Chapter 32

Duvrach had been bored at the event, even if it was a ‘necessary evil’ of his wife’s social agenda. Yes, the Empress turning up had been a surprise, though he just put it down to Amantil increasing her popularity amongst the lower orders, something that he would deal with ruthlessly should his plans come to fruition. He, therefore, as was his wont, stayed at the fringes of the gathering, merely watching as various drones and a few worthies tried their best to make themselves more noticeable and, occasionally, made fools of themselves. He however failed to notice the athletic young woman who, although being startlingly beautiful, also had the knack of being able to move unnoticeably until she was right behind him.

“The Empress wishes a word with you, Meritocrat Duvrach,” her voice informed him, making him almost jump out of his skin.

“Her Serenissima, why?” he asked, turning towards her as he tried to collect himself and wondered just what it was that might have brought himself to her attention.

“She does not discuss her innermost thoughts with her bodyguard,” Janilla informed him with a slight smile.

“She has a bodyguard now?”

“Yes.”

“So, the rumours are true, another attempt was made on her life,” he mused out loud as he followed her.

“I would not know. She hired me from the Kilios Cabal and we do not discuss our clients,” Janilla replied and watched for various cues that told her that his blood pressure had gone through the roof.

Amantil was talking with Bonsarr when Janilla approach and gave her a slight nod of acknowledgment, all the while scanning those around her. “Meritocrat Duvrach,” she announced before moving to where she could observe the situation.

“Ah, Duvrach, what have you been up to since the days of my Father?” Amantil greeted him, seemingly cordially.

“Precious little, Serenissima. Simply enjoying married life,” he replied carefully.

“That’s not what my AIs tell me.”

“Really? And what have they been telling you?” he asked, now sweating slightly as others he now recognised as Amantil’s ‘closest advisors’ moved to keep him under observation.

“Oh just that your investments have been going well, particularly the Imperial Mining Conglomerate where you’re the only shareholder.”

“I do not know this company,” he replied, trying not to swallow.

“Odd, although its set up is somewhat convoluted the AIs are never wrong about this sort of thing. Particularly when they come to my attention with certain successful trades that appear to have come about from manipulations of the markets.”

“I would not know of such things.”

“Really? Then you know nothing of the discrepancies in their metal transfers via Armiston Freight where the amount loaded does not tally with the cargo manifest? Nor about transfers of precious metals to Arconia and Shunik?”

“No, Serenissima, I do not,” he answered firmly.

“Well, there we have a bit of a problem. You see I was recently informed by ImpSec of a figure called Vandaman ... not his real name naturally. And it turns out he was the source of the attacks against me. ImpSec told me he paid in precious metals and was located in the Empire. So naturally we began looking for anomalies. However, our breakthrough came with Janilla here, who, being targeted for death via a brutal faction within the Kilios Cabal, decided to seek asylum with me and revealed to me just who you are and what you’d been paying Kilios to do ... Vandaman.”

“Oh really? Your proof please,” he forced a chuckle.

“Your attempts to hack information at the Bureau of Interstellar Trade, which I traced back to your residence and the insider trading of Imperial Mining Conglomerates,” Denusk stated from almost behind Duvrach. “I may not be a credible witness, but, the records are there and certainly your wife didn’t use the information, only companies related to you.”

“Not as clever as you thought when you piqued my interest after your last attempt,” Amantil added. “Also, there’s the information we bought on Arconia along with the work of the Gershonian Realm Secret Service. The only reason you aren’t under arrest or dead is your wife.”

“Ah yes, dear Honack, who thinks so much of me and will make a terrible enemy if you move against me,” he chuckled darkly.

“Yes, a bit of a quandary for me, as she’s also a good friend and ally.”

“So, you’ll likely stoop to a stab in the back then, just like your Father when he planned to create a third tier of governance made up of elected representatives of the lower levels and give that gutterscum a voice in government alongside their betters,” Duvrach sneered.

“And you killed him for that idea?” Herrick asked icily.

“Of course. It was also when I decided that I would be the power behind the throne, at least until Honack had a little accident too,” he sniggered. “Then of course the AIs declared you competent to rule and Honack decided she was not going to insist on being Regent. Still I had the benefit of rejuve and I used it to isolate you and sponsor others to bring you down.”

“Yes, that worked well, didn’t it,” I chuckled.

“Oh, if it isn’t the Imperial cheerleading buffoon,” he sneered.

“That’s me, thwarter of all your plots in less than a year (2.8 Earth years),” I laughed. “Antil, Tarsil, Cillort to name a few.”

“Do not lie!”

“He isn’t,” Amantil replied for me. “He brought them all down by his actions, Antil and Cillort personally.”

“I had help,” I shrugged. “But they had to go and it was easy to promote Amantil as the real caring hero. After all, it’s true.”

“So what now?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Now? Nothing, it’s already done,” Amantil replied with a smile, then led us away.

“You didn’t poison him, did you?” I asked Janilla.

“Nothing so crude,” she replied with a slight smile.

“We have the AI,” Herrick spoke up. “Honack’s security was somewhat less than state of the art.”

“Probably because she doesn’t really have enemies and getting onto Lassos is not easy at all for your common or garden burglar,” Amantil replied. “Thank you for that information, Meritocrat Denusk.”

“My pleasure, Serenissima. I was wondering how to bring it to ImpSec’s attention as I’m fairly sure that vile creature has a number of underlings with ears.”

“Possibly, we’ll know better once we’ve interrogated the rogue AI.”

Duvrach watched the royal party move off with a growing sense of unease. He was fairly sure he’d covered his tracks carefully, though the few titbits of information Amantil had thrown at him were very disconcerting. Plus, there was her ambiguous final statement about having done something. That was when he realised that with Honack and himself here, the stolen Imperial AI was vulnerable and he simply could not leave!

The rest of the evening was fun as we chatted and mingled with the Imperial elite (for given values of elite), Kirim and Mikalie getting on famously with Mikalie able to introduce us to various celebrities and warn us who to stay away from. I was also, to a certain degree, being approached by various ladies whom I’d cured (well, the ones who’d been permitted to remember) as well as a select few whom Mikalie described as predatory females, all of whom it appeared were interested in a liaison of some kind. Fortunately politeness costs nothing and I ensured that even the most insistent were politely refused.

“You’re a good man,” Kirim murmured to me during a short break when the two of us were on our own.

“You hold my heart, my Lady. Not others, not ever.”

“I suspect Kiria holds a piece too,” she smiled.

“Not in the same way, but yes,” I replied. “Hold on, Duvrach has Gone. guess he told Honack that he was feeling ill.”

“Some false excuse, yes. She doesn’t seem too pleased though.”

Kirim was right; Honack looked very irritated at being abandoned in a sense by her husband. However that irritation was swiftly suppressed when Amantil approached and began talking to her.

“I suspect Manny’s giving Duvrach enough rope to hang himself with,” I chuckled.

“Honack’s going to be devastated when she finds out,” Kirim pointed out.

“Possibly, it depends on what Manny intends to do. I suspect an accident is about to befall Duvrach, which will devastate Honack, yes, but no scandal.”

“Possibly. I can’t see Janilla any more either,” Kirim added.

Duvrach was running, not in a physical sense, but still running for what he hoped was a safe place. A contact on Lassos had confirmed his AI was missing and other than drugged staff, there was no trace as to how it had been done. Another call to the Kilios Cabal had been listened to coldly and then hung up without answer.

Still, Duvrach was not stupid, he’d realised this day might come and so had made preparations by investing in a private island with a small shuttle which would get him into orbit and on board a regularly scheduled freight ship leaving the Empire to Arconia where his fortune had been selectively amassed. He was pretty sure he could get hold of rejuve treatments from black market sources in the Empire and live a long life in exile. Assuming he could escape the damned planet and a vindictive Empress, of course.

The Leader had called a hasty meeting of the House Leaders to discuss what he thought of as a crisis. It also included the head of House Blue, back from exile in a sense, to go over events.

“We have been betrayed,” the Leader began. “One of our own has turned traitor and protected the target they were sent after.”

“The disgraced one, I presume,” Green pin asked.

“Yes, the one you suggested!”

“Only as an alternative to refusing a contract. After all, she was disposable as our colleagues from Blue had marked her for death for refusing to be raped,” Green pin shrugged. “You could always have said no, as we originally suggested.”

“She should have been left with us to face her punishment,” Blue pin, a cold hard faced woman sneered.

“Your punishing the victim is more likely what made her run,” Red pin replied. “You’d have been better off hanging her abuser.”

“Our rules are our business,” Blue pin shrugged, seeing no sympathy or support.

“And the reason why no House will send female candidates for training with you anymore,” Yellow pin rebutted.

“Your loss, not ours. Soon only Blue will have female assassins and our price will rise.”

“Female assassins yes, but no male bodyguards, cyber hackers or saboteurs as our doors are closed to your barbarians for the abuse of our females this case brought to light,” Green pin added. “Nor have your attempts to kill the Leader been forgiven or forgotten.”

“Pah! That is merely part of our ways,” the woman sneered.

“Ways that have left the Cabal exposed as failing to honour a contract,” the Leader stated.

“Then you should not have used the disgraced one!”

“Who only likely turned traitor because of your faction!” Green pin hit back. “Do not deny you would have had her killed if she returned successfully.”

“Yes, and? She maimed a valued instructor, punishment was warranted.”

“An instructor who was so incompetent he presumed he could rape her?” Green pin sneered. “He should die for such incompetence ... after all, if a student could best him...”

“You dare to presume on our rules!”

“I do, House Blue is an abomination and needs to be thoroughly reformed from top!”