Part 13 (1/2)
Waffins disappeared. Scar Balta came in alone, sleek as usual showing no trace of his irritation over his long wait. He did not even glance at the somber hangings that concealed a number of recesses in the wall. Scar knew that guards stood back of those hangings, armed with neuro-pistols or needle-rays as a precaution against the ever-present menace of a.s.sa.s.sination. And of the loopholes back of these recesses, with still other armed men, as a constant warning to any of the inner guards whose thoughts might turn to treachery.
Scar Balta bowed respectfully.
”Your Excellency desired to see me?”
”I wished to see you, or I should not have had you called,” Wilc.o.x replied irritably. ”I wish to have an explicit understanding with you as to our proceeding next week at our conference with the financial delegates. Sit here, close to me. It is not necessary for us to shout our business to the world.”
Balta took the chair beside Wilc.o.x, and they conversed in low tones.
”First of all,” Wilc.o.x wanted to know, ”how is your affair with the Princess Sira progressing?”
”Your Excellency knows.” Balta began cautiously, ”that the news agencies have been sending out pictorial forecasts--”
”Save your equivocation for others!” Wilc.o.x interrupted sharply. ”I am aware of the propaganda work. It was by my order that the facilities were extended to you. I am also aware that the princess escaped from Joro's palace. An amazing piece of bungling! Did she really escape or is Joro forwarding some plot of his own?”
”He seems genuinely disturbed. He has spent a fortune having the ca.n.a.l searched by divers, flying s.h.i.+ps and surface craft. If Sira fails to marry me Joro's life ambition will fail, for the hopes of the monarchists will then be forever lost.”
”True; but his Joro some larger plan? His is a mind I do not understand, and therefore I must always fear. A man with no ambition for himself, but only for an abstract. It is impossible!”
”Not impossible!” Balta insisted. ”Joro is a strange man. He believes that the monarchy would improve conditions for the people. And, Your Excellency, wouldn't I be a good king?”
Wilc.o.x looked at him morosely. His low voice carried a chill.
”Do not antic.i.p.ate events, my friend! There are certain arrangements to be made with the bankers regarding the election of a solar governor!” His large gray eyes burned. ”Solar governor! Never in history has there been a governor of the entire solar system. Destiny shapes all things to her end, and then produces a man to fill her needs!”
”And that man sits here beside me, Balta added adroitly. Wilc.o.x did not sense the irony of the quick take-up. He had been about to complete the sentence himself. But his mind was practical.
”The bankers must be satisfied. The terrestrial war must be a.s.sured before they will lend their support.”
”It is practically a.s.sured now,” Balta insisted. ”Our propaganda bureau has been at work incessantly, and public feeling is being worked up to a satisfactory pitch. Only last night two terrestrial commercial travelers were torn to pieces by a mob on suspicion that they were spies.”
”Good!” Wilc.o.x approved. ”Let there be no interruption in the work.
Our terrestrial agents report excellent results on Earth. They succeeded in poisoning the water supply of the city of Philadelphia.
Thousands killed, and the blame placed on Martian spies. Our agents found it necessary to inspire a peace bloc in the pan-terrestrial senate in order to keep them from declaring war forthwith. But these things are of no concern to you. Have you made the necessary arrangements with the key men of the army?”
”I have, Your Excellency. They are chafing for action. The overt act will be committed at the appointed time, and the terrestrial liner will be disintegrated without trace.”
”And have you made arrangements for the disposal of the s.h.i.+p's records?”
”Our own s.h.i.+p? I thought it best to have a time bomb concealed aboard.
That way not only the records will be destroyed but there will be no men left to talk when the post-war investigating commission comes around.”
”Well managed!” Wilc.o.x approved shortly. ”See that there is no failure!” He dismissed the young man by withdrawing to his inner self, where he rioted among stupendous thoughts.