who was wearing one of those identifying medallions around her neck. He says Loxner
seemed afraid of her, as though she were a superior. Later, Dr. Loxner said he
performed his mind transferral process on one other person, a woman, placing her mind
within a perfect robot body. I don’t think I need dwell too much on who that robot might
have become.” “Lady A!” Edna exclaimed.
Duke Etienne took up the thread from there. “We have no direct proof, but I think we can
make an educated guess about the woman’s identity: Aimee Amorat, the Beast of
Durward. ”
The two women were silent for a moment, allowing the thought to percolate in their
minds. “Of course,” Helena said slowly. “We never even thought of her before in
connection with Lady A. We knew she’d have to be somewhere in her nineties by now if
she was still alive, while Lady A looked to be a woman in her prime. But if her mind was
transferred into a robot body, she could be any age at all.”
“She was probably the old woman you saw twenty years ago,” Edna said to Etienne.
“She’d have been in her seventies then, probably desperate knowing she might die soon,
ready to try anything to preserve her life.”
“Loxner said she was vain,” the Duke agreed. “That fits with everything we know about
the Beast.”
“Vain, cold, cunning, devious, utterly treacherous,” the Head said. “We’ve managed, at
last, to pin a name on our adversary, but I’m still not sure I’m happy about it. She’s a
woman whose beauty and intelligence snared an Emperor and beguiled an entire court.
When that fell apart, she fled and managed to hide from the most thorough manhunt
SOTE ever staged. She stayed hidden for over seventy years, and nearly managed to
see her son installed on the throne. She’s a skilled actress, and her ambition knows no
bounds. She’s one of the most formidable enemies we could face.”
“It just occurred to me,” Helena said. “On Gastonia, when she allowed Jules and Yvonne
to inject her with nitrobarb, it might have been the real stuff. She’d have no reason to be
afraid of it; it’ll have no effect on her. Stunners will have no effect on her. In fact, there’s
damned little of anything she’d be afraid of except a bomb or a blaster. ”
“This would also explain the preferential treatment she gave Tanya Boros-her
granddaughter. And it makes what finally happened all the more ironic.” He explained to
Helena and Etienne the circumstances of Boros’s death in the booby-trapped escape
ship.
“Now that we know who we’re dealing with,” von Wilmenhorst continued, “we can finally
start making some plans of our own. The Service has a long background file on Aim6e
Amorat; while it’s considerably out of date, it may give us a few things to work on. We
can at least draw up a preliminary psychological profile to understand our enemy a little
better.” He lapsed into thought as he considered all the actions that needed to be taken.
“What intrigues me,” Etienne said, “is Loxner’s mind transferral process. He developed a
form of immortality, and now it’s gone with him.”
“Not necessarily,” Edna replied. “That’s one of the nice things about science-if a process
is important enough it can always be recreated. I can authorize some Imperial research
grants and steer cyberneticists toward those published papers Loxner mentioned. If
there’s anything there at all, the technique will be rediscovered.”
She paused to consider some of the implications. “if this works, it will revolutionize the
entire Galaxy.” Etienne d’Alembert, meanwhile, cleared his throat and went to sit beside
the Head. He whispered in von Wilmenhorst’s ear for several minutes, and the Grand
Duke’s face broke into a wide grin. He looked back at his daughter. “Duke Etienne tells
me you’ve developed an attachment for our Captain Fortier,” he said.
Helena blushed hotly. “Well, he saved my life,” she admitted.
The Head’s smile broadened. “Such bravery shouldn’t go unrewarded,” he said. “I’ve
been trying to develop closer ties with Naval Intelligence for several months. It occurs to
me that what we need is a senior officer from each branch to act as official liaison with
the other. Would you mind the additional workload if you and Captain Fortier were
assigned to coordinate our mutual activities?”
Helena’s squeal of joy indicated she would not mind that in the least.