The Tower Of Fear

Startled, bel-Sidek asked, "Do we have him?"

"No. But I'll put that best man of mine on it and we will have him when thetime comes. I'll have you take a message to Muma's in the morning. You caninform the man anytime afterward."

"Yes sir. How are you, sir? Do you need me?" "Told the woman you'd be back todiscuss shipping schedules, did you? Go ahead. I'm tougher than you like tothink, Khadifa.

I'll survive."

Aaron watched Laella carefully throughout breakfast. He could see no sign thatsleep had worked any miracles and given her the answer that had eluded him forsix years. Mish watched them both in that way she did when she knew what hadhappened between them in the dark, looking for he knew not what, but causingknots in his guts. Arif ate somberly and delicately while Stafa flew aroundthe house chattering nonsense as he pursued some imaginary adventure, deaf toparental admonition. Raheb was closed in upon herself, maybe feeling her age.

Laella said, "I've got to do some marketing today." Thinking out loud.

Her mother said, "I'll go with you. I need to get some things."

Mish went into her pout immediately, for which Aaron was almost grateful.

Arif asked, "Can I go with you, Mom?"

"We'll see how you behave this morning."

Mish brightened some. She rose and started making Aaron a lunch.

Aaron said, "I won't need that today, Mish. We're only working half a day."

She looked like she could not make up her mind if she should be delighted ordistraught.

Aaron yawned, caught Stafa on the fly, hugged him as he squealed and wriggled, trying to get loose. He extended a hand, inviting Arif. Arif looked unhappyfor a moment, quietly jealous of his brother's facile way of gettingattention. Then he plunged forward. Aaron let Stafa make good his escape-whichamounted only to a furious dash in a circle which ended with a plunge onto hisfather's back-and took Arif into his arms.

That started the whole ritual of, "Do you have to go to work today, Dad?" and"Stay home, Dad," which finally ended with him bolting out the door.

He moved into the street feeling warm and content with his life and lot Everyman should be so loved and lucky.

Bemusedly, he reflected that he had not had a nightmare for two nights now.

"Aaron."

He looked up. "Bel-Sidek. Good morning. How is your father doing?"

"He's as busy as ever dying. He'll outlive us all. On your way to work?"

"Yes."

"Mind if I walk with you?"

"Of course not."

They walked in silence awhile, Aaron slackening his pace so his companionwould not work so hard descending the hill. He could not help glancing overoccasionally. He had been acquainted with bel-Sidek for years, and knew theman survived by scrounging odd jobs around the waterfront, but they'd neverspent any time together.

After a while, bel-Sidek sort of sighed and said, "I guess there isn't any wayto get at it but to go straight ahead."

"What?"

"You seem to be a fairly trustworthy man, Aaron. So I'm going to take a chanceon you. I belong to the Living."

Aaron looked at him and frowned. "Everybody thinks that, anyway. Why are youtelling me?"

"I am, in fact, a moderately important part of the command structure of theLiving, Aaron. Mostly because I was a commander of a thousand at Dak-es- Souetta. Yesterday one of the men who fought for me there came to me for someadvice. He doesn't know I'm with the Living and he wouldn't name names, butwhat he did say gave me enough to reason out the rest for myself."

Aaron stopped. He looked at his neighbor blankly. Inside he was in a complete state of confusion, panic fighting with wonder fighting with relief. He didnot know what to say or what to do. He could not think. Aram!

"What I want from you, Aaron, is for you to forget all about this. All aboutwhat happened at the Seven Towers. It's been taken care of."

"Hell, man, he had a wife and kid." No way to stop it once it stuck its headout of his mouth. His tongue was a treacherous serpent. "You have to thinkbefore you go cutting throats. They didn't have anybody else in the world.

What the hell are they going to do now? Your kind never think about that when..."

People were pausing to look at him before they hurried away. Bel-Sidek lookedlike he was in shock. But recovering. "Be quiet, Aaron! What's the matter withyou?"

Aaron did manage to lower his voice. He let it all spill out.

Bel-Sidek interrupted. "I see I'm going to have to tell you more than Iwanted. But trust you some, trust you all the way. Naszif isn't dead. Wedidn't kill him. Come. Walk. We're drawing too much attention."

And, Aaron noticed, Dartars were pouring into Char Street from the acropolis.

He walked.

Bel-Sidek said, "You were right about Naszif. He betrayed your tower out inthe hills. And he was still an agent of the Herodians. In fact, they hadadopted him into their society and he had become a vice-colonel in theirarmy."

"Naszif?"

"Yes. But now he's our man again. We've reclaimed him. He'll be working forQushmarrah. His wife and son have lost nothing. And only you, outside themovement, know about this.

I want you to forget. Everything. Tell no one anything and go on living yourlife. Can you do that, Aaron?"

"I can. But you probably won't let me."

"What?"

Amazed at himself. Talking back to an officer. Serpent tongue letting angersix years old spew out. "It's people like you that can't leave anything alone.

You can't as long as there are people like me whose lives you can spend." Astrange, almost drugged feeling, like he was outside watching somebody elsespeak the unspeakable. "You go play your games with Fa'tad and General Cado.

Just leave me and my family out of it. Leave us alone."

Bel-Sidek gulped air as he searched for something to say. "It's your struggle, too, Aaron."

Aaron spat into the dust. Then he laughed hoarsely. "Your ass. My struggle?

The only people who aren't better off since the conquest are your class. Andthe monster who lived in the citadel. If I had any real sense I'd turn you into the Herodians. But I'm an old dog and you people trained me too well when I was a pup. I can't turn on you now. Go away. Leave me the hell alone."

Aaron lengthened his stride. Bel-Sidek could not keep up.

As the anger evaporated, Aaron began to be afraid. Stupid. Stupid to let yourmouth run away like that. Those were dangerous men. Crazy dangerous.

Bel-Sidek stopped. He could not keep up. He fought down the anger that nippedat him like a fire trying to get started. He had faced these blowups before.

He did not like them. In part that was because he could not quite grasp thefrustration that fueled them, in part because he heard enough truth in them tohave his conscience wakened. He did not want to feel guilty about being trueto his beliefs.

It would not be a good day. Like it or not he was going to spend itreexamining everything that he was, agonizing over his own goals and those ofthe movement.

When you looked at the situation the way an Aaron did there was no mystery whythe movement had trouble attracting recruits. There went a man who had lost asmuch as any in the war, and he put at least as much of the blame for that onhis own overlords as he did on the Herodians.

That kind of thinking-with its damnable core of truth-was an enemy moredangerous than all the spies Cado might have on his payroll. That kind ofthinking might lead men to denounce the movement simply because they preferredHerodian order to the chance of a chaos that might interfere with commerce.

Bel-Sidek limped toward the waterfront, trying to shut out the pain in his legand in his heart. Each hundred steps he glanced back to see how much theDartars had gained upon him.

The Dartar column entering the Gate of Autumn seemed endless. The civiliansawaiting their turn to get into Qushmarrah were sullen and growing more so.