Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [192]
Finally the voice of a Hansa official came over the channel. “We will allow Speaker Peroni to land. A meeting will be arranged as soon as possible.”
Cesca brought her ship down, following directions provided by the Remoras. As soon as she landed in the Palace District, uniformed escorts met her and led the way. No doubt while she was gone they would scan her ship, ransack it for valuable information, perhaps even plant tracers. But she had code-scrambled all useful data aboard, implanted it with self-erasure worms; she could easily detect and shed any tracking devices. She carried duplicate datawafers of the images from Hurricane Depot as she went off to her meeting.
Thanks to the strange simultaneous warning transmitted through the wentals, the Roamers knew about the destruction of Hurricane Depot much sooner than even the EDF could have expected. That was Cesca’s ace in the hole. Maybe they hadn’t managed to prepare all of their lies and excuses yet.
King Peter had always seemed reasonable and compassionate. He was married to Reynald’s sister Estarra, and Cesca hoped that he had a streak of fairness in him—more than Sarein did.
Guards ushered her into a private meeting room within the Whisper Palace, and she sat in the chamber marshaling her thoughts and rehearsing her words. She had plenty of time to do it.
When a compy servant opened the door, she stood promptly to greet the King—only to see that it was not Peter at all, but Chairman Wenceslas. “You have quite an unorthodox means of arrival, Speaker Peroni. I’ve been meaning to send you a message, but Roamers are rather difficult to find when they don’t wish to be found.”
“I’d say Hurricane Depot was quite a clear message.” Her voice was brittle and defensive, and he showed a flash of surprise that she knew about the attack already. “Where is King Peter? I asked to see him.”
“I am the man in charge. You can talk to me.”
“Then you are also the man to blame? The man responsible for repeated, unprovoked, aggressive actions against Roamer ships, facilities, and citizens?” She held out the datawafers that contained test results. “These are the analyses of the wreckage of a Roamer ship, which was clearly destroyed by EDF weaponry, but not before its cargo of ekti was confiscated.” Cesca pushed the files toward him, but Basil just looked at them as if they were bits of spoiled food.
“And these show your unprovoked attack on Hurricane Depot.” She activated a flatscreen player to show the images Nikko had taken. The Juggernauts and Mantas were unmistakable as they commandeered the fuel-transfer facility, removing anything of value before using brute force to knock the station out of its stable orbit. “When I brought the problem to your attention, we received no reply whatsoever from the Hansa.”
The Chairman gave her a metal-hard smile. “Surely our answer is clear? Hurricane Depot is our initial response to your illegal embargo, and I will authorize additional military actions until you capitulate. The Hanseatic League cannot allow you to cut us off from the stardrive fuel we need to survive.” He folded his hands together and sat down. “Now, then, Speaker—enough of this nonsense that hurts both of us. We can work out acceptable terms.”
“Terms? Our terms were simple enough in the first place, Mr. Chairman. But instead of solving the problem, you have only made it worse.” She tapped the flatscreen player. “With these images of your unprovoked attack on Hurricane Depot, no one can possibly doubt our claims.”
Chairman Wenceslas still did not look disturbed. “Really? In the past month, our media networks have been full of stories about Roamer unreliability, Roamer treachery, and Roamer selfishness. With the snap of my fingers I can produce any number of experts who will state that these images were amateurishly faked. Everyone will see it as grandstanding