Pias sighed. “Oh hell, I’m no psychologist. I don’t know if that’s what’s wrong with him or not. There’s something dreadfully sick within him, I saw that the last time I was home – but what caused it, when it began, and what can be done about it… I just don’t know.”
“He has to be stopped,” Beti said with gritty determination. “That’s why I came to find you. You’ve always been able to stand up to him, all the time I was growing up. You’re the only person he’s really afraid of, you’re the only one who could take control away from him. Legally, as oldest son….”
“Legally I’m not the oldest son,” Pias said bitterly.
“Legally, according to the kriss, I’m nobody. I don’t exist. Nobody on Newforest will have anything to do with me.”
“A lot of people are beginning to realize they made a mistake,” Beti said. “They want you to come back and put Tas in his place. They want you as the next duke. They’re even making up songs about you, about the wandering son who’ll come back one day and save Newforest from tyranny.”
Pias turned his face away. “It’s not that easy, Beti. I’ve made a new life for myself here. The reasons I had for leaving Newforest, the things I couldn’t explain to the kriss, are still there and even now I can’t tell you about them. I have responsibilities to something far greater than the welfare of a single world. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to return. I don’t know if I’ll want to. I had to turn off so much of myself to keep it from hurting. To bring it back now….” He shivered at the thought.
“I understand,” Beti said, her voice like a little girl’s. “We turned our backs on you and cast you out. We have no right to ask you for favors now.”
She sighed. “I guess I’m in the same boat now. I’ll have to change my name and find somewhere safe to live.”
This jolted Pias out of his own unhappy thoughts. “Huh? Why?” He turned to face her again.
“I can’t go back home, not after this. You were my one hope, and now that’s gone.”
Something inside Pias went cold and brittle. “You mean it was Tas who tried to kill you? His own sister?”
“He keeps the whole family under lock and key; he’s afraid we’ll challenge him and get people to back us. We’re not in chains, but we’ve got some of his ‘escorts’ wherever we go to make sure we don’t do anything wrong. Old Yuri helped me escape in a wagonload of mulaska melons. I had barely enough money to book passage on a couple of ships, first to Belange, then to Wallach, and finally I caught the freighter coming here, hoping to find you. I don’t know how he tracked me down, but those must have been some of his men who … who ….
She broke into fresh tears, and Pias held her tightly once more. But as his hands tenderly caressed her shoulders his fact hardened into an expression of grim determination. As Beti’s sobbing subsided once more, he whispered, “I can’t let him get away with that. I can’t let him do it – not to you, not to them, though God knows they’ve deserved it.”
He pushed Beti away slightly so he could look into her face. “I have the Empire on one side and you and the family and Newforest on the other. But I can’t sit by and let my family be murdered by my power-mad brother. That’s not in anyone’s interest, not even the Empress’s.”
He sighed.
Then he moved apart from her, and his tone was all business. “Tell me what’s happened since I left. Tell me everything, every detail no matter how small. If I’m going to be of any help, I have to know what I’m facing.”
—
After hearing his sister’s story and assuring her she’d be safe with Baron Ebert, Pias took Yvonne with him to police headquarters where the would-be assassins were being held. With the word of the baron backing them up, they gained quick admittance to the killers.
Even under detrazine, though, it was clear that Beti’s attackers could give them little additional information. They were low – level blasterbats, local criminals hired by an anonymous voice over the vidiphone – with the visual circuits blanked out – to perform the specific task of killing Beti Bavol. They were told precisely where she was staying and that they should perform their task as quickly as possible. They didn’t know who had hired them or whether there was any connection with the planet Newforest.
Disappointed, the two SOTE agents flew back to Felicité, discussing the problem along the way. “From what Beti told me,” Pias said, “Tas has revolutionized the planet singlehanded. It was always a rather backward, easygoing place; now he’s brought in computerized equipment, he’s spying on his citizens, he’s even building factories. That’s much too institutionalized for good old Newforest. If it were just the factories and the computers, I could excuse it as an attempt to bring ‘progress’ to the planet – but the ruthless way he’s going about it makes it different somehow. Something’s happening there, something … well, I hate to say ‘evil,’ it sounds so melodramatic, but that’s the feeling I get. Something evil has gripped Newforest and won’t let go. What I don’t understand is why the local SOTE office hasn’t reported anything about this.”
“Maybe they have,” Vonnie said. “The Empress gives local nobility a great deal of leeway – it’s the only way an empire of this scale can survive. Her father tried to avoid meddling in local matters as much as possible, and Edna seems to be following that same policy. She and the Head may be waiting to see just how far this will go before they step in.”
“When it goes as far as murder, that’s too far.”
“I agree, and something will have to be done. The thing I don’t understand is how your brother was able to track Beti down so quickly. Within hours of her arrival the killers knew exactly where to find her. That would be understandable on Newforest, where he probably has lots of spies, but on a distant planet it’s much harder to trace someone. He must have some organization behind him.”
The implications of her statement remained floating in the air between them, but neither agent voiced them aloud. Instead they flew the rest of the way back to the d’Alembert estate in brooding silence.
As soon as they reached Felicité, Pias put through a subcom call to the Head’s private number on Earth. Grand Duke Zander von Wilmenhorst, the chief of the Service of the Empire, was unavailable at the moment, but Pias spoke to his daughter and prime lieutenant, Helena. He asked for a leave of absence to settle some family matters, and described to her in some detail what he’d learned of events on Newforest. Helena listened somberly as she considered the situation.
“I don’t recall any strongly negative reports, from Newforest,” she said when Pias was done, “and I see virtually all the reports that come in. I see so many reports it makes my eyes ache.”
She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. “As far as I can recall, the only thing that’s come in about Newforest was that they were making a big push toward modernization. Nothing wrong with that, so we haven’t paid much attention. If what your sister says is true, someone is lying to us somewhere down the line – possibly someone in the Service office itself. I don’t like that one bit.”
She paused and looked straight at Pias. “What you’re describing doesn’t sound to me like a leave of absence at all. It sounds like a full-blown assignment, to investigate illegal and treasonous activities on Newforest and to take steps to correct the situation. You don’t have to ask permission to do that.”
“There are personal matters involved,” Pias said, “and I didn’t want to just disappear on you if you had any other assignments for me.”
“I understand the personal matters very well,” Helena said, her expression softening suddenly. “Newforest is your home, and should have been your inheritance. I know the depth of your concern. You know, though, that the d’Alembert teams have a standing assignment to investigate anything that looks suspicious to them – unless they’re given something specific to do instead. Right now, everything’s quiet – everyone’s holding their breath to see what turns out in the Omicron situation. You’re free to pursue any investigations that strike your fancy. I appreciate knowing where you’ll be, in case of trouble. I’ll notify the local office there to stand by to give you any assistance….”
“That might not be such a wise idea,” Vonnie said, in view of the fact that someone there might be falsifying the reports.”