‘Colman went through the motions of having to think back. “Yes . . . I think so. But I don’t remember Swyley being around.”
“Well, he must have been there somewhere, mustn’t he?”
“I guess so. So what was the rest of it?”
Sirocco shrugged. “Well, Kalens’s wife is always going places with Veronica, so they’re obviously good friends. Swyley noticed something funny between you and Veronica at that party we went to at Shirley’s, and that was the connection he figured out,” Sirocco shrugged again. “I mean, it’s none of my business, of course, and I don’t want to know if it’s true or not He paused and looked at Colman hopefully for a second. “Is it?”
“Would you expect me to say so if it was?’ Colman asked. –
“I suppose not.” Sirocco conceded, deflating with a disappointed sigh. After a second he looked up sharply again. “I’ll do a deal with you though. Tell me after this is all over, okay?”
Colman grinned. “Okay, chief. I will.” A short silence fell while they both thought about the same thing. “How long do you think it’ll be?” Colman asked at last.
‘~Who can say?” Sirocco answered, picking up the more serious tone. “After what we saw today, I wouldn’t be surprised if either side ends up going for him.”
“A lot of people are starting to think he could have bad those bombs planted. What do you think?”
Sirocco frowned and rubbed his nose. “I’m not convinced. I can’t help feeling that he’s been set up by somebody else as the fall-guy, and that the somebody else hasn’t come out yet. I think the Chironians believe that too.”
Colman nodded thoughtfully to himself and conceded the point. “Any ideas?”
Sirocco shrugged. “I’m pretty sure it can’t be Wellesley. He’s tried to play it straight, it’s all sweeping him way out of his depth. Anyhow, what would he have to gain? All he wants to do is to be put out to pasture; he’s only got a few days left. Ramisson obviously wouldn’t be involved in something like that, and the same goes for Lechat. But as for the rest, if you ask me, they’re all crazy. It could be any of them or all of them. But that’s who the Chironians are really after.”
“So it could take a while,” Colman said.
“Maybe. Who knows? Let’s just hope there aren’t too many of them in the Army.”
At that moment the emergency tone sounded shrilly from the companel. Sirocco jerked his legs off the desk, cut the alarm, and flipped on the screen, It was Hanlon, looking
tense. –
“It’s happened,” Hanlon told him. “Kalens is dead. We found him inside the house, shot six times. Whoever did it knew what they were doing.”
‘What about the sentries?” Sirocco asked curtly,
“Emmerson and Crealey were at the back. We found them unconscious in a ditch. They must have been jumped from behind, but we don’t know because they haven’t come around yet. They look as if they’ll be okay though. The others didn’t know a thing about it.”
Colman was listening grimly. “What about his wife?’ he muttered to Sirocco.
“How is Kalens’s wife?” Sirocco asked Hanlon.
“She isn’t here, We’ve checked with transportation, and she was booked onto a shuttle up to the ship earlier this
evening. She must have left before it happened.” Beside Sirocco, Colman breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“Well, that’s something, anyway,” Sirocco said. “Stay there, Bret, and don’t let anyone touch anything. I’ll get onto Brigade right away. We’ll have some more people over there in a few minutes.” He returned to Colman. “Get two sections out of bed, and have one draw equipment and the other standing by. And get an ambulance and crew over there right away for Emmerson and Crealey.” Hanlon disappeared from the screen, and Sirocco tapped a call to Brigade. “It looks as if the fall-guy has gone down, Steve,”
he murmured while Colman called the ambulance dispatcher on another panel. “Let’s see who steps out from the wings now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
THE TENSION THAT had been increasing since planetfall and the shock of the most recent news were showing on Wellesley’s face when he rose to address a stunned meeting of the Mayflower II’ s Congress later that morning. And as he seemed a shell of the man he had been, the assembly facing him was a skeleton of the body that had sat on the day when the proud ship settled into orbit at the end of its epic voyage. Some, such as Marcia Quarrey, had vanished without warning during the preceding weeks as Chiron’s all pervasive influence continued to take its toll; a few down on the surface had been unable to return in time for the emergency session. Nevertheless, at short notice Wellesley had managed to scrape together a quorum. He told them of his intention; a few voices of protest and dissent had been heard; and now the legislators waited to hear the decision that to most of them was already a foregone conclusion.