Regenesis

“I don’t think, in the long run, that what Science can work with is the ultimate criterion for the Proxy I choose.”

“No,” he’d said flatly, “it isn’t. It is, however, what the rest of Council can work with. Dean may play well with the Council of Worlds, but they don’t originate the budget, and you can’t get a majority to back his program.”

“So he’s safe,” Jacques said with a shrug. “Dean talks. He makes his listeners happy. Nothing of his program ever gets done.”

“And your Bureau goes on with its internal business, stirring the pot constantly.”

“Some say Science is far too monolithic. Far too one‑sided.”

“It has advantages, having some sort of consensus. We don’t live in a friendly universe, but nothing’s helped by provoking our trade partners–and talk provokes, even if the program doesn’t pass. It keepsus from progress in negotiations.”

“Their trade goes on their ships through our territory. So does ours.”

“That’s the way State wrote the Treaty. If you want to change it, debate it in Council. Don’t set up a program guaranteed to rip the peace apart by degrees, dammit, Councillor. Khalid didn’t win the election, not by a long shot. You have no needto accommodate him.”

Jacques had had another wine. He had another vodka. They’d settled it down. But he didn’t think the last meeting with Jacques had gone at all well. Dean wasn’t much better than Khalid, except that Dean was so damned abrasive he’d alienated half those who might have been his allies. And Khalid back on the planet was not good news.

“See if we can come up with a third choice,” Ya

“Science isn’t my only consideration,” Jacques said.

“It’s the old coalition. It’s the one that’s got things done. You think you can work with Trade? I don’t think so. Trade suffers from the same split that’s in Defense. One way one time, another way the next issue. You can deal with us.”

That was the way they’d parted company yesterday.

Today, in the small hours when dayshift and nightshift were trading places in the twenty‑four hour city, his own staff had gotten to Mikhail Corain, and Corain, Frank said, was on his way up. Bert was making a decent breakfast, toast and eggs, orange and coffee.

Corain showed, quietly arrived, and surrendered his gray overcoat to Frank–it wasn’t quite a hand‑shaking meeting: Ya

“You’re still in charge?” Corain asked him.

“Pretty firmly so,” Ya

“Murder,” Corain said over his coffee cup.

“Bureau warfare,” Ya

“We have our constituency,” Corain said, “and rumor, which is ru

“I don’t blame them,” Ya

“Do we have a consensus with Jacques?”

“We have an agreement for one more meeting. He’s pushing Dean.”

“Good God.”

“We may get Kwesi.”

“There’s worse,” Corain said, and Frank began to serve breakfast, and they ate, Corain without comment about the irregularity of the affair. Bert wasn’ta class one chef.

“You’re keeping out of the media.” Corain said finally, “but I’ll tell you, there’s a nervous mood. Lao’s on her deathbed. Guards at her door. I was over to see her. She wasn’t awake. Harad’s worried. You’re shut in your hotel and haven’t given interviews. Jacques shows up and goes right back into the Defense Bureau, doesn’t give interviews either. Media’s camped out there.”

“You’re right about the level of security,” Ya

“I’m a family man. I don’t like this. I don’t like this level of goings‑on. What in hell have we come to?”

“Bad times, I’m afraid, if Council doesn’t do something about Defense. I’m afraid Jacques is going. I’m very afraid he’s not going to live past naming a Proxy.”

“You’ve got Lynch guarded to the max.”

“Absolutely. I like being just Proxy. I don’t want to hold the seat solo.”

“It’s crazy.”

Ya

“It’s a damned ridiculous way to conduct Council business, sitting here in a hotel room, cooking on a hot plate, and both of us worrying about dying of what we might eat down in the class one restaurant downstairs. It’s slipped up on us. Half a year ago we wouldn’t have believed it could get this ridiculous. And two weeks from now God knows how ridiculous it’s going to get. Somebody’s blown up a precip tower. That’s more than a building. That’s environmental stability. That has a psychological message, doesn’t it? Today it’s the Council huddled together worried about their physical safety. What’s it going to be come New Year’s, if the man who assassinated his rival gets into office, and Lao’s dead–”

“And I’m up for election,” Corain said. “Grisham’s filed for the seat.”

“Oh, there’sa nice moderate voice. On stable ground, you could blow him out, no question. If you’re forced into hiding, like this, because he’s got, say. Paxer backing, and it’s gotten dangerous–that fool could get into office. And where’d we be?”

“I think about quitting. Quite honestly, I think about my family. I think about their safety.”

“Don’t we all?” Ya

“You’ve got a lot better security than other departments. You’ve got a damned army.”

“We try to use it responsibly,” he said wryly. “Right now I hope it’ll be useful.”

“While it’s in shamble’s,” Corain said, “back home.”

“I wouldn’t call it shambles,” Ya

“Old friends, is it?”

“You. Lao. Harad. De Franco. Chavez.”

“Harogo,” Corain said. Internal Affairs was no friend of Science, but was, of Citizens.

“And Harogo.” Ya

“You’re serious.”

“You and I may be sitting in a bunker before this is over. I’m dead serious. The offer’s open to you, too.”

“That’d look like hell, wouldn’t it?”

“It might, but the offer stands. If you think it’s a choice between resigning or sending your family up there, send them.”

“What the hell are we’ going to do?”

“Got the Office of Inquiry to speed it up. Brace ourselves. I think Jacques is going to crumple. We’ll get somebody we don’t want. Lao–can’t even findher Proxy, what time she’s conscious. Edgerton’s either hiding or dead. You, and I, and Edgerton it we can find him… Harad will go with us.”

“Harogo,” Corain said. “Five of the Nine, right there.”

“If we have unanimity minus one, we can refuse to seat whoever Jacques names.”