Inferno

“Sheriff, be reasonable,” Grieg said. “Half the most powerful Infernals and Settlers on the planet are here already. Can you imagine the political damage if I hustled them all out into the night and the pouring rain because some drunk got the worst of it in a scuffle with the Settlers’ leader? How am I supposed to explain to my guests that the Sheriff of Hades was worried one of them might take a shot at me? I have to negotiate with these people tomorrow morning. I can’t make much progress with someone I’ve accused of attempting my murder.”

“Then plead illness, “ Kresh said. “ A

“Kresh, can’t you see that it would defeat the whole point of the exercise to entertain the Settlers there? That would as much as confess to the whole planet that the Spacers own the island of Purgatory. One island is just the thin edge of the wedge, they’ll say. Next thing you know they’ll be taking over the planet. You know the Ironhead line. You’ve heard Beddle spout it often enough.”

“Yes, sir. ”

“Then you know why I had to entertain them all here, be the host here. Show them this is still the Governor’s Winter Residence. Here, on the island of Purgatory. Show that Purgatory is still Spacer territory, Infernal territory. I’m here showing this is still our planet, our land, even if we have temporarily ceded some jurisdiction for the moment. I can’t make that statement by hunkering down in that fortress of a tower.”

“Sir, how much can any of that matter?” Kresh asked. “Who the devil cares about all that posturing? No one outside of the Ironheads cares if the Settlers have partial jurisdiction over the island.”

“Damnation, Kresh, don’t you think I know all that? Do you think I care who runs this or that patch of this damned rock? It’s all nonsense, and it sucks up my energy and attention, takes me away from all the things that do matter. ”

“Then why risk your life with all these appearances? It’s not as if this is the first time. ”

“Because if I don’t look to be in control, I can’t govern. The bill of impeachment cleared the first subcommittee today, did you know that? Or did you know that twenty percent-twenty percent-of the voting population has already signed that damned recall petition?”

“I didn’t know the numbers were that high, sir, but all the same-”

“All the same, if they get me out of office, Quellam takes over. He’ll cave in to the pressure to hold a special election rather than serve out my term, and in one hundred days Simcor Beddle will be Governor of the planet! He’ll kick the Settlers off-planet the second the last vote is counted-”

“And the terraforming project will collapse without the Settlers around to support it. I understand all that. ”

“Then try and understand that as of right now, I still have the political strength to fend off the recall and the impeachment. Just barely. I can ride it all out, until the situation starts to improve. But if I show any weakness, or indecision, or if I even appear to knuckle under to the Settlers, I go down, Quellam takes over, and Beddle comes in. ”

“Then can’t you talk to the Settlers? Ask them to back down just a bit? Renegotiate the jurisdiction agreement?”

Grieg laughed and shook his head. “You do amaze me sometimes, Kresh. You’re so good at your job, and certainly that involves politics enough. You proved that when you solved the Caliban case. So consider the politics in my job. It shouldn’t be too hard-there’s nothing else to my job. Don’t you think the Settlers know that if I go down, Beddle comes in?”

“Yes, sir, I suppose so. ”

“The Settlers also know that they aren’t exactly the most popular group on the planet. If they were seen as supporting me, they’d be cutting their own throats. They know that if they want to build me up, they have to be ready to lose a fight or two in order to do it.”

“So they’re going to cave in?” Kresh asked. “You’ve talked to them? The fix is in?”

Grieg smiled, but in a cold, hard-edged way. There was nothing of pleasure about his expression. “Oh, no. Far from it. I can’t afford to have secret agreements with the Settlers. Not with the number of people out there trying to dig up any dirt they can on me. And I assume that Tonya Welton and the other Settler leaders would find it just as embarrassing if someone uncovered a secret codicil between us.

“I believe the Settler leaders have come to the conclusion I have just described, but I don’t dare ask them-and they certainly aren’t going to volunteer the information. And bear in mind, they have to placate their own reactionaries. It may well be that Tonya Welton feels obliged to take the jurisdiction issue right to the wall.”

“But you don’t think so,” Alvar suggested.

“No, I don’t. I think that she and I will work through our little ritual battle for the sake of the masses, and at the end of this weekend I will be able to a

“Politics,” Alvar said, scorn in his voice.

“Politics,” Grieg agreed cheerfully. “The pointless, useless, self-absorbed, time-wasting charade that makes everything else possible. Without the meetings, the compromises, the smoothing out, the posturing and posing, we would not be able to deal with each other. Politics is the way we try and get along with each other-and we do try. Think about the mess things are in most of the time. Can you imagine the state of affairs if we didn’t make the attempt?”

“But staging a fake confrontation with the Settlers just to keep the Ironheads happy? Pretending you care about who owns which scraps of useless wasteland just to keep the electorate happy? What possible use can that be?”

Grieg lifted his hand and shook an admonitory finger at Alvar. “Be more careful with the facts, Sheriff. I only said I thought it was a false confrontation. It might actually turn out to be real. I must assume it is real in any event, so what difference does it make? Besides, I would submit that keeping the people happy does me a great deal of good. The more content the people are, the fewer recruits there will be for the Ironheads. ”

“But you’re wasting your time on all this nonsense when there is a planet to save! You should be concentrating on the terraforming project.”

Grieg’s expression grew serious. “You must understand, Sheriff. All this is nonsense-but it is an integral part of the terraforming effort. I need political cover if I am to have room to maneuver. If I am to get labor and materials and data, I am going to have to get them from the people that control them. It would do me no good at all to stare at engineering plans all day if the Ironheads got strong enough to pressure the engineers into refusing to provide their services.”

“But what use is it expending so much of your energy on this charade over jurisdiction?”

“Oh, it’s a very great deal of use. It short-circuits the Ironheads, keeps them from having an issue to use against me. It reassures the people that I am looking out for their interests-and perhaps by my bowing to their wishes this time, I will earn a bit of credit with them. Perhaps they will be patient with me, willing to go along with me on some other, more meaningful issue. I need to do some things to maintain my political standing. I might have the best intentions in the world, but I can’t do much good if I am impeached.”

“Well, to be blunt about it, Governor, you can do even less good if you’re assassinated. ”

“That thought has crossed my mind,” the Governor said with a note of grim humor. “But if I just holed up in some bunker under Government Tower to hide from the assassins, then not only would there be no way to kill me-but there would be no need to kill me. It would be such an admission of weakness and fear that I could do no good anyway.”