Part 15 (1/2)

He became aware of someone standing close behind him, a tall reflection in the smoked gla.s.s.

Fitz turned round, resenting the intrusion. 'Yes?'

The intruder had a heavy, pockmarked face, black hair and thick eyebrows, or rather one thick eyebrow, as the two met in a point above his flat beak of a nose. 'Mr Fitz Kreiner?'

Fitz was instantly on his guard. 'How do you know my name?' d.a.m.n! Why didn't he just say no?

The man smiled, but his eyes remained cold. 'A certain drinking establishment provided us with all we need to know about you.'

Fitz couldn't imagine Il-Eruk squealing on him. 'Who are you, anyway?'

The man took a step towards Fitz, his suited body invading his personal s.p.a.ce. 'I work for President Vargeld. I protect his interests. Make sure nothing untoward happens to them' He was looking over Fitz's shoulder at Arielle. He sucked in a breath through his teeth. 'You've got a lot of explaining to do.'

All the President's men. Fitz wondered why they hadn't been collared earlier. Then he remembered an unscheduled stop at a s.p.a.ce station a few hours ago. He'd thought nothing of it, nor had Arielle. Pair of idiots.

'I don't have anything to say to you. I've got nothing to do with her condition!' Fitz's voice rose in panic.

Another man had appeared, slimmer and with thinning blond hair, and a dainty but deadly-looking pistol.

'You're coming back to Yquatine with us,' said the first man.

It sounded like a death sentence. 'No I'm b.l.o.o.d.y not!'

The second man smiled. 'Yes, you ”b.l.o.o.d.y” are.'

Fitz had a moment of sheer panic. They were going to take him back. He wasn't going to escape. Events were closing in on him like a net of steel. 'There's nothing I can say or do that will persuade you otherwise?' he babbled.

The two men exchanged glances.

'No, I don't think there is; said the first man in a loose, casual drawl.

Then he punched Fitz right in the stomach.

Treaty Day was over. It was now the small hours of the 17th of Lannasirn, a date now meaningless because the planet upon whose seasons that calendar was based no longer existed.

President Stefan Vargeld lay under a single sheet, damp with sweat he could feel it on his back, behind his knees, under his hair totally unable to sleep.

If I ever sleep again, I want to dream of her A mood of detached numbness pervaded his body, and he lay tense, waiting for the shock to hit him. A whole planet and all its people gone, just like that. But it didn't seem real. It made him want to laugh, and that made him feel worse. He recalled his flight to Muath with the Doctor. The way he'd broken down. Lost control. Cried like a kid. Could he blame it on the aftereffects of the medication? Or was he losing it?

If I ever look into her open eyes again Easy enough to be President when all that concerned you was the taxation of trade routes and interspecies technology transfer policies. He'd probably even have been able to cope with a conventional Anthaurk attack. But this? A whole planet smudged out of existence not just any planet, but the heart of the System?

He closed his eyes and saw Ahalt's face, unsmiling, hostile and closed to him for ever. She wasn't alone. There were people with her people and beings the millions of dead. They all wore that distant look she'd had the night he proposed to her. Frightened, but composed. Hurt, but determined. Private, resolved. You're never coming back in here again.

Take me back to the time before it happened I'll make it all right I'm President it's my d.a.m.n job to make it all right Then, under the weight of it all deep in the artificial night of Aloysius Station, he cried, and he wasn't a President: he was a kid again.

Too young to be President Never be able to cope with the responsibility He woke up shouting, the tears dry on his face. Must have fallen asleep at last. He winced, rubbed his eyes. His watch told him it was morning.

The day after.

The shock would be hitting home all across the System. The people of the Minerva System would be looking to him for leaders.h.i.+p. Now was his chance, his time. He'd make sure the Anthaurk paid for what they had done.

His comms unit bleeped and he spoke through a mouth coated with stale, dried saliva. 'Yes?'

'President Vargeld, sir?'

He rubbed his unshaven face. 'Who else would it be?'

'There's a Senate meeting in half an hour, sir.'

He didn't recognise the voice. Young, nervous, female. An image of Franseska flickered in his mind, and he banished it angrily. 'On whose authority?'

The voice stammered on. 'It's the Doctor, sir. He he says he's got something important to tell the Senate.'

'The Doctor?' Last he'd seen, the guy had been almost a goner.

'Yes, sir. The meeting's in Laboratory A.'

'How ' But the communication clicked off.

He dragged himself from his bed, ran his hands once again over his stubble and through his stiff hair, and groaned. He washed and dressed and left his quarters. To his surprise, Fandel was there, just about to press the entry coder.

'Fandel?' said President Vargeld. The bright white light of the corridor hurt his eyes.

'Did you get the message as well?' Fandel was virtually hopping from foot to foot. Despite the early hour, he was in full costume padded waistcoat, long frock coat and fastidiously pressed trousers. 'This is most irregular!'

'Well, we're living in irregular times,' mumbled President Vargeld, yawning as he walked along the corridor beside the Luvian senator.

Fandel was babbling away, ill.u.s.trating his speech with little jabs of his small white hands. 'The Doctor's emerged from his coma!' he cried. 'A few hours ago, he simply woke up, fresh as a daisy. No ill effects whatsoever! Turns out his coma was self-induced. And now he's called a Senate meeting!'

'He's overstepped his bounds,' said the President. He had to he seen to be in control. 'But we'll see what he has to say for himself: He quickened his pace towards Lab A, making Fandel scurry along beside him. He was fully awake now. The Doctor had found something, down on Muath. And it had to he something important so important that the Doctor had decided to convene the Senate all by himself.

Well. No harm in that, if it produced the desired results. President Vargeld set his jaw, pressing his teeth together until it hurt. He ached to see Zendaak's comeuppance.

Laboratory A was one of three scientific laboratories on Aloysius Station, used for the study of alien diseases, spatial radiation and observation of the sun. Arielle had been up here a few times, mapping the constellations of the System. He'd come with her once. It had been magical. Just themselves, a darkened observatory, and the stars wheeling in the blackness above. What choice did they have in such a situation? They'd made love President Vargeld shook his head and swore.

'You all right?' said Fandel.

'Yeah,' said the President. 'Bad night. No sleep.'

'Me too,' sighed Fandrl.

They reached the entrance to the laboratory. President Vargeld pushed open the double door and walked into a large, circular room, lined with equipment, Fandel scurrying at his side. In the centre of the lab, an isolation room had been set up, and inside this stood the Doctor, in his clothes, which still looked to the President like some sort of Luvian get-up, hale and hearty as you like. Grey-suited technicians stood nervously by.