Part 52 (1/2)
”Good. I want to put it formally on record that I protest the terms of this arrest order. If the base commander here turns me over to these people, I will be murdered by them, or my mental faculties will somehow be destroyed while I am in their custody, probably before I arrive at Salutai.”
That was enough to set the grand marshall quivering faintly with rage. ”And I would like the record to show my own formal protest, that the prisoner's remarks are a d.a.m.ned lie, and that this man, the prisoner, knows it.”
The Prince said: ”You had better check with Captain Lergov first.”
Beraton glared at him but said nothing. Nor did Lergov, who only gazed back stolidly.
There was little more to be said. In a few moments, both grand marshall and captain were gone.
Harivarman stood gazing at the base commander. Some of her aides had reentered the room and were waiting, as if now they expected Harivarman to leave too.
The commander dismissed them with a look. ”General, I would like to see you briefly back in my private office.”
When the two of them were alone again, she sat behind her desk and touched a control. ”We are no longer being recorded,” she said, and hesitated briefly. ”In your wife's case, and the others, I don't know yet what my final decision will have to be.”
The Prince stared at her. His right arm that had started to rise in a confident gesture dropped back at his side. ”Well. Like most final decisions, it will have to be whatever you make it. I a.s.sume you're not going to-”
”Let me finish, please. I'm afraid I may have misled you somehow. In your case, there's really no doubt, I'm afraid, what I must do.”
”-what-?”
”I am saying that in the case of you personally, General, it appears to me more and more certain that I have no grounds for refusing the Council's order, or even delaying compliance.”
Stunned, he stared at the uniformed woman. He could find no words to say to her. It was all too obvious that she was deadly serious.
”I am sorry, General, if you failed to understand that point clearly from the beginning. I thought-”
At last he found his tongue. ”I see I must tell you again. Perhaps you're the one who has failed to understand. I am not speaking rhetorically, or fancifully, or for some political effect. Once they have me on that s.h.i.+p, I'll be murdered.”
”I have no evidence of that, General Harivarman.”
So, she'd do it to him. She really would. There were a thousand words of protest, of outrage, to be said, but he could say nothing. Rage, of unexpected intensity, choked him. He wanted to hit her, smash her in the face.
She went on, with cold control: ”As a favor, I am telling you now, privately, ahead of time, what I am shortly going to have to tell the grand marshall. I really have no choice. You must soon be transferred into his custody.”
”Hiscustody. As if the old fart were capable of . . .” Somehow Harivarman had mastered himself, at least enough to speak coherently. ”I am very grateful for the favor, Commander. And your responsibility for my welfare, as your prisoner?”
”The Council's order is clear, and my responsibility is to obey it. You are to be returned to Salutai for trial on these charges of-”
”I see why you need no recording in here. You turn into a recording yourself. Yet once more I'll say it.
Beraton would not willfully murder a prisoner, but he's too great a fool to have any real control over what happens on that s.h.i.+p. If you hand me over to Lergov, and his political crew, I'll never see Salutai alive.
Or at least not with my brain intact. Does that mean nothing to you? I had thought, in my foolishness, that we had even come to mean something to each other on a more-”
”General Harivarman, I have been aware that from our first meeting you have been trying to-establish some such relations.h.i.+p. Foolish though it would have been, as you say. Fortunately none has been established.”
There was a little silence. Her eyes challenged him to find a trace of weakness in them.
”I see,” he said at last. His throat again was growing tighter and tighter, so that it was hard now to get even those two words out.
There was more tense silence. At last the commander began to repeat: ”I have no evidence to indicate that-”
”I was right about them coming for me. I'm right also about their intentions. Once more I tell you if you put me on that s.h.i.+p with them, I'll never see Salutai alive. I can easily think of several ways by which they'll be able to destroy me en route and get away with it. Do you believe me?”
”Even if you were right-”
”I am.”
”I'll recite my speech one more time, General.” Now it was as if she were exasperated with some dull recruit. ”I must act on facts, evidence, not political opinions. And even if you were right about their intentions,I have no evidence.Can you show me any?”
”The past record of these people stands as evidence. Fatuity in the case of the grand marshall, a fiendish propensity for evil in the case of Lergov, and of those who sent them both. Specifically Prime Minister Roquelaure.”
She hesitated marginally. ”There are strong differences of opinion about the history and the politics of the Eight Worlds. Your own record is perhaps not spotless.”
”And yours is.”
”My record is irrelevant.”
”I would have thought mine was too, now that I am helplessly in Templar custody and someone wants to murder me.”
She said: ”My orders, and the Compact of Exile, leave me no choice.”
”You're just doing your duty.”
”That is the truth.”
”I hereby volunteer to enlist in the Templars.”
”Are you speaking seriously? You can't be, you must know that that's absurd.”
And even as she spoke, she was hoping in a way that he would keep on with this futile argument; if he had faced the inevitable with dignity it would have been much harder for her to go through with what she had to do, and it was hard enough to do so anyway.
But the general's arguments ceased abruptly. He let out a long sigh. A remoteness suddenly came into his manner. It seemed to Commander Blenheim, watching closely, that his anger had not dissipated, but had hardened.
At last he asked, in an altered voice: ”Can you at least stretch your concept of duty enough to give me this much-a little time to myself? A couple of hours of freedom, before they take me away and kill me?
There are a few farewells that I would like to say.”
It seemed to her that he was posing, trying to arouse her pity, not really concerned about saying farewell to anyone. ”You are lowering yourself in my estimation, General.” Then she wished she had not said that.
But she, too, was very angry now. As if in some effort to be fair, to make amends, she added: ”Will two hours be sufficient?”
Harivarman sighed again. ”Two hours should give me the chance to take care of everything,” he answered softly.
Commander Blenheim started to turn away, then swung back, wondering. He hadn't seemed to her at all the suicidal type . . . although under present circ.u.mstances, if he believed what he was saying about being murdered . . . ”You will report back here to me at the end of that time?”