” the Head said with remarkable
calm. “It’s the Navy’s job to fight these battles, not ours. We’ll have to leave it up to them
and hope they’re better at their job than we’ve been at ours.
“The Service has its own tasks at the moment-security during the Coronation. No matter
what’s happening in space above us, our Empress needs protection right here in this
room. Lady A tried a two-pronged attack during Edna’s wedding; she might use that
tactic again. Take up your posts and make sure nothing goes wrong-let the Navy handle
the rest.”
At that moment a mighty cheer went up throughout the building, a cheer that shook
Bloodstar Hall to its very foundations. The enormous crowd, unaware of the drama that
was soon to take place in the vacuum between planets, was reacting to the archbishop’s
placing the purple robe of state around Edna’s shoulders and her father’s placing the
heavy silver and gold crown upon her head. At that moment, the other peers in the
audience put on their own crowns and coronets. It was official now. Princess Edna had
become Her Most Imperial Majesty, Empress Stanley Eleven, sovereign ruler of the
Empire of Earth.
The d’Alemberts took up their posts once more as the archbishop’s benediction was
pronounced over the newly crowned empress. The next four hours would be filled with
various ranks of nobility, councilors and officials appearing before their new monarch and
swearing, individually and collectively, their fealty to her and all her line and heirs. But
though the DesPlainians kept their sharp eyes alert for any signs of danger within the hall
itself, their minds were millions of kilometers away. far out in space where the battle was
to be joined-a battle that, because of their mistake, could well mean the end of the
Stanley Dynasty and, indeed, of the Empire-itself.
Chapter 17
The Fourth Robot
Yvette explained to the real Commander Fortier exactly what the Bavols’ mission had
been here while she and the naval officer were on their way to Shen’s office. “What I
can’t understand,” she said, “is what Shen expects to gain by all this. Why did the robot
take my partner with him? If they knew all along that we were SOTE agents, why go
through with this elaborate charade?”
“There are only two reasons for letting any spy live once you know his identity: to find out
who else he contacts, and to feed him misleading information. They certainly
accomplished the first objective here; perhaps they’re after the second as well.”
Yvette nodded grimly. Authentication was always a problem in the intelligence business.
If the fake Commander Fortier told something to Headquarters, it would carry so much
weight; if Pias Bavol of SOTS confirmed the same information, it would be worth that
much more. Lady A and her cohorts might indeed have a reason to keep her husband
alive a while longer, at least until he had unwittingly done what they wanted. Then, Yvette
was sure, the robot would kill him without mercy even before her husband could react.
The two agents had their guns drawn as they moved through the halls of the pirate base,