Confronted with the evidence, the man broke. He pleaded fear. Well, nobody went willingly out into such a gale, armor or no. Inquiries in depth suggested he had other motivations. He was definitely guilty of abandonment, which on the Moon was a first-class felony. The law demanded he be imprisoned and rehabilitated.
The old Lunar law, in force during the years of the Jihad, the chaos, and the Coordinating Committee, demanded death.
Once established, the Lunar Authority had abrogated that, together with certain other practices. It seemed a largely pro forma betterment. How often did abandonment occur? Scarcely ever.
Yrazul was of Selenarchic family.
Maybe she could have been any Lunarian, or anybody at all. Wahl didn’t know.
What he knew was that Adair, free on bail, had been knifed dead. (You didn’t trigger firearms inside a settlement. The old law made that too a capital offense.) It was a murder quick and clean; Darenn should have been able to leave his note explaining the reason for it and escape. Unfortunately, a burly Dutch spaceman happened to witness the job and in a flying tackle captured the Lunarian.
Unfortunately indeed. What was becoming a cause c&ebre had threatened to touch off a political crisis. Now it positively would.
Wahl switched off the playback, rose, went around and around the room. You couldn’t really pace here, you bounded, airily, a wisp of dandelion fluff—you and your concerns mattering no more than that? But he must prowl his cage, and he would not whine.
What to do?
God be thanked, the hijacking was not yet in the news. He could keep it out for hours more; they were good people on his staff. Meanwhile he must prepare for the public reaction.
A hunt for the gang and its master(s?) would be hopeless, merely infuriating the seditiously minded. Yet the government could not dismiss the outrage as a bagatelle. Such a sign of weakness would dismay the law-abiding, on whose support the Authority depended as every government does. It would incite new violations, more blatant than ever. The extremists would take fire; they might well rupture the legislature, give the entire system a possibly fatal wound, in spite of anything the governor and the moderates could offer them.
Surely no sensible member of any faction wanted that, or an uproar, or a crime wave. They must make common cause, issue a joint call for order and reason, hold their followers steady.
Who were the sensible ones? He needed an individual who could tell him and could bring them together, fast, before things disintegrated.
Dagny Beynac.
Had she the forcefulness, the sheer physical strength for these hours ahead? How old was she, anyway? A hundred and five, a hundred and ten? Something like that.
Still, the last time he saw her, she had seemed hale enough. And she headed the Council for Lunar Commonalty, which she had taken a lead in forming. (Lunar, Wahl reassured himself, not Lunarian.) Unrecognized by the Authority, the Federation, any single nation, or the Selenarchs, it had become in several ways the most influential organization on the Moon; and that was largely due to her.
Quick! Call Beynac.
Easy, though. Take a minute and think. Was this really his best approach to controlling the damage? He should reconsider his relationship with her, and everything he knew about her. Begin with that talk they had had, the two of them alone, shortly after he assumed office here. He had asked if she objected to its being recorded, and she had grinned as she answered, “No, provided you keep it clean.”
Having canceled his appointments, he played that part of it which to him epitomized the whole.
Her posture remained erect, but the big bones stood forth in her spareness—not ugly, he thought; no, beautiful, like a strong abstract sculpture. Against the pale skin, her eyes seemed large and bluely luminous, as if from a star behind them. Rather than unisuit or tunic and slacks, she wore a caftan of gray iridon. Her only jewelry was a Saturn brooch at her throat and a worn golden ring.
“Understand, por favor,” she said, and her voice still resonated, “I claim no legal status. The Council is a forum. When its members reach basic agreement on an issue, it advises and urges, pro bono publico.” She laughed. “That doesn’t happen too often.”