Revolt of the galaxy, p.5
Revolt of the Galaxy, page 5
Pias had brought plenty of money with him, and spent a week living in Garridan, growing more and more alarmed by what he saw. The citizen's card was a necessity on Newforest; not only did the police have the right to stop anyone at random on the street and ask to see the card, but it was impossible to buy anything with out presenting the card at the time of purchase. From renting a hotel room to eating meals to buying basic toiletries, there was virtually no aspect of life that was not controlled or regulated by that simple blue card.
More alarming than that, though, was the attitude of the people. Newforest had always been a lighthearted world, and the inhabitants of Garridan had been noted for their easy informal ways. Now there was a pall of fear over the town. People were particularly careful about what they said and to whom they said it, and in variably looked over their shoulders before speaking to make sure no police were in the area. People spoke in whispers in dark corners; Pias, as a stranger in town, was excluded from most conversations, though there had been a time when even strangers shared in the activities of Garridan. Nowadays, no one could afford to trust someone he didn't know.
Out of curiosity, Pias took a walk by the local office of the Service of the Empire. Because Newforest was an out-of-the-way planet where little ever happened, the SOTE office was barely more than a storefront staffed by a couple of low-level officials. Pias considered going in, but thought better of it when he saw the trio of police officers loitering nearby. They were watching the office and obviously prepared to take note of anyone trying to contact SOTE with complaints about the local regime. Pias had little doubt that calls to SOTE were also monitored, further discouraging local complaints. Still, such activities should not have silenced the SOTE operatives themselves; anyone with eyes could see what a reprehensible situation was occurring here. SOTE's failure to do anything indicated a tremendous breakdown somewhere in the system.
Pias spent a week in Garridan, becoming more and more depressed at the dismal circumstances. He wandered, watched, listened, and spent a good deal of time mentally composing the blistering report he would write to the Head. But the report was still incomplete; there were still things he had to discover about Tas and the way the system operated.
The key to everything on Newforest seemed to be those little blue citizen's cards. Through their use, a person could be tracked throughout the city and his movements monitored to a high degree of precision. Pias's own trail had been innocent and random; the security forces would learn nothing by keeping track of where he went and what he did. But there was serious potential for abuse; with a system this tight, individual freedom became purely a rhetorical concept.
To make the system work would require an enormous degree of computer sophistication, a reliance on technology that Pias would have thought antithetical to the Newforest character. Somewhere there had to be a computer facility where this random information, compiled from all over the world, was assimilated and analyzed to look for troublemakers or signs of rebellion. There had been no major computer centers on Newforest when Pias had left it. Somehow, Tas had built one in the last few years to consolidate his tyrannical rule. Such a facility would have needed outside help to build-- and Pias was almost afraid to speculate on where that help could have come from.
It didn't take Pias long to find the center. There was only one place in Garridan that was both new enough and large enough to house such a mammoth facility: a sprawling, heavily guarded installation near the out skirts of town. The number of guards around it, and the fact that the outside was kept brightly lit around the clock, indicated its importance to Tas's regime. It was so thoroughly watched that it became an irresistible target of Pias's curiosity.
Many agents would simply have reported the buildings as suspicious and left it to an official Service team of experts to investigate the inside. But going through channels might give Tas time to cover up the true nature of his operation. Pias felt he had to go inside and take at least a preliminary look around. He was not a computer expert and was not sure he could spot something significant even if it was right in front of him, but comparing the place before and after an official SOTE investigation would at least show whether changes had been made.
The building was so well guarded that Pias knew he had no chance of making a surreptitious entrance. Only uniformed guards and people with special clearances were allowed in and out of the place. Pias would have to disguise himself as one or the other. After some brief thought, he decided to impersonate one of the brassies. A uniform, by its very nature, was made to be taken for granted. One person in uniform looked very much like another and unless his fingerprints or retinal pattern were checked, Pias could probably walk through many areas of the building unchallenged.
He haunted the area near the time of shift change and followed one of the guards who was near his own size as the man got off work. Pias tracked him patiently until the man passed a deserted alleyway where the SOTE agent promptly waylaid him. The man was no match for Pias's Service training, and within minutes Pias found himself in possession of a uniform and a blaster--and a security badge that cleared him to pass through the gates of the computer complex. By taking this action he realized he was limiting himself. The guard's absence would be noticed within a day, or thirty-six hours at most; Pias would have to be well away before then. Still, the chance to look around inside the complex seemed worth the risk.
He tied up his victim, donned the uniform, and strode purposefully back to the guarded installation. The guards at the front gate barely gave him a second glance as he casually flashed his security pass at them. In like manner Pias passed two other checkpoints before entering the front door of the building itself.
Inside, the structure was even bigger than it looked from the exterior. The planet's heavy gravity dictated how tall a building could be above ground level, but there was no such limit on how deep into the earth it could extend. The complex was a tall one for Newforest, rising three stories above the ground. It sank at least twice that many below ground. The computer facility was a small city in itself, housing hundreds of workers who tended the machines and analyzed the data pouring in continuously from all parts of the planet.
Pias could not stand around and gawk, or it would destroy his cover; as a uniformed guard, he was supposed to be quite familiar with all this. With so many people in constant motion he wasn't noticed as he walked briskly in a random direction, pretending he knew precisely where he was going. He kept his eyes open for clues about what was happening where, and no one stopped him or questioned his presence in this supposedly sacrosanct installation.
At last he saw a sign pointing the way to the administrative section, and decided that was where he would get some of the information he was seeking. As it was the night shift, most of the administrative personnel were gone, their offices and desks empty. Pias wandered through the aisles and past another security checkpoint until he came to the chief administrative officer's room. The door was locked. Pias could spot no special alarm system; a short beam from his blaster burned out the mechanism and he entered the room unseen.
The desk top, with a computer scanner built into it, was barren of paper; apparently most of the work was stored in the computer itself with little need for print out. Still, Pias had never heard of any operation that didn't use some hard copy, and he began searching the desk drawers.
A slight noise made him stop and reach for the blaster at his hip, but as he looked up, he realized the gesture was futile. Standing in the doorway to the room was his brother Tas, holding a blaster already pointed at his chest--and behind Tas was a small army of brassies, all similarly armed.
"Hello, Pias," Tas said with all the false warmth of a fourth-rate undertaker. "Welcome home."
But it was not his brother's words, nor the blaster, that attracted most of Pias's attention. Around Tas's neck, almost hidden by his collar, was a thin silver chain from which dangled a single integrated circuit chip--the recognition symbol of the conspiracy that was out to overthrow the Empire. Pias's worst fears were suddenly realized: Tas Bavol had sold his soul, and the entire planet of Newforest, to the Empire's worst enemy.
Chapter 5
The Resurrection of Pias Bavol
"I wish I could say it was good to see you again," Pias replied in even tones. As he spoke, his mind raced. Tas might not know that Pias was now an agent of SOTE, or that he'd had special training. For all he knew, Pias had returned at Beti's request, to undermine Tas's authority. As long as he thought that, there was a chance Pias could somehow talk his way out of the situation- but if Tas ever learned that he represented the Service, Pias was not likely to survive the revelation.
"Yes, you never liked me," Tas sneered.
"I always treated you fairly."
"Of course-big brother generously doling out the crumbs. I got tired of a steady diet of crumbs. I wanted the whole loaf, and now I've got it."
"And are you happy now that you've got what you want, now that you've enslaved our whole planet?"
"You always were the romantic," Tas said. "The truth is far less melodramatic than you make it seem. Newforest was a sleepy, backwater place with nothing to recommend it. I'm merely yanking it into the twenty-fifth century, preparing it for its proper place in galactic affairs. I'm making it strong, Pias. Naturally people are complaining, the same way your muscles complain when you exercise them, to build up your body. Change always hurts. The whole Empire is in for a change soon and a lot of people will be hurt--but the Empire will be a stronger place afterward."
If I'm a romantic, you're a true believer, Pias thought. You'd probably get along well with Tresa Clunard of Purity. She believed in strength through discipline, too. But aloud he merely said, "The change would really have hurt poor Beti. You tried to change her from alive to dead."
"Beti has the same streak of romanticism you do. I merely wanted to have her brought back here where I could keep an eye on her, to keep her from hurting herself and others." He gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Poor Pias, trying to be a knight coming to the rescue, just like in all those old stories you liked to read. My people had you pegged from the moment you entered Garridan; when you applied for the citizen's card, your fingerprints and retinal patterns were examined and matched up with the old ones we had on file. We knew exactly where you were and what you were doing every step of the way. We wanted to keep you out of trouble, but it seems you have this knack for going where you don't belong."
"And now I suppose you're going to lock me up for my own good, just like you've done with the rest of the family."
Tas didn't get a chance to answer, for at that moment an explosion rocked the walls of the computer facility. It was far enough away to sound merely like a dull roar, but it was quickly followed by two more blasts that came progressively closer.
"What... ?" Tas exclaimed as he looked around in confusion. The guards behind him were no less con fused, and several of them ran out of the room to investigate this new threat to the computer complex.
Recovering quickly from his moment of astonishment, Tas turned back toward his brother--but Pias was no longer the obliging target. He didn't know, either, what the cause of the explosions was, but he'd been primed to take advantage of any break that might come his way, and when the blasts occurred he was ready to act.
Dropping rapidly behind the desk he'd been searching, he took himself out of Tas's direct line of fire. At the same time he pulled his own blaster from its holster and prepared to fire back. He might never have a better opportunity to fight back against his mad brother, and he was determined to put up the best struggle he could. His native world depended on it.
He did not want to commit fratricide, though, if he could help it, so his first shot was a warning just slightly over his brother's head. Tas Bavol drew back quickly, fired a blast of his own into the desk, and left the room in a hurry. Pias heard him tell the guards to kill the intruder, but Tas himself was not going to wait around to watch the outcome. He had more important things to do-- like saving his own hide.
For the next few minutes Pias was too involved in his shootout with the brassies to pay much attention to any thing else happening around him. He noted almost as an incidental fact that three more explosions occurred within the computer complex, but none came near enough to distract him from his business.
He wounded two of the security agents before the rest decided to withdraw from the battle. Finally, when the shooting had stopped, he made his way cautiously out of the office, blaster ever at the ready in case of new trouble. The air smelled heavily of ozone but the outer office and the corridor beyond were completely deserted.
Wandering closer to the main hallway, he could see that the civilian personnel at the facility were in a panic over the bombings. They were rushing for the exits, which only made the job of the security guards that much harder. They were trying to deal with sabotage from an unknown source while simultaneously fighting back the tide of humanity surging for the doors.
In the noise and chaos they scarcely noticed Pias in his stolen guard's uniform. He fought his way across the corridor and into the relatively uncrowded side hallways, hoping he could get out of here safely with the information he'd learned. He also hoped that somewhere in this incredible labyrinth he might encounter his brother again. Wherever he went, Tas would not fight the crowds at the normal exits; he'd have a special escape route of his own, and Pias wanted to find it.
But it was Tas who found him. Pias was crossing another corridor when a blasterbolt sizzled the air just past his head. Pias dived for cover and fired a shot back at his attacker. Tas fled further down the corridor, and Pias scrambled to his feet and ran after him.
The corridor opened into a large rectangular chamber, two stories tall and dozens of meters wide on each side. The chamber floor was covered with many of the large tapered pylons that were the latest design in computer memory banks. Pias hesitated as he crossed the threshold. The room appeared empty, but his brother could easily be lurking in ambush behind one of the pylons, waiting for him to make a careless move.
Gun at the ready, Pias made quick, darting motions between the pylons, playing a deadly game of hopscotch as he made his way through the chamber. The sounds of the panicky crowd were far away, and the only real noise in the room was a slight electrical buzz that filled the air. The place smelled of starched efficiency and mathematical disinterest. Even though the atmosphere was cool, Pias was beginning to sweat--and he could almost feel his brother doing the same. The game of hide-and-seek continued.
"Pias! Behind you!" yelled a female voice.
Pias whirled, gun at the ready, and spotted the figure of Tas aiming directly at him. He crouched and fired. Tas's shot went barely over his head, but his own aim was truer--he hit Tas in the right leg and the younger man fell to the ground, howling in pain.
"Vonnie!" Pias called. "You're supposed to be waiting at home!"
Yvonne d'Alembert came cautiously out of hiding, a stun-gun in one hand and a blaster in the other. "You can't expect me to let you have all the fun, can you?" she said with a smile and a shrug. "Besides, you needed my help to bail you out."
"I had the situation well in hand, thank you," Pias said. "But as long as you're here I'll put you to work helping me wrap up this case."
Pias walked over to where his brother had fallen and stood over him scornfully. Tas Bavol was cringing in pain and fear. "You're not going to kill your own brother, are you?" Tas whimpered piteously.
"Not everyone plays by your twisted rules," Pias said. "But I can't guarantee what the Empress's reaction will be when she hears what you've been up to. She's not as sentimental as I am."
He grabbed Tas by the front of his tunic and pulled him awkwardly to his feet. The younger man howled from pain.
"But before your case comes to any imperial court," Pias continued sternly, "you've got a couple of other obligations. First, you're going to come with my friend and me and help us get safely out of this building. Then you're going to ask the kriss to reconvene. There's a little matter of justice that's been long overdue."
---
Pias nervously wiped the sweat from his palms. Vonnie continued to hold Tas prisoner downstairs in the Bavol family's formal meeting room where the kriss was due to convene in another hour or so. But it wasn't the kriss that made Pias nervous; that was important, to be sure, but whatever the outcome, he'd already proved he could make a decent life for himself elsewhere. The confrontation that was to come now, though, was an emotional one that could affect the rest of his life, and Pias's insides were knotted up. He'd rather be facing a roomful of enemy blasters than the ordeal before him.
He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and followed the nurse into his father's bedroom. The room was kept dark because mottle fever made its victims' eyes ultrasensitive to light. Pias paused on the threshold to accommodate himself to the low illumination.
The room seemed at first unchanged since Pias's last, unhappy visit to it. The hard slate floor was covered with handwoven rugs, and the majestic ebonwood bureau with its mirror in the carved frame still stood imposingly against the north wall. The massive canopied bed faced the door as regally as ever. Only as Pias's eyes roamed the room did he notice one tiny but significant detail that was different.
The portrait of his late mother still dominated the south wall, surrounded by pictures of the five Bavol children--no, four. One of the pictures had been re moved--Pias's. No attempt had been made to rearrange the other portraits into a new symmetry; the missing picture thus made a statement of sorts by its very absence, unbalancing the visual unity of the display.
Duke Kistur Bavol himself was almost lost in the heavy pile of pillows and bedcovers. He had always been a robust, energetic man until Pias had left Newforest the first time to seek the man who'd murdered his fiancèe. The last time Pias had seen his father he was sickly, already well consumed by the mottle fever and looking every year of his age.
