“Not good enough.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Everett, you may be able to treat my daughter like this—”
“The hell I can, and you know it! Now just for one lousy minute, will you listen?”
She took a deep breath. “All right. Alicia’s sake. But this had better be good.”
“Where do I start? Start at the beginning, go on to the end, then stop. That’s what you told Philip—”
“And you needn’t keep bringing Alicia and my grandson into this—”
“I’m not the one who brought up Alicia. Look, I’m trying to—” He stopped. “Sorry, Ann. I didn’t mean to bite. Okay, let’s start at the beginning. Where does the borloi go?”
“The borloi? What’s that got to do with—”
“Just listen, would you, please?”
She raised one eyebrow at him. “Very well. Lederle AG buys the borloi.”
“Right. Lederle. At least that’s the theory. But we all know that most of it actually goes to the Navy. They sell it, and that gives them money over and above what they get from the Grand Senate. Lets them do whatever they want, no matter what the Senate says they should do. The fact is, every single person on Tanith is party to a conspiracy against the CoDominium Treaty.”
“Well . . .” She reflected. “Yes, I suppose technically that’s true, but—”
“But nothing! It’s not just technically true. It is true. So far we’ve gotten away with it, but that can’t last. Did you know that Grand Senator Bronson is starting an investigation? By the time he’s done, your precious governor will be in jail. So will you, if we don’t cooperate with Bronson’s people.”
“Cooperate.” Her face turned stony. “How, cooperate?”
“You don’t have to do anything. Not one thing. Just forget you ever heard about the Norton Star. How did you tumble to it, anyway? I installed a flag to alert me if you or Blaine asked for any space-traffic info, but it didn’t tell me how you found out.”
Ann glanced at him, and found she was smiling in spite of herself. “Geoffrey Niles asked for a dinosaur hunting permit.”
“What!” Everett spluttered a guffaw. “That fathead! He would.”
“But you’re working for him—”
“Not for him. For his father. Lord Niles is one of Bronson’s key people, and Captain Yoshino is plenty sharp—”
“Yoshino?”
“Norton Star’s skipper. Bronson bought him away from the Meiji navy. Geoff Niles is supposed to be Purser.”
“I see now. I suppose they’re planning to land a boat in the planters’ territory and cart away the crop.”
“But of course. What else?”
“When?”
“No idea.”
“Soon?”
“What’s soon? I don’t really know, but I don’t think it’ll be tomorrow or anything near it.”
“No, I suppose not. If Niles thinks he has time to collect a dino—” She stopped and leaned against a tree. Everett looked quickly at her.
“Are you all right?”
“No. Yes, of course I’m all right. I just have to think. Everett, the governor trusts me.”
“I know. And this is a lousy thing to do to him. But damn it, Ann, he’s on the wrong side—”
“He’s not! He’s ending the slave trade, he’s going to put up power satellites as soon as he gets the money, he’s—”
“Sure, sure . . . All that’s fine. But what about the other things he’s doing? I know you weren’t happy having that whore at your table in Government House last week.”
“Well—maybe he is moving a little fast in some directions—”
“But that wasn’t what I meant,” Everett cut in. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said the wrong side. Maybe I should have said the losing side. Because, Ann, everybody who fights Bronson loses. Always.”
“Now that’s not true. Governor Blaine’s got the support of Grand Senator Grant—”
“It’s true in the long run. Grant’s losing support. Bronson’s going to win this one, and where will that leave us? Look, it’s not as though I’m asking you to do anything—”
“I don’t know, Ev. I just don’t know. I have to talk to Satay.”
“I thought he was out of town.”
“He’ll be back at the end of the week.”
“Good. I didn’t know he cared about politics.”
“He doesn’t, but—I still think I ought to talk to him.”
“All right. Talk to him. But promise me one thing, will you? Before you tell Blaine, will you come see me first?”
Ann took a deep breath. Nothing makes sense anymore. Still, family has to count for something. “All right, Ev. I will.”
* * *
Ursula walked so slowly Lysander was afraid she might stop. He kept his arm around her waist as they entered Falkenberg’s office.
“Good of you to see us, Colonel.”
“Not at all, Your Highness.” Falkenberg stood at his desk. “Miss Gordon. Please sit down. Would either of you care for a drink?”
“Thank you, no,” Lysander said.
“Sherry?” Ursula said faintly.
“Of course.” Falkenberg took a decanter and glasses from the credenza behind his desk. “Your Highness?”
“Well, since everyone else is. Thank you.”
Falkenberg poured, then sat down facing them across his desk. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” Lysander said automatically.
Ursula drained her glass. Lysander glanced at Falkenberg, then refilled her glass from the decanter.
“So,” Falkenberg prompted.
“Colonel, Ursula has a story I think you should hear. It happens that six weeks ago she was an overnight guest at one of the Girerd family’s establishments. The main one, I think, given the circumstances of her visit. Can you find it on your map there?”
“Should,” Falkenberg said. He moved a stack of papers to the side table and pulled out the keyboard drawer. “Hmm. Girard. G-I-R-A-R-D-?”
“No, it ends in ‘ERD,’ ” Ursula said.
“Ah. There are three villas. Let’s see—” The map appeared and zoomed in.
“Not that one,” Ursula said. “There was a sea inlet to the south.”
“Was there? Ah. Here we are. ‘Rochemont Manor.’ Grand name for a drug farm on a prison planet.” A satellite photograph replaced the map. “Nine hundred kilometers southwest of here.”
“That’s it, I’m sure it is,” Ursula said.
“Good.” Falkenberg refilled her glass and waited.
“It was about four in the morning,” Ursula said. “I was—the party was over, and it was hot, and I couldn’t sleep. The room was on a balcony, and I thought I heard something. More like thunder than wind, but there wasn’t any thunder. No wind either. I got up. I told myself it was to go look, but really I just wanted to walk around. While I was getting my robe I heard a helicopter land.”
“At four A.M.,” Lysander said.
Falkenberg nodded.
“When I got outside, I swear I heard some people talking down below somewhere, but I couldn’t see anyone, and there wasn’t any helicopter.”
“And you should have seen it?” Falkenberg asked.
“Yes. The helipad was down the hill from the balcony.”
“But they hadn’t put her in a room facing it,” Lysander said.
Falkenberg frowned.
“The veranda runs all the way around the house.” Ursula pointed to the satellite photo. “See, there it is. The room was over here, and the helipad is down there. I don’t know why I walked around to the north side. I suppose I was curious about the helicopter. It did seem a little unusual—”
Falkenberg waited, but she was staring at the map. “I see,” he said. “You were in a room on the east side.”
“Yes, I thought that was strange, because the best rooms are always on the north side. But that’s where we were. And they would have given us—I mean—”
“It’s all right, Ursa,” Lysander said, and squeezed her hand.
“You were in an east room,” Falkenberg repeated. “You heard sounds. As you got up, you heard a helicopter land. By the time you were above the helipad, there wasn’t any helicopter. How long did it take you to get around to the north side?”
“Not very long at all. Well, a minute or two,” Ursula said. “I had to find my robe. And the bedroom isn’t really off the veranda. It has a little balcony of its own, with steps that go down to the veranda. It was still dark, and the veranda lights were out, so it took a little time getting down the steps. And I wasn’t in any hurry. Really, Colonel—”
“So you walked around the veranda until you could see the helipad, but there was no helicopter. What happened then?”
“Not much at all. There was nothing there, so I walked back around to the balcony. My—Oskar was waiting for me there and we went back inside.”
“I see. And you say the noise that woke you sounded like thunder?”
“Well, at first I thought it was thunder. But it wasn’t anywhere near as loud, and it lasted a lot longer than thunder does.”
“And there was no storm.”
“None at all. The night was quite calm.”
Falkenberg took out a pair of rimless spectacles and put them on. He leaned over the map for a minute. “This party. Who were the guests?”