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the Exts that their Allgrave was returning under a flag of truce, the driver
was proceeding with caution.
Vukmirovic turned to Burning and said, "Damocles is due to launch for Periapt
in five days. We delayed departure so that you'd be onboard." He quirked a
smile. "Renquald didn't get to be a commissioner by being a fool."
The AlphaLAW expedition had remained on station since its arrival three years
earlier. Concordance's first starship, Dhul-Faqar, was being built in orbit
under close LAW scrutiny. Damocles would be taking back the tangible and
intangible wealth of the Concordance system to enrich Periapt in general, the
Hierarchate in particular, and Renquald's dynastic group especially. When
completed, Dhul-Faqar would depart for the planet Resurrection, 5.2
light-years farther out from Periapt, to annex a world of vast natural
resources whose inhabitants had regressed to preatomic technology in the wake
of the Cyber-plagues. First Lands moguls were already competing with one
another to be dealt in on the next tier of LAW hegemony and plunder.
"Your troops won't have much time for prep," Vukmirovic continued.
"Feasibility studies view the Exts as a self-sufficient, rapid-deployment
peacekeeper battalion. You'll draw organizational equipment on Periapt. But if
there's anything special you want "
"Our own TO&E replacement equipment," Burning interrupted. "Weapons, ammo,
spare parts. That sort of thing."
Vukmirovic laughed harshly. "Why limit yourselves to Ext junk when you can
have your pick of the First Land stuff mountains of it? We're disarming your
whole world!"
Burning glanced at him. "We're used to what we've got. Or maybe you didn't
notice that it works for us."
Vukmirovic blew his lips out in derision. "After a fashion, Allgrave."
"I'll have to go before the bastion electors and surrender the Allgraveship,"
Burning said, mostly to himself.
"You can't," Vukmirovic contradicted him.
"I only inherited it as a field expedient, anyway."
"But you killed your pro tern rival, Burning. Which means you either retain
the title until it's rescinded by referendum of all the Exts or you take the
knife."
Technically, the field marshal was right. No second pro tem Allgrave could be
selected until Tonne-Head's death was investigated and Burning's fate decided,
because both would determine the balloting formulas. With Burning alive but
unreachable in Damocles, there would simply be no Allgrave or any legal way of
choosing a new one. All higher accords and fealties would theoretically be
dissolved. The wrangling and angling over renewals and a replacement could go
on for years, which would suit Renquald just fine as he helped his
sympathizers in the Broken Country accrue power.
"So here," Vukmirovic said, putting something into Burning's hand. "I suppose
this belongs to you." It was the gold and platinum torque Tonne-Head had worn.
"Congratulations," Burning said ruefully. "Even the counterfeit torque will be
seen leaving Concordance." He stared at the rain beading the windshield and at
Anvil Tor, which was ringed by the lights of LAW and turncoat armies.
"I'm willing to help you with key personnel problems as well," Vukmirovic
added leadingly. "Powers of conscription and so forth. I can draft anybody you
think might be useful on Periapt or wherever your unit's posted. That is, any
Ext within reason& "
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The staff car was already angling for the foot of the mountain and the Ext
lines. Burning gazed at the besieging forces and contemplated the Byzantine
nature of Periapt politics and LAW dynamics.
"There's one," he said.
Chapter
Nine
On Anvil Tor suspicion was at an even higher pitch than before, and now that
Burning was back out in the raw cold and mud, he started to think that way
himself. He therefore kept people at the LPs and outer perimeter, the lower
heavy-weapons pozzes and fighting holes from which they could listen over the
command push. That left a few hundred gathered in the darkness near the C&C
bunker as the rain began to taper off.
He stood helmetless on the low dirt roof and spoke through a headset mike to
amplifiers as well as those on the freq. He violated light discipline by
standing illuminated by hand spots. First he told them about Tonne-Head. No
one decried him, not even the few Gileads among the Exts. One of the first to
roll over for LAW, Tonne-Head had condemned the Exts often and loudly. For the
most part the Exts heard him out with a moribund silence.
Then Burning described Renquald's offer of amnesty and what would happen to
the hostages if the Exts refused. Vuk-mirovic's parting word had been that if
the holdouts wanted to watch via A/V links as friends and family members urged
them to surrender while being measured for implants, it could be arranged.
When they raged, he didn't try to rein them in.
The debate surged back and forth through the night with the smoldering
violence of a brewing riot. Burning had to invoke an absolute pax or there
would have been Skillsfights, stab-bings, and worse. Some called for immediate
surrender, others for a suicide charge directly into the LAW guns. Zone in
particular was for that.
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