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Mahoney& I believe that was your rank when you 'retired.' Spies suicide not
spy-masters."
"You are quick," Mahoney said. "So can we drop the 'Schaemel' drakh,
Venloe?"
"I thought that identity was safely buried. But then, I thought I was, too."
Mahoney explained: how few real professionals there were; how fewer were
not involved with a government, megacorporation, or military; and lastly
Venloe's characteristic MO.
Venloe looked chagrined. "And all these years you think you never leave a
trail. Tsk. I am ashamed. So how am I to make amends for having engineered
the assassination of the Emperor?"
"You assume I'm not here to nail your guts to a tree and chase you around it
half a dozen times. The Emperor was also my friend."
"So I have been told. And I have heard stories about you& preferring field
work on occasion. But if you just wanted me dead, you would not have
bothered to introduce yourself before the bangs began. Direct confrontations
can produce contusions on both sides and you are hardly a young hero any
more."
"Not correct," Mahoney said, and the easy casualness vanished for a moment.
"If I weren't after bigger bastards I well might've shown up and personally cut
your heart out."
"Careful, Mahoney. You corrected me on one of my errors, I return the
compliment. We do not take things personally in our trade. It can be suicidal.
"But since that is not on the agenda, may we change the subject? You may tell
whatever troops you have for backup they can relax."
He walked to a desk and put his hand flat on what appeared to be a blotter.
"My own people are standing down."
He seated himself and indicated that Mahoney do likewise. "I could probably
guess what you want. But tell me, anyway. I assume it has something to do
with this ludicrous Tribunal I've heard bruited."
"It is. We want you to testify as to the conspiracy. Publicly."
"Me? On the stand? That would be a new experience. Hardly good for my
future employability."
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"Times don't appear to have been that good, anyway," Mahoney said, looking
pointedly out the window at the empty stables.
"The circumstances of my last assignment have forced me to be most careful
as to who my employer is. I have turned down some very lush deals because of
my supreme egotism in trying for the biggest target of them all."
"Poor lad."
Venloe ignored Mahoney's sarcasm. "Say I agree, however. I stand up in a
courtroom and say say exactly what? That I was hired by one Tanz
Sullamora after having performed tasks satisfactorily for him previously?
That I located and developed the asset Chapelle and positioned him? And all
the details around that? Perhaps. But is that all?"
"Of course not. Sullamora's dead. Nobody gives a clot about him. We want the
others. Kyes. Malperin. The Kraas. Lovett."
"Tsk. You want what I cannot give."
"But you will."
"You misunderstand. I cannot provide such details. I could testify that it is my
moral belief that the rest of the privy council was part of the conspiracy,
certainly. But proof? Sullamora never mentioned their names to me. I never
met with them, nor with anyone I thought to be their direct representatives.
Don't glower, Mahoney.
"I can offer evidence. My presence here. I fled Prime, of course. But I
returned to my home of over twenty years rather than vanish into a new
identity and a new part of the universe where I was a complete unknown.
Obviously I did not collect my payoff; obviously I have not gone to anyone
looking for it. Now, if those bloody-handed idiots on the privy council had any
idea that I was Control for that touch, don't you think they would have
arranged my disappearance or cooption? More likely the former?"
Mahoney held his poker face. But he did not like what he was hearing.
"So, Mahoney, as I said, I am not your smoking gun, nor do I know where it
might be. I will reluctantly offer you a deposition as to my knowledge but
that is all."
Venloe got himself another tumbler of punch and waved the ladle in
Mahoney's direction. Mahoney shook his head, no. Venloe went back to his
chair.
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"Impasse, is it not? You can kill me& try to kill me. But you certainly cannot
get out alive. You said you were after bigger bastards I assume you want to
see them gotten."
"Not quite an impasse," Mahoney said. "You are going to pack, and you are
going to return with me to Newton. You may be telling the truth, you may be
lying. We will find out, for certain."
"Brainscan? Never. People have been known to die or to be scrambled
under the cap. If that's the choice, I'd rather fight and conceivably die here."
"You won't get dead. Or brainburnt. The scan will be done by Rykor. She is "
"I know of her. The best. But, I confess, somebody wading through my soul
gives me shudders."
"The poor clot who'll do the wading through what you call a soul is the one
who'll get the collywobbles."
"Let me consider," Venloe mused. "If I say no, and somehow both of us
survive the ensuing& discussion, what will happen next? Certainly you will
somehow leak the word of my existence to the privy council, expecting them
to clean up tracks that are not even there.
"Exactly what they would do. Imbeciles. I do not like this option.
"On the other hand, I go with you. Accept brainscan. Testify. Perhaps your
Tribunal will succeed and somehow the forces of" Venloe's voice oozed
sarcasm "truth, justice, and the Imperial Way magically triumph, and the
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