Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [39]
But the next day he was back, painfully aware that this was his only lead. So he returned to his alcove, waiting to see if anyone came by. For the first couple of hours, Fitz gained nothing except aching lungs from Hopes polluted air. But around midday he was in luck. A hooded figure shuffled into the centre of the open area, looking furtively around but completely failing to register that Fitz was present. Fitz watched the figure closely, and was sure he glimpsed a flash of metal beneath that hood. A few minutes later a second, similarly attired figure, arrived. The two exchanged a muttered conversation, which Fitz could not catch, and a box was exchanged. The second figure dashed off down a pathway, leaving the first holding his newly acquired box.
Fitz realised he had to act now, before his only lead wandered off again. He remembered his last encounter with the Brotherhood, imagined the choke hold he had been put in, and hoped this meeting would go better. There was no one here to rescue him if it all went wrong.
He stepped out of the shadows, footsteps echoing on the metallic walkway. The hooded figure turned to him as he emerged.
I wish to help you destroy the abomination, said Fitz.
Anji had been given the full tour or as full as they were willing to show her of Silvers operations. She had seen the laboratories where genetic specimens were grown, where new discoveries became new crops, new products, new genetic upgrades for existing species. She had been taken into the storage areas of the Palace, where there were weapons and vehicle parts, computers and mineral reserves. She had seen the atrium at the Palaces centre, where the light was enhanced to allow plants and flowers to grow in an elegant and welltended garden. She had seen the kitchens and the vaults of valuables and the generators and the transmitters and the offices and the wine cellars. And when her guides brought her back to Mirasos office, she was exhausted. She had politely declined the monorail trip to the edge of Hope where Silver owned a dockyard, where ships went out to trade on his behalf with the other communities on Endpoint. Anji had seen quite enough, and was willing to take their word for it, and read about other Silverowned properties. A flick through the portfolios showed Silver had business interests in most of the communities, connections and investments everywhere.
Miraso was elsewhere when Anji returned to the office, and so Anji was free to examine the map of Endpoint and compare it to Silvers list of properties. One in pretty much every major community, and by far the largest of those communities was Hope, where Silvers headquarters was located.
Anji sank into Mirasos chair, lost for words. Silver effectively owned a controlling share in the entire planet. He owned communications, power suppliers, food producers. He donated the lions share of, funding to the supposedly independent citizens militia organisations in each community, so the forces of law and order effectively belonged to Silver as well. His headquarters, the Silver Palace she was currently residing in, lay at the heart of the largest city on Endpoint. It was his capital, his seat of government even though he didnt officially govern anything. No wonder she couldnt find room for expansion in his investments Silver pretty much owned everything anyway, if he expanded any further hed only have himself to trade with. There was nothing really to stop him taking complete and immediate control of Endpoint.
So why didnt he? Anji couldnt quite work it out. Silver hardly seemed the insecure type, or the sort who would avidly believe in the rule of democracy. Perhaps it wasnt political power he was after, perhaps the answer to Silvers desires lay in