Chapter 14

Conversation with a Ghost

Etienne d'Alembert returned to Earth with Helena and Captain Fortier. While the captain

traveled on to Luna Base to make his personal report to Naval Intelligence, Helena

requested and was granted a personal audience with Empress Stanley Eleven. She

admitted being very nervous at the prospect of facing Edna under these circumstances,

so Duke Etienne agreed to serve as her escort.

The meeting took place in the same private conference chamber at the Moscow Imperial

Palace where Duke Mosi Burr'uk had informed the Empress of the evidence against

Zander von Wilmenhorst. Helena sat nervously, fixing her hair, checking her makeup,

making sure her clothes were straight-and at the same time wondering what she could

possibly say to the woman who'd had her father executed.

Edna Stanley entered the room without ceremony and sat down at the head of the large

oval table facing her two visitors. A long, awkward pause followed. Both women were

about the same age, and had been raised together almost as sisters. Now the actions

and suspicions of the past few weeks had turned them into strangers.

Not knowing what to say immediately to Helena, Edna turned to Duke Etienne. "I

suppose I should have you reprimanded for failing to turn Helena in when she first came

to you." Her slight smile and warm tone of voice took the sting out of her words.

"I obeyed Your Majesty precisely," Etienne replied good-naturedly. "I took her

immediately into my custody and I refused to take orders from her to go on a mission to

clear her father's name. There were, however, no orders to return her to Earth

immediately, and I have a standing assignment to investigate anything I view as

suspicious. I merely used my instincts and discretion, as a good agent should.

"I hope I can always trust to your instincts and discretion," Edna nodded. That done, she

turned to the heavy task of facing Helena. "I suppose you feel I owe you an apology for

everything that's happened."

"The Empress need apologize for nothing," Helena said by rote, dry tears burning the

corners of her eyes. "I just wish you'd had a little more faith in us."

"When you're personally responsible for hundreds of planets and trillions of lives, faith

becomes a very expensive commodity," Edna sighed. "I had no choice but to do

everything exactly as I did it.

"You could have called us, talked to us, let us explain," Helena said bitterly, looking away

from her ruler's face. "You could have granted us that courtesy, at least."

"After your escape, I took a tremendous risk," Edna said slowly. "I had your father

brought back to Earth and I had a private conversation with him. It was he who told me

what I had to do."

Helena caught her breath, then let it out slowly. "Yes, that sounds like him. He would

recommend his own execution if he thought it was the only way to restore your faith in

the Service as a whole. He was completely dedicated to you-and you had to kill him to

find that out!" She could restrain herself no further, and burst into tears right in front of

the Empress of the Empire of Earth.

Edna rose and walked slowly around the table to her friend's side. She placed her hands

gently on Helena's shoulders and hugged her friend to her. "Helena, dear, I'm sorry I

forced you to undergo this torment. Knowing what this would do to you tore my heart in

two. I know there's not a single thing I can do to make up for the pain, the sorrow, the

agony I've caused you-but I hope I can at least do something that allows you to forgive

me. Look."

Helena lifted her head and gazed in the direction Edna indicated. Standing in the doorway

was Zander von Wilmenhorst, smiling-the warm, knowing expression Helena had always

loved.

The shock of seeing her father again was almost greater than the shock of learning he

was dead. Helena sat stupefied for a moment, then sprang to her feet as though

propelled by a rocket. She raced to her father and threw her arms around his tall body.

She wept once more, but this time the tears were of pure joy.

Von Wilmenhorst held his daughter lovingly, stroking her hair and allowing the emotional

release to flow out of her system. When her body was no longer racked with sobbing, he

pulled away slightly and gazed into her eyes. "Well, how do I look? Not bad for an old

ghost, eh?"

From across the room, Etienne d'Alembert was flashing a smile that could have lit up a

city. "You're the most welcome specter I've ever seen, mon amt."

"Oh, Father," Helena gasped between her tears. "I thought I'd never see you again."

The Head sighed and nodded. "I know, that was the most regrettable part of this

charade. That's why I sent you off to the Circus when-I realized what I might need to do.

'

"Sent me?" Helena pulled back, startled. "You did no such thing. You didn't want me to

go anywhere." "Saying 'no' is still the best way to manipulate children." Von Wilmenhorst

smiled kindly. "And I made sure to mention the Circus prominently so they'd be in the

front of your mind. I knew Etienne would take good care of you."

But what was the point of all this?" Helena asked. "Why couldn't you have told us about

it?"

Von Wilmenhorst cleared his throat. "It became clear to me as I listened to Fortier's

story that the conspiracy had embarked on a massive and subtle campaign to destroy

the Service's effectiveness, first with the attempt to lure Jules and Yvette into the open,

then with the attack on my credibility. I received confirmation of this yesterday, by the

way, when Jules and Yvette called in their report. The conspiracy had indeed declared

war on SOTE according to Tanya Boros, now deceased. They also reported that, again

according to Boros, there is no person named C, that the entire conspiracy is

masterminded by our Lady A. I'm not sure whether to believe that or not; I'll tuck the

datum away for further speculation.

"At any rate, I knew something had to be done to counter their attack. We'd already sent

the d'Alembert Bavol teams against the doubles, but we had to clear my name quickly or

the entire Service would be suspect.

"I suggested to Edna that she announce I'd been executed for treason because I wanted

to throw the conspiracy off balance. That would have been the one thing they wanted

most, although they probably weren't expecting it. By giving them their fondest wish, I

was hoping to draw them out and make them do something foolish to tip their hand. But it

had to be done in absolute secrecy; I couldn't even let you two know the truth."

"Why not?" Helena said. "You can certainly trust Etienne, and you'd have spared me a lot

of grief."

"But that, unfortunately, was part of the plan," Edna spoke from her end of the table.

"You see, although I did have faith in you, I still didn't have proof. I had to see how you'd

react. If you really were part of the conspiracy, knowing of your father's death would

have spurred you to retaliate because you'd think the game was up. Instead, you kept

working to clear him and passed the test with flying colors."

"Unfortunately, you were the only one to take the bait," the Head smiled ruefully. "Even

after hearing I was dead, the conspiracy made no further threatening moves. That

disappointed me in one respect, because I hoped they'd over commit themselves in

some way; but in another respect it's a hopeful sign. It shows they're afraid of acting too

quickly on something that hasn't been a hundred percent confirmed. We must have hurt

them more severely than we thought on Coronation Day, and they're being very

conservative about what they do. For this reason, I don't intend to keep up the pretense

of being dead any longer. We've already proved we won't be fooled by their discrediting

tactics, and it would be too difficult to maintain the facade of my death, especially with as

sophisticated a network as they have."

He escorted his daughter to a chair and sat down beside her, facing Etienne and Edna.

"Well, that's my story. I understand you've had a few adventures of your own."

Etienne and Helena between them filled him in on their own findings. Grand Duke Zander

went pale as he heard of his daughter's harrowing escape from the asteroid, but that

expression was replaced by a cold smile as they told him what they'd learned from Dr.

Loxner. "At last we're beginning to make some progress," he said.

"What do you mean?" Edna asked him.

"Twenty years ago, Etienne saw Dr. Loxner on Durward in company with an old woman

who was wearing one of those identifying medallions around her neck. He says Loxner

seemed afraid of her, as though she were a superior. Later, Dr. Loxner said he

performed his mind transferral process on one other person, a woman, placing her mind

within a perfect robot body. I don't think I need dwell too much on who that robot might

have become." "Lady A!" Edna exclaimed.

Duke Etienne took up the thread from there. "We have no direct proof, but I think we can

make an educated guess about the woman's identity: Aimee Amorat, the Beast of

Durward. "

The two women were silent for a moment, allowing the thought to percolate in their

minds. "Of course," Helena said slowly. "We never even thought of her before in

connection with Lady A. We knew she'd have to be somewhere in her nineties by now if

she was still alive, while Lady A looked to be a woman in her prime. But if her mind was

transferred into a robot body, she could be any age at all."

"She was probably the old woman you saw twenty years ago," Edna said to Etienne.

"She'd have been in her seventies then, probably desperate knowing she might die soon,

ready to try anything to preserve her life."

"Loxner said she was vain," the Duke agreed. "That fits with everything we know about

the Beast."

"Vain, cold, cunning, devious, utterly treacherous," the Head said. "We've managed, at

last, to pin a name on our adversary, but I'm still not sure I'm happy about it. She's a

woman whose beauty and intelligence snared an Emperor and beguiled an entire court.

When that fell apart, she fled and managed to hide from the most thorough manhunt

SOTE ever staged. She stayed hidden for over seventy years, and nearly managed to

see her son installed on the throne. She's a skilled actress, and her ambition knows no

bounds. She's one of the most formidable enemies we could face."

"It just occurred to me," Helena said. "On Gastonia, when she allowed Jules and Yvonne

to inject her with nitrobarb, it might have been the real stuff. She'd have no reason to be

afraid of it; it'll have no effect on her. Stunners will have no effect on her. In fact, there's

damned little of anything she'd be afraid of except a bomb or a blaster. "

"This would also explain the preferential treatment she gave Tanya Boros-her

granddaughter. And it makes what finally happened all the more ironic." He explained to

Helena and Etienne the circumstances of Boros's death in the booby-trapped escape

ship.

"Now that we know who we're dealing with," von Wilmenhorst continued, "we can finally

start making some plans of our own. The Service has a long background file on Aim6e

Amorat; while it's considerably out of date, it may give us a few things to work on. We

can at least draw up a preliminary psychological profile to understand our enemy a little

better." He lapsed into thought as he considered all the actions that needed to be taken.

"What intrigues me," Etienne said, "is Loxner's mind transferral process. He developed a

form of immortality, and now it's gone with him."

"Not necessarily," Edna replied. "That's one of the nice things about science-if a process

is important enough it can always be recreated. I can authorize some Imperial research

grants and steer cyberneticists toward those published papers Loxner mentioned. If

there's anything there at all, the technique will be rediscovered."

She paused to consider some of the implications. "if this works, it will revolutionize the

entire Galaxy." Etienne d'Alembert, meanwhile, cleared his throat and went to sit beside

the Head. He whispered in von Wilmenhorst's ear for several minutes, and the Grand

Duke's face broke into a wide grin. He looked back at his daughter. "Duke Etienne tells

me you've developed an attachment for our Captain Fortier," he said.

Helena blushed hotly. "Well, he saved my life," she admitted.

The Head's smile broadened. "Such bravery shouldn't go unrewarded," he said. "I've

been trying to develop closer ties with Naval Intelligence for several months. It occurs to

me that what we need is a senior officer from each branch to act as official liaison with

the other. Would you mind the additional workload if you and Captain Fortier were

assigned to coordinate our mutual activities?"

Helena's squeal of joy indicated she would not mind that in the least.