“What kind of outcome?” Thelma asked from beside Leon,
Lechat hesitated and looked uncertainly in Celia’s direction. She returned an almost imperceptible nod. Lechat looked back at the screen. “Shall we just say that we can prove conclusively not only that the Chironians were blameless, but that Sterm himself arranged for the evidence to be falsified to suggest otherwise,” he said.
“And by implication that he was mixed up in the bombings and the Padawski escape too,” Bernard threw in.
The Chironians suddenly appeared intrigued. ‘We suspected that it bad to be something like that,” Casey said, sitting forward on the couch beside Veronica. “But how can you prove it?”
An awkward silence hung over the room. Then Celia said, “Because I killed him. The rest was faked after I left the house. Only Sterm knew about his death.”
Murmurs of surprise came from the screen. In the living room, the Chironians were staring at Celia in amazement. Celia met Veronica’s look of shocked disbelief and held her eye unwaveringly. Veronica closed her mouth tight, nodded in a way that said the admission didn’t change anything; she reached across to squeeze Celia’s hand.
Lechat didn’t want to see Celia dragged through an ordeal again. He raised his arms to attract attention back to himself. “But don’t you see what it means,” he said. The voices on the screen and inside the room died away. “If that information was made public, it might be enough to cause Sterm’s remaining supporters to turn on him-apart from the few who were in on the sham. Surely if that happened he’d have to see that it was all over. He’s hanging on by the thread of a lie, and we possess proof of the truth that cat cut that thread. That gives us an option to try resorting to less drastic measures. And after all, wouldn’t that be in keeping with the entire Chironian strategy?”
Kath looked apprehensively at Celia. Celia nodded in answer to the unvoiced question. “Yes, that’s the way I want it,” she said. Kath nodded and accepted the situation at that.
“Exactly what are you asking us to do?’ Otto asked from the screen. Lechat tossed up his hands and began pacing again.
“Anything to publicize what we’ve said . . . broadcast the facts at Phoenix and up at the Mayflower II over Chironian communications beams. At least some of the population would hear it . . . the word would soon be spread. . . , I don’t know . . . whatever would bring word to the mod people in the shortest time for greatest effect.”
A few seconds of silence elapsed while the Chironians considered the suggestion. Their expressions seemed to say. it couldn’t do any harm, but it probably wouldn’t change very much. “Is the case strong enough to turn the whole Army round in a moment?” Kath asked doubtfully at last. “We have no proof about Padawski and the bombings. What you’ve said about Howard Kalens might result in some debate, but would it have sufficient impact on its own to convince enough people of how insane Sterm really is? Now, if we could prove all the incidents, all at the same lime-”
“And having to rely on the news trickling through from the outside wouldn’t help,” Adam pointed out. “There have been so many rumors already. It would be more likely to just fizzle out,”
“It’s an idea,” Bernard said, looking up at Lechat. “But it needs more of what Kath said-impact.”
“I agree, I agree,” Lechat told them. “But we only know what we know, and we can only do what we can do. Surely doing so is not going to make things any worse. Will you try it?” Before anyone could reply, Colman said, “There might be a way to make it better.” Everyone looked at him. He swept his hands around quickly. “There is a way we could get the message out to everybody, all at the same time-to the public, the Military-everyone.” He looked around again. The others waited. “Through the Communications Center up in the ship,” he said. “Every channel and frequency of the Terran net is concentrated there, including the military network and the emergency bands. We could broadcast from there on all of them simultaneously. You couldn’t make much more impact than that.” He sat back and looked around again to invite reactions.