Let the opposing force pull you down, gather its energy for the spring back.

“Can you get me a summary or an actual recording of these meetings, Kreen?”

“Yes, sire. They will not yet be subject to review and interdiction by the court historians. There is commonly a backlog of two days on these rewritings, sire.”

“Good. When an inquiry is held, and questions asked, we will leak Sinter’s words to the public…I think the lowest and most popular journals will serve us best. Perhaps the All-World Tongue, or the Big Ear.”

Kreen smiled. “I myself am fond of The Emperor’s Eyes.”

“Even better. No authentication required…just more rumors among an uneducated and unhappy population.” He shook his head sadly. “Even if we bring down Sinter, it will be small recompense for losing Lodovik. What chance he might survive?”

Kreen shrugged; that was well outside his limited expertise.

So few in the Imperial Sector understood the vagaries of hyperdrive and Jump science. There was one, however. An old ship’s captain turned trader and occasional smuggler, who specialized in sending goods and passengers along the quickest and quietest routes…A bright and unscrupulous rogue, some said, but a man who had been of service to Chen in the past.

“Get me an immediate audience with Mors Planch.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Kreen bustled out of the room.

Linge Chen took a deep breath. His time at the display was over. He had to return to his office and meet in person with Sector generals and planetary representatives from Trantor’s food allies for the rest of the day.

He would have much preferred focusing all his thoughts on the loss of Lodovik and how to convert Sinter’s foolishness to his own best interests, but not even such a tragedy, or such an opportunity, could interfere with his present duties.

Ah, the glamour of power!

Privy Councilor Farad Sinter had overstepped his bounds so many times in the past three years that the boy Emperor Klayus referred to him as “my pillar of prying ambition,” a typically ill-worded phrase that today, at least, carried no overtone of admiration or affection.

Sinter stood before the Emperor, hands clasped in unconvincing submission. Klayus I, barely seventeen years of age, regarded him with something less than anger and more than irritation. In his all-too-recent childhood, he had been called down too many times in private by his tutors, all selected and controlled by Commissioner Chen; he had become a sometimes sly, underhanded young man, more intelligent than most gave him credit for, though still subject to the occasional extreme outburst. Early on, he had learned one of the major rules of leadership and statecraft in a competitive and hypocritical government: He never let anyone know what he was really thinking.

“Sinter, why are you looking for young men and women in the Dahl Sector?” the Emperor asked.

Sinter had taken pains for this effort to be concealed. Somebody was playing political games, and that somebody would pay.

“Sire, I have heard of this search. I believe they are being sought as part of the genetic reconciliation project.”

“Yes, Sinter, a project you began five years ago. You think I’m too young to remember?”

“No, your Highness.”

“I do have some influence in this Palace, Sinter. My word is not completely ignored!”

“Of course not, your Highness.”

“Spare me the obsequious titles. Why are you hunting down children younger than I am, and disrupting loyal families and neighborhoods?”

“It is essential to understand the limits of human evolution on Trantor, Your Highness.”

Klayus lifted his hand. “My tutors tell me evolution is a long, slow process of genetic accretions, Sinter. What do you expect to learn from a few invasions of privacy and attempted kidnappings?”

“Pardon my even hoping to act as one of your tutors, Your Highness, but-”

“I hate being lectured to,” Klayus said in a low growl that broke halfway through.

“But, if I may continue, with your permission, sire, humans have lived on Trantor for twelve thousand years. We have already seen the development of populations with particular physical and even mental characteristics-the stocky, dark people of Dahl, sire, or the menials of Lavrenti. There is evidence, sire, that certain extraordinary traits have occurred in certain individuals in the last century…Scientific evidence, as well as hearsay, of-”

“Psychic powers, Sinter?” Klayus tittered behind spread fingers and lifted his eyes to the ceiling. A few projected birds flew down and circled them, making as if to peck at Sinter. The Emperor had rigged nearly all of his chambers to reveal his moods with such projections, and Sinter did not like them in the least.

“Of a kind, Your Highness.”

“Extraordinary persuasion. So I’ve heard. Perhaps the tumbling of dice in games of chance, or the ability to render women susceptible to our charms? I’d like that very much, Sinter. My assigned women are growing tired of my attentions.” His expression grew peevish. “I can tell.”

I hardly blame them, Sinter thought. An oversexed partner of few charms and little wit…

“It is a matter of some curiosity and perhaps importance, Highness.”

“Meanwhile, you cause unrest in Sectors that are already unhappy. Sinter, it’s a foolish liberty-or rather, a foolish breach of liberty. I am supposed to guarantee my subjects’ freedom from being strapped to the horrid little hobbyhorses of my ministers and advisors, or even my own. Well, my hobbyhorses are relatively comfortable mounts…but this, but you, Sinter!”

For a moment, Sinter thought the Emperor was actually going to show a spine, some Imperial fortitude, and forbid this activity, and he felt a momentary chill. It was because Sinter was so good at finding attractive women for young Klayus, and replacing them when he or they grew bored, that Klayus put up with so many of his peccadilloes.

But the Emperor’s eyes grew heavy-lidded, and his energy and irritation appeared to dissipate. Sinter hid his relief. Klayus the Young was, after all, relenting once more.

“Please don’t be so obvious, my good man,” Klayus said. “Slow down. What you need to know will come to you in good time, don’t you think? I’m sure you have all of our interests at heart. Now, about this woman Tyreshia…”

Farad Sinter listened to Klayus’s request with apparent interest, but in fact had switched on his recorder and would pay attention in more detail later. He could hardly believe his fortune. The Emperor had not forbidden these actions! He could indeed redirect and slow the less fruitful investigations; and he could also continue.

In fact, it was not humans, exceptional or otherwise, that he was after. Sinter sought evidence for the most extraordinary and long-lived conspiracy in human history…

A conspiracy he had traced back to the time of Cleon I, and probably long before that.

A myth, a legend, a real entity, coming and going like a wraith in Trantor’s history. The Mycogenians had called him Danee. He was one of the mysterious Eternals, and Sinter was determined to find out more, however he might risk his reputation.

Talk of the Eternals was regarded with as little respect-less, actually-as talk of ghosts. Many on Trantor, an ancient world filled to overflowing with extinct lives, believed in ghosts. Only a select few paid attention to stories of the Eternals.

The Emperor talked on about the woman he was interested in, and Sinter appeared to listen attentively, but his thoughts were far away…Years away.

Sinter imagined himself being credited with saving the Empire. He savored energizing visions of sitting on an Imperial throne, or even better, of replacing Linge Chen on the Commission of Public Safety.