Ecolitan Prime (Ecolitan Matter) (13 page)

The Ecolitan studied the guard. Male, mid-aged, sagging slightly in the midsection, armed with both stunner and blaster, lounging back in the chair.

Nathaniel leaned forward so that he was half over the console, eyeing the layout.

“Quite a control board you have here,” he observed, noting the open channel and input plates. The guard began to sit up and lean forward.

“What would happen if I,” asked Nathaniel, as he reached over and tapped out Janis Du-Plessis’ number, “called Ms. Du-Plessis to see if she were still here?”

The guard grabbed for the stunner. Nathaniel half vaulted, half circled the console and pinned the security man’s arms in place.

“Why don’t we just wait and see if she answers?” he asked as the guard began to struggle.

The screen unblanked and displayed the features of Janis Du-Plessis.

“Guard, what’s going on?”

“This citizen—”

Nathaniel let go of the man with one arm, keyed the screen, then used his forearm to choke off the guard’s response.

“I apologize for the direct approach, but this guard was interpreting his orders so literally I found it impossible even to announce my arrival.”

The guard broke one arm free and grabbed for the laser blaster.

Regarding that as a uniquely unfriendly move, Nathaniel shifted his hands, caught the nerves behind the man’s elbow and twisted.

“Yiii!” The laser skidded from the guard’s limp fingers across the permatile.

The Ecolitan observed the surprise on Janis’ face as she saw the weapon.

“Perhaps,” gasped Nathaniel as he half lifted, half turned the guard from the chair and slammed a stiffened hand into his opponent’s solar plexus, “I’m being over-dramatic, but I do believe that either you or someone else doesn’t want me to see you.”

“Not me…not—”

“Fine. Are you in room C-4?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

“What about the guard?”

“He’ll be fine…at least for now,” commented Nathaniel, looking down at the slumped figure. He hadn’t hit the man
that
hard. “Now, would you send whatever signal is necessary to open the gate?”

“Oh, of course.”

The gate opened. Nathaniel broke the screen connection, yanked the semiconscious guard out of the chair, hoisted him over his shoulder, and marched through the gate. It buzzed but shut behind him anyway.

C-4 was less than fifty meters away, but the guard’s weight had the Ecolitan breathing heavier than he would have liked by the time he got there.

Janis Du-Plessis was waiting, open-handed, as he marched up.

Without a word, Nathaniel dumped the guard into one of the chairs. By now the man was nearly alert.

“I apologize, madam, but I need to ask this gentleman a question or two. While I do, you might want to study this folder, which someone doesn’t want me to deliver to you.”

He pulled the folder from under his tunic.

“I also apologize for its slightly bent condition, but I feared I might need two hands on the way over, and, unfortunately, I was correct.”

She stood there, black hair slightly mussed, in her rust and tan tunic, as if she did not believe the spectacle of an Accord diplomat having to fight his way through her own guard for the sake of one thin file.

“I find this whole…episode…rather disgusting.”

“So do I, madam. So do I, but apparently these trade talks have been escalated to a level beyond mere diplomacy.”

He turned his full attention to the guard.

“All right, time for a few answers.”

“Can’t,” protested the man.

“Who told you not to let me in?”

The guard just smiled. Nathaniel reached down and grabbed the nerves at the back of his neck, applying pressure. The sensation should have been acutely unpleasant.

“Who told you…” The Ecolitan stopped. The man was unconscious.

He shook his head and reached for the guard’s belt stunner. Pulling it from the holster, he set it on mid-range.

“
Strumm!
”

“What happened? Why did you do that?”

“He’s been pain conditioned. Any attempt to get information from him through tiredness, torture, pain, and he’ll immediately black out. There are ways around it, but not without time or special equipment. It’s very effective for this sort of thing.”

He centered his attention on the Special Assistant to the Minister of External Affairs.

“Do you know most of the guards? Is he someone new?”

“I don’t pay that much attention, but I don’t recall seeing him before.”

Nathaniel looked up to make sure the portal to the corridor was still closed.

Janis Du-Plessis had once been pretty. With her ivory complexion and long black hair, she was still attractive, but her cheekbones and nose weren’t prominent enough for her to retain her prettiness as she grew older, despite the cosmetology of the Empire.

“Ms. Du-Plessis, as you may have noticed, my safe time in any one location appears to be limited.”

“Why don’t we go into my office?”

Nathaniel dragged the man in with him, laid him out by the doorway.

The woman was standing by her console, as if waiting for him to finish.

“Lord Whaler, I would appreciate some background. You place calls to me and to Minister Jansen but won’t accept the return calls. All of a sudden, you claim it isn’t your fault, give me some outlandish story about two attempts on your life, and insist on disrupting my private life in order to personally deliver what seems to be a quite routine set of terms for a trade agreement. It seems so reasonable on the surface that everything else seems totally unreasonable.”

Nathaniel nodded, hoping she would go on.

“I decided to cancel my evening and see what would happen, but I certainly didn’t plan on you attacking one of my guards, dragging him in here, questioning him, and having me cover up for you!”

“Madam, I don’t expect you to cover up anything. I came to New Augusta assuming we had a mutual economic problem which could be solved. I have been assaulted twice, not counting the attempt by your guard to incinerate me when he failed to stop me from getting through to you. My calls to you—and I have called several times—have apparently not gotten through. In return, your calls to me were blocked when I was in my office waiting for them.

“Just this afternoon, someone successfully bombed my office. Fortunately, I was walking out the door at the time, but there were
two
explosions. Either someone, or several parties, is taking a great deal of explosives to warn me to depart, or they merely want to eliminate me. I care for neither possibility.”

The hard expression on Janis’ face softened.

“I can understand your concerns, but I don’t understand why all…this…violence…is involved with a simple trade matter.”

“I was hoping you could tell me. The Ministry of Commerce is interested. The Imperial Senate is interested, and for all I know, so are those planting the bombs.”

“The Ministry of Commerce?” she snapped. “They don’t have any business in trade terms with independent systems outside the Empire.”

The pieces came together with a click.

“I think they’re interested in the impact changes in the trade terms will have on Imperial commerce. What about the Senate?”

“That’s got to be Courtney again, always wanting the last word on everything before the terms are even considered. I can take care of that.” The fire in her eyes indicated she intended to try.

“I think you have everything in hand,” he offered, rising from the pilot chair.

“Lord Whaler, you still haven’t told me why your entrance had to be so violent.”

“I don’t know. One reason might be that the Commerce Ministry has no confidence in the process and would like different terms. That’s one guess. But it is only a guess.”

He frowned.

“Is there any way you could register our proposal in your records, so that it could not be erased? Even if anything happened to you?”

“Are you suggesting something?”

“No. But I wasn’t attacked for nothing, and you just told me that you did not know the guard who attacked me.”

“I see what you mean. If the effort was to cut us out, we really don’t have it until it’s in the data banks under seal. Certainly, registering it couldn’t hurt and might well reduce the…uh…unpleasantness.”

She sat down at the console again, rapidly touching keys, placing the proposal facedown across the screen in order.

A soft chime sounded.

“We’re done. Locked in and sealed.”

Nathaniel bowed.

“You have been gracious at a time when few have been and more helpful than you can possibly imagine.”

“You do me honor.” She flushed, color momentarily replacing the flat ivory of her skin.

“No more than is your due.”

A long moment passed before the Ecolitan cleared his throat.

“We still need to deal with some leftover unpleasantness. I suggest two things. First, that you escort me to your private drop shaft. That way I can get to the tunnel train level without going through the main concourse. Second, that you return here and find the guard lying in the middle of the office. You will, of course, be most upset and call Imperial security.”

“I was coming back and found him?”

“Exactly. He’ll be out for several hours. He can’t possibly explain what happened without being probed. So he’ll have to invent some excuse, which will say he was investigating something when he was stunned, and he doesn’t know what happened.”

Nathaniel dragged the man into the middle of the reception area while Janis locked her console and office.

The rust and tan corridors to the private drop shaft of the senior staff and Ministers were deserted, the lights at half level.

“This doesn’t go down to the tunnel train level, just to the Ministry vehicle concourse, you know.” She touched the drop plate.

“Can I get to the trains?”

“Yes, but you’d have to walk back through the tower and another gate to catch the public shaft.”

“Hmmm…” He pulled at his chin.

“Why don’t I just send you back in a Ministry pool car?”

“That would be appreciated.”

He couldn’t see Janis doing him in, not when she had nothing to gain.

The electrocougar from the Ministry of External Affairs seemed identical to the one he had ridden in from the Commerce Ministry, with the same plasticloth hard seats, except for the colors of the car and the driver’s uniform.

His driver was a petite black girl, perhaps the youngest driver he’d had.

He watched Janis standing at the dispatch point as the electrocougar whispered into the tunnel.

“Isn’t she too old for you?”

The question jarred him.

“Oh…I suppose so…if it were personal.”

“Business this late? You’re an outworlder. You’re used to working longer.”

“How about you?”

“Way to get credits after classes. Besides, after-hours drivers usually just sit. Good time to study. Where you from?”

He wondered if she worked for someone. It didn’t matter.

“Accord.”

“Should have known from the black. Don’t always apply what you learn when you see it in real life. You don’t look like you poison planets.”

“I never have. We haven’t done anything that severe in centuries.”

“How come you’re here?”

“Trade talks.”

“How come that’s not in the faxtabs or casts? That ought to be big news.” She grinned impishly, and Nathaniel caught it in the reflection from the front bubble. “Planet poisoners here to talk trade.”

She dropped the grin. “Guess that’s unfair. Professor Ji-Kerns says we’ve done worse to some systems, but he’s a man.”

Nathaniel ignored the slam to his sex.

“What are you studying?”

“Second year in law. Out-space legal systems. We haven’t gotten to Accord yet. Working on Halston.”

“Why did you pick law?”

“Mother, she’s the head of tactics at the Ministry of Defense, wanted me to go to Saskan, but I didn’t like all the rules. Rather make them.”

“Saskan?”

“You know, that’s the Imperial Space Academy where all the Fleet officers are trained.”

“I suppose she, your mother, I mean, doesn’t like your doing this?”

“She doesn’t mind. If I wasn’t meant for the Eagles, I wasn’t meant. This way, I can pretty much pay my own way. That’s important. Lots of youngers don’t, just collect basic and snerch. Guys are the worst, always talking about being Ministers, as if the Ministers ever did anything. Who does the work? You and me.”

Nathaniel nodded, although he didn’t think she was really looking for a response.

“Bet you work for a fancy-pants Envoy. Here you are working, and he’s probably luxing it up. First man I’ve seen working so late since I took the job, and you’re an outworlder. Figures.”

She shook her head.

Nathaniel didn’t bother to correct her misimpression. “I wouldn’t be surprised if anything and everything went on here. Or is it just boring because nothing happens after hours?”

“Pretty dull. Wouldn’t dare to talk to any woman, and I don’t rate standby for a Minister or Deputy. All of them sit and stare, or sit and read. Not like Perky. She’s got the same job at Commerce. I got the idea from her, that is, driving after classes. She’s Class I now, even got Lord Mersen last week.

“Told me the other day she drove three Fleet Commanders back from Defense to Commerce. Nothing like that happens here.”

The car slipped out of the tunnel.

“Want the public or private concourse?”

“Wherever I’m less likely to get noticed.”

“Public side, this time of day. Still crowded. Be like a tomb on the private side.” A pause followed. “What are you worried about?”

Nathaniel couldn’t help laughing. The girl was one of the first real people, without a mask, that he’d talked to.

“Tell you when I get out.”

“Here you are.”

“Thanks for the ride.”

As he climbed out of the backseat, she poked her head through the top opening in the front bubble.

“You forgot to tell me.”

“I’m the Envoy, and someone keeps trying to assassinate me.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“Not everyone wants those trade talks.”