Part 33 (1/2)

Then her house computer spoke. ”Incoming message from the Palais de la Concorde.”

”Oh, goody, Kant's gettin' back t'me.”

For the first time since she lay back down, Ozla looked at Farik's face on the screen. It was heavily lined and etched with concern. Or maybe it was just the way his spots looked in this light. ”Be careful, Ozla, all right?”

And then his face faded.

Ozla struggled to make her legs work, but she only succeeded in falling off the couch. At least that accomplished her goal, which was to move from the couch to the floor. She had been hoping to do it with her legs underneath her, but beggars couldn't be choosers. ”Computer, hold call fr'm Palais.”

”Acknowledged.”

Using a footrest to brace herself, Ozla somehow managed to clamber to her feet. She felt like she was wobbling, but at least she was upright. Then she had to convince her legs to not just support her weight-at which they were only barely succeeding-but also to walk.

Taking slow, easy steps, using whatever furniture she could to brace herself where possible, Ozla slowly made her way to the bathroom, which was where she kept her anti-intoxicants. She got them six years ago and had no idea if they were still any good or not, as she hadn't drunk this much-well, ever.

She had to touch the medicine chest control three times before it finally deigned to slide aside, and then she had to squint to make out the labels on the bottles inside. Finally she found the right one.

After pulling on the top for several seconds, she remembered that the bottle had a touch-sensitive control on the bottom that allowed ingress. She touched it four times before it finally opened. Then she swallowed three pills.

Seconds later, she was as sober as she had been when Ihazs had confronted her in that bas.e.m.e.nt. And about as apprehensive.

Walking steadily, but nervously, back out to the living room, she said, ”Computer, activate viewer.”

Zhres's face appeared on the screen. ”Ozla, Jorel would like to see you as soon as possible.”

Here it comes, she thought. The moment of truth. Or the moment of lying. ”Tell him I'll be right there.”

What Ozla didn't know was what answer she wanted more: that Ihazs was right, or that he was wrong. Because the thing that scared her the most, the thing that had driven her to drain her supply of Saurian brandy, Orion whiskey, and Terran scotch was the knowledge that this story would absolutely make her career. It would make the Orion expose look like a university term paper.

And that scared the living h.e.l.l out of her.

William Ross had first visited the presidential office as a child. His parents had taken him on the tour of the Palais, and this office had been the last stop. He hadn't gotten to meet President Thelian, of course, although he'd met several councillors during the tour. The seven-year-old Billy Ross had thought the room absolutely huge.

He'd been back many times in his Starfleet career, particularly under Presidents Jaresh-Inyo, Zife, and now Bacco. Each time he'd come in, the room had seemed smaller, never more so than when he'd stood and watched Min Zife give a resignation speech that had been hastily written, not by anyone on Zife's speechwriting staff but rather by a Vulcan woman named L'Haan. It had been right after that that L'Haan and her a.s.sociates had taken Zife, Koll Azernal, and Nelino Quafina to their ”retirement.”

Ross had been surprised at being summoned to the fifteenth floor alone. Generally his visits with the president were in the company of other Starfleet officers, not to mention various members of the government-the chief of staff, various cabinet members, the security advisor, and so on. He was even more surprised when Bacco entered the office by herself, unaccompanied even by her right hand, Esperanza Piniero.

”Can you imagine that I'm getting more trouble from the Diplomatic Corps than the Klingon High Council about this d.a.m.n summit? Now they're concerned that we'll be insulting the Romulan Empire.”

Allowing himself a small smile, Ross said, ”It's been my experience, ma'am, that one should never underestimate the capacity of the Diplomatic Corps to give you more trouble.”

At that, the president laughed. ”Good point.” She moved around to her desk and sat down.

”What can I do for you, Madam President?”

Bacco stared at him for a second. ”Bill, it's been a bad day for me. The Pioneers lost three out of four to the Stars, which means they aren't Northern Division champions for the first time in four years. The Diplomatic Corps is giving me lots of reasons to order them all beheaded with guillotines on the ground floor of the building, just like the good old days six hundred years ago. And now I've had this dropped in my lap.”

”What would 'this' be about, ma'am?” Ross asked, though the very fact that the president was calling him by his first name lent credence to several suspicions.

”The last person to have this office.”

That confirmed the worst of those suspicions. ”What about President Zife, ma'am?”

At once, all pretense of a friendly demeanor was gone, and Bacco angrily snapped, ”Cut the c.r.a.p, Admiral! You and I both know what happened. We both know that Zife armed Tezwa with those pulse cannons and didn't tell anyone-least of all the dozen or so s.h.i.+ps that got torn to pieces by those cannons. And we both know that you served him, Azernal, and Quafina with an ultimatum.”

Ross knew all this, of course, but he didn't know that Bacco did. ”How long- ?”

”Doesn't matter,” Bacco said with a dismissive wave.

”Actually, ma'am, due respect-it does matter.” Ross hesitated. Nan Bacco was a good woman, and he didn't want to make it sound as if he was accusing her of something, but he had to know the answer to this. ”Did you know when I offered to consult for your campaign?”

”No. I found out later-the morning of the first debate, in fact. By then, the campaign was at full bore, and- ” She shook her head. ”I don't know, I didn't really think about it. We had eight billion other things on our minds at that point, and I was a lot more concerned with what Zife did than what you did. But what you did...” She got up and let out a long breath. ”For the last year, I've been wondering what to do with you, Bill. I mean, you showed my predecessor the door, and there's a part of me that's been wondering, What happens if I do something to p.i.s.s him off?”

”That's unlikely, ma'am. There were a lot of reasons why I chose to show such public support for your campaign, and one of the biggest was the fact that I had faith in your inability to put me in the position President Zife did.”

Bacco, who had been staring out the window at the sunset over Paris, now whirled around at Ross. ”G.o.d, do you know what you sounded like just then?”

”Ma'am?”

”It's not enough that you removed Min Zife from power, but then you took it upon yourself to use whatever influence you could to put the person you preferred in his place.”

Ross s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably in his seat. ”Ma'am, I think you overestimate my importance. You won that election without any help from me.”

”Bull,” Bacco said angrily. ”I had plenty of help from you, and while I'm flattered that you think I could've managed without it, that doesn't change the fact that you did what you did. Now maybe I should've said something right after Esperanza found out, but I thought it was best to let it lie. We need to move past what Zife did to the Federation, and we couldn't do that if we rehashed Tezwa all over again.”

Ross frowned. ”I take the fact that we're having this meeting to indicate that something's changed.”

Bacco nodded. ”There's a reporter down on the second floor right now who just had a long conversation with Kant Jorel, who then had a long conversation with Esperanza, who just had a long conversation with me, during the middle of which I had Sivak call you over here.” She walked back over to her desk and sat back down. ”This reporter knows that Zife was responsible for the cannons on Tezwa, knows that Tezwa couldn't afford those cannons and the Danteri s.h.i.+ps they bought, knows that Quafina used the Orion Syndicate to funnel the cannons to Tezwa, and knows that Starfleet found out and that they-that is to say, you-forced Zife to resign to pay for the rather vicious crimes he committed, since a public airing of them would be disastrous.”

Appalled, Ross asked, ”You're not going to let the story run, are you?” At that, Bacco tilted her head, and Ross realized he'd misspoken. ”I mean, there must be some way to convince-I mean- ”

”What do you suggest, Admiral?” Bacco asked tightly. ”We make this person disappear? That's not how we do things.”

Ross had to almost physically restrain himself.

Then Bacco got a look of horror on her face. ”Isn't it?”

”Ma'am?”

”Back in May when Jaresh-Inyo died, Esperanza tried to track Zife down to invite him to the funeral on Mars. She couldn't find him. She couldn't find any sign of him. n.o.body on Bolarus, on Earth, anywhere knew where to find the most prominent person in the Federation for the last eight years. It shouldn't be that hard, if all he did was retire.”

Ross said nothing. He worked for this woman, admired this woman, and because of that, because he knew how important she was to the Federation, how necessary it was that she keep doing the job she was doing, he could not under any circ.u.mstances afford to tell her the whole truth.

Because if she knew what he knew, she would disappear as completely as Min Zife, Koll Azernal, and Nelino Quafina had. And there would be nothing William Ross could do about it this time, either.

”You know, when I started this conversation,” she said, ”I was concerned about what I had to do, but the more I talk to you, Admiral, the less problem I have with it.”