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"Sit down, my good friend. I wish to talk to you."
Abrams eased his body into it, placing the red-
visored helmet on his lap. "My lord baron. How may
I be of service to you?'
Baron Cobalt shifted in his chair, pursing his lips
meditatively. "My good friend. That's what 1 called
Lakesh. Several months ago he sat where are you
sitting now, and 1 asked him for counsel. Now 1 ask
it of you."
Abrams couldn't help but feel uneasy. Since La-
kesh was abducted by Kane, Grant and Salvo, the
baron haa essentially quarantined himself from all
one-on-one contact with members of the Trust. He
had heard that isolation even extended to his personal
staff. He had devoted much thought to the whys and
wherefores, since they seemed fairly obvious-shame
because he had been duped by Salvo, self-anger that
he had not uncovered the conspiracy right under his
aquiline nose until its goal was achieved.
"What do you wish of me, my lord?" Abram&'
asked, inclining his head toward him.
"I told Salvo 1 fell prey to errors of judgment, ~
1 never made mistakes. Do you recall that?"
Abrams did indeed recall that, as vividly as if it.
had happened only an hour ago. Salvo, the com-
mander of the Magistrate Division and Abrams's
chief lieutenant, and a member of the Trust, had been
revealed as a traitor-a conspirator involved with
Kane to overthrow the barony from within.
The scheme had been complicated with a number
of diversions, including the pretense of commanding
the Grudge task force, which was devoted to tracking
down Kane, Grant and Baptiste. Salvo had abducted
Lakesh and placed the blame for the entire conspir-
acy on Abrams himself.
The frame job had been Salvo's fatal miscalcula-
tion, because it was too convenient for even the para-
noid Baron Cobalt to easily accept.
Salvo had apparently gambled that the baron
would not consult the genetic records and learn he
was related to Kane. That was all the proof Baron
Cobalt needed to brand him as a traitorous seditionist,
in league with the Preservationists.
"I remember that very clearly, my lord," Abrams
answered with a note of satisfaction in his otherwise
bland voice. "He groveled at your feet, pleading with
you, claiming you had misjudged him."
A deep, sad sigh issued from Baron Cobalt's lips.
"And indeed I had."
It took a moment for the implications of the
baron's remark to penetrate Abrams's mind. He felt
his eyebrows crawl first toward his hairline, then
curve down to meet at the bridge of his nose. "My
lord?" he faltered. "I don't understand-"
"Neither did I," Baron Cobalt blurted, a touch of
almost human desperation in his tone. ' 'At first. I
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tried to deny the evidence that I had wronged him,
but now I must the accept the truth."
"Truth?" Abrams echoed, not quite sure if he
wanted to hear what Baron Cobalt considered truth.
"What do you mean?"
"Salvo was not working with Kane or the Pres-
ervationists. Yes, he had his own agenda, his own
ambitions, as so many members of the Trust do. He
did imprison Lakesh without my knowledge and tor-
ture him. But it was to learn the whereabouts of
Kane.
Abrams could only stare in stunned incredulity for
a long moment. "My lord, how do you know this?"
"Salvo told me."
"Surely you did not believe him. He lied-"
Baron Cobalt raised a preemptory, long-fingered
hand. "He lied about many things, but not about that.
Because of his many lies, 1 did not believe anything
he said. So 1 looked beneath his words. 1 interfaced
his brain with a database and recorded his memo-
ries."
Abrams recalled how the. Baronial Guard had
dragged Salvo away, and he understood the baron
intended to subject him to certain types of interro-
gation techniques, but he had never inquired about
them. He feared to.
"I recorded his memories," Baron Cobalt contin-
ued, "interpreted them into subjective visual lan-
guage and studied them. A schemer he definitely was,
but Salvo did not betray me. His mission in life was
to track down Kane, and in the process he exploited
the powers 1 had given him to do so."
Abrams struggled to grasp the concept that both
he and the baron had made a grave error. "Then why
did Kane rescue him?"
Baron Cobalt shook his domed head. "What we
construed as a rescue was a capture. And what we
construed as Lakesh' s capture was more than likely
the real rescue."
"Lakesh?" Abrams echoed in astonishment.
 Your most trusted adviser? He was selected by the
Directorate itself to help guide the program of uni-
Fication! He-"
Abrams broke off, not certain if he had revealed
more knowledge of Lakesh than he should have.
"He is also a predark human being." The baron's
voice dropped to a whisper. "With predark standards
of ethics and morality."
"But predark human beings planned and imple-
mented the unification," Abrams argued. "In concert
with the Directorate, long before the nukecaust and
skydark.' ,
"There are some things about the Program of Uni-
fication you do not know.'.' Baron Cobalt spoke
sadly, as if he were grieving the loss of a loved one.
"Would it shock you to learn there are some things
even I don't know?"
Abrams sat silently, throat constricted. The baron's
question had shocked him deeply. He could not re-
spond.
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 A number of predark scientists, all involved with [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]