Before McCammon and Sarein could protest, Cain lifted his chin. “Games, Mr. Chairman? I recognize the tactic, and we all resent it. How many others have you brought here and accused like this, hoping to get a nervous confession? If you do it enough times, you’re bound to find someone sufficiently frightened to cave in.”

Sarein jumped on Cain’s train. With eyes flashing, she directed her words at Basil. “You’re trying to intimidate us, and frankly I don’t appreciate it. We’ve been your trusted advisers for years.”

Basil came around the throne, his face flushed. “You don’t appreciate it?I don’t appreciate someone — someone so close to me — trying to kill me!”

Sarein struggled to hide her anxiety. The three of them had done enough questionable things that the simplest mistake, the slightest missing detail, could have been enough to draw attention to them. She knew her own part in the conspiracy, and she felt color rising in her cheeks.

“Was it you?” He focused his accusatory stare on her like a high-powered jazer beam, as if he knew she was the easiest one to break.“Sarein?”

If she said nothing, he would assume she was guilty. If she vehemently denied her involvement, she would look guilty. “Basil, stop this. How can you believe that any of us is involved? You know you can trust me.”

“Do I?” He looked like a total stranger to her. “We will take care of this today. Now.”

Cain protested, drawing Basil’s jazer stare away from Sarein. “Mr. Chairman, you have produced no evidence for these unlikely assertions.”

Basil actually seemed relieved. “I have all the proof I need, Deputy Cain.”

Sarein could see, as clearly as she had ever understood anything, that Basil meant to blame one of the three of them. He would not let anyone leave the room until he was satisfied.

She knew that she would buckle if Basil subjected her to direct interrogation — but she held on to the very slim hope that he would give her the benefit of the doubt because of his past feelings. She remembered how he had once been. Hemust still have at least a glimmer of affection for her.

On the other hand, Cain and McCammon might well face execution. He hadn’t required much of an excuse to murder the eighteen alleged conspirators in the public square.

Maybe ifshe confessed, though, Basil would just exile her back to Theroc — which was what she really wanted anyway. It seemed to her that it was the only way out of this mess, a single chance to save the other two.

Sarein drew a breath and opened her mouth, ready to blurt that she was the one — theonly one — responsible, when McCammon, after a brief glance at her, snapped, “It was me. I let the King and Queen escape.”

“He’s lying!” Sarein cried.

“Captain McCammon, do not speak another word,” Cain said. “Do not give in to unnecessary inappropriate pressure.”

“I am not lying, and I will not stop.” McCammon clearly realized that he needed to pull all of the blame upon himself if there was to be any hope of helping Sarein and Cain get away. “Iset up the assassination attempt at the manufacturing center.I let the King stun me so that he could escape from the Whisper Palace.” He shouted out anything he could think of. “Iallowed the green priest Nahton to slip away from his detention quarters so he could warn Theroc about the imminent EDF attack.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Iam the head of Freedom’s Sword.”

Standing in front of them, Basil’s expression oscillated between smug satisfaction and fury. He slowly turned and went back to stand beside Rory’s throne. “That is enough, Captain. Thank you for making this easier.”

Colonel Andez gave a short, sharp whistle, and the members of her cleanup crew lowered their firearms and touched the power switches. A barely audible hum of active rifles resonated in the large chamber.

“What have you done?” Sarein said to McCammon in a hoarse whisper. Cain had turned into a statue, clearly seeing that he could do nothing to change the Chairman’s decision, but Sarein wouldn’t give up. Appalled, she shouted, “Basil, stop this!” No one looked at her.

Coldly furious, the Chairman said to McCammon, “I would dearly love to make a true public spectacle of you, Captain — even have you drawn and quartered.” He heaved a deep breath. “But that in itself poses a problem. The alleged conspirators have already been executed, and the public is happy enough with that. There’s no need to flaunt the fact that someone close to me was a traitor. Alas, your execution will have to be swift and private. It’s better that way.”

Sarein was prepared to insist that McCammon hadn’t acted alone, but Cain grabbed her forearm and squeezed so tightly that he nearly broke her wrist. Cain cleared his throat. “Sir, Captain McCammon deserves a full trial. I must insist that you follow proper legal — ”

Basil gave a signal, and without a moment’s hesitation, before anyone could speak another word, the cleanup crew let loose a burst of weapons fire.

McCammon shuddered and jittered as dozens of high-speed hot projectiles peppered his body, splattering his fellow conspirators with gore. Sarein screamed. McCammon dropped to the floor, his body broken and shredded. Blood spread out in a thick pool, seeping into the crimson rug.

Cain could only stare. Sarein bit her lip, struggling against her own sobs. Even King Rory, his eyes as wide as saucers, could not control himself. He leaned over the side of the throne away from Basil and vomited with loud retching sounds. The Chairman frowned at this sign of weakness.

After a long silence, Basil snapped to the guards, “Please clean up the mess.” He glanced at the vomit on the floor. “All of it.”

94

Sirix

The black robots worked together in space. Earth’s blue-and-white sphere was a target tantalizingly out of reach, though probably not for long.

Watchdog EDF engineers flitted along in inspection shuttles and scanning pods, while crew “supervisors” observed the industrious black machines gathering more debris to repair the damaged EDF ships. They tried not to interfere, but their very presence hindered Sirix’s efforts.

The human inspectors paid particularly close attention to the angular new robot vessels being assembled from scrap and structural components that were too damaged to be placed back into service for the EDF. Methodical robots worked in small teams to cobble together enormous vessels of radically different configurations. The inspectors could look all they liked. They had no hope of understanding the vessels or the hidden offensive weaponry.

Without remorse Sirix could have given a command for his robots to turn on the meddling humans, crack open the inspection pods, and pull their bloated bodies out into the cold vacuum. But he didn’t want to do that yet. He still had much to gain from them, so the deception must continue.