“No, he has no idea I’m here — and that’s the point,” Sarein said, squaring her shoulders. “I’m here to help you get your throne back. If you care about Earth, you need to actnow. Are you interested?”

135

Chairman Basil Wenceslas

Basil hadn’t stopped grinding his teeth since his extremely unsatisfying encounter with Peter. After briefly stopping at theGoliath, Basil was anxious to get back to Earth. He had wasted enough time on this fool’s errand, and he needed to plan his next move. As the diplomatic shuttle flew away from the EDF Juggernaut, heading back toward Earth, his heart hammered, his head throbbed. He didn’t trust himself to speak to anyone, not his pilot, not General Brindle. No one. He was going to have to take extreme actions to put everything back on track.

Peter had thwarted his ruse with King Rory. Basil had expected to wrap the young man around his finger and coerce him into submission, but that leverage was gone. A stolen piece of flatware — how stupid! But he knew that Peter no longer had any doubt in his mind. The DNA tests would have given conclusive results. Red and black spots danced in front of the Chairman’s eyes.

Now he would be forced to use Sarein as his bargaining chip. Estarra’s sister was the last advantage he had. A part of him didn’t like it, and he hoped he wouldn’t be forced to kill Sarein after all, but he had begun to believe that no good end would come of this.

The situation got worse, though, when he returned to Earth.

As the diplomatic shuttle approached the Palace District, his personal communicator chimed, transmitting a proximity-triggered message on his private channel. It was from Sarein.

Listening to it in private, he could barely breathe. “Your Hansa is corrupt,” she said. “I won’t be a part of it anymore.” Another traitor, another coward had abandoned him! “Whatever happens from now on is the result of your own actions.” The clamor of emotions in his head drowned all rational thought. “Goodbye, Basil.”

Caught up in a whirlwind of silence, he stepped out of the shuttle feeling disoriented, barely able to stand or breathe. He had done everything for Sarein — brought her back into his good graces, showed her how valuable she was to him. He had even overlooked her proven treason and asked her to join him in his safe underground bunker. She hadn’t had any inkling that he might need to use her as a hostage. Why would she turn against him, when he had given her so many chances? Under the right circumstances, she could have had the Hansa!

“Goodbye, Basil.”

Colonel Andez rushed up to meet him as soon as he disembarked. “Chairman Wenceslas, you’ve returned! There’s been a crisis while you were gone.”

More than one, he thought. His body locked up, as if all his muscles had tightened to their breaking points. He felt a need to lash out at someone, and he turned as quickly as a viper. Andez gave him a smart salute, and he froze again, glad to see someone behaving as expected. “What crisis now?”

She was visibly upset. “Did you give the order, Mr. Chairman? Did you authorize Deputy Cain to release Patrick Fitzpatrick and his wife from their holding cells? There’s no telling where those two are or what further sedition they might be spreading.”

That surprised him. He had been so focused on Peter’s intractability, and then Sarein’s betrayal. butCain, too? And Fitzpatrick on the loose? “What are you talking about?”

“Deputy Cain freed them. He claimed he had the authority. He also released the hostage families of Admirals Diente, Pike, and San Luis — and now they’re denouncing you on all the newsnets! The deputy is nowhere to be found.”

Basil could feel a flush creeping up his cheeks, but he clamped down on his temper. “Apparently, Deputy Cain and I have something to discuss.Find him. Bring him to my bunker.”

Andez looked smugly satisfied. “Shall I send out search parties for Fitzpatrick as well? If we move quickly, we could possibly round up — ”

“That is not for you to do anything about, Colonel Andez. Not my immediate priority.” He did not dare admit to yet another crack in his armor, a flaw in his own trusted inner circle. “I will take care of it. For now, escort me to my headquarters.” He needed to be away from the madness, somewhere he could think, where he could control every detail of his environment.

“Yes, sir.” She led him briskly toward the projectile-proof vehicle in which she would transport him from the landing area. Even though she chose a route that avoided the worst of the demonstrations, Basil was shocked to see the sheer number of frightened fools demanding his resignation and the return of King Peter. People with too much time and too little mental acuity would follow any charismatic charlatan who promised to change their lives for the better.

He turned away from the vehicle’s window, from the angry faces and shouting mouths, from themob. He wished he had tens of thousands more troops under Andez’s control so he could round up every one of these demonstrators. But it was futile to continue cracking down. The stunnings, beatings, and arrests had only inflamed them further.

Why did they blame him, when the problems were caused by people whodidn’t listen to him? Did they think the Chairman could havenegotiated with the flaming elementals, or the fanatical Ildiran Adar?

Sarein and Cain should have known better, and yet they had deserted him, too. Apparently in killing McCammon he had executed the wrong traitor. or maybe he just hadn’t executed enough of them. Why were all those closest to him prone to weakness and betrayal? And Sarein. He saw a fringe of deep red around his vision.

Goodbye, Basil.

Yes, he very much wanted to go underground.

Andez and four guards accompanied him through multilayered security checks into the headquarters building and to a lift that would plunge him down to his internal, windowless office deep beneath the Hansa pyramid.

As soon as the elevator started its descent, though, security alarms began to ring. Andez touched the communications stud in her ear, listened. She visibly paled. Basil hated when other people knew more about what was going on than he did. “What’s happening?”

“An invasion fleet just entered our solar system. Sensors have picked up eleven enormous vessels.”

Basil leaned against the vibrating wall of the descending elevator, so that his knees wouldn’t buckle. “What sort of invasion fleet? From whom?” And, he wondered, exactly how big was “enormous”?

The elevator came to a stop, and its doors hissed open. In the heavily reinforced command center, technicians rushed from station to station. The alarms were deafening. Screens displayed images from space.

Andez touched the communication stud again and finally said in a husky voice, “It’sthe Klikiss, sir. The Klikiss have come to Earth.”