Though alarmed by the idea, she found herself nodding with feigned enthusiasm. nothing to provoke him, nothing to raise his suspicions. She wanted nothing more than to leave immediately. “I can’t wait” was all she said.

“Good. I’ll look forward to seeing you when I return.” He seemed convinced by her performance.

“Goodbye, Basil.”

He went to the door, hesitated briefly. For one horrified instant, Sarein thought he was going to come back to kiss her. but then he hurried off, leaving her frozen in place.

Yes, it was time to move. No regrets.

127

Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

As soon as the Chairman’s ship left the Palace District spaceport, Deputy Cain got to work. He had a great deal to accomplish in a short time.

Cain would have preferred to have Sarein at his side, along with Captain McCammon and a mob of shouting protesters all claiming to belong to Freedom’s Sword. But in a sense, solo action was more liberating, now that the Chairman was gone. Cain was free to act without coordinating with others and without the fear of risking anyone else’s life. The responsibility was his and his alone. He found it more efficient.

Admiral Diente was already dead, having tried his best to meet the Chairman’s unreasonable expectations. Cain saw no reason why the Admiral’s family should remain under house arrest — except for the fact that the Hansa wouldn’t want them out in public where they could talk. Still held in their special detention apartments, they hadn’t even been informed of his death; Basil claimed that it kept the family more tractable. Once Diente’s wife and children discovered the truth, though, Cain was certain they would have plenty to say.

At the apartment complex, he easily bluffed his way past the guards. “Their detention order is rescinded.” He showed them an official-looking Hansa document. In all the turmoil on Earth, no one had bothered with the hostage family in some time. The guards shrugged.

Inside, when Cain opened the doorway of the secure apartment and looked at the shocked and haunted faces of the wife, the daughters, the son, he realized he wasn’t the best person to pass along the heartbreaking news; he had never been particularly good at warmth and compassion. He saw the four of them staring at him.

“Are you here to let us out?” the wife asked. He chided himself for not having bothered to familiarize himself with her name. “Do you have news?”

He stated what he needed to say. “I regret to inform you that Admiral Esteban Diente has been killed on a mission to the Klikiss. It. happened some weeks ago, but the Chairman has kept the information from you.”

The wife began sobbing, as if she had been expecting the announcement as soon as Cain arrived. The teenaged girl and the twelve-year-old boy gasped and shouted in disbelief; the younger daughter didn’t understand what was going on.

Cain faltered, then continued. “All along, you were being held here under false pretenses. Chairman Wenceslas kept you hostage so that Admiral Diente could not refuse his orders. He used you to guarantee your husband’s loyalty to the Hansa.”

“No, no, no,” the wife cried.

“The Chairman does not know I am doing this,” he said. “I am here to release you.”

“Release us?” the boy blurted. “Where are we supposed to go?”

The older daughter simply blinked. She seemed to be the only one truly paying attention. “We werehostages?”

He tried to usher them toward the door he had just unlocked. “I’ve made arrangements, but you must leave before Chairman Wenceslas returns. Things will go badly once he discovers you are no longer in custody. I’m sending you to a group called Freedom’s Sword. They’re gaining followers everywhere. You can stay with them, at least until it’s safe. They’re expecting you. Tell them your story, and they will let everyone on Earth know exactly what the Chairman did to you, and to your husband.”

“No, no, no,” the wife said. Cain doubted she knew what she was saying.

Now he wished he had brought Sarein with him; surely she would have been better at this. “Come with me.”

By now, the Chairman had been gone less than an hour.

In the same building, he found the families of Admirals Pike and San Luis, also taken hostage as threats to hang over the two military commanders. Releasing the families, he gave them instructions on how to get in touch with the two officers.

“The Admirals are in the EDF crews helping to protect Earth from lunar fragments. Tell them you are free and safe. Only when they know you are no longer in jeopardy can each man follow his conscience, instead of obeying illegal orders in order to protect you.” Cain decided it was best not to tell Pike’s wife that her husband had been ordered to assassinate the former Chairman.

Disbelief showed on their faces, but the adult son of Admiral San Luis nodded grimly. “You know it’s true, Mother. They lied to us all along.”

With a growing sense of urgency, Cain led them all to the streets. “Chairman Wenceslas used each of you as an expendable bargaining chip. Tell the world that he is not fit to lead us. Now go. You — all of you — are weapons that Freedom’s Sword can use to unravel the Chairman’s web.”

Cain’s pulse raced with the awareness of what he had just done. However, to truly achieve critical mass, he needed a catalyst, a focal point. Fortunately, he knew exactly where to get that. It was in another holding cell.

During the past several days, Chairman Wenceslas had been too busy to plan an extravagant execution for Patrick Fitzpatrick and Zhett Kellum. The timing couldn’t be better.

Cain slipped through the streets, hearing the loud shouts and buzzing sounds of twitchers as the increasingly overwhelmed cleanup crew tried to suppress the demonstrations. Good. Once Freedom’s Sword began spreading the news from the released hostage families, there could be no stopping the tide.

IfKing Peter was willing to work with them. If Sarein could convince him.

Some protesters were camped out near the nondescript government building where Patrick and Zhett were being held. Though the Hansa guards refused to reveal the location of any particular prisoner, despite demands from the ever more vociferous dissidents, demonstrators staked out every possible holding center, hoping to catch a glimpse of their two heroes. Given enough dissenters, someone had been bound to get it right.

Sure that someone in the crowd would recognize him as the Deputy Chairman, Cain entered a building across the street, descended two floors underground, and took a dimly lit access tunnel across to the holding structure.

The tiled floor was white, the smooth walls painted cream, the ceilings an unbroken flow of phosphorescence. No shadows were allowed. The cleanup crew had filled all the available maximum-security detention centers weeks ago, and these holding cells had been designed for the temporary detention of disorderly people, drunks, or rowdies, not evil masterminds.