This Day All Gods Die (77 page)

As he sank into his chair, sweat stood on his forehead, and his eyes seemed to roll in terror.

Koina guessed that Holt Fasner also wanted to hear what Lane would say.

Quickly she told her techs, "Route Dr. Harbinger's channel to the room speakers. President Len's aide will patch you in. Tell her we'll be ready in a minute."

As Abrim's aide hurried to handle UMCPHQ's transmission, the President slumped against the podium. "This is your idea, Director Hannish," he croaked as if he'd damaged his larynx. "You talk to her."

Weakly he beckoned Koina to the dais.

She couldn't hesitate now; couldn't afford uncertainty or fear. Striding rapidly, she approached the dais; ascended to stand beside President Len.

While she waited for his aide to complete the connection from her downlink, she forced herself to face the Council again.

She'd found that difficult the last time, but this was much worse. She had no idea what Lane might say; couldn't imagine what kind of evidence Lane might have uncovered. And where was Hashi? Or Chief Mandich?

What if Cleatus was right? What if Lane had no evidence? What if Hashi—

or Min—

had ordered her call in a last-

ditch effort to delay Warden's inevitable ruin?

Koina didn't think she could bear to take part in another failure; not like this, with everyone in the room watching her, and Warden's damaged hopes on the line.

But failure and success were out of her hands. In the name of her commitments she could only do her job and accept what happened. Blaine Manse and Sixten sat on the edges of their chairs. Punjat Silat rubbed his chest as if he wondered how much longer his heart would go on beating. Tel Burnish squirmed with tension. None of them had anything else to hope for. When Abrim's aide signaled to her, she buried her fear behind her professional mask; cleared her throat and began at once.

"Dr. Harbinger, this is Director Hannish." Thank God her voice didn't quaver. "We're using a patchwork communications setup here. Can you hear me all right?"

"Director Hannish," a woman replied stiffly from the speakers. "I'm Lane Harbinger." Her transmission was cleaner than Morn's had been. Apart from a hint of echo and a faint crackle—

the gain on her pickup may have been set too high—

no distortion touched her voice. "You're coming through fine. Can the Council hear we?"

"Yes, Dr. Harbinger," Koina assured her. "All the Members are here, as well as FEA Cleatus Fane and myself. You're perfectly clear."

"Good," Lane muttered. "I'm too tired to wrestle with technical difficulties." The rasp in her tone sounded like irritation, but it may have been fatigue. "I'm living on pure stim as it is. I almost fell asleep waiting for you to make up your minds to hear me."

Koina winced inwardly. "The issues before the Council are complex, Dr. Harbinger. The Members are moving as fast as they can."

She meant, Help me, Lane, Don't make this harder by alienating them.

Lane sighed. "I suppose they are. I'll try to keep it simple." For a moment her voice seemed to fray out of the speakers. Then she went on more sharply, "Before you reach any conclusions, you should know that the UMC is guilty of treason."

Softly Cleatus growled, "Here we go again."

Several of his supporters nodded. Koina guessed that they were growing restive under the threat of the Dragon's ire.

Lane had said "the UMC," not "Holt Fasner." Was that significant, or was she just being cautious?

" 'Treason' is a provocative word, Dr. Harbinger," Koina countered before anyone else could take up Cleatus' objection.

"Perhaps you should start at the beginning."

Lane didn't hesitate. "I'm a research tech for UMCPDA," she stated at once. "I don't have anything to do with policy or politics. I deal in facts. Tangible reality. What other people do with those facts is their problem, not mine.

"I've been assigned to study the physical evidence from that last kaze. The one that almost got you. Determine the facts."

Then, however, she faded to silence. The speakers emitted a rough wheeze of respiration, as if she'd dropped off to sleep.

My God, Koina thought in dismay, how long have you been working on this?

Carefully she prompted, "What physical evidence?"

Lane's voice returned with a thud, as if she'd dropped something heavy beside her pickup. "Well, the body, of course. But we also have his id tag and GCES Security credentials."

"How is that possible?" Koina asked. "The man blew himself up." She knew the answer: she was simply trying to help Lane.

"Director Lebwohl grabbed them. Before the kaze went off. I've been working with them since then."

Koina didn't risk so much as a glance at Cleatus. She wasn't sure she could bear it if she saw that Lane's statement didn't surprise him.

"I see. Please go on."

The researcher sighed again. "If you've read ED Security's preliminary reports, you know the id tag and credentials identified a GCES Security sergeant named Clay Imposs, but the man using them was really Nathan Alt."

Now the Council could hear every breath she took. Koina had the disturbing impression that Lane had put her head down with her mouth right on her pickup. Each hoarse intake and exhalation seemed to fill the speakers with a claustropho-bic urgency.

"Captain Nathan Alt was UMCPED until Director Donner court-martialed him for dereliction. Since then he's had a number of jobs. Most recently the UMC hired him as Security Liaison for Anodyne Systems." Unnecessarily she explained,

"Anodyne is a subsidiary of the UMC. They manufacture the SOD-CMOS chips we use in datacores—

and id tags."

Cleatus raised his voice to announce, "I revealed all this to Warden Dios yesterday."

Lane took a sharp breath. "Is that Cleatus Fane?"

"It is, Dr. Harbinger," Koina answered.

"Good. I like it." Lane's tone seemed to gather strength, as if she'd found a new source of energy—

or been given an-

other dose of stim.

"Mr. Fane," she rasped. "According to our log of that conversation, you told Director Dios Nathan Alt was fired six weeks ago. Because he had dealings with the native Earthers.

"Is that right?"

"It is," the FEA said firmly.

Koina thought she heard a bitter grin in the research's voice as Lane retorted, "Well, you're lying."

Half a dozen Members gasped. President Len covered his eyes with one hand to conceal his reaction. Unselfconsciously Sixten clenched his old fists in front of his chest like a kid wishing with all his might for a miracle.

Cleatus started to launch a furious rejoinder, then, clamped his mouth shut on it. Apparently his master had called him to heel again. Instead of defending himself, he wrapped his arms across his belly and let Lane say what she wanted.

The rest of the room was paralyzed by the crowded strain of her breathing. Simply listening to it made Koina's chest hurt.

"The body told us a lot," Lane resumed. "For one thing, it was full of hypnagogic drugs. For another, the bomb had a chemical trigger. The catalyst was contained in a false tooth.

Of course, the man himself can't testify. He's too dead." The raw edge of her respiration suggested another grin. "But the circumstantial evidence is clear. Alt entered the Council chamber in a state of deep hypnosis. On a preconditioned signal, he bit down to break his false tooth. The catalyst entered his system. A minute or two later he exploded.

"It's also clear that he must have been given the signal by someone in the room. Someone he could see. Or hear. He was in no condition to make decisions himself. So you had a traitor with you during the last session. Since no one's been allowed to leave the island, he's probably still there."

"Except Hashi Lebwohl," Cleatus interrupted. "He was here then. But he left. He hasn't returned. And he was in a better position than anyone to give a signal. He could easily have triggered the explosion, and then switched credentials to supply the 'evidence' that makes you think I'm lying."

He was floundering. Koina half expected him to accuse her, as well—

or Forrest Ing. But he didn't.

"I guess that's true," Lane murmured. "Interesting idea." She paused like a woman swallowing a yawn. "On the other hand, it's relatively easy to prove Director Lebwohl hasn't had access to any SOD-CMOS chips for several weeks.

Especially not this particular chip."

As she went on, she began to breathe harder. The speakers carried a heavy throb of exertion. She was near her physiological limits.

"Obviously the id tag and credentials are crucial. They're our best clue to where this kaze came from.

"How were they doctored to identify Nathan Alt as Clay Imposs? That's supposed to be impossible. You can't do it unless you have an intimate knowledge of the code-engine that drives GCES Security clearances. Which leaves out the native Earthers, I think," she remarked. Then she said, "But still, the doctoring should show. If you know how to look. You can't edit SOD-CMOS chips. You can only add layers of new programming.

"In this case the chip wasn't doctored. It isn't Clay Imposs' original id tag. It's a new tag specifically written to identify Nathan Alt as Clay Imposs. That's probably easier to do.

Harder to detect. But you have to be able to get new chips. Not a simple problem. And the job still requires you to know that code-engine. An even tougher problem. In fact, that knowledge may be our most closely guarded secret.

"But Nathan Alt had it. Or he did until he was fired."

She snorted wearily. "As UMC Security Liaison for Anodyne Systems, he helped design the code-engines."

Koina chafed under the pressure of Lane's difficult respiration. Time was growing short: the command module and Trumpet must be within fifteen minutes of Calm Horizons by now. She already knew about Alt's work with Anodyne. She needed to hear something she could use.

"Where is this leading, Dr. Harbinger?" she put in.

"What conclusions have you reached?"

Lane didn't answer directly. "The interesting thing about this id tag," she said between gasps, "is that it's so recent.

The programming isn't the only part that's new. The chip is new, too.

"We logged it in a routine shipment to UMC Home Security three weeks ago. Ten days later, according to HS records, the same chip was reqqed by the office of the Anodyne Security Liaison. For use in testing code designs. So it went to Anodyne, where the design work is done. The traitor must have acquired it after that." She let out a shuddering gust, then sneered, "But of course Alt was fired six weeks ago.

"You can see the problem. How is it possible that a man with the knowledge to fake a GCES Security id tag got his hands on a SOD-CMOS chip from his former office nearly four and a half weeks after he was fired?"

Involuntarily Koina held her breath. Her body seemed to think it could counter Lane's stress by refusing air itself.

"We've just completed a legal search of Anodyne's records. In particular, we searched the computers Anodyne uses for code-engine design. It wasn't easy. As I say, those secrets are closely guarded. You need three different kinds of access, all working together. Without any one of them, the other two are useless. But we learned that on the Security Liaison's authority that chip was used to study methods for faking id tags. And the same chip was reqqed back from Anodyne by the Security Liaison's office four days ago."

A yawn Lane couldn't suppress came from the speakers.

"In both cases the orders were logged by Nathan Alt.

Now five and a half weeks after he was allegedly fired."

At last! A flare of hope seemed to go off in Koina's heart.

Her relief was so intense that she nearly staggered. Without noticing it, she began to pant for air. At last!

If the Members hadn't been trapped in the sound of Lane's breathing, more of them would have reacted. Some of Holt's supporters slumped as if they were collapsing. Others gaped in disbelief and consternation; betrayal. Blaine tried to speak, but couldn't find her voice. However, most of the Council simply stared at the speakers like men and women who were too aghast to understand what they heard. The ground they'd walked on all their lives—

the power and position of the

UMC—

had begun to crack under them.

In the shocked silence Sixten jumped to his feet and thrust his fists triumphantly at the ceiling.

"This is crazy," Cleatus croaked. The blood had been stricken from his face: he looked as pallid as a cadaver. "Alt must have planned it all along." His lips quivered. His gaze raced around the room, as if he were looking frantically for an escape. "He must have betrayed our entire Security. We fired him. Somehow he got back in. Weeks after we got rid of him."

The sight of his fear was all the evidence Koina needed. It confirmed that Lane was right.

"No, Mr. Fane." The researcher seemed to fight her fatigue down for the last time. "You said yourself you changed your security after he was fired. That's on the record. In any case, no one person can break into Anodyne. We've just proven that. Alt must have had clearance from Home Security, as well as the full authority of the Security Liaison's office, in addition to his personal codes. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get his hands on that chip.

"There's only one possible conclusion. You've been lying all along. Alt was still working for the UMC when he made his plans to replace Clay Imposs. And the traitor who detonated him is still in that room."

Lane faded away; then returned with an effort. "Everything we've done has been logged and recorded. You can access it whenever you want verification."

Still in that room—

The idea took a moment to penetrate.

Then it seemed to sting the Members out of their stunned dismay. In a rush they all started talking at once; to each other or their aides; to anyone they could reach.

Koina pitched her voice to carry over the sudden hubbub.

"One last question, Dr. Harbinger. I know you're exhausted. You've done brilliant work, and you deserve rest. But the last I heard this investigation was assigned to Director Lebwohl and Chief of Security Mandich. Where are they now?