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He smiled his grim smile and laughed softly. "But enough of me . . . I asked
about you."
"I'm not sure we're finished . . . ."
He sighed once more, and the grim smile was replaced with a still sadness, the
guarded look of a man willing to take an assault without at-tacking in return
or raising a defense. Lyr did not recall ever having seen that expression, the
weariness in his eyes, or the sudden vulnerability.
"What else would you like to know?"
"I don't know. Except that after all these years, I still feel like I don't
know you. Like you feel all things more intensely than any man should, and yet
you show so little. As if what you do is consuming what you are."
His shoulders gave a small shrug. "You're probably right about the last. But I
warned you about that in the beginning. Told you that I was a fanatic."
"That doesn't excuse it."
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"Not trying to excuse it, Lyr. I know what I am."
"Do you? I wonder."
He smiled, and the expression was momentarily boyish. "All right. I know at
least some of what I am."
"And what about the rest?"
"Guess I'll find out."
This time she was the one to shake her head. "Heaven help us all when you do."
"Not that bad." He grinned. "Enough of this somber stuff. Let's get back to
what I asked."
"What did you ask?"
"If you still had a dream beyond a dream."
"Some days. Why do you keep asking?"
"Every once in a while I care about people's dreams, a little more often than
they think."
"I stand reproved. I think."
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"Not reproved. You're right, but can we leave it at that for now?"
Why?
"Because the timing is getting critical. A number of things are coming
together, and you'll probably need more staff, and I'm not sure I can afford
much more introspection. Not now."
"What do you mean?"
"More large purchases, some more acquisitions, that sort of thing."
"I'm not sure I understand, but you do much more than you're doing, and I'll
need more staff."
"Go ahead and add what you need."
Lyr took a deep breath, feeling as though she had somehow missed more than the
quickest glimpse into the commander's soul.
"What about you?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation back onto a more
personal level.
"Probably more travelling. Trying to coordinate. Headed for El Lido next, the
way it looks. Not sure past that on the specifics."
"But what about you?" she asked again.
"I'll survive. Somehow. Always do. Probably always will. Not much else that I
can do."
"Try to keep in touch, Commander." She paused, and her voice softened as she
finished.
"And take care."
"I will, as I can. Keep doing your best, Lyr. You're the only one who can keep
this end together."
The screen blanked as her mouth dropped open. She had never expected either
the admission of her efforts or the abruptness of his closing, not after the
disclosures she had forced from him.
She rubbed her chin. On the other hand, perhaps he had to break the connection
quickly.
Perhaps he could not afford to become too personal . . . perhaps.
Shaking her head, she cleared the screen.
With his attitude and more purchases like the last, her efforts might not be
enough to keep the Empire from digging deep into the foundation, and while the
foundation might endure, she wondered about the implications for its
trustee and for its administrator.
LXVI
THE SHADOWED MAN studied the arrangement.
The single guard sat in a shielded riot box set in the wall, swivel set high
enough that he could survey the sloping lawn in front of the wall without his
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eyes being more than a slight angle from the screen that switched from snoop
to snoop.
The chair itself was an indicator. Gerswin had watched as the present guard
had replaced his predecessor, watched as the seat had lifted slightly when the
guard's weight was removed.
From the shadows he dropped his glasses.
While he would rather have handled it personally, on a face-to-face basis,
that was certainly what Carlina was expecting. She had obviously studied his
past interactions and was counting on his reputed sense of fair play and
direct action with principals.
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He shook his head and slipped soundlessly back along the relatively
unmonitored pathway he had tracked through the surrounding grounds, back to
the flitter.
He took a deep breath as his quick and light steps cleared the unmarked
boundary of the estate and as he entered the undeveloped tract where his
flitter waited in the small clearing.
After a short flight to a more distant location, he changed craft, from a
small black one to a larger black one. Once inside his ship, and seated before
the control console, Gerswin touched the communications studs. The picture
remained a swirl of color.
He recognized the swirl as a scramble from the receiver, a protective pattern
that blocked even his own command access codes. His lips quirked as he waited
to see how soon and if the pattern would clear.
Fully two minutes passed before the abstract color patterns resolved
themselves into the picture of a silver-haired woman, with a straight, firm
nose and violet eyes. Gerswin knew both eye color and nose had been purchased
from a high-priced cosmetic surgeon.
Before she had risen to become Administrator of CE, Limited, on El Lido,
Carlina D'Aquino had displayed muddy brown hair and eyes, and a much larger
and wider nose.
"Shaik Corso! I had not expected you. I thought someone was testing our
security system."
Her smile showed the warmth that only years of accomplished insincerity could
project.
"I regret the inconvenience, Carlina, but your recent reports have displayed a
rather depressing lack of profitability, and I thought I might be of some
service in assisting a rather rapid recovery." Gerswin doubted that his smile
was nearly as warm as Carlina's.
"Oh, dear Shaik, you shouldn't have bothered. I'm afraid there's little you
can do to change that. You know, our overhead has increased so much. You
remember all those fancy hidden entrances and gas systems that Delwar had
installed I assume it was Delwar that led to his replacement? Well, I thought
they were really too much of an invitation, and I thought about replacing
them. But then I found a few others that even Delwar hadn't known about, and
decided I
would never know whether I had ever found them all. So I moved the
headquarters, and I turned the old buildings into the administrative center
for our latest ventures; and they're guarded by
DomSec."
"That showed a great deal of initiative, Carlina, especially since you were
relying on my good faith."
"Now that you're back, Shaik, you could call a meeting, but, you recall, under
El Lido law the meeting would have to be held in headquarters unless you could
get a two-thirds vote, and to do that you and I would have to agree."
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"That is true, and I might consider that." Gerswin smiled. "How is Ferinay?"
"Poor Ferinay. He suffered a second and rather unfortunate stroke last month,
and the doctors say he will never be quite the same again.
"You have your own successor?"
"I don't plan on leaving in the near future, particularly since we have just
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