Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 Read online

  "We're off the subject again," Dahno said.

  "Only a little," Bleys said, "but I'm getting there. You see, I expected, when I started researching the Exotics' power base, that I'd find just what I said: that the Exotics had suffered—undergone—a number of changes of the sort that could be expected to arise simply out of the workings of normal historical forces over a couple of centuries. I found, instead, evidence that the Exotics—and the Dorsai, too—have been under covert economic attack for decades; an attack apparently aimed at cutting them off from access to interstellar credits."

  Overriding the start of a comment from his brother, Bleys pressed on: "The first thing I looked for was a way to estimate Exotic wealth; and I found that in whatever terms you might want to measure it, it's been decreasing steadily for some time. That led me to a long-term pattern of Exotic-owned shipping being outbid for freight contracts and passenger carriage. I started to analyze traffic patterns, and found that shipping outbound from every one of the Younger Worlds for the Dorsai and the Exotics has been decreasing steadily over several decades at least—"

  "Where do you find that kind of information?" Dahno exclaimed.

  "The government, of course," Bleys said. "I'm First Elder, remember? Those gray bureaucrats over at the Commerce Cabinet were happy to winnow through several decades' worth of the raw data that all governments accumulate—and then largely bury."

  "Why would the Friendly government have raw data on Exotic shipping?" Dahno asked, a puzzled look on his face.

  "You, more than anyone, know the value of accumulating raw intelligence," Bleys said. "Governments always accumulate lots of raw data, simply because it's out there and some functionary can justify his position by grabbing it."

  "But raw data is useless if no one is looking at it and thinking about it," Dahno nodded. "You're right. But—"

  "Stop right there!" Bleys said. "Let me get back to the Exotics."

  "You're right, you're right," Dahno said. "It's just that I've spent so much of my life trying to find information.... Anyway, back to the Exotics—didn't you also mention the Dorsai? Where do they come in?"

  "Well, that's another thing I wasn't expecting," Bleys said. "The changes in traffic patterns involving the Exotics were virtually echoed by the changes involving the Dorsai."

  Dahno leaned back in his large chair, looking vaguely in the direction of the ceiling while holding one hand up to stop Bleys from continuing.

  "I think I can see a pattern of sorts," he said. "Both of those are societies that lived principally on exporting knowledge—in the case of the Dorsai, military expertise that made them better at soldiering than anyone else around." Now he looked back down at Bleys, challengingly. "So both societies would be hurt when the other planets just stopped needing their experts, right? For instance, when the other planets either began producing more of their own experts, or got caught up in fewer wars."

  "That's just what I expected to find," Bleys said. "And I did find it. You're right as far as that goes."

  "What did I miss?"

  "The balance of trade reports every government produces for its own use," Bleys said. "Academics and economists have been watching and charting that kind of number for centuries, trying to see patterns. And usually they produce pretty accurate data on the trends in all the major economic categories—including expert leases."

  "I was never able to keep up an interest in that kind of thing," Dahno said.

  "Dry as dust, I know." Bleys nodded. "But it's like any mathematical formula—somewhere under the dryness is an underlying reality that might be important, even exciting.... At any rate, it's true the other planets have been steadily increasing the numbers of experts—in a wide variety of fields—they produce. But what's exciting is that the increase hasn't been enough to account for the size of the disparity."

  "Is that disparity in expert leases enough to cause the decrease in Exotic wealth you found?" Dahno asked.

  "No," Bleys said. "There's another, even more measurable, disparity to be found in the commerce records. Specifically, in the shipping records."

  "You mean, cargoes?" Dahno asked. "You said yourself that the Exotics were never about exporting goods—"

  "That's right," Bleys said. "But I don't mean the cargoes. I mean the ships."

  "Oh, of course!" Dahno said. "It's been pretty much a stereotype that the Exotics' merchant fleet carries most of the cargoes between the worlds—but I haven't seen anything to suggest there's been a change in that perception."

  "Yes," Bleys said. "In fact, Exotic ships have been carrying a progressively smaller portion of interstellar trade. And the fact you didn't realize it shows the genius of the attack. It's been going on for a long time, and yet no one has really noticed—well, I'm sure the Exotics have noticed, but they're not likely to advertise the fact someone is trying to take, and succeeding in taking, their leading position away from them. It's been a remarkable fall for two worlds that once were the richest, and thus the most powerful, of the societies on the Younger Worlds."

  "So maybe they've lost some market share," Dahno said. "That kind of thing is to be expected. It's in the nature of history, you just said that; things like that change over time, as conditions change and motivations change."

  "True enough," Bleys said, "but this goes beyond that. What I found convinces me of the existence of a quiet campaign over a long period of time that apparently sought to undercut the Exotics' wealth and position, by means that can only be described as a covert conspiracy."

  "All right," Dahno said, "so someone has targeted the Exotics in order to get a share—even a big share—of their money. That's understandable; and since it seems to have been working, I'd say it was a pretty good tactic. But whoever those people are, if they're in it for the money and the power, they'll likely be susceptible to our ability to influence them, in the end."

  "They may be vulnerable to us," Bleys said, "but I'm not sure money and power are the reasons they targeted the Exotics."

  "Oh?" Dahno said. "Can you think of some other motive?"

  "Yes," Bleys said. "Revenge, for one."

  "Well. ..," Dahno started slowly before warming to his thought, "I suppose the Exotics might have made enemies with their trade practices over the centuries, but I can't imagine anyone creating a secret society of some sort to oppose them. Have you been reading more of those Old Earth novels again?"

  "Not revenge against the Exotics, necessarily," Bleys went on, ignoring the gibe. "Revenge against the Dorsai, perhaps."

  "The Dorsai?" Dahno said, after a moment of silence.

  "Yes," Bleys said. "I think I mentioned that the traffic patterns indicating a downturn in the Exotics' fortunes were being echoed by the patterns involving the Dorsai. At first I thought the Dorsai were being crippled simply as a by-product of the attack on the Exotics—but then it occurred to me it might be deliberately intended, as a way to deprive the Exotics of a weapon." He paused, thinking.

  "Even then, I was too focused on the Exotics," he went on after a moment. "But now I'm coming around to the notion that it's possible the Dorsai were the original intended targets of this action I've called a conspiracy."

  "I don't understand—" Dahno started; but Bleys continued.

  "It's the only way it makes sense," he said. "Someone started, decades ago at least, to try to cut the Dorsai off from any sources of interstellar credits. You know as well as I do that none of the Younger Worlds is totally self-sufficient. The standards of living on all of them are far lower than that on Old Earth; but they all, each and every one, need to import a lot of things just to survive; and to do that they need interstellar credits. And no one more so than the Dorsai, a planet so poor it's always had to export its people to be mercenary soldiers, just to earn enough to stay alive."

  "And you're saying someone has been trying to starve the Dorsai by cutting them off from credits?" Dahno said.

  Bleys nodded.

  "Where do the Exotics come into this, then?" Dahno
said. "Are there two such plots going on? That's a little much to swallow."

  "No," Bleys said. "One plot. If you remember your history, it follows naturally. The Exotics have always been a major customer for the Dorsai's services as the leading military professionals on all the worlds. To weaken the Exotics is to weaken the Dorsai's single largest market—and their single friend among the other worlds."

  "Is it that the Exotics are being crippled to prevent them from helping the Dorsai, or that the Dorsai are being crippled to prevent them from helping the Exotics if they come under attack?" Dahno said. "Couldn't it go either way?"

  "That's true, it could," Bleys said. "The records I've found hint that the campaign against the Dorsai came first, but I'm far from certain about that.... In any event, it doesn't really matter, does it?"

  "No," Dahno said, thoughtfully. "I suppose not." He raised an eyebrow as he looked closely at his brother. "So you have some reason for going to Ceta to try to unravel this?" he said.

  "Yes, of course," Bleys said. "Ceta seems to be where these attacks originated."

  "You can tell that somehow?"

  "Yes. Remember, among the Younger Worlds, Ceta was always the Exotics' main competition in commerce, after Old Earth."

  "So they had the greatest motive to try to undermine the Exotics," Dahno said. "Doesn't that come down to money and power, as I said earlier?"

  "True," Bleys said, "but I think there's something extra involved." "Why do you think that?"

  "Because there's been a strain of vindictiveness involved in all this," Bleys said. "Some of the things I've found in the records have no other good explanation."

  "Such as?"

  "Such as the Dorsai being charged more for some products than other worlds have been paying," Bleys said. "Such as collusion between companies—usually Cetan companies—competing against the Exotics, to undercut Exotic bids, even when it means the competitors must have been losing money."

  "A certain amount of that could simply be good—well, maybe sharp—business practice," Dahno said.

  "Now and again, yes," Bleys said. "But not when it's a pattern repeated frequently over decades."

  "So you're going to Ceta to try to uncover this," Dahno said. "Then what?"

  "Well, think about the other ramifications of this," Bleys answered. "If I'm right, why don't our Others, who've been working on Ceta for years, know about it?"

  "I see," Dahno said, his eyes narrowing slightly. "If our people don't know about whoever's doing all this—then we're being played."

  "Which means our own plans are being undermined," Bleys said. "Yes, I see that," Dahno said. He was suddenly tight-lipped, and Bleys knew his brother was concealing the effect of a severe blow.

  Dahno had always been almost obsessive about maintaining his personal independence—it was a reaction to the way he had been treated by their mother, as a kind of personal accessory—and Bleys could think of little that would shock his brother more than to find out he had been manipulated.

  CHAPTER 4

  "Uncle Henry, are you busy?" "Nothing that can't keep, Bleys."

  "I'd like to speak with you about preparations for another trip," Bleys said into his wristpad. "Off-planet, I mean; and soon. Continue with what you're doing, but I'd appreciate it if you'd come to see me when you're finished."

  "God has willed that it would be appropriate to do so," Henry MacLean said. "Carl and I have been comparing opinions on the new Soldiers we've brought in since Newton, and I wanted to speak with you about that when we are finished." Henry's voice and words often became more formal when the God he believed in was mentioned, but he had never used the antique-sounding speech affected by many of those who thought themselves unusually devout.

  "Good," said Bleys. "Come up when you're ready, then."

  "I will."

  When faced with a problem, Bleys often worked it out in his head while pacing relentlessly up and down the length of his private lounge, in the tall building that now housed the headquarters of the Others, in Ecumeny, the capital of Association. But not this time. This time, he felt scattered and unable to focus.

  That, he thought, as he tried to impose his usual discipline on his mind, was because there wasn't really a problem to focus on. The task he faced was simple; unfortunately, it was going to be difficult.

  His uncle Henry was going to be coming up to sec him soon. Henry MacLean was the organizer and leader of Bleys' Soldiers, the picked bodyguards Bleys had to surround himself with, these days.

  Henry had to be told, right away, to make the preparations necessary for the trip to Ceta.

  Faced with mentioning Ceta to his uncle, Bleys had found that, at some deep level, he was afraid. Because it was on Ceta that Henry's younger son, Will, had been killed, some years ago, while serving with a unit of Friendly Militia leased to a principality on that planet.

  Bleys had never seen Henry display any deep emotional reaction with regard to Will's death. But Bleys knew, on a level so detached that it might have happened to someone else, that he himself had reacted strongly to the news. He could no longer recall—he avoided trying to recapture—the explosion of emotion he had felt at the time.

  He was afraid to see what Henry's reaction might be.

  He stopped short in his pacing, remembering, suddenly, that he had lied to Henry, the first time he saw his uncle after Will's death.

  Bleys had been on Cassida, one stop on his first tour of the Others' organizations on the various Younger Worlds, when he received the news. He had finished his tour, including a stop on Ceta, before returning to Association—and almost his first stop upon arrival was a visit to Henry's farm, where Henry, almost casually, had asked Bleys whether his trip off-planet had taken him to Ceta.

  Bleys had immediately told Henry he had not gone there.

  Bleys could no longer recall, if he had ever known, why he had lied to his uncle. For the first time now it occurred to him he might have been trying to avoid reminding himself of the uncomfortable emotional reaction he had himself experienced.

  At any rate, he had lied, and it was a good thing he had recalled that fact now, before dealing with Henry face-to-face. He would have to watch how he spoke in front of his uncle, from here on— either avoiding any reference to that previous trip, or giving a vague impression it had occurred at some other time.

  For a moment he felt a touch of irritation, that he had let himself be so paralyzed; but the feeling was quickly forgotten as he turned to the screen that accessed his information stores. This trip was going to require a lot of preparation.

  By the time Toni was due back from whatever errand she had been on, Bleys was deep in his study of the Cetan situation, taking his researches down byways he had not had time to pursue before. His staff had prepared digests of all the materials relating to Cetan society available in the Chamber Library, here in Ecumeny, as well as of information gleaned from a number of government departments. He reserved for himself, however, the task of integrating that material with the data sent back, over the last decade and more, by the Others who had been sent to work on Ceta .. . the staff here never saw that kind of report.

  This was a time he could regret that the computers on each world were not fully connected to each other, as they had once been on Old Earth; it would have made his researches much easier. But humanity had taken to heart the lesson it learned when the Super-Complex, the great supercomputer, had rebelled and wreaked havoc on the mother planet: no one would ever again link computers in any quantity sufficient to risk that kind of incident.

  Instead, Bleys had to send out for information, including dispatching messages to the Others' groups on all the Younger Worlds— except, specifically, for Ceta—instructing them to send him as much data on that planet as they could locate on their worlds, and to do so quickly, sending it in installments, if need be. The information was unlikely to arrive on Association in any quantity before he himself left for Ceta, though; and in any case it would be so voluminous as to requi
re it be winnowed by his staff... he would have to be sure to leave instructions on that.

  He realized he was becoming irritated again. He hated it when that happened; emotion hampered the mind's cool functioning.

  After a few moments of self-examination, he concluded that the irritation, this time, arose out of his deeply buried discomfort at having to leave it to his staff to digest the information for him. He had tried to select for intelligent people, and had worked to train them; but it bothered him nonetheless ... it was just so likely they would miss something important that he would have found, if only . . .

  Pulling himself out of that train of thought, he checked the time, wondering where Toni was. Explaining the need for this trip to her would be considerably easier that it had been with Dahno. He could depend on her for that, he knew; whatever the motivation might be behind Toni's voluntary attachment of herself to him, she brought to her position much more of a judicious wait-and-see attitude than did his half-brother.

  "What are you planning?" Toni said, immediately after her arrival. "Am I that obvious now?"