_Plot and Counter-Plot_
As these four men faced one another in the slanting rays of the
setting Sun far out on the desert, the planetary president, Wilcox,
sat in his office in the executive palace in South Tarog, situated, as
were so many of the public buildings, on the banks of the canal.
Wilcox was in his sixties. A gray man, pedantic in his speech, his
features were strong: his nose, short and straight, somehow, expressed
his intense intolerance of opposition. His long, straight lower jaw
protruded slightly, symbolizing his tenacity, his lust for power. His
eyes, large, gray, intolerant, looked before him coldly. Wilcox was
the result of the union of two root-stocks of the human race, of a
terrestrial father, a Martian mother. He had inherited the
intelligence of both--the conscience of neither.
Now he sat in a straight, severe chair, before a severe, heavy table.
Even the room seemed to frown. Wilcox's face was free of wrinkles, yet
it frowned too. He seemed not to see the flaming path the setting Sun
drew across the broad expanse of the canal, for he was thinking of
bigger things. Wilcox was a little mad, but he was a madman of
imagination and resource, and he was not the first one to control the
destinies of a world.
"Waffins!" His voice rang out sharp and querulous. A servant,
resplendent in the palace livery of green and orange, was instantly
before him bowing low.
"Who awaits our pleasure?"
"Scar Balta, sire," answered Waffins, bowing low again.
"We will see him."
Waffins disappeared. Scar Balta came in alone, sleek as usual showing
no trace of his irritation over his long wait. He did not even glance
at the somber hangings that concealed a number of recesses in the
wall. Scar knew that guards stood back of those hangings, armed with
neuro-pistols or needle-rays as a precaution against the ever-present
menace of assassination. And of the loopholes back of these recesses,
with still other armed men, as a constant warning to any of the inner
guards whose thoughts might turn to treachery.
* * * * *
Scar Balta bowed respectfully.
"Your Excellency desired to see me?"
"I wished to see you, or I should not have had you called," Wilcox
replied irritably. "I wish to have an explicit understanding with you
as to our proceeding next week at our conference with the financial
delegates. Sit here, close to me. It is not necessary for us to shout
our business to the world."
Balta took the chair beside Wilcox, and they conversed in low tones.
"First of all," Wilcox wanted to know, "how is your affair with the
Princess Sira progressing?"
"Your Excellency knows." Balta began cautiously, "that the news
agencies have been sending out pictorial forecasts--"
"Save your equivocation for others!" Wilcox interrupted sharply. "I am
aware of the propaganda work. It was by my order that the facilities
were extended to you. I am also aware that the princess escaped from
Joro's palace. An amazing piece of bungling! Did she really escape or
is Joro forwarding some plot of his own?"
"He seems genuinely disturbed. He has spent a fortune having the canal
searched by divers, flying ships and surface craft. If Sira fails to
marry me Joro's life ambition will fail, for the hopes of the
monarchists will then be forever lost."
"True; but his Joro some larger plan? His is a mind I do not
understand, and therefore I must always fear. A man with no ambition
for himself, but only for an abstract. It is impossible!"
"Not impossible!" Balta insisted. "Joro is a strange man. He believes
that the monarchy would improve conditions for the people. And, Your
Excellency, wouldn't I be a good king?"
* * * * *
Wilcox looked at him morosely. His low voice carried a chill.
"Do not anticipate events, my friend! There are certain arrangements
to be made with the bankers regarding the election of a solar
governor!" His large gray eyes burned. "Solar governor! Never in
history has there been a governor of the entire solar system. Destiny
shapes all things to her end, and then produces a man to fill her
needs!"
"And that man sits here beside me, Balta added adroitly. Wilcox did
not sense the irony of the quick take-up. He had been about to
complete the sentence himself. But his mind was practical.
"The bankers must be satisfied. The terrestrial war must be assured
before they will lend their support."
"It is practically assured now," Balta insisted. "Our propaganda
bureau has been at work incessantly, and public feeling is being
worked up to a satisfactory pitch. Only last night two terrestrial
commercial travelers were torn to pieces by a mob on suspicion that
they were spies."
"Good!" Wilcox approved. "Let there be no interruption in the work.
Our terrestrial agents report excellent results on Earth. They
succeeded in poisoning the water supply of the city of Philadelphia.
Thousands killed, and the blame placed on Martian spies. Our agents
found it necessary to inspire a peace bloc in the pan-terrestrial
senate in order to keep them from declaring war forthwith. But these
things are of no concern to you. Have you made the necessary
arrangements with the key men of the army?"
"I have, Your Excellency. They are chafing for action. The overt act
will be committed at the appointed time, and the terrestrial liner
will be disintegrated without trace."
"And have you made arrangements for the disposal of the ship's
records?"
* * * * *
"Our own ship? I thought it best to have a time bomb concealed aboard.
That way not only the records will be destroyed but there will be no
men left to talk when the post-war investigating commission comes
around."
"Well managed!" Wilcox approved shortly. "See that there is no
failure!" He dismissed the young man by withdrawing to his inner self,
where he rioted among stupendous thoughts.
Scar Balta emerged into the streets, brightly illuminated with the
coming of night, and his thoughts were far from easy. The absence of
the princess was a serious handicap--might very easily be disastrous.
With her consent and help it would have been so simple! The people,
entirely unrealizing that their emotions were being directed into just
the channels desired, could most easily be reached through the
princess.
First the war, of course, and then, when the threatened business
uprising against financial control had been crushed, a planet-wide
sentimental spree over the revival of the monarchy and the marriage of
the beautiful and popular princess. As prince consort, Scar would then
find it a simple matter to maneuver himself into position as authentic
king.
But without the princess! Ah, that was something else again! For the
first time in his devious and successful career, Scar Balta felt
distinctly unhappy. He had schemed, suffered and murdered to put
himself in reach of this glittering opportunity, and he would
inevitably lose it unless he could find Sira.
In the midst of his unhappy reflections he thought of Mellie.
* * * * *
Sira knew well that Wasil adored her. He had for her the same dog-like
devotion that Mellie had. She knew she could ask for his life and he
would give it. And what she had planned for him was almost equivalent
to asking for his life.
She told him as much, sitting beside him on a bench in the garden. His
smooth coral face was alight, his large eyes inspired.
"I will do just as you have commanded me!" he declared solemnly, and
would have kissed her hand.
"You must not only do it; you must keep every detail to yourself. You
must not even tell Mellie. Do you promise?"
"I promise!"
She kissed him on the forehead. "Farewell, Wasil. I have been here two
days already--far longer than prudence allows. They will be here
looking for me. Have you any money?"
Wasil produced a roll of I. P. scrip; handed it to her.
"Kiss Mellie for me," she called, as she slipped out of the garden.
She was still dressed in the coarse laborer's attire that she had
bought on the trading boat, and mingled readily with the crowds in the
streets. She hoped she would not meet Mellie, for the girl's devotion
might outweigh her judgment.
The rest of that day Sira prowled about the city. Mingling with the
common people, she came to have a new insight in their struggles,
their sorrows. Passing the walls of her own palace, now locked and
sealed, she felt, strangely, resentment that there should be such
piled-up wealth while people all around lacked almost the necessities
of life.
* * * * *
She surprised herself, also, by a changing attitude toward the life
ambition of Prince Joro. The old man's discussions of social
conditions that could be corrected by a benevolent monarch had always
before seemed to her merely academic and without great interest. Such
co-operation as she had given him was motivated entirely by personal
ambition. Now she recalled some of Joro's theories, reviewed them in
her mind, half consenting.
Always she would strike a barrier when she came to Scar Balta. The
more she thought of him the more he repelled her. She puzzled over
that. Scar was quite personable.
Tarog, every industrial city along the equatorial belt, and even the
remotest provinces, were seething with war talk. The teletabloids at
the street corners always had intent audiences. Sira watched one of
them. Disease germs had been found in a shipment of fruit juices from
the Earth. The teletabloids showed, in detail, diabolical looking
terrestrials in laboratory aprons infecting the juices. Then came
shocking clinical views of the diseases produced. Men, on turning
away, growled deep in their throats and women chattered shrilly. The
parks were milling with crowds who came to hear the patriotic
speakers.
There was hardly anyone at the stereo-screens, where the news of real
importance was given.
"President Wilcox announced to-day that an interplanetary conference
of financiers will be held in his office three days from to-day,
beginning at the third hour after sunrise. President Wilcox, whose
efforts have been unremitting to prevent the war which daily seems
more inevitable, declared that the situation may yet be saved unless
some overt act occurs." At the same time the device showed a
three-dimensional picture of the planetary president, impressive,
dominating, stern with a sternness that could mean almost anything.
Sira, hurrying home to an inexpensive lodging house, thought:
"Three days from to-day! I have done what I could. The hopes of the
solar system now rest with Wasil. I am only a helpless spectator."
* * * * *
Tarog awaited the conference on the morrow bedecked like a bride. The
Martian flag, orange and green, fluttered everywhere. On both sides of
the canal the brilliantly lighted thoroughfares were restless with
pedestrians, and the air was swarming with taxicabs. Excitement was
universal, and business was good.
The glare of the twin cities could be seen far out in the cold desert.
Four men, stumbling along wearily, occasionally estimated the distance
with wearied eyes and plodded onward.
After a long silence Murray remarked:
"It's just as well that the levitators gave out when they did. We were
drifting mighty slow--making practically no time at all. Probably we'd
have been spotted if we'd gone much further."
"Yeh?" Sime Hemingway conceded doubtfully. "But they may spot us
anyway. We have no passes, and none of us looks very pretty. As for
Tolto, we could hide a house as easy as him."
"But we must go on," said Tuman, the Martian. "Yonder lights seem too
bright, too numerous for an ordinary day. There's some kind of
celebration."
They trudged on for several hours more. Although weariness made their
feet leaden and pressed on their eyelids, they dared not halt. Each
one nursed some secret dread. Tolto thought of his princess, his child
goddess, and mentally fought battle with whomever stood between him
and her. Sime and Murray saw in those lights only war, swift and
horrible. Tuman imagined a city full of enemies, ruthless and
powerful.
Gradually, as they came closer, the lights began to go out one by one.
The city was going to bed.
* * * * *
An hour later they came to an illuminated post marking the end of a
street. A teletabloid was affixed to this post, buzzing, but its
stereo-screen blank. Murray found a coin, inserted it in the slot.
"Marriage of the Princess Sira and Scar Balta will be held immediately
after the financial congress," the machine intoned briskly, and in
time with its running comments it began to display pictures.
Sime, watching indifferently, caught his breath. It seemed to him that
he knew this girl, who appeared to be walking toward him up a stately
garden alley. She came steadily forward with a queenly, effortless
stride. And now it seemed as if she had seen him, for she turned and
looked straight into his eyes. It seemed that her expression changed
from laughing to pleading. And he recognized the girl with the
stiletto whom he had caught in his hotel room.
He said nothing, however. He could hardly explain the feeling of
sadness that came over him. He stood silent, while the others
commented excitedly over the overshadowing war news.
"It's all in the box," Tuman said gloomily. "Many times I've helped
cook up something like this. The boys in the central offices are
laughing, or swearing, as the cast may be. The poor devils don't own
their own souls, if they're equipped with any. I'd rather be here,
expecting to be thrown into a cell by daylight!" He shivered in the
night chill.
They ran into a little luck when they needed it most. A roving taxi
swooped down upon them, hailed them for fares. They flew the rest of
the way in. Their luck held. A city policeman, noting their stumbling
walk as they lurched into a cheap hotel, did not trouble them for
their passes. He had seen many such men that night, soldier and
civilian, with clothes bloody and torn. The excitement of the day,
coupled with the fact that nearly everyone carried arms, had led to
numerous fights, not a few of which ended fatally.
"Merclite!" grinned the policeman, suppressing a hiccup of his own.
"And besides, that big 'un would make two of me."