Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

“I’m very happy to meet you at last,” Harriet said, squeezing her hand as the robodoc began fussing over her. “Legroeder was worried sick about you. He went to see you whenever he could, while you were in the hospital in a coma.”

Maris drew a slow breath, clearly making an effort to relax. She looked both bewildered and touched to find herself surrounded by friends; at least, that’s how Harriet hoped Maris saw them. Even the tentacled Gos’n and the Swert had solicitously remained nearby. “I’ve been worried about Legroeder, too,” Maris said finally. “Where is he?”

Harriet glanced at Morgan. “You didn’t tell her?”

“She told me he’d gone off-planet,” Maris said. “Looking for information to clear his name.”

Morgan smiled ruefully. “I didn’t want to hit her with too much at once.”

“Too much what? ” demanded Maris, pushing the robodoc out of the way to sit forward.

Harriet winced a little. “It’s complicated. He did go off planet looking for information. You see, they were going to throw him in jail here—”

“Morgan told me that.”

“Yes. Well, you see—” Harriet swallowed “—he’s gone on a somewhat… risky… mission with the Narseil.”

“The Narseil? To do what?”

“To, uh, go back to Golen Space—”

“What?”

“—to try to infiltrate a pirate stronghold.”

Maris looked as if she might faint. “He went back to the pirates? ”

“Well, not to the same stronghold—but yes,” Harriet muttered, remembering all too well whose advice Legroeder had been following. “It sounds crazy, I know. But it seemed the only way to make good this escape. To prove he was innocent of the trumped up charges he was facing here.” Harriet shook her head. It sounded utterly mad, now. What could they have been thinking? Her voice trembled as she continued, “That was about eight weeks ago. The last report we had was that they had met and captured a pirate ship, and were going to attempt to penetrate the raider’s home port.”

“But why?” Maris whispered.

Harriet felt her voice growing heavy. “To try to gain intelligence about the pirates’ use of starship Impris to prey on shipping. Do you know about Impris ?”

Maris closed her eyes, nodding, then shaking her head. “I’ve heard of it, sure. I never knew if it was real, though.” She opened her eyes, staring up at Harriet, then glancing at all the others, as though wondering if she had fallen into the hands of yet another group of crazies.

“Oh, it’s real,” Harriet said. “Maris, dear, there’s a lot we have to tell you…”

The posting on the net had attracted attention at once, both from the news media and the public at large. Peter and Harriet used their connections in the news business to the fullest; stories about the implant reading and the car chase were in the late-night news, and in the morning there were news analyses of the legal status of Level 9 implant interpretations. By noon, the first denials from Commissioner North’s office had replayed endlessly, and several news groups had exhumed file holos and data on Centrist Strength and begun a fresh round of investigative reporting.

Harriet found the process at once sobering and exhilarating. It was astounding how fast the press could move in response to a whiff of corruption and vulnerability in high office. And on the net, anecdotal stories poured in. Peter hired additional people to search and sort, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. It was mostly typical net ranting…

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BREAKER29: If he’s guilty, we ought to GET HIM OUTATHERE. I mean, here the guy’s RUNNING THE WHOLE FRICKIN’ WORLD!

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JUDYJOHN: Excuse me, could we do with a little less exaggeration? He’s not running the world, he’s running the Spacing Authority. And all we have is rumors. Are we going to convict somebody on the basis of rumors?

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CAN-DO: Well, the Spacing Authority is practically the world. I mean, it’s the most powerful agency in the world. Shouldn’t we have someone there we can trust?

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SKIPJACK: Trust???? You trust a lawyr whose on the lamb from the law? Give me an f’in’ break…

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Even the talk in North’s favor seemed to increase the pressure on him to make a response. The day after Harriet’s posting, North issued a strong denial. But he had not yet made a personal appearance.

In the embassy lounge, news reports played nonstop. To Harriet the reports were almost hypnotic…

Newscaster: “…Joran Philips, live with two professors from the Sota University Policy Institute. Jonathan Dutt is a longtime specialist in political history, and Professor Daniel Marshall has been studying the fringe group Centrist Strength for more than ten years. Gentlemen, what about these accusations against Commissioner North? Is there any substance to them?”

Professor Dutt: “None that I can see. You have to understand, accusations of this sort pop up in any administration. If Ms. Mahoney has some real evidence against the Commissioner, why doesn’t she come out and present it in a court of law, instead of hiding behind the Narseil Embassy? Maybe we should be asking what role the Narseil are playing in all this.”

Newscaster: “But we have an affidavit, apparently admissible in court, that Commissioner North has been involved in illicit weapons deals with the fringe group Centrist Strength. Don’t you think that’s something of a bombshell?”

Professor Marshall: “Joran, it sure could be.”

Dutt: “If they can prove it’s true.”

Marshall: “Of course. But some of these claims are pretty indicative—including a couple that have surfaced on the net in the last twelve hours, that there may have been more weapons deals. I’ve been saying for years that there needs to be more accountability. No question, if North wanted to make those weapons deals, he could have.”

Newscaster: “And if he did? Centrist Strength—for all its rhetoric about building up Faber Eridani—has been rumored to have connections with outlaw worlds of the Kyber alliance.”

Dutt: “Rumors! Allegations! Why would North want to make deals with Centrist Strength? He’s hardly an apologist for them. And he’s been a vocal opponent of any rapprochement with the outlaw worlds.”

Marshall: “Vocal, yes. But when you look at the people he’s appointed to serve in the Spacing Authority, you find no fewer than four known extremist sympathizers.”

Dutt: “Well, that’s just a gross generalization…”

Marshall: “Plus there’s evidence that he owes a significant personal debt to Centrist Strength…”

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LIKEMINDED: ’S’not just this one guy, you know. You gotta drill down. He’s got people under him, and I wouldn’ be surprised if the whole damn place was rotten to the core.

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HACKWOMAN: If anyone’s interested, I’ve got a list of all the places North contacted by secure channel in the last two years. A friend of mine burrowed in and got some VERY interesting data. Y’know, I wonder if that lawyer lady might like to see it…

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SAMSAM: What is this, a godd*mn lynch mob?

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TRUTHWILLRULE: Dunno about a lynch mob, but isn’t it true what I read, that North had this lover—not a human—I think it was a Delta Aeregian…

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JIM824: old news… years ago… died of an incurable neuron fungus.

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TRUTHWILLRULE: I know it died. But Centrist Strength paid for some kind of experimental treatment, before it died… that’s what I read, anyhow…