moment." Paul got to his feet. "That reminds me; Harv Dorflay'shiding Rod and Olva out in the mountains. I wanted him out of here whilethings were happening. I'll have to call him and tell him it's safe tocome in, now."
"Well, zip up your tunic and put your dagger on; you look as thoughyou'd been arrested, disarmed and searched."
"That's right." He hastily repaired his appearance and went to thescreen across the room, punching out the combination of the screen withRodrik's picnic party.
* * * * *
A young lieutenant of the Household Troops appeared in it, and had to bereassured. He got General Dorflay.
"Your Majesty! You are all right?"
"Perfectly all right, general, and it's quite safe to bring His ImperialHighness in. The conspiracy against the Throne has been crushed."
"Oh, thank the gods! Is Prince Travann a prisoner?"
"Quite the contrary, general. It was our loyal and devoted subject,Prince Travann, who crushed the conspiracy."
"But--But, Your Majesty----!"
"You aren't to be blamed for suspecting him, general. His agents wereworking in the very innermost councils of the conspirators. Every one ofthe people whom you suspected--with excellent reason--was actuallyworking to defeat the plot. Think back, general; the scheme to put thegun in the viewscreen, the scheme to sabotage the elevator, the schemeto introduce assassins into the orchestra with guns built into theirtrumpets--every one came to your notice because of what seemed to besome indiscretion of the plotters, didn't it?"
"Why ... why, yes, Your Majesty!" By this time tomorrow, he would have acomplete set of memories for each one of them. "You mean, theindiscretions were deliberate?"
"Your vigilance and loyalty made it necessary for them to resort tothese fantastic expedients, and your vigilance defeated them as fast asthey came to your notice. Well, today, Prince Travann and I struck back.I may tell you, in confidence, that every one of the conspirators isdead. Killed in this afternoon's rioting--which was incited for thatpurpose by Prince Travann."
"Then---- Then there will be no more plots against your life?" There wasa note of regret in the old man's voice.
"No more, Your Venerable Highness."
"But---- What did Your Majesty call me?" he asked incredulously.
"I took the honor of being the first to address you by your new title,Prince-Counselor Dorflay."
He left the old man overcome, and blubbering happily on the shoulder ofthe Crown Prince, who winked at his father out of the screen. PrinceTravann had gotten a couple of fresh drinks from the robot and handedone to him when he returned to his chair.
"He'll be finding the Bench of Counselors riddled with treason inside aweek," Travann said. "You handled that just right, though. Another caseof making problems solve each other."
"You were telling me about a plot you'd discovered."
"Oh, yes: this is one to top Dorflay's best efforts. All the voting-blocbosses on Odin are in a conspiracy to start a civil war to give them achance to loot the planet. There isn't a word of truth in it, of course,but it'll do to arrest and hold them for a few days, and by that timesome of my undercovers will be in control of every nonworker vote on theplanet. After all, the Cartels put an end to competition in every otherbusiness; why not a Voting Cartel, too? Then, whenever there's anelection, we just advertise for bids."
"Why, that would mean absolute control----"
"Of the nonworking vote, yes. And I'll guarantee, personally, that infive years the politics of Odin will have become so unbearably corruptand abusive that the intellectuals, the technicians, the businesspeople, even the nobility, will be flocking to the polls to vote, and ifonly half of them turn out, they'll snow the nonworkers under. Andthat'll mean, eventually, an end to vote-selling, and the nonworkers'llhave to find work. We'll find it for them."
"Great and frightening changes." Yorn Travann laughed; he recognized thephrase. Probably started it himself. Paul lifted his glass. "To theMinister of Disturbance!"
"Your Majesty!" They drank to each other, and then Yorn Travann said,"We had a lot of wild dreams, when we were boys; it looks as thoughwe're starting to make some of them come true. You know, when we were inthe University, the students would never have done what they did today.They didn't even do it ten years ago, when Vann Evaratt was dismissed."
"And Van Evaratt's pupil came back to Odin and touched this whole thingoff." He thought for a moment. "I wonder what Faress has, in thatanticipation effect."
"I think I can see what can come out of it. If he can propagate a wavethat behaves like those micropositos, we may not have to depend on shipsfor communication. We may be able, some day, to screen Baldur or Vishnuor Aton or Thor as easily as you screened Dorflay, up in the mountains."He thought silently for a moment. "I don't know whether that would begood or bad. But it would be new, and that's what matters. That's theonly thing that matters."
"Flower Festivals," Paul said, and, when Yorn Travann wanted to knowwhat he meant, he told him. "When Princess Olva's Empress, she's goingto curse the name of Klenn Faress. Flower Festivals, all around thegalaxy, without end."
THE END
+--------------------------------------------------------------+| || Transcriber's Note & Errata || || There were 2 instances of 'cooking-robot' and one of || 'cooking robot' || || There was one instance of 'patriarchial' which was not || corrected. || || The following typographical errors were corrected: || || Page Error Correction || || 15 attion attention || 19 Ranuf's Ranulf's || 25 Tammsen Tammsan || 29 rerespectable respectable || 33 student's students || 34 Geklar Gaklar || 34 tyranical tyrannical || 36 Duklas Duklass |+--------------------------------------------------------------+
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