Intro Chapter 01 . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 09 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27
After talking with Azzeed, I find buttonhole the Governor. Before I can say anything he asks, "Have you seen the latest?"
"On what?"
"Clearly not. Watch this." The governor rolls a newscast video for me. The center of attention is clearly Jackov Marlet. It starts out as a brief bio...
"He died?" I ask the governor.
"Worse!" Says the governor.
The video finally reaches the events of this last night. We see Marlet giving his speech. They don't include my dropping in. In fact, the tail end of what he says seems to be an epilog shot in a different location, or at a different time. Perhaps shortly after my entrance and exit, because Marlet is clearly a bit shaken. The emphasis of the epilog is on staying true to the cause and being prepared to sacrifice all for the cause. It's a kind of Ka-sharma thinking taken to a violent extreme. I'm getting a little uneasy. This isn't the kind of news story I was hoping I'd see come from my performance.
"Holy mother of Mary!" I exclaim when I see the next scene.
In it, Marlet is outside at the bond fire, and HE JUMPS IN!
I'm speechless. This I hadn't planned on. I have produced a dyed-in-the-wool fanatic martyr, and he has made a sacrifice that undid all of my efforts to bring rationality to this worldwide debate. He undid my carefully constructed pressure point. The hostages were now close to worthless.
"Crap!" is all I can think of to say.
"My first thoughts, too." sighed the governor. "I had no idea..."
"OK, this will take some digesting. We have another problem to work on, too. Two of my people need to get off world in the next six to twelve hours. They have to defuse a crisis in the fleet that brought me. It's still nearby, and it could decide to come back."
"The fleet could come back? You're saying we don't want that?" said the governor.
"The fleet will come back to extract vengeance. They are embarrassed that the merc wave was abandoned. If they come back, they will come to hurt a lot of people, not to open this world up to commerce. Give me ten minutes on this."
The Governor backs off, and I consider our new situation.
Intro Chapter 01 . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 09 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27