d and crackled.
     "Ashidan,"  Kissur quietly  called  out, "do  you  hear what Terence is
saying? He is saying that your guilt is larger than  that  of people who are
dead already and it's not fair."
     Even in the light brought by the moon and by the faraway fire one could
see the youth's shoulders shaking.
     "Get  off the  horse,  Ashidan," Kissur  ordered.  Ashidan  dismounted.
Kissur  also jumped down  and pulled the sword with the  intertwined  snakes
handle out of the sheath fastened to the saddle.
     "Get on your knees," Kissur ordered.
     Ashidan wordlessly kneeled next to  the abyss. The wind started playing
with his golden hair and it  glistened in the moonlight. Ashidan lowered his
head and pulled his hair off the base of the neck with his own hand.
     "It would have  been  better," Kissur spoke, "if  you had died  of  his
sword  eight years ago  and  not  now," and he raised  the  sword  over  the
brother's bowed head.
     Bemish jumped off his horse and seized Kissur's hand.
     "Isn't enough for today, Kissur? You are drunk with blood."
     "You  said it  yourself,"  Kissur  objected, "that I  acted unfairly. I
don't want people to say that about me."
     "Damn it," Bemish said, "you did everything correct. Let the lad be."
     "Get in the saddle, Ashidan," Kissur spoke quietly.

        X X X

     In a week, Bemish returned to the capital. He was buried up to his neck
in work, he had to attend a benefit dinner, a risk  strategy and  investment
conference, a Fall Leaves celebration in the palace, and a negotiation round
with the management of a Chakhar company that Bemish had plans for.
     Ronald Trevis  was also at the conference, he gained some weight  since
they  had met  last time and,  as Bemish learned, he had exchanged his third
wife for a fourth one. Shavash invited both friends to  join his retinue and
visit Chakhar and after the vice minister had introduced the two Earthmen to
the company director, the negotiations were concluded surprisingly quickly.
     In the evening, Bemish and Trevis suddenly  found themselves at a villa
with Shavash while  the rest of his retinue  hung out at another  hotel. The
guests  were  served  an incomparable  dinner but, when  the girls that  had
circling around  the guests left  and a waiter  from the security department
brought a counter  surveillance device with the desert, Bemish realized that
the serious conversation was just starting.
     "I would like," Shavash said, leaning  back in his armchair and putting
an empty  bowl for the glazed fruits aside, "to  discuss with you  our state
debt. We are stuck all the way  to our ears. The interest payments alone are
bigger that one third of our GDP."
     "I wouldn't say that  you have a large state  debt,"  Trevis mentioned,
"You just have a very small GDP."
     "That's  what  I  have  in  mind,"  Shavash  nodded,  "when  I  suggest
restructuring the debt."
     Trevis bounced in  his chair  about  to  protest against this idea  but
Shavash's next words caused his eyes to pop out.
     "I think that  it would be  possible to create a  private  company that
will  be responsible for paying  interest on certain state debt tranches and
this company will obtain Chakhar."
     "What do you mean, Chakhar?" Trevis was astonished.
     "I mean Chakhar or any other province where this company would  be able
to collect taxes, make laws  and  build factories.  If  a province frightens
you, you can limit yourself with some mining deposits."
     A long silence ruled the table.
     "Shavash,  aren't  you  afraid  that someday they will  arrest  you for
treason?" Trevis finally inquired.
     The small official shrugged his shoulders.
     "Why? It's just a way to decrease budget expenses. If a company doesn't
pay the state debt out, it will, of  course, loose the license. I've already
talked  to  Dachanak  and  Ibinna and  they  are ready to  be  the company's
co-founders.  Mr. Bemish  will  fit perfectly  there  and as for you,"  here
Shavash smiled  charmingly at  the  banker,  "I would  like you,  Ronald, to
handle the negotiations with the bonds' owners."
     Ronald Trevis leaned  forward - his  eyes reflected the lights from the
candles  burning  on  the table and the  green illumination coming from  the
counter surveillance device. "He will never stop," a thought passed Bemish's
mind, "He will handle the most fantastic  deals for Shavash because  Shavash
can offer  him what nobody has ever done  in the Galaxy  yet.  He will  be a
consultant if Shavash asks him to privatize the ministry of finance."
     Three days later, Bemish dropped by Assalah, for a couple of hours - he
was accompanying a Galactic Bank committee.
     The  committee  was shown a  new section  of finished  launching  pads,
numbers seven to seventeen, and was escorted down the unfinished but already
working  spaceport  building  with  twelve underground service floors  and a
fifteen story tower that housed Bemish's office on its very top.
     Bemish   entered  his   office  with  the   bank  vice   president  and
contemplated, smiling slightly, his table covered  with a barely perceptible
layer of dust.
     After the committee had left, Giles walked into the office.
     "How is Kissur's castle?" the spy inquired.
     Bemish mumbled something vague.
     "By the way," Giles said, "satellites observed  a space  boat explosion
in this area. It was something like a Colombine or a Trial with a boosted up
engine - they use them to traffic drugs. By any chance, have you heard about
it?"
     "I witnessed it," Bemish  said. "Kissur blew  up the boat. Before that,
he torched ten million worth of drugs and  killed sixteen men. Afterwards he
almost  cut  his  own  brother's  head  off.  Ashidan  was involved  in  the
business."
     "Did you memorize the space boat's license plate number?"
     "It was D-3756A Orinoko, if the plate wasn't a fake."
     Giles paused.
     "Do  you think that Kissur took you  with him on  purpose?  Did he know
that  we suspected him in drug trafficking  and  that  they had  refused his
application to the military academy exactly because of this?"
     "Yes. Only, Kissur is a proud man and he will die before he says it out
loud."
     Giles was biting his lips.
     "Where is Ashidan now?" he asked finally.
     "Ashidan stayed  in  the  castle.  More  precisely, he  stayed  in  the
castle's cellar." Bemish specified.
     He paused and added,
     "You  said that  you had proof of Kissur's connection to drug  dealers.
Where did you get this proof?"
     "Make a guess."
     "Shavash?"
     Giles nodded and spoke,
     "But he could just be mistaken."
     Bemish blew up and banged his fist on the table,
     "There is no way this bastard could be mistaken!" he screamed, "You can
fool the Earthmen from a sky far away and tell  them that Kissur traffics in
drugs! You can't  fool  Shavash!  He  has  better  spies  that all the local
gangsters  combined! He knew for sure that Kissur had nothing to do with it!
But  he also knew that Kissur, if cornered, would sooner or later  break his
head!"
     "But Shavash is Kissur's friend..."
     "Friend? The only thing he wants is to get into  Idari's bed! If Kissur
keels over, before a year goes by,  Idari  will have a choice - either to go
bumming or to marry Shavash!"
     Giles looked at Bemish and said suddenly,
     "I think that Mrs. Idari  will also have  the  third  alternative -  to
marry the  Assalah spaceport  director.  Not that a barbarian from the stars
could really allure her..."


     The Eleventh Chapter

     Where  Terence Bemish's assistant  goes  to  the  sectants' meeting  in
Imissa while  Kissur the White  Falcon looks around the Galaxy for abandoned
warheads.

     Two days later, Ashinik returned to the spaceport and  he didn't drop a
word about the Inissa meeting. It could not  be ruled out  that the  zealots
had made certain decisions and  that these decisions could include  an order
for Ashinik to plant a  bomb  for  Bemish  or to  throw it down a  launching
chute. But Bemish didn't have time to think about it.
     Three days later, Bemish  wandered into his office for half  an hour to
dictate  a whole  pile of documents,  Ashinik  interrupted him calling  from
somewhere in the port.
     "Mr. Bemish,  could you find an  hour for  me? There  is a man here who
would like to meet you. "
     "What man?" Bemish asked.
     "It's an... old man."
     Bemish was quite impressed.  He cleaned up  his office and  changed his
jacket, just in case; he hung his regular one in the closet and picked out a
light grey jacket that had one very useful feature - it could resist a laser
burst at a three meter distance.
     Ashinik led into the office an eighty-year-old man in peasant clothing,
with white and bushy eyebrows, straight back and a square cap on a seemingly
bald head. The old man looked at the Earthman with scary bulging eyes.
     "You," the old man said, "are the boss of this place. And who am I?"
     "You are probably," Bemish said, "the boss of the people who don't like
this place."
     "We  don't have  bosses," the  old man declared, "We  have students and
teachers."
     Bemish had nothing to reply, so he asked, "Would you like some tea?"
     Strangely, the old  man agreed. Bemish ordered it and soon Inis entered
the office carrying a  tray with a teapot, cups, and several  baskets filled
with sweet cookies.
     The old man disapprovingly stared at Inis'  skirt. It  was exactly  one
meter shorter than  what he would consider decent. Even Bemish, in  the back
of his mind, disapproved of Inis strolling in this skirt anywhere outside of
his  bedroom.  But  what  could he do? Inis enjoyed very few  things besides
skirts and earrings and Bemish felt sorry for her and never contradicted her
about her skirts.
     The main demon and the arch foe of  the demons silently drank tea for a
while.
     "How are  you going  to scamper from  here to the sky?" the White Elder
asked. "I  walked around your construction and I saw holes going down but  I
haven't seen any ladders going to the sky."
     "We don't use ladders,"  Bemish explained patiently, "to go to the sky.
We use space ships. Before starting, these ships stay in underground chutes,
like pigeons resting in a pigeon house between flights."
     The  White  Elder looked  at  him  with  interest  and  Bemish  started
explaining where to and  why ships flew. He  tried very hard. He even got to
the  concept  of an escape velocity  when  the old  man interrupted  him and
asked, "Ok,  I believe that you fly to  the sky and not underground. But why
wouldn't you still build a ladder so that people don't get confused?"
     Bemish  suppressed a desire to burst into hysterical  laughter. Then he
recalled the stories about the zealots' cunning and how they enjoyed placing
a man in  absurd situations  and watching his actions. What  if the  old man
understood everything about space ships?  He knew exactly that Bemish  would
be able to explain to him  what  an escape velocity was  but  he didn't know
what Bemish would do after such a question.
     Bemish hadn't exactly  shown himself in the best light and he stuck his
nose in the tea cup.
     "Listen," the  old man  said, having  realized that he wouldn't get  an
answer, "you talked to this puppy and  to  Kissur and to the great sovereign
and even to this briber Shavash and you  managed to find  the  common ground
with everyone. How have you managed it?"
     "I don't know," Bemish said. "It probably happened because I always try
to speak  truth.  People rarely tell the truth  to each  other.  They either
flatter each other and  think  that they are lying or they are  rude to each
and think that they are  telling the truth. But they  tell  the  truth  very
rarely."
     "What truth will you say about yourself? Will you  admit that you are a
demon?"
     "No," Bemish said, "I will not lie and say that I am a demon and I will
not say that you are wrong. You see, I grew up in a country where they think
that  the  people  are  always  right.  If so, many people  feel  themselves
slighted, they must have reasons  for  it.  If so many  people hate Earthmen
they must have reasons for it. I think that  the main reason is that you are
poorer than Earthmen. And I think that the  only way to change it is to help
you to become as rich as Earthmen. That's why I am building this spaceport."
     "You  are connected to  some  very bad people,"  the old man said, "For
instance, to  a man named Shavash.  He  is a backside of the world, a jerboa
turned into a  man, a filthy duck with seven tongues and  no soul. His black
shadow found its way into our  counsel  and his  black shadow stretches over
the construction. Think upon my words."
     Having said this,  the old  man stood and left without  bowing. Ashinik
rushed out with him.

        X X X

     Three more days passed and Ashinik  said, "Mr.  Bemish, if you  wish to
talk to the White Elder again, you should be  in the  capital, in the  hotel
Archan the day after tomorrow at the dew hour."
     Bemish  couldn't   fall  asleep  throughout   the  night.   Archan  was
unquestionably the  Empire's most  luxurious  hotel. It  was  located in the
Emperor's  palace territory, where the place  where  the  Cloud  Houses  for
visiting officials used to be. Archan retained all the crazy  luxury  of the
dwellings built  for  visiting provincial governors  and judges of the ninth
rank;  additionally  it  acquired   all  the   newest   comforts,  including
computerized  climate control. Evil  tongues added that Archan also retained
hidden passages that executioners had used to visit  the governors called to
the capital to receive capital  punishment. The medieval  spy holes had been
adapted  for  communication  equipment  and  much  more modern  surveillance
hardware had taken over.
     The fact  that  White Elder stayed at  Archan  and  not at a five  star
Hilton  demonstrated that the sect not only had considerably more money that
Bemish  had suspected  before  but it also had some patrons at the very top.
Who were these patrons? Clearly, it was not Shavash. The old man spoke about
Shavash with fresh  disgust. Bemish was  ready to swear that an informer  of
Shavash's had either been near Iniss or even attended the meeting itself and
that crabs had already feasted on him.
     Bemish lay in his bed and thought that maybe he,  the main demon of the
Empire, who  never sent spies, never bribed and never intrigued, managed  to
succeed where  the cunning official  Shavash  failed. He managed to make the
White Elder, the Earthmen's enemy, reconsider his policy.
     "You are absent-minded tonight," Inis said. "Has anything happened?"
     Terence smiled in the dark.
     "It's nothing. Sleep little one."
     The woman carefully caressed his chest.
     "Oh, Mr. Bemish, I can feel that you are troubled. I hope that it's not
due to the  accounting error I  made yesterday. If it's something  else, why
don't you tell me about it?"
     Bemish smiled  slightly imagining Inis advising him.  She, however, was
right - he, indeed, needed advice.
     Bemish climbed out of bed and,  having walked to the bathroom, dialed a
number. Surprisingly, he heard  an answer  immediately even  though  it  was
quite late.
     "Mrs. Idari? This is Bemish. I need to talk to you."
     "I am listening, Terence."
     "It's not a phone conversation. I  will be in the capital in two hours.
May I see you?"
     "Yes."

        X X X

     Idari  met him  in  the large  living room.  Bemish  didn't  ask  about
Kissur's  whereabouts  - the  majordomo  had already  whispered to  him that
Kissur was on a pub crawl accompanied by two barbarians and one bandit.
     Idari wore a solemn house mistress dress - long black pants and a black
blouse.  The blouse's sleeves  were embroidered  with  entwined  flowers and
stems. She  was girdled  by a  wide belt of  silver segments. She  walked by
Bemish  carefully stepping on the  beasts and grasses weaved on the rugs and
Bemish felt as if her feet were stepping on his heart.
     Bemish  sat down in a soft chair in the small living room and Idari sat
cross legged across him on the carpet.
     "I am meeting the White Elder tomorrow," Terence said.
     Alarm crossed the woman's face.
     "Be careful, Terence, it has to be a trap. They can kill or kidnap you.
You  have  tamed a kitten Ashinik  but don't think that you  have learned  a
forest tiger's habits."
     "It's not a trap,"  Bemish  said. "They can't set a trap for my body in
that  place.  But... You see... The sect is  ready  to reconsider its policy
towards Earthmen."
     Idari smiled with her blue eyes.
     "I... I was happy at first. I was able to do what Shavash couldn't. You
know how dangerous  they are. But now I am afraid. The White  Elder is doing
me a huge favor. He will ask something in return. An  eye for an eye. I want
to know what it will be."
     "It's very simple," Idari said.  "They say you are the foreigner who is
the closest to the sovereign. The White Elder will ask  you to  persuade the
sovereign to dismiss Shavash."
     Bemish shuddered. The  negotiations concerning the  company  that would
obtain  a   half  of   Chakhar's  ore  deposits   in   exchange  for  taking
responsibility of one  of the state loans were proceeding at full speed. The
company even  had a name, BOAR project. Nobody knew  about the project  yet,
but...
     "But... But... Oh my God, it's impossible! Shavash will bankrupt me!"
     The woman smiled imperceptibly.
     "You should have realized what could  happen, Terence, when you offered
Ashinik a job. Or do you think that <i>Following the Way</i> would have let Ashinik
serve a demon if they hadn't thought that the demon had made himself a snare
they could catch him with?"
     Bemish arrived at Archan at eight thirty.
     The hotel's  malachite columns gleamed and the mirrors  on the  lobby's
walls were inlaid with the thinnest silver layers on top. Above the mirrors,
where  the gods had been depicted in the past,  elegant clocks were now set;
they showed the local time, Melbourn time - Melbourn being the Federation of
Nineteen capital during this decade - and time  in London, New  York, Khoine
and in a dozen other largest Galaxy's business centers.
     A certain disturbance was taking place in the hotel's  lobby, a  palace
guardsman  in  a  green  caftan (palace guardsmen were  in  charge of  hotel
security) was silently  and  forcefully pushing  a journalist with a  camera
away. Bemish approached  the  registration desk and expressed a wish to talk
to  the resident of room number fifteen on the hotel  phone. The girl behind
the desk was quite  surprised. A hand  touched  Bemish on  the back and  the
hand's owner turned Bemish around to face him in a somewhat impolite manner.
     "My  dear  fellow,"  he  started unceremoniously  and then  he  choked,
thought a bit and asked tightly, "Mr. Bemish?"
     "That's me."
     The man with palace guard captain insignia was clearly nervous.
     "Excuse  me," he  said,  "do  I  understand  correctly  that  you  were
inquiring about the resident of the room number fifteen?"
     "Yes," Bemish said exasperatedly, "I have a meeting with him at nine."
     "It's impossible."
     "Why?"
     "An hour and  a half ago the man who stayed in the room number  fifteen
and two bodyguards of his were killed by a bomb that exploded in the room."
     Bemish put  his elbows  on  the desk and squeezed his temples  with his
hands in  anguish and, right  at that moment, a  journalist hiding behind  a
large flower pot happily clicked his camera.

        X X X

     In half an hour  Bemish rushed up Shavash's city  manor staircase.  The
vice-minister was drinking his morning tea in the blue living room.
     "What happened, Terence?" he stood up in astonishment, meeting Bemish.
     "Murderer!" Bemish shouted.
     "What's happened?"
     "Don't play games with me!"
     "Are you  talking about the Archan accident?  Terence, honestly, I have
nothing to do with it..."
     Shavash's face demonstrated sincere  surprise  and  affection. Bemish's
fist  collided with this affectionate  face maybe not at a half  of his full
power but definitely at one third of it.
     Shavash flew to the floor. He squeaked, rolled on the carpet and jumped
on his feet. His face burned and a red mark stretched across his left cheek.
     "Listen,  Terence," the official said, chewing on his lips,  "you  will
fall  out the zealots' favor this  morning.  It will be bad if you also fall
out of my favor..."
     Bemish sagged heavily in a chair.
     "Well, tell me what happened."
     "There is nothing to  tell you.  You know  it  all.  This morning I was
supposed  to meet the White Elder  in  Archan. The  White Elder was going to
reconsider his attitude towards Earthmen. Now he is as dead as a wasted frog
and, since it happened thanks to his meeting with  an Earthman, the  zealots
will  consider us demons just as  they considered  us before. They will also
remain  banned  and, being more dangerous for the country, they will be less
dangerous for you, Shavash."
     The small official grinned.
     "Don't  you think Terence  that if you  meet  a man  who signed a death
warrant to your friend, you should let you friend know about it?"
     "No."
     Shavash threw himself back in  the chair. His voice became  flatter and
less caressing.
     "Suppose,"  Shavash  said, "that  somebody informed me about the  White
Elder's stay in Archan and his meeting with you. Don't I know the conditions
of  this meeting and what they asked you  to  do so that Earthmen would stop
being demons?"
     "They didn't ask me anything."
     "They would have asked my resignation from you."
     "And it's better  for you to kill a man who could  make a peace between
Earthmen and millions of people that to resign, isn't it?"
     "Oh, Terence, you don't  understand  anything. Tell me, what  could you
tell the sovereign that the sovereign could revoke my appointment?"
     "What?! One tenth of what I know..."
     "Exactly. You can get me  to  resign  only  based on the deals  we have
handled  together. And if my part  in  these  deals is known, would  I  keep
silence about your  part?  And  if your  part is  known, even  the  moderate
newspapers will agree that you are a demon."
     Shavash spread his hands.
     "The White Elder had no intention of making peace with Earthmen. He was
going to use you as a tool to cause  my resignation and your own destruction
while the sect's attitude would not change a bit. I think that this decision
was made  in  Inissa during the same sect's meeting that you beloved Ashinik
attended."
     "This is bullshit,"  Bemish  said, "This  is bullshit  that  you  don't
believe, because if it had happened this way, you would have just talked and
told me that the White Elder was leading me by my nose. Instead of that  you
killed him, because they came to another decision at the sect's meeting."
     "Actually, I was going to talk to you," Shavash  replied, "today, after
your meeting with the White Elder. But somebody outwitted us both."
     "Who is it?"
     "It's Yadan."
     "Who?"
     "He is the teacher of your Ashinik, the number  two man in the sect who
will  become  the first one now. I bet  that he was the only one who knew or
suspected about the  White Elder's plan to throttle you with your own hands.
He  killed   him  to  take  his  position,  knowing  that  in  the   current
circumstances half Weia would blame  me for  the murder  and the other  half
would blame you."
     "Bullshit! I  saw  enough  to  be  sure  that  it  was  a  professional
assassination. Should I believe that the  same people who call all the Earth
technology a phantom, used sinex explosives?"
     "They call it a phantom but they can  use it quite well, Terence. Don't
worry. And they have many more opportunities to organize an assassination; I
can bet my life that it was a suicide bomber."

        X X X

     Ashinik spent this night in the company director's bed with Inis, as he
spent  all the  other nights  when Bemish  was away from  the spaceport.  He
learned about the accident from the morning news  report,  right from one of
the multiple screens hanging in a lounge that Ashinik was passing through.
     Ashinik stood in  silence  boring  the screen through with his eyes.  A
worker passed by and slid a note  into the lad's hand. He unwrapped and read
it; the note  ordered him to attend  a meeting at one  of the sect's  secret
places -  an  old  temple next to a tavern  three hundred kilometers to  the
north from Assalah.
     Ashinik paled and hurried to an exit.
     They waited  for him  at  the  exit -  two people  in  black  and white
uniforms of the  security  service silently blocked his way. Ashinik made an
attempt to turn aside.
     "Follow us, vice-president,"  an  officer said quietly, "the boss would
like to talk to you."
     He raised his hand to his  mouth  and spoke into a  round  badge on his
wrist,
     "We are going upstairs, sir,"
     Richard Giles, the spaceport  security head  was waiting for Ashinik in
his white soundproof office on the tower's twelfth floor. When Giles saw the
vice-president who actually outranked him, he didn't even move.
     The people in black and white uniform seated Ashinik in an armchair and
left at a sign  from their  boss.  The office doors slid towards each  other
behind their backs with a soft hiss; Ashinik and Giles were alone.
     "Have you introduced the White Elder to Terence?" Giles asked.
     It was useless to deny it.
     "Yes."
     "Why haven't I been notified?"
     "It's Mr. Bemish's prerogative," Ashinik answered, "If he had liked to,
he would've let you know. When I came to work here, Bemish promised  me that
I  didn't have to answer any questions  and I haven't been asked anything so
far."
     "That was under different circumstances. What  did Bemish and the White
Elder talk about?"
     "I don't know."
     "What was discussed at your sect's meeting in Inissa?"
     "I won't tell you."
     "Either you, Ashinik,  tell  me what  happened in Inissa or I will tell
Terence  in whose bed you sleep every  night that he  spends outside  of the
spaceport, including tonight."
     Ashinik paled.
     "And I can even show him some pictures." Ashinik sat motionlessly.
     "What happened in Inissa?
     "We... we agreed not to consider Earthmen to be demons."
     "How interesting... Why?"
     "It was my suggestion."
     "Did everybody support it?"
     "The White Elder agreed. That was enough."
     "What about the others? Who was against it?"
     "Yadan, Akhunna and a man nicknamed Garlic Dan were against it."
     "Why did the White Elder agree?"
     "He said  that he  would  make peace  with the  spaceport's boss if the
latter broke up with Shavash."
     "Aha. So, who killed the White Elder, Shavash or Yadan?"
     "I don't know."
     "What will happen to you?"
     Giles was silent.
     "Ashinik,   have  you  received  anything  from  the  sect   after  the
assassination?"
     "No."
     Giles looked at the youth carefully.
     "When you receive anything, let me know."
     Ashinik was silent.
     "Ashinik, don't you understand?  You were the  one who supported making
an  agreement with  Earthmen!  You will  be the next victim after the  White
Elder. They will kill you if you are not with us!"
     "I know," Ashinik said quietly.
     Giles sighed.
     "Listen, Ashinik,"  he  spoke suddenly,  "why have  you gotten involved
with Inis? She is a dumb broad; you can get a bunch of them for an ishevik."

        X X X

     In the evening Ashinik sat at the same table again, together with Giles
and Bemish. Wind and engines howled behind a huge dark window, the glares of
the  beacons  darted  across  the landing field  and  chunks of pollen  from
blooming  nut  trees  traveled  back  and  forth  over  the  landing  space.
Technicians  cursed under their breath - the pollen found its way inside all
the hardware. Superstitious  locals said  that  it was  a bad  omen.  Pollen
whirlwinds were always considered to be  witches  and the places where  they
moved particularly high were known to be damned.
     On the space  field open to the  winds and to the powerful  blows  from
plasma engines the witches danced their best.
     "When are you meeting Yadan?" Bemish asked.
     Ashinik was silent. He had burned the note long ago but its words still
flared inside his mind. Should he answer or not?
     But here Giles entered the conversation.
     "We know that a  courier from Yadan arrived in the spaceport territory.
He gave you a note. When did it happen?"
     "Nobody  has  given  me  any notes. Where  is your  courier?  Have  you
arrested or photographed him?"
     "No," Giles admitted.
     "Why not?"
     "Shavash's people saw him. They told me."
     "Don't  you understand that Shavash  lied to  you," Ashinik asked, "and
that you can't believe a single word of his?"
     "Listen, Ashinik,"  Giles said,  "I know that  after the  death of your
sect's head, the  new head has to be elected in two days. And I know that as
a member  of the  upper circle, you have  to be there because otherwise  the
meeting will be invalid. Where and when do you meet?"
     "I don't know."
     Giles grabbed the youth by the lapels of his jacket.
     "Idiot! Do  you understand that they  called you there to kill you? You
will get out of there alive only if you agree to kill Terence!"
     Ashinik paled. His pupils suddenly dilated covering his whole eyeballs.
     "Don't touch me, demon!" the youth suddenly screamed.
     Bemish leaped  up. Ashinik's face was contorted and foam bubbled on his
lips - a fit started.

        X X X

     Ashinik was carried away and then an inner door to Giles' office opened
and  a man, who had  watched the conversation from the next room, walked out
of it; it was Shavash.
     "Are you sure that a meeting will occur?" Giles asked.
     "I  am  three hundred percent sure," Shavash replied.  "The top  of the
sect will  be there. It's our only  chance  -  to pick them all and cut them
down to a demon's snot!"
     "It's your only chance," Bemish said through his teeth.
     "Terence!  We are both in the  same shit  here. Zealots  are  not  like
Galactic police. Nobody is gonna  care whether it was you or me who sent the
bomb to the White Elder. They will finish both of us off. Give me Ashinik."
     "What do you mean?" Bemish inquired.
     "Are you a child?"
     And a private jail's owner made a straightforward gesture with his hand
as if he was squeezing water out of a sheet.
     "No," Bemish cut him off.
     "Ronald  will be very  angry with you," Shavash purred. "He has already
started  the negotiations with the owners of large debt blocks. If you don't
join BOAR stock owners..."
     "I will think about it," Bemish said in a suddenly low voice.
     Shavash didn't insist. He knew that the Earthman  had never exchanged a
friend's life before for a certain - even  if very large  - amount  of money
and he thought that a man had to get used to such a thought.
     He stopped talking and he excused  himself soon. Giles  stepped out  to
walk him  down. On the space field  where nobody could  overhear them, Giles
whispered several words to Shavash and the latter smiled at the spy with his
eyes.

        X X X

     Ashinik woke up  late at night. He was in the medical room on the fifth
floor and the sky blinked red and blue behind the window.
     He didn't remember what exactly happened before  and during the fit. It
seemed like this  demon, Shavash, demanded something from him.  A demon? How
could it be  a demon? Shavash is a  Weian. But Yadan is also a Weian  and he
killed the  White Elder. Only a demon could  kill the White Elder. Then, are
the zealots demons? No, they only invent demons. But if you invent somebody,
you will turn into him...
     Ashinik sat  up in bed with a  jerk. He remembered now. He, as a member
of the first circle, was called to the sect's meeting. If he doesn't arrive,
he  will  be  outlawed.  What  if he arrives? It's crazy. The  Earthmen  are
watching him. He will act as a bee leading them to its beehive and they will
burn the beehive out with their rocket launchers.
     Ashinik looked around. The room wasn't large and though he couldn't see
anything  out of  ordinary around him, Ashinik felt as if the closed circuit
cameras were  zooming in  at  him  from  all directions. Ashinik  dug in his
clothing hanging on a  chair next to him and  fished out a flat pebble  with
two holes. They had  given  him this pebble at  Inissa meeting and  told him
that  the  pebble had been  bewitched  and  it  would  render  all  Earthmen
electronic eyes impotent.
     Ashinik smiled bitterly; he  knew all too well  that no  sorcery  would
help  against a  video camera. "If  I  don't  come and use surveillance as a
reason they will  accuse  me of  unbelieving  into the  power  of  the  holy
talisman," a thought glanced in his mind.
     Why would they watch him though? He usually  stayed in bed for a day or
two after a fit. Who would figure it out that the foam on his lips came from
a "foamy  nut" that he had chewed on and that he fainted from this nut for a
couple of hours at most.
     At  the  same  time  he  needed  to leave due to a very  simple reason.
Ashinik couldn't rely  on Bemish's behavior. It's true that the Earthman had
been  very magnanimous  so far but  it  had also been  in  his interest. Now
Bemish was utterly interested  in  the destruction of the sect and  he would
doubtfully be particularly nice to Ashinik.
     Ashinik  stood and pulled on the door handle. It was not locked but the
corridor it led to  was blocked by a closed department door  in two or three
meters.  Ashinik  knew  it  for  sure  that  unlocking this  door  would  be
dangerous. It was connected to the night alarm system in case of thieves and
other accidents.
     Ashinik stuck his  nose  into  a  couple of offices.  They  were mostly
filled  with medical equipment. Two rooms teemed with plastic paint  buckets
and other construction  paraphernalia  - they  were being  furnished.  Sharp
paint smell hadn't disappeared completely yet and the  workers laboring here
during the day had left a window ajar.
     A couple of disgustingly dirty worker overalls lay on the floor.
     The next moment, Ashinik's  eyes  gleamed and  he rushed  to  where the
paint was. Yes!  A small white roll, about  an elbow wide, was there, behind
the plastic buckets. It  was not  a rope, no;  it  was  just sound resistant
insulation tape that  was used for seal soundproofing linnit blocks. Ashinik
knew,  however,  that  the tape  was  incredibly  strong - the  construction
workers  loved  to  sell it  on the  side  to the peasants  who  wove  horse
harnesses out of it. The tape length in a standard pack was sixty meters but
the workers  had  already utilized  some. By  Ashinik's estimate, about  one
sixth of the tape  had been used. It should  be  enough for eighteen floors.
Ashinik pulled torn overalls over his pajama, walked to a window and wrapped
the tape's end around the window frame. He briefly prayed to the White Elder
and climbed out of the window.
     The descent was hard. The  tape was sticky just to the right degree and
it  was unwrapping slowly under Ashinik's weight. Sometimes it got stuck and
Ashinik had to pull  the tape  off jerkily  with one hand while hanging from
the other one.
     In  five  minutes, Ashinik jumped down onto a sidewalk and  ran at  top
speed across stiff and booming thermoconcrete. This spaceport's  sector  was
relatively empty -  two helicopters stood  next to  its  border and a  hefty
trans-galactic liner was being loaded far away. With an open mouth,  Ashinik
stared at the  containers floating into the cargo hatch for several moments.
What if he just crept in the ship and flew away  from this damned planet? At
least, nobody would kill or betray him there.
     Ashinik raced to the fifth sector, squeezed through a hole in the fence
and ran  down an unpaved road, illuminated by silvery moonlight, to  a small
jeep that was perched at the curb. Earlier, he had asked a worker to leave a
car there.
     Ashinik jumped  into  the jeep and  stuck his  hand under  the driver's
seat. Thank God  -  the car keys were right where they were  supposed to be,
wrapped in a dirty rag. Ashinik turned the ignition on and a cold gun barrel
touched his temple  and somebody said quietly,  "Be nice and drive straight,
cutie."
     Ashinik glanced aside -  he  could  see  the  speaker  in  the rearview
mirror. Ashinik recognized him to be a personal bodyguard of Shavash's,  one
out of five that he was rumored to hold in his complete confidence.
     "Go!"
     The jeep started moving slowly. The guard got his radio out and quietly
reported,
     "The fish is  on the  hook. Meet us behind  the bridge." Ashinik ground
his teeth.
     "Just wait," he uttered,  "my master will learn that you seized  me and
you will get you butt kicked!" The guard laughed.
     "Firstly," he spoke, "it would be difficult for Bemish to find out that
we  caught  you  because  you escaped on your own.  But  if  you are  really
interested in  it, it was  Mr.  Bemish who handed you over to us. He told us
where the jeep would be and suggested that we trapped you.
     Ashinik's heart plummeted.
     "You are lying! The master wouldn't do it!"
     "Eh,  my  dear, the master didn't do it  while he  still hoped  to make
peace with  the sect. And now he can only hope to find out where the Meeting
of Choosing will occur and burn them all out with  a laser or  with DDT.  We
can learn where it is from  you, right? Of course, Mr. Bemish could skin you
himself  but  Bemish is a  squeamish Earthman.  Why should he  get his hands
dirty  if  there  are  other  people  around? That's  why  he sold you  out,
Ashinik."
     Ashinik drove silently. Nearby, the spaceships' exhausts hissed warming
up and signal  lights blinked behind  the  spaceport wall. The unpaved  road
finally  ended, the jeep climbed onto a six lane  highway and rolled towards
Lannah Bridge.
     "So, where is the meeting?"
     "I don't know."
     The  car  raced over  a ramp  next  to the  spaceport eastern  gates; a
passenger car's lights blinked below.
     "Ashinik, why are you so stubborn? Don't  you understand that  you  are
the third one on their extermination  list, right after Bemish  and my boss?
You aren't crazy. You don't believe that Yadan was born out of a golden egg,
do you? Tell us and we will let you go because my masters are normal  people
and yours are nuts!"
     Ashinik suddenly swerved the steering  wheel all the way to the  right.
The car  hit  the  concrete sidewalk, jumped and  hit the fence head-on. The
guard  shot and the bullet burned Ashinik's hair and made a neat hole in the
windshield.
     "Ouch! What are you doing, bastard?!"
     The rail caved  in, bursting. Ashinik  threw the door  open  and rolled
out. He was barely able to grab the poles at the ramp's edge.
     The busted rail links glimmered on their way  down and the car followed
them spinning in the  air. Ashinik heard it hitting the ground; the sound of
a muted explosion came next.
     Ashinik climbed onto the ramp and ran as fast as he could.
     The next morning, barefoot  Ashinik dressed  in peasant clothing with a
sack behind his shoulder stepped out of a bus three hundred kilometers  away
from Assalah.
     In half an hour, he entered a village tavern on Mer Lake shore.
     Five people in simple  clothing sat in  the tavern. It seemed that none
of them paid any attention  to Ashinik. It was as if  not a man came through
the door but just a  bug flew  in. "Why  have I come," a thought desperately
beat at Ashinik's mind, "Why have I come? They will kill me like they killed
the White Elder." Ashinik sat on an unoccupied chair.  Now all six chairs at
the table were taken.
     "Rashan is dead," one of  the seated people stated quietly. "He is dead
because he desired to make peace with the demons and the man who advised him
to do so is responsible for his death."
     Rashan was the White Elder's name and it was forbidden to say  it while
he held  this position.  Since this name was mentioned, it  meant  that  the
White Elder had already been elected and Ashinik's  heart  shuddered when he
realized that it had been done without him.
     All five people turned and started looking at Ashinik.
     "Rashan's soul is lonely; those that defiled it should follow it," Dush
said; he sat next to Ashinik.
     Two small  seven-year-old  boys  entered the  room and  started walking
among the people with two goblets, a white and a black one. Everyone put his
hand into one goblet and then into the other one.
     Dush also  lowered  his hand  into  the white goblet and then  into the
black one. He had a dry bean in his hand - he was supposed to drop it in one
of the  goblets  -  nobody  could see in which  one. Ashinik didn't have any
difficulties, however, guessing that Dush chose the white one.
     The  boys walked around all six people and then they turned the goblets
over onto the table.  There was nothing in the black one and there were five
beans in the  white  one.  Five out of six  people  sitting  here  voted for
Ashinik's death. The sixth one abstained.
     Ashinik observed  himself with a  cold curiosity. His mind separated in
two halves  and both halves were  watching the current events independently.
One half was Ashinik-Assalah vice-president, the youngest Weian manager, the
man who earned ten times more money than all the other people here combined.
Another half  was Ashinik-zealot who put the Elder's orders above his death.
What's the value of one life if  there are  so many  of them? It's better to
die with honor and come  to your next life into a good family than to die as
a coward and be reborn as a spider.
     Two  men  in red hoods  picked Ashinik up by his hands, dragged him for
several steps and put him on a rug unrolled between two tripods. One of them
threw a sturdy rope noose over Ashinik's neck quickly and efficiently. "No!"
Ashinik wanted to cry out as an Earthman would have cried at his place.
     "Let me  put  my hair in  place,"  Ashinik heard his  own voice and his
hands rose and removed several hair curls from under the rope."
     One  executioner pushed  him  closer  to  the  altar and the other  one
started  unhurriedly putting  the  candles'  flame out  with a wooden board.
Ashinik knew that he would be killed when the last candle dies.
     Ashinik stood on his knees immobile and watched how darkness was slowly
conquering the room. Soon only one flame tongue was left...
     "Leave us alone," a voice spoke suddenly.
     The rope on his neck was loosened up. Ashinik heard the chairs and door
squeaking quietly.  He turned  his head  slightly and  saw that he was  left
alone with  Yadan. He  realized that Yadan  was  now the  White Elder by how
quickly his order had been obeyed.
     "It's not right to kill a man," Yadan said, "who can serve  our purpose
still, however guilty he is. You want to serve our purpose, don't you?"
     "I want it with all my heart."
     "Do you agree that you are responsible for Rashan's demise?"
     "Yes."
     Ashinik  answered  automatically.  He  knew what he would be told to do
now. He would be commanded to kill Shavash or his master.
     "The demons taught you a lot. Can you return to Terence Bemish?"
     "No. Bemish betrayed me."
     "It's  not   important   that  Bemish   betrayed  you,"  Yadan  noticed
sarcastically.  "It's important that Bemish betrayed Rashan. He will  answer
for that."

        X X X

     Two  days later, when Bemish flew  to hunt with Khanadar, he heard that
yet  another  assassination  attempt had  been made on Shavash's  life. This
time, it was no longer amateurs. A car packed with serit explosives had been
parked in Shavash's car path and it exploded exactly when the cars were next
to each  other. The assassination attempt had  been organized very well; the
criminals had clearly studied all of the vice-minister's possible routes and
they  had maintained constant radio communication. Once it became clear that
Shavash would drive by Azure circle, the corresponding order had been given.
The  car with explosives had been parked literally five minutes  before  the
official drove by.
     Shavash  was saved  by  a freaky accident. Just  a  moment  before  the
explosion, a doll rolled onto the road and an eight-year-old girl rushed out
there after  it. The driver stepped on the brake sharply  trying not  to hit
the girl and the car spun across the road.
     Right then the  explosion hit. Since the car faced the  blast  with its
back instead  of its side, it was hurled forward for  several  meters and it
hit a glass shop  window (while it was already  disintegrating) head on.  It
bounced  backwards,  jumped and its trunk hit a small electric auto that was
quietly hurrying to the Cheese Precinct.
     The car  leaped quite nimbly on the electric auto with its rear wheels,
jumped from its hood onto its  roof, froze there for a  second,  tipped over
and banged into the road cover face on.
     The driver  banged his forehead on  the steering wheel and hurt himself
quite a bit.  Shavash obtained a minor concussion and got the driver's blood
all over  his  excellent  suit. The bodyguard had  been  sitting in the back
seat, against the regulations, and he was not so lucky  - he sustained a rib
fracture and a lacerated spleen.
     Having  learned  about  serit  explosives,   Bemish   went  cold.  This
particular  explosive had been used  often  in  the  earlier  stage  of  the
spaceport's construction.
     Quite a crowd gathered in the foyer in front of Bemish's office. Bemish
walked  into  his  office gesturing  to Giles  to  follow him. The  security
service director's  face acquired a  wooden  expression  and he  came  after
Bemish.
     "Ashinik hasn't showed up, has he?" Bemish asked Giles.
     "No," the latter said.
     "Dick,  run  a check on the used explosives up to the last  milligram,"
Bemish said quietly.
     "If  I was you, I would not address this issue," Giles answered just as
quietly even though they were alone.
     "Being me, I will not wait till Shavash addresses this issue."
     In an hour Inis entered Bemish's office. Bemish raised his eyes and got
a surprise - Inis  was very serious,  her eyebrows were furled and her  face
was pale. She even wore a skirt that almost reached to the  ground though it
was somewhat transparent.
     "Terence," she said, lowering her eyes, "Ashinik has been arrested.  He
had just  being  sitting  in a tavern and they jumped upon him and drove him
away."
     "How do you know this?"
     "I got a phone call."
     Bemish paused.
     "Terence, I swear to you that he  is  not guilty!  These people... they
just used  him as a dummy front! It's their technique - they  decided to get
rid of  the man who is  half Earthman already and they decided to do it with
Shavash's hands!"
     Bemish was astonished.  Inis could  well be correct. But how  did  this
girl figure it  out? Who suggested this to her? Bemish almost asked her this
question and then he went pale. He understood what had happened. It  was not
"who" it was "what."
     "You should go to Shavash," Inis said.
     "Why?"
     Inis suddenly put her hands on her hips.
     "Three  months  ago you would  not ask, "Why?" You would  know that you
couldn't control the  workers without Ashinik. Now Ashinik has performed his
function  and  you  can give him away! He  taught the workers to be rich and
sated and nobody will betray you anymore!"
     Oh my God! Inis was no longer a bedding girl, content  with her dresses
and  sweets.  Bemish  leaped  from  his  armchair  and  grabbed  her  by her
shoulders.
     "Why are you asking for him? Why do you care about my  deputy? Why have
they called you and not me?"
     Then,  Inis burst into  tears. She kneed,  embraced  Bemish's  legs and
wailed confusedly, "I... I can't be without him..."
     Bemish paled.
     "Are you lovers?"
     Inis was crawling next to his feet. Bemish ran his hands over the table
and the woman cried out and leapt up. She looked at the intercom button with
horror  as if  she was  expecting Terence Bemish to  push  it and order  the
spaceport's security  service director to find  a jute sack somewhere, stick
the unfaithful lover of the general director in it and sew it up.
     Bemish turned and rushed out of the office.
     When Bemish got to Shavash, the small official was eating a breakfast.
     "You've arrested  my  employee!" Bemish  declared  at the doorstep. "On
what grounds did you do it?"
     "He  is  a  zealot  and he was  involved  in  yesterday's assassination
attempt."
     "Where is the proof?"
     Shavash grinned.
     "The arrest comes first. He will supply us with the proof later."
     "If I  were you, I wouldn't particularly trust to a  testimony obtained
under torture."
     "And I would never," Shavash said, "trust a zealot's testimony obtained
without torture. Why are you  looking at  me  as if a  live  carp  is  stuck
between my teeth?"
     "You are a scoundrel!" Bemish shouted.
     "You have said it before, Terence."
     "And you are shaking with fright  and rushed  to arrest  everybody left
and right!"
     "Terence," Shavash said, "we are now on one side. Look, Ashinik had run
away from you and he never came back to you.  Why? Because he was ordered to
wring our necks."
     "If he  had returned  to  Assalah," Bemish noticed, "it would have been
much easier."
     "If he had returned  to Assalah,  Giles would take him apart in half  a
minute."
     "Shavash,  I know  Ashinik a  little bit.  Listen, if he  had  set this
assassination up, you would not  have  survived.  He would  have used  three
times more explosives. He would not let any accidents get in his way."
     "It's possible," Shavash said, "but you see, if you arrest  a fool that
carried out the  assassination, he  can only tell you  what a fool knows. If
you arrest Ashinik who is  not particularly strong in his faith,  thanks  to
your efforts,  he will tell  us everything.  Three days later, after Ashinik
tells us everything, nothing will be left of the sect."
     "Nothing will be left except the reasons for its existence - poverty of
the people, embezzling officials and rude Earthmen."
     Shavash grinned.
     "You are a strange man, Terence. If I were you, I would thank a man who
arrested my concubine's lover."
     Bemish paled.  Even  that was out.  Damn  it,  everybody, including the
zealots, knew it except for him...
     "You, of course, do not love  Inis. You love another woman.  But  still
it's not a reason to appeal on Inis' beau's behalf."
     Shavash yawned and covered his mouth with his hand.
     Bemish shouted  in  such a  voice that the glass  doors  in  a  cabinet
clanged.
     "Either you will show me the proof that Ashinik's arrest is based on or
you will go with me and free him!"
     Shavash thought for a bit and then he rose, gestured at Bemish with his
finger to  follow  him and  stepped  out of the office.  They  walked down a
corridor  with a  beautiful hardwood  floor, passed  by  two  or three halls
decorated  with  the utmost  luxury and  covered  with ancient  rugs. It was
rumored that Shavash had ordered  these  rugs to be ripped off  the walls of
Isia-ratough temple in Chakhar (they had processed this robbery later as the
sale of these rugs at some ridiculously  low  price). Having  passed  two or
three  more  doors,  they  found  themselves  in a concrete corridor leading
underground.  Bemish  suddenly  remembered with  a shudder how  Shavash  had
boasted about  his personal jail. He  also recalled the words attributed  to
Shavash, "You are powerful not if  you can afford a personal villa;  you are
powerful if you can afford a  personal dungeon."  So, they hadn't even taken
Ashinik to a state prison...
     A low  desperate cry  came  from  behind  a door at the very end of the
corridor. Shavash threw the door wide open.
     Bemish noticed a pile of bloody rags in a corner, some pliers in a bowl
and Ashinik's dead eyes. Completely naked, he was hanging head down on metal
rings attached to a wall and Bemish's attention was pulled to his right hand
- all the nails there had been torn out. Then Shavash stepped forward moving
his friend  aside  and said in a tired  and  ironic voice, "The first set is
finished. Take the pear off the branch."
     They  took half-dead Ashinik  off the rings and  seated  him  astride a
chair. Shavash stood above the prisoner,  pulled his head up and asked, "Who
placed the bomb?"
     Ashinik was silent. His black hair stood up straight soaked with blood.
Bemish rushed to the youth but the guards blocked his way at once and one of
them, baring his rotten teeth, silently stuck a gun into Bemish's side.
     Ashinik's  eyes were as  empty as RAM in a turned off computer. Then he
whispered something. His lips didn't work. Bemish understood only the end of
the sentence - Ashinik swore dirty.
     "That's not an answer." Shavash said.
     Ashinik  licked his  broken lips and  spit  with all  his  strength  at
Shavash's face.
     His saliva  and blood  were all  over the  official's  lips  and  chin.
Everybody froze. Shavash slowly turned  and walked to an old sink built into
the room's right corner.  The  splashing  water and  the  washing official's
snorts  sounded very  clear  in the quiet room. Shavash  closed  the tap and
approached the prisoner again.
     "Do you hope that your boss will get you out of this?"
     He spun to Bemish.
     "Choose, Terence - this guy or the controlling stock block of BOAR."
     The  single second, that  passed by,  seemed like  eternity to Ashinik.
Then the Assalah general director pushed the gun,  pointed at  him, away and
said loudly, "You are such a scoundrel, Shavash!"
     Astonishment glanced in Ashinik's wide open eyes.
     "You  are  free,"  Shavash told Ashinik, "And when  you set  up another
assassination,  take  care that your  boss is around,  otherwise nobody will
step in on your behalf."
     Bemish pushed the official away, looked around and, grinning viciously,
started  pulling the pants and shirt off one of the torturers. The  torturer
squeaked fearfully, pulled out of the boss' hands and ran away. He came back
in a minute, carrying clean clothes.
     The second guard  smiled  exasperatedly  and unlocked the cuffs holding
Ashinik's bloodied wrists together.
     "Shouldn't we wash the lad?" he asked.
     Bemish hissed at him  like a  goose  and started pulling  the  pants on
Ashinik. Then he buttoned up the jacket on the youth and dragged him away.
     Bemish had  dropped  his car  right at the main staircase  of the  city
manor. He threw the lad into the car like a sack and he drove the car over a
flower bed planted with rare orchids while making a turn.
     Bemish stopped at the first private hospital; they washed Ashinik and a
physician with frightened eyes  bandaged  him.  The youth  was silent and he
only cried occasionally.
     Bemish  looked at  the  crying Ashinik and  thought  that  he  and  the
official had not even discussed whether or not the lad was guilty.
     When they arrived to Assalah,  the sun  was setting down. The pilot and
Bemish  picked up Ashinik  and helped him  to  walk  to  the  administration
building. Ashinik was slowly getting  over  the shock  and his eyes  started
looking more alert.
     Bemish locked  the  youth in  his  office  and went to  deal  with  the
representatives of the freight company SpaceMart.
     When  he returned in  an hour,  he had a white plastic  folder  in  his
hands. Ashinik had squeezed into a corner and he sat there shaking horribly.
A comfortable leather armchair was next to him but  Ashinik squatted  in his
ancestors' way. It was strange to see a man in Earth clothing squatting.
     Bemish walked to the youth.
     "Did you have anything to do with this explosion?"
     "No."
     "Will you lie to me, like you just lied to Shavash?  Do I look like his
executioners?"
     The  Assalah  company vice president squeezed himself further into  the
wall.
     "Ashinik, I  know that there are  people you must obey  unquestionably.
They  could have given  you  orders.  If this  is the  case, I wouldn't tell
Shavash anything. I will help  you to go to Earth, to any place where nobody
can give you orders. Did you have anything to do with this explosion?"
     "They told me that  you had sold me to  Shavash. That you exchanged  me
for a controlling stock block of the aluminum plant!"
     "Oh-ho,"  Bemish muttered, "and you tried to kill Shavash. Did  you try
to kill me, too?"
     Ashinik hid his face in his knees and burst in tears.
     "Master! Why are you torturing me?  It was Shavash first, now it's you!
Not again!"
     Bemish  was   silent.  In  six  months  he  grew   attached   to   this
twenty-year-old youth as if the latter were his son. The  lad was almost the
right  age. Bemish  had gotten used to feeling  like  Ashinik's  patron.  He
picked  up  a  dirty guy with  lice  in  his hair  and crazy visions and  he
transformed him into a manager with a tie  around his neck and a cell  phone
in his pocket. And now this manager seduced his concubine. He  also tried to
send to the other world a man who in a strange way had become one of Terence
Bemish's closest friends. And, possibly...
     Bemish paused.
     "Our score is even, Ashinik," the Earthman said. "You saved my company.
I saved your life. It's one to one. I don't owe you anything."
     Bemish threw the white plastic folder at his deputy.
     "You will find  here your last check  from Assalah Company, two tickets
to Earth, and an application form to Havishem; it's one of the best business
schools. I talked to Trevis - they will  accept you to Havishem. Trevis will
pay your tuition fees."
     Ashinik pulled the  papers out of the  folder. His bandaged  right hand
shook slightly.
     "There are two tickets," Ashinik said suddenly.
     "Don't worry," Bemish snickered, "I'll buy myself a new concubine."

        X X X

     While  all these  unpleasant  adventures related  to the White  Elder's
assassination were taking place  on  the  planet of Weia, Kissur napped in a
wide  first class  seat of a  passenger spaceship flying  to the  planet  of
Lakhan.
     The flight took almost eighteen hours.
     Kissur left the  spaceport  for a  cheap hotel, took a  shower, changed
into old grey pants and a worn out shirt with a popular band's logo pictured
on  it, made a couple of phone calls and  took  off. He went to  the western
part of the city, to Danachin University; the famous Lakhan student uprising
had taken place there ten years ago.
     Kissur took  the main  street  across  the block,  turned left and left
again  and,  bending  slightly,  dived into  the roar and light  of a  bar's
entrance.  He chose  a table next a window,  leaned  to a wall  and  started
waiting.
     In  half an  hour, Kissur finally saw a tall and  skinny guy with olive
skin and a ponytail who was finding his way to the bar's stand.
     "Hey, Lore," Kissur said.
     Lore turned around and shuddered but he recovered and, having picked up
a beer can, he joined Kissur.
     "How  is  it going, dude?" Lore  asked. "You haven't gone  back to your
Weia, have you?"
     Kissur just waived his hand.
     "I have a question to you," he said, "You've told me once that you knew
a man who was ready to trade a tiny gadget."
     "What gadget?"
     Kissur picked up a napkin and drew something on it.
     Lore's eyes widened a bit.
     "There  is such a man," he said, "but  capitalist rot has eaten all the
way through him. He will not do anything for his brothers, he only works for
money."
     "Tell him that there is a man who will pay money for his goods."
     "How many pieces do you want to buy?"
     "I want everything."
     Lore's eyes grew suspicious.
     "Kissur, where have you gotten the dough?"
     Kissur  silently presented  a three-day-old newspaper to him. It was  a
Weian paper published in Interenglish and an article  about a daring robbery
of Weian Industrial Bank, the second largest bank in the Empire, covered its
front page.
     "We will teach these capitalists a good lesson," Kissur spoke, "we will
show them that we can fight for peace not only with our mouths."

        X X X

     Denny Hill  worked on  a stationary base  Nordwest  located on  a  tiny
natural moon of  Danae planet.  Nordwest was the only base  constructed on a
planet that didn't have either atmosphere or population. It was only fitting
that it had assumed  an unpleasant  role  of a nuclear waste garbage pit for
all the outdated and not particularly outdated armament of the whole Galaxy.
Nordwest  storage  areas  bored  through  the  planet  like huge honeycombs.
Weaponry was sent there  if it became  obsolete or  banned due  to political
reasons or due to the activities of peace mongers.
     The rumors traveled around the  base that  the oldest units in  storage
were  shells from the First  Moon  War.  What  Denny  Hill, a technician  at
Nordwest, knew for sure however, was that  retired Cassiopeia missiles  were
stored at Nordwest.
     These missiles had caused  a major military scandal at some  point. The
missiles  were equipped  with S-field  generators capable of  twisting space
around them. It meant that,  once launched, they could  not  be intercepted.
Any wall,  defense  screen  or  field  can, in principle,  be  destroyed. To
destroy something, however, you have to interact with  it. Interaction means
passing through space but it's impossible to pass through twisted space.
     Ten years  ago, Gera had raised a great hassle demanding the ban of all
types of offensive  armament equipped with  S-field. It had been  calculated
that   the  construction  of  one  S-field  missile  cost  as  much  as  the
construction of twenty five subsidized houses for the underprivileged.
     The world shed tears. Instead of  building missiles  and  employing the
same underprivileged as  a workforce  - that would  enable them to buy their
houses with their earned income - the Federation  signed a treaty offered by
Gera and started constructing houses for the poor.
     Now  Gera  now  didn't have to  build  expensive missiles  and  it  put
everything into an effort to develop alternative types of S-field that would
not be covered by the treaty and would be cheaper.
     Some  missiles had been destroyed outright and  some had been partially
disassembled and brought to a "relatively disabled" stage. The missiles from
three bases - Arcon, Mino and Delos - had been transported to Nordwest.
     The accompanying  documentation pointed out that there were one hundred
forty  six "relatively disabled"  missiles.  The  whole  Galaxy thought that
there were  one hundred  forty  six  of  them.  Only Denny Hill,  a civilian
technician at the base, was energetic enough to take  a  count of the newest
(though disassembled) missiles and he found out that there were  one hundred
fifty eight of them. The  missiles were  stored in  a huge  depositary  area
where the alarm system had been disabled by a local  anaerobic life form and
Denny  Hill was  supposed  to  take  a  census of the storage  once a month.
Formally speaking, it should have been a committee made  out of  three local
employees and  federal inspectors but the army didn't have any money for all
these stupid committees and the base didn't have enough employees. That  was
why Denny Hill conducted the census on his own.

        X X X

     In two weeks on a  planet  with the beautiful name of Grace, two people
approached  Denny Hill who was spending his vacation there. Denny would have
ever  taken  them  for students - both  guys  were well-built and  lean like
pedigreed greyhounds and the senior  guy  had an old horrible scar above his
neckline. They were Kissur and Khanadar.
     "Lore sends you his greetings," Kissur said.
     "Hello," Denny Hill said guardedly. "Why are there two of you?"
     "You are seeing only one person here. Consider  the other one to be his
shadow."
     Denny Hill  was not completely  satisfied with  this explanation and he
continued sipping on his soup silently-  the  meeting was taking place  at a
restaurant table.
     Kissur sat still. He wanted Hill to start talking first.
     "Is it true that you would like to buy goods?"
     "Yes."
     "How much?"
     "Twelve."
     "Three million a piece."
     "One million nine hundred."
     "Two seventy five."
     "One million eight hundred."
     "Two fifty. It's manufacturing cost."
     "Nobody sells stolen goods at their manufacturing cost."
     "When these birdies fly to their destination, the  counter-intelligence
will be ready to cough  up ten million  for information about their original
residency."
     "They won't fly anywhere," Kissur said.
     "Lore told me something else."
     "Who cares what Lore said? I am an Emperor's servant. Do you think that
a sovereign  of the Amaride Dynasty and a  man of the White Falcon clan will
buy your toys to bust a supermarket? Don't you know that we are a Federation
ally? The Federation won't go nuts if it learns that its ally obtained these
trifles."
     "Well, that's different," Denny agreed. "I want two million a piece and
a new passport because I won't like to be here when  they start figuring out
who should  get  a  medal  for  providing a  Federation ally  with  military
support."

        X X X

     In a month, the next scheduled ship arrived at  Nordwest  bringing food
rations  in  bright  boxes.  The  ship  was going  to take retired  scanning
equipment away. Loading was completely automatic and the only person  at the
dock was Denny Hill. Theoretically, the regulations required the presence of
two people, a civilian and a military operator that would track each other's
actions.  But only a  quarter of  the positions was  currently filled at the
base and the only thing that the regulations were good for was taking memory
in the computer.
     Denny Hill counterfeited a backup copy of the loading papers and locked
it in a safe. He was not able to fake the files in the computer itself - the
computer was protected too well.
     Three days later Denny shoved Jack the Ripper virus into the  computer,
the virus overwrote all of the files' headers  and  Denny's boss told him to
clean the computer up and  to recover all the documentation  from the backup
copies.
     Denny pulled the fake backup copy out of the safe  and wrote it  to the
hard drive removing the last traces of his real activities.
     It took three hours for the cargo ship Antei, license number 284-AP-354
registered at the planet of  Agassa, to  reach Lakhan spaceport.  Lore Sigel
was  in charge of freight  shipping at the spaceport. A  while ago, Lore had
been a very promising young man but his social-anarchy tendencies interfered
with  his career. He spent three days in jail for offending the public  - he
attempted to  register a pig bought  at a  pig  farm  as  a candidate on the
presidential elections in Austria. He was a witness at a number of notorious
terrorist trials and he  had a habit of constantly  moving from one place to
another. All this finally brought Lore to this small provincial planet where
he worked as a cargo department manager.
     Lore  employed as longshoremen  five  or  six friends that nobody  else
would hire since the central department of security wouldn't recommend it.
     Not  surprisingly,  the  unloading  of  the  ship with  license  number
284-AP-354 started  very late, after the ship's yawning  crew walked away to
sleep in a hotel next to the port.
     Lore and his friends unloaded the boxes with the retired radio scanning
equipment.  There  were  twelve  more  boxes  in  the  ship  than  had  been
registered. The identification numbers on the  extra boxes  were removed and
the boxes were packed in the  new  containers and sealed. The new containers
were loaded on the ship Astra flying to the planet Issan. Accordingly to the
documentation, the  new  containers housed  geo-physical  equipment for  the
company Ambeko.
     The containers, however, never reached  the  planet Issan. Three  hours
after the ship's departure, the  captain extracted a box  out of his pocket.
Out of the  box,  he extracted  a  paralyzed lightning beetle, a  dweller of
Lakhan deserts known for its ability to  generate 370V  electric sparks. The
beetle  was placed  under the front panel cover of the control room.  Having
regained its senses the beetle discharged, causing minor damages to the main
flight control system. The ship had to exit  hyperspace  and the  crew began
repairs. While the  technicians were digging  out the beetle and fixing  the
problems, twelve containers were dumped off the ship.
     The ship soon continued its way. The reason for its deviation off route
in  deep space  was documented and presented to the  authorities in a bottle
with formaldehyde. The  authorities  reprimanded the crew  for  its lack  of
attention  that had  let  the malevolent representative of  the local  fauna
infiltrate the ship and the captain didn't receive a bonus.

        X X X

     Meanwhile, a small ship picked up the containers; since the ship was on
a charter flight, it didn't really require all the justifying paperwork. The
ship's name was Laissa. The documentation accompanying the twelve containers
was changed again and  the containers  were now marked as medical equipment.
The ship was flying to the planet of Weia, to the Assalah spaceport.

        X X X

     On the seventeenth  of  the month of rains,  Terence Bemish got a phone
call  in  the evening.  Shavash  was  on the line. They discussed a  Chakhar
nickel facility construction  project for a while and then  Shavash  advised
his  friend to sell  Inissa Logging Corporation stocks in  case  Terence had
them.
     "Oh, by the way, Shavash recalled, "a charter ship  Laissa will  arrive
at your spaceport  tomorrow. Could you make sure that  customs don't  bother
them  too  much and check  that their freight  could be stored in  some nice
storage facility."
     "All my storage space is crammed," Bemish replied.
     "Why don't you load it into 17B?"
     17B storage was  empty - it had been built for military  equipment  and
its walls, covered with lead sheets, insulated all irradiation.
     "What about Giles?"
     "Giles won't object," Shavash snorted.

        X X X

     The next day, the phone rang in Bemish's office. It was Ashinik.
     "A charter flight has arrived," Ashinik said...
     "Is it Laissa?"
     "Yes."
     "Send them to 17B storage."
     In half an  hour Ashinik  came to Bemish to get  storage "keys"  -  its
electronic locks required an ingenious system of codes and, additionally, it
had a microprocessor  that could recognize the  owner's retina  pattern. The
lock could store ten retina patterns in its memory but it currently had only
two - Bemish's and Giles'. Only Bemish, however, knew the password.
     The cargo delivered by Laissa was registered as medical equipment. That
was  not surprising.  Every  day,  three hundred  tons of  medical equipment
passed  the spaceport. Accordingly  to  Bemish's  calculations, every  Weian
peasant had by now one and a half CAT scanner.
     Medical equipment was  the only hardware that could be imported without
tariffs and a lot of  stuff entered the planet registered as  such. It would
be pretty  hard to transport an oil drill, even  disassembled, in  cardboard
boxes from Pepsi-Cola.
     This time the cargo was too heavy to be unloaded by a forklift.  Bemish
watched for a while loading platforms with huge cubes, sealed and painted in
green color, moving inside the classified storage area.
     "Who owns the cargo?" Bemish inquired.
     "Ascon Company."
     Having returned to his office, Bemish checked Ascon Company out. It had
been registered  two  months  ago and  it  was an IC  offshoot. Out  of  its
cofounders,  two  were anonymous  -  they  were  probably colonel  Giles and
Shavash.
     That's  our  Giles,  that's our fighter for democracy! No surprise here
that he won't object about his offshoot company using his storage area!

        X X X

     In three days, a party took place in Lore's house that was located half
an hour away from the spaceport. Lore, five longshoremen, and Kissur were at
the party.
     Lore said, "I  don't  have to introduce our old friend to  you. I  will
only say that two thousand years ago, a man named Irshahchan achieved at his
planet  what Marx  wrote  about  five  centuries ago  and  Shrainer  half  a
century... Of course, Irshahchan was limited  by his epoch  and culture but,
generally, his  actions  were  correct.  And I don't  think that anybody has
achieved more for the recovery of Irshahchan's and Marx'  ideals than Kissur
has. Now, we - six Earthmen - should be proud that we are helping, albeit to
a small degree, to fix the world that our countrymen, obsessed by the spirit
of capitalism, have corrupted."
     Everybody agreed that, generally, the sovereign Irshahchan had  thought
a lot in unison with Marx and Shrainer - half a century ago - even though he
had been somewhat backwards compared to the abovementioned thinkers.  He had
still been a despotic ruler of a patriarchic society.
     By the midnight the company had gotten pretty high and Kissur suggested
driving  around.  They  loaded  in Lore's  Dodge and rushed  downhill  on  a
mountainous road. At a  zigzag turn Lore, driving the  car,  suddenly saw  a
beetle shaped truck blocking the road. Lore lost  his wits for  a moment and
Kissur,  sitting next to him,  swerved the  steering wheel to  the right and
having opened the door, jumped out of the car.
     None of the other  passengers  had  Kissur's  reflexes. The car smashed
through the guard rail, dived into the gulf, flew two hundred meters down to
the  rocks  and  exploded.  The  explosion wouldn't  have happened all  that
easily, if Kissur had not put an extra hydrogen tank in the trunk. This tank
went off.
     Kissur looked beyond the torn guard rail, made sure that everything was
fine, climbed into the beetle shaped truck and was gone. Khanadar the  Dried
Date was at the truck's steering wheel.
     The death of Lore Sigel and his friends didn't cause any suspicions. He
had had at least eight crashes before and he had been quite high every time.
And now they also found LSD in the blood of the magnificent six.
     Nobody  found  anything connecting  this  episode  and  an  unfortunate
accident that happened two days  later on  a provincial planet  Issan. Denny
Hill, a technician  from  Nordwest  base, was  on the  vacation  at a  local
resort. He swam too far out in the local ocean and drowned.


     The Twelfth Chapter

     Where the Emperor  of  the Country  of  Great  Light finds out the real
purpose of the Assalah construction from  the opposition press and expresses
his confusion.

     In the beginning of May a large  article filled  a quarter of a page in
one  of the  most influential  newspapers  - MegaMoney. A well known economy
journalist and a Ronald Trevis' fan Christopher Blant figured out (or got  a
hint) to perform the simplest calculation - he took secondary balances  that
large  banks had  to publish and  added  up all the credits  granted to  the
Empire of Great Light.
     The  result was  that this year Weia had to  pay  off about one hundred
forty million dinars on all its foreign and domestic loans; at the same time
the total sum of all  taxes  collected this year would be only  one  hundred
twenty million  dinars.  "The real total of all the  Weian loans is probably
higher,"  Blant  wrote, "and it's clear  that  the only  way  Weia  can make
payments on  its loans is to obtain more loans at a higher interest rate. It
can't go  on forever. Weian  economy  will crash and  Weian ishevik  will be
devalued."
     The investors  clutched their heads. They demanded the Weian government
to publish the real debt figures. During next week, the government published
three different figures - eighty, hundred and hundred and thirteen billion -
all of them signed by the finance minister.
     It only spread the panic further.
     Somebody  started  a rumor that the payments on the two billion  dinars
credit  obtained  by Weia from Galactic Bank would be postponed first - this
credit had been turned into securities and distributed  on the market  after
the bank had gone public.
     The quotes went down by a factor of two and after that Weian government
came out with a restructuring plan.
     The  two  billion loan  would be taken over  by a new company BOAR that
would obtain in exchange - at  no cost - one of the largest nickel and other
non-ferrous metals deposits in  the Galaxy  where the government had already
built an ore enrichment facility. The concern  and all the  other  companies
registered  at its  territories would  not have to pay anything  towards the
state's budget.
     Three very influential  Weian entrepreneurs and Terence Bemish were the
company's cofounders. Even by the most modest estimate,  the profit from the
export  of non-ferrous  metals would be three times larger that the payments
on the  state's  debt that the company would  have to make. The  bond prices
skyrocketed at once to 97% of their face value.
     The bankers were tearing their hair out in shock. The newspaper article
resulted -  without any responsibility from the Weian government's side - in
devaluation  of the bonds. Their  value  could have dropped to  even  30% if
somebody hadn't bought devalued securities through Ronald Trevis.
     Inissa governor came, probably, the closest to the understanding of the
true reasons behind the panic; he didn't really like Shavash and he sent him
a birthday gift - a disinfectant can with a label "for avarice."
     Bemish started visiting Earth often on BOAR business  and every time he
would  wonder  at  a skyline  awkwardly constricted  by the buildings and  a
meager lonely moon. Once, in June,  Trevis  remarked that  the  calculations
that Bemish held  in  his hands had been done by Ashinik and the lad had  an
internship in the head office during his holidays.
     "How is he?" Bemish asked unaffectedly.
     "He is trying hard," Trevis said, "but he is very disappointed."
     "What is he disappointed with?"
     "He is disappointed that nobody kisses his boots. They kissed his boots
on Weia when he led the sect, didn't they?"
     "No," Bemish answered, "they didn't kiss his boots.  They gathered dust
where he walked and gave it to the pregnant and to the sick to drink."
     "Well," Trevis said, "he is disappointed that nobody gathers his dust."
     "How is his wife doing?" Bemish asked unexpectedly.
     "Is he married?" Trevis was surprised.
     Bemish didn't answer.
     Bemish  had  a bit of  time after  his  meetings and  before the ship's
departure; he ascended to his hotel room and  connected  to the White  Pages
website via a computer. The  computer thought  for  a while and then belched
forth  several  green lines.  On the black screen, they  resembled a  rim of
meson  irradiation formed around  the  exhausts of an interstar ship. Bemish
sat on a coach motionless for a while and then he ordered a taxi and rode in
it to the address that he got in the White Pages.
     Ashinik was renting an apartment  in  an old building and there was  no
camera at the entrance, only intercom  buttons bristled to the right. Bemish
pushed the button number 27.
     "Who is it?" Ashinik's voice replied.
     Bemish let the button go. He expected that Ashinik wouldn't be at  home
at daytime, only Inis would be  there.  His expectations proved to be wrong.
There were  two  more  hours left before the ship's departure; Bemish turned
and walked away.
     Only  when the  ship  pulled into the  orbit and  was almost out of the
regular T-phone reception range, Bemish called Trevis.
     "Listen," Bemish said, "I looked through the papers prepared by Ashinik
and I found them to be pretty good. Send him to me."
     Trevis said that he would like to  have  the young Weian in  his office
due to the growing number of Weian deals.
     "This guy cost me ten percent of a company with a yearly export size of
forty billion dinars," Bemish said, "and he will work it all off for me."
     Trevis asked something else but  then  the  receiver croaked and hissed
and the connection broke off.

        X X X

     Ashinik  returned  to  Weia  in  three  weeks.  He   looked  completely
different. Instead of a skinny frightened young lad that had left the Empire
eight  months  ago, a confident man  with cold blue eyes and  wide shoulders
walked into Bemish's office.
     "I  am sorry that I pulled you out," Bemish said, embracing the  youth,
"but I need you. It concerns BOAR."
     Ashinik lowered his head. When half a year ago, half-dead  from torture
he heard Shavash's voice offering his master to choose between him, Ashinik,
and a twenty five percent controlling  BOAR  stock block,  the  company name
couldn't  tell  him anything.  Now the  word  BOAR decorated  the  financial
newspapers' front pages and Bemish's share of the company was perfectly well
known to be fourteen  percent. Ashinik knew for sure that neither his direct
boss nor Trevis nor even Ashinik himself would have exchanged the control of
the deal of the century for a man.
     "I...I...," Ashinik muttered. Bemish took the youth's hand.
     "It doesn't matter. Where are you staying?"
     "I  am staying in a hotel," the lad replied turning to a window. There,
behind the burned caramel color glass and sharp points of  the ships, a huge
glass body of a luxurious hotel was melting in the sun.
     "You can move to my villa," Bemish said. "How is Inis doing?"
     "She is with me," Ashinik  replied. He paused  and added, "I don't want
to leave her alone. She shouldn't wave her skirt around.
     It became quiet for a moment in the office, and then Bemish said,
     "I  left her  alone  often  and nothing good came  out  of it. In three
hours, Giles will meet people from Chakhar Trade Bank in the  capital. Could
you go with him?"
     Ashinik went to the capital. He  took part in the talks and stayed at a
party  celebrating  the  third  year  anniversary  of  Sadd  Company.  Giles
introduced him to the economics minister.
     Ashinik's hands went cold when,  having approached a cluster of people,
he saw in its center the beautiful, slightly corpulent face of Shavash.
     "How  is  your  health,"  Shavash  asked  abruptly,   interrupting  his
conversation with an Earthman and nodding welcomingly to Ashinik.
     "I am well,  thanks,"  Ashinik heard his own voice as if  it was coming
out of a phone receiver.
     "How is your wife doing?"
     Ashinik uttered something about his wife being also fine.
     "I  recommend you  this young man," Shavash said, "He  helped us  a lot
with BOAR company."
     The  people  who crowded around Shavash  but  stood  to far to start  a
conversation with him moved slowly and started surrounding Ashinik.
     In a while after Shavash had  left, Ashinik realized suddenly with cold
curiosity  that  he  felt  good  about Shavash's nodding to him  - the  same
Shavash that he had been  trained in his previous life to exterminate like a
mongoose exterminates snakes.  In the hierarchy  of his  new life  this  nod
immediately distinguished him out of the other young people and it was as if
a small beacon  lit above  Ashinik's head and the  guests flew towards  this
beacon as moths fly towards light.
     The  door slammed behind Ashinik  and  Bemish still  sat  the  same way
looking absent-mindedly at a field through the window. He picked up a lot of
Empire's customs in his two  years on Weia. One thing  he  hadn't apparently
done yet - he had never killed a man because he wanted his wife.
     Now, in seven months after their last meeting,  Bemish  didn't have any
feelings towards ex-zealot Ashinik who started to resemble, frighteningly, a
polished novice broker. He only  felt quite annoyed thinking about  the lost
BOAR  shares.  On  the  other hand,  the  accident  brought  Bemish  certain
benefits.  It had somehow leaked out - probably via Shavash who  didn't find
anything appalling there - and it improved Bemish's reputation tremendously.
The biggest people on Weia knew that the Earthman hadn't  turned his  friend
into for money and it was  a Weian custom not to betray friends. It would be
fine  to send  an innocent  man  to  the gallows  to  help your friend or to
embezzle  money from  the state treasury but  to betray your friend was  not
nice.
     Bemish didn't  need  Ashinik. But he realized with  a surprise  that he
needed Inis. While his concubine had been  next to him and he could take her
any minute, could walk upstairs with  her or  simply  lock the office  door,
caress her soft  body  and  think  about  another  woman  -  unavailable and
forbidden - then  it seemed  to Bemish  that  talking  about love  would  be
stupid. Do you love your car? You just use it and  if you  crash it, you buy
another one.
     But  buying another car  proved to be difficult. Bemish tried three  or
four concubines  during  that time  and  threw them out,  wincing. The sluts
called in by Bemish didn't help either. Kissur seeing the Earthman suffering
once took him to such a place that... yikes, it's better to forget all about
it...
     Then,  there  was  some celebration at Shavash's palace where,  besides
everything else, they  presented an  ancient play  about  an  Inissa prince.
Watching it, Bemish suddenly realized that in  this world it had always been
considered normal for a man to desire two women simultaneously and  that he,
Terence Bemish, had turned Weian to a greater degree than he expected.
     A  penetrating beep of  the phone  interrupted Bemish's  contemplation.
Having answered the call, Bemish stood up  abruptly. It was time to face the
truth  - he called  Ashinik to Weia to take his wife away from him. It would
possibly not work on Earth.  But here, on Weia, where Bemish was no longer a
man that would be called "businessman" on Earth but rather became a man that
would be called "prince" - nobody would dare refuse him.
     When Bemish  with a large  wrapped gift package  entered a hotel  room,
Inis sat next to a mirror. She turned around and froze  seeing the Earthman.
Bemish, without taking his light overcoat off, approached her and kissed her
silently. The woman didn't resist.
     "It's  for  you,"  Bemish  said,  gently  pushing her  away  in several
minutes.
     Blushing with joy,  Inis  started unwrapping the package. In  a moment,
she cried out happily admiring a necklace of large bluish pearls.
     Bemish carefully took the  necklace out of her hands and put it on  her
neck. Inis tried to turn away.
     "What's wrong?"
     Bemish tenderly  turned her face towards him. It was only then that  he
noticed an ugly round bruise on her cheekbone.
     "What is it?"
     "Ashinik hit me."
     "Ashinik?"
     "He beats me often."
     "Why?"
     "He doesn't like anything," Inis said. "He doesn't  like my dresses, he
doesn't like that I was his master's concubine, he doesn't like that  people
don't kowtow in front  of  him, and  he doesn't like  it when  I dance  with
anybody else.  At first he works day and night  closing  a  deal and then he
gets  a  bonus and says that it's a  sugar lump that they gave  to a trained
Weian dog for jumping through a hoop."
     Bemish  sat  on the bed.  He suddenly didn't have  anything to say. Two
people in the room were silent and the setting sun, melting  in the sky, was
rapidly floating to the west following a rising freight ship.
     "You didn't  buy  yourself  a new concubine,  did  you?"  Inis suddenly
asked.
     "No," Bemish said.
     "Why?"
     "I don't know. I think I didn't stop loving the previous one enough."
     Inis carefully  sat  down next  to Bemish's feet.  Her eyes, large  and
green,  were  almost  like  Idari's  eyes and  they  looked at  Bemish  with
admiration and hope.

        X X X

     When  Ashinik returned to  the hotel  room in  the evening, the bedroom
door was slightly open and an immobile silhouette sat on the bed.
     "Inis!" Ashinik called opening the door and stopped short.
     It was not Inis sitting on the bed, it was Yadan.
     It  was  difficult  to  recognize  the  zealots'  leader -  he  wore  a
well-tailored suit with a fashionable standing collar and a wide tie.
     "Are you back?" Yadan asked.
     Ashinik felt cold fury rising inside him.
     "What do you want from me?"
     "I  saved you  ten years ago, my  boy. I gave you a  gift  of your life
after my predecessor's death. It's time to pay back."
     "I paid you back. It's a miracle that I survived."
     "You didn't pay back well and a lot of  people could not understand why
your bomb was not as good as the demons promised."
     "I  don't owe  you anything, Yadan. I owe Terence Bemish who made a man
out of me."
     "They bought you, my boy."
     "No."
     "Yes.  The  demons  buy  some people  for a  gold  piece, others  for a
thousand gold pieces, others for a  million. They say, you were bought for a
billion, for a piece of the demon's  company that you called BOAR and for an
opportunity to live like demons. You even got a concubine that her owner was
bored with..."
     Yadan paused and then cried out,
     "You, a man who could become the  White Elder and rule  the millions of
hearts,  were bought  for  an opportunity to have  a  house in  Los  Angeles
suburbs and to work eight hours a day!"
     "Get out!" Ashinik squealed.
     "Have you forgotten how  you  talked  to  the  gods, Ashinik? Have  you
forgotten how they took you alive to the sky, how thousands of ears listened
to  you  in  the way that  nobody  listens to anybody  in  this whole stupid
Galaxy?"
     "And what have the gods spilled out to me? That you  were born out of a
golden egg? That one could stop a laser ray with a spell? That Earthmen were
demons? Great things your gods have told me!"
     "You are a fool, Ashinik," Yadan grinned,  "and Earthmen are demons. Do
you know that they built this spaceport for a war between Gera and Earth and
that when this war  commences,  it will start raining bombs  on our  planet.
They made our world  a  lawn where elephants will tread and  nobody will get
two cents for  it  except  Shavash who  collected  six  million out  of  it!
Wouldn't you call it demons' work?"
     "Bullshit," Ashinik replied,  "there is as much bullshit here as  there
is in the fable about you hatching out of a gold egg."
     "Do you know that Giles works for Federal Intelligence?"
     "I built this spaceport and I know that it's a civil port!"
     "And do you know how much they steal there? Do you know how much of our
Motherhood they rob via this spaceport?
     Right then, light steps sounded in  the corridor  and Inis flitted into
the room.
     "Get  out of here," Ashinik told Yadan quietly but furiously, "I am not
afraid of all of you anymore."
     "You don't talk to the gods anymore, do you?" Yadan grinned.
     Having risen  quietly,  he  slid  by Inis to the door.  Ashinik  didn't
notice how Yadan covertly threw  a grain of yellow substance into  a  barely
smoking brazier while leaving.
     He sat on the bed with his hands  wrapped  about his head. Yadan's last
words stung  him sharply. He  really didn't speak to the  gods  anymore. And
though  today's Ashinik  new very  well that only  mad people talked to  the
gods, he  remembered these conversations deep in his mind and he  remembered
that it had been a proof of him being chosen.
     Inis  approached him and  stroked  him  on his  head  and  Ashinik  was
surprised to see an antique necklace of bluish Assaisse pearls.
     "Where have you been?" irritated Ashinik asked her.
     "Well, I walked around the town."
     "Where did you get this necklace?"
     "It's  a  gift from  Idari," the woman replied quickly.  "I received it
today in a basket."
     Such a quick answer put Ashinik on his guard.
     "Is it a gift from Bemish?" he bared his teeth.
     Inis put her hands on her hips.
     "And  so what?!"  she cried out, "If you don't give me beautiful things
you shouldn't at least forbid other people do it!"
     "You still love him, don't you?" Ashinik screamed.
     "Shame on you!"
     "You love him!  You were  just  jealous  of this bitch Idari! Everybody
knows that she had slept with Shavash before Kissur! And then she and Bemish
hit it off together! You whored with me to punish your Terence!"
     Ashinik  could no longer  hear what he  was  screaming; his eyes darted
wildly  as  if  they  were  trying to follow something invisible filling the
room. His  vision became  obscured by a  red wavering  veil  that seemed  to
separate this place from the otherworld and it could  fall apart any moment.
Noises and voices were buzzing in his ears as if a TV set had fifty channels
on simultaneously... Ashinik was quite familiar with this state - it used to
precede an event that his  brothers in sect  called an "appearance  of gods"
and Earthmen called a fit.
     "Give it to me!" Ashinik screamed  grabbing the woman  and falling onto
the bed with  her and  he started tearing the necklace off. But the necklace
was strong and small and it wasn't easy to either tear the thread or take it
off Inis.
     "You  slept  with him, didn't  you," Ashinik shouted,  "in exchange for
this thing?"
     "So what," Inis grinned suddenly. "Or are you  going to buy a  necklace
for  me with  your  stipend? What  would you  have  become  without Terence,
Ashinik? Would you be entertaining a crowd  at a  fair with your talks about
demons?"
     Something exploded in Ashinik's mind and  white light  blazed across it
and he heard a familiar voice telling him,
     "Kill  the demoness! Kill the demon's lover or she  will get knocked up
and a demon will be born that will destroy the whole world!"
     Instead  of tearing the necklace,  his  hands tightened it around Inis'
neck.  The  woman  screamed and thrashed.  "Pull it!  Pull  it!"  the  voice
screamed in Ashinik's mind. "Pull it, my son!"

        X X X

     Ashinik regained his senses only  in the morning. He lay  supine on the
red carpet and the morning sun seeped through the blinds. He didn't remember
anything except the very beginning of the quarrel.
     "Inis," Ashinik called.
     There was no response. "She left,"  a thought passed through  Ashinik's
mind, "she left for the Earthman!"
     Somebody knocked into the door.
     "Who is there?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
     "Breakfast," the answer came.
     Ashinik walked unsteadily to the living room and opened the door.
     A cute maid looked at him with certain sympathy - the young financier's
suit was wrinkled and bedraggled  and the suit's  owner  stood there swaying
with disheveled hair and black circles under his eyes.
     "When did my wife leave?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
     "I don't know," the  maid answered and winked slightly at the man, "but
if you need a woman..."
     "Go away."
     The maid rushed out of the room.
     Ashinik  climbed  into  the  bathtub  and  washed  and  shaved  himself
recovering slowly. His recollections  were  becoming  clearer and now he was
absolutely  sure that  he indeed had had a fit yesterday.  Damned Yadan!  He
drove  Ashinik  to it with his  forked tongue. But  how could Inis walk away
when  he was  in  the middle of a  fit?  Did she  leave her helpless husband
rolling on the floor?
     Wincing, Ashinik swallowed two cups  of coffee  and walked back  to the
bedroom to change his clothing. Only now he noticed what  he had not noticed
half an  hour ago - a white woman's arm on the carpet, on the other side  of
the bed, closer to the window.
     Ashinik moved nearer and froze.
     Inis lay on the carpet on the other  side of the bed and the pearls set
in silver were scattered all around her - the  necklace did snap. A red mark
darkened  her neck but  that  was not all of it - her  body was  hacked  and
covered in blood and a knife with a bone handle lay next to her.
     "Inis!" Ashinik screamed desperately clutching at his wife's face.
     Ashinik stood  up from his knees in fifteen minutes. He was  completely
covered with blood now.  He swayed. His thoughts darted  around like  hungry
mice in a cage. His memory was getting clearer  and clearer. An ugly quarrel
had happened at first and a fit  followed it. Is it possible  that he killed
his wife during  the  fit? It's possible. The  police  will  certainly think
along these lines. It will be a gift worthy of an Emperor for Shavash...
     What  if it was not him?  He refused to  follow Yadan's  orders - Yadan
knows that Ashinik loses himself completely during a fit; one of Yadan's men
could have been there  watching them and he  could have punished Ashinik for
being obstinate!
     It just had to have happened like that!
     Though why would the sect need  a  scandal that would certainly hit it?
The "yellow coats" will squeeze everything  out of Ashinik! Does Yadan  hope
that Ashinik will run back to the zealots for help? "Only they can help me,"
Ashinik thought, "Only they can hide a corpse and hide me."
     Or maybe it's not Yadan. It could be a spy of  Shavash's.  It  could be
anybody who hates Ashinik. Who hates Ashinik? The whole world hates him! His
only home is the sect but the Earthmen took it away from him!
     Bemish! Terence Bemish will understand him!

        X X X

     In  seven minutes Ashinik,  pale but already groomed, climbed out  of a
taxi at  the main spaceport  building. He  didn't have  an ID  that  allowed
access to  the service floors anymore but  a manager  recognized Ashinik and
walked him upstairs.
     Thankfully, Terence Bemish was in his office. He immediately  stood  up
greeting Ashinik.
     "Oh my God, Ashinik! What happened to you? Are you sick?"
     "I had a fit," Ashinik said. "What  am I saying,"  a thought glanced in
his mind, "When they find Inis, he will immediately  think about the fit. On
the other hand, I am going to tell him everything..."
     But at that point something beeped and whined at Bemish's belt.
     "Yes," the Assalah director shouted into the receiver. Having turned it
off in five minutes, he said, "Ashinik, I need to go!"
     "I will come with you!"
     "No, it's ok. Get yourself a coffee and I'll be back in a moment."
     He disappeared through the door.
     Ashinik mechanically sat down in  the office owner's armchair.  He  was
confused and deeply offended that Terence hadn't even heard him out. Several
minutes had passed before Ashinik moved. It  was not the first occasion when
he was sitting in this armchair as the Assalah director's deputy but then he
had used his own password...
     When  Bemish  returned  to his office in  three hours,  he didn't  find
Ashinik there.
     "He figured out why  I called him  to  Weia," Bemish thought. He leaned
back in the armchair and dialed Ashinik's hotel room number.  Nobody  picked
up a receiver  - the room was empty. Bemish called his villa and his headman
told him that the mistress  hadn't arrived yet and that everything was ready
for her arrival accordingly to Bemish's orders.
     With a smile Bemish  called  the border control chief -  just in case -
and told him not to let  Ashinik and Inis  off  the  planet. Time  and again
later he blamed himself that he  hadn't called  police at  once,  though  it
would have made no difference by then.

        X X X

     In two days at five in the morning,  a phone call woke Bemish up at the
villa. It was Shavash's personal secretary and Bemish's heart skipped a beat
because a phone call so early could be only about Inis - she and Ashinik had
disappeared out of  the hotel room without  a trace like a rotting  mushroom
would disappear in the earth in the fall.
     "Mr. Bemish?"
     "Yes."
     "Have you seen today's <i>Blue Sun</i>?"
     "No, I haven't seen it."
     "Take a look."
     The secretary hung the receiver.
     "Where  are  the  newspapers?!"  Bemish  screamed  rushing  out at  the
terrace.
     His secretary, pale with  fear, handed the newspapers to him. The front
page had it all, "The Earthmen  are building  a  military base  next to  the
capital  - Weia is now a hostage in the superpowers' fight." The second page
boasted  another  title,  "The last bribe of Shavash's. What's the  price of
your country?" The phone rang. It was Kissur.
     "Terence?  The Emperor wants to see you. You should  be in the Fragrant
Solemnity Pavilion in half an hour."
     The phone screamed again.
     "I am not here,  not here, I am already flying!" Bemish shouted leaping
out of  his bathrobe. A helicopter was beating  his transparent wings at the
landing field behind the white wall.
     Bemish spent  half an hour in the helicopter studying  the  damned <i>Blue
Sun</i>, a shitty newspaper that belonged to the rebels. "I've always known that
it  would  come  to that," he thought. The newspaper lied only in  the minor
details.  The bribe received  by  Shavash  had actually been  thirty percent
higher. Terence Bemish was called "a professional spy, an  experienced agent
who  wormed his  way  into  the  confidence  of  some  people  close  to the
sovereign." There was even some bullshit story about Bemish being kicked out
of Gera  three years  ago for  espionage - it didn't speak  in  favor of his
spying skills.
     They were already awaiting him  in the carved halls. Sw