Cobra Bargain

Chapter 8

The reminder clock on his desk pinged, and Corwin looked up at it with mild surprise. Somehow, while he hadn't been looking, the afternoon had disappeared.

It was four fifty, and in just forty minutes the celebration was scheduled to start over at Justin's house. The celebration for his daughter's graduation from the Cobra Academy.

For a moment Corwin gazed unseeingly at the clock, his mind jumping back almost thirty years to the similar celebration his parents had thrown for Justin himself. It had been a strained evening, with everyone trying to ignore the fact that the new Cobra and his twin brother would he heading off in a few days to the mysterious world of Qasama, possibly never to return.

And now it would be Jin who'd be going off in a week. To the same world. Under almost identical circumstances.

To try and fix the same problem.

Corwin could remember a time, far back in the dim haze of his youth, when it had seemed to him that if you fixed a problem right the first time it would stay fixed. When he believed there were problems that could be permanently fixed.

The memories made him feel very old.

"Corwin?"

With a jolt, he brought himself back to the real world. "Yes, Thena, what is it?"

"The governor-general's on the line. Says it's important."

Corwin flicked another glance at his clock. "He always does," he growled. "Oh, all right." He stabbed at the proper button, and Thena's image was replaced by

Chandler's. "Yes?"

Chandler's face looked like he'd been chewing on something not quite ripe. "I've got some bad news for you, Moreau," he said without preamble. "I have here on my desk a petition calling for your brother Justin to be confined until the matter of the Monse shooting can be definitively cleared up. It's been endorsed by seventy-one members of the Cobra Worlds Council."

Corwin felt his face go rigid. Seventy-one members was something like sixty percent-an utterly incredible number. "That's ridiculous," he said. "The whole thing-"

"The whole thing," Chandler cut him off grimly, "has been pulling for more net space than any seven-week-old issue has any right to be getting. In case you haven't noticed, the public rumblings over the whole mess never completely vanished; and in the past week or so they've started getting louder again."

Corwin gritted his teeth hard enough to hurt. Preoccupied with arrangements and details for the Qasama mission, he hadn't had time to keep up with the ebb and flow of Aventinian public opinion. But then why hadn't Justin or Joshua or someone else pointed it out to him-?

Because they hadn't wanted him to worry, of course. And so, while he'd been busy looking the other way, Priesly's gang had been busy weaving an encirclement.

But maybe it still wasn't too late to fight back. A petition, even one from the

Cobra Worlds Council, wasn't legally binding on the governor-general's actions.

If he could get Chandler on his side... or at least onto neutral... "Since you're calling me about it," he said carefully, "do I presume you intend to comply with their demand?"

Chandler's eyes flashed. "It's hardly a demand, Moreau-I can ignore the thing entirely if I choose to do so. The question really boils down to whether or not you're worth bucking this kind of public opinion for."

"Or in other words, why risk political fallout over a governor who's on his way out anyway?" Corwin asked softly.

Chandler at least had the grace to look uncomfortable. "It's not like that," he muttered. "Whatever happens with your niece on Qasama doesn't change the fact that you are at present a full Aventinian governor."

"True," Corwin nodded. "Not to mention the possibility that Jin may actually do so well out there that I won't have to resign in the first place."

"I suppose that's possible," Chandler conceded. "Hardly likely, though."

Corwin shrugged. Despite his words, it was clear from Chandler's manner that he felt awkward about writing Corwin off without cause. It gave Corwin a psychological lever-a weak one, but the best he was likely to get. "I presume you'll be ordering Justin into house arrest, then?" he asked. "Surely there's no need to put him in an actual prison."

Chandler's eyes bored into his. "It might be enough to satisfy them," he said evenly. "Suppose someone suggests that he's potentially a threat to the community and ought to be somewhere more secure?"

"You could counter by asking this person where the hell he thinks would be a safe place to incarcerate a Cobra who doesn't want to stay put," Corwin told him. "Or point out the obvious fact that Justin's not a danger to anyone who isn't threatening him. Alternatively, if this person's on the Directorate and privy to such information, you could just point out that the use of that Troft shuttle for the Qasaman mission might be in jeopardy if Speaker One finds out you've locked up a Moreau."

Chandler's eyebrows lifted a fraction. "I find it hard to believe you and the

Tlossies are that friendly."

"Of course we aren't," Corwin shook his head. "But you'll recall this unnamed someone of yours was on the aircar when Speaker One asked that a Moreau help plan the Qasama mission. Reminding him of that ought to make him a little cautious about pushing too hard for public incarceration."

Chandler snorted, gently. "Perhaps. Perhaps." He took a deep breath. "All right.

House arrest it is, with as little publicity as we can get away with."

"Thank you, sir." Corwin hesitated. "If I could ask one more favor, though... we're having the graduation party for Jin this evening. Could you postpone the order until tomorrow morning? It would make things a lot easier on all of us."

"I hardly think Justin's going to sneak off and leave the planet," Chandler said, almost offhandedly. Having already made up his mind to buck Priesly on one point, bucking him on another one as well apparently didn't cost any extra effort. "The house arrest will officially begin tomorrow morning at eight, then.

You realize, of course, that Priesly is likely to consider this a favor you owe him. Whether you look at it that way or not."

"I've already put my career on his block over Jin's Cobra appointment," Corwin said coldly. "If Priesly thinks he can squeeze blood out of me beyond that, he's going to be sorely disappointed."

"I suppose." Chandler sighed. "Though I wouldn't underestimate his skills at manipulating the nets if I were you. Resigning quietly from a governorship and resigning in public disgrace are two very different ends. I think he'd take a great deal of pleasure in the chance to drag the Moreau name out for the gantuas to walk on."

Corwin felt his stomach tighten. The Moreau name. It was a noble part of the

Cobra Worlds' young history, one of the few names virtually everyone on Aventine had grown up knowing. Protecting it had been a deciding factor in his father's fight against the Challinor rebellion so many years ago, and his subsequent work in reshaping Aventinian politics; and it was one of the few gifts of real value

Corwin himself had to give to his nieces and-if he ever had any-to his own children. The thought of Priesly with his grubby hands on it... "If he tries it, he'll be sorry," he told Chandler softly. "Call it a threat, or call it a statement of fact; but make sure he understands."

Chandler nodded. "I'll try. I just wanted you to understand what we were dealing with here. Anyway... I expect I ought to let you go. You'll of course want to tell your brother about this tonight."

"I will," Corwin sighed. "Goodnight, sir... and thank you."

The governor-general threw him a grim smile and vanished from the screen.

For a long moment Corwin just sat there, staring blankly at the empty screen. So

Priesly hadn't been content with merely embarrassing Corwin's family, instead, he was out for real blood. Well, if it's a fight he wants, he thought bitterly, it's a fight he's going to get. And Corwin had been in politics considerably longer than Priesly had. Somehow, he'd find a way to turn all this back on the

Ject. Somehow.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed the thought back as far as he could and got to his feet. He was going to a party, after all, and ought to at least try to project an image of happiness. Whether he felt that way or not.

The red streaks of sunset were fading into the early-evening darkness of the springtime Capitalia sky as Jin drove up to the curb and stepped out onto the walk. For a moment she just stood there in the dusk, gazing at the house and wondering why the home of her childhood should look so different to her now.

Surely it wasn't just that she'd been away for four weeks-she'd been away that long many times before. No, the house hadn't changed; it was she who was different. The home of her childhood... but she was no longer a child. She was an adult.

An adult; and a Cobra.

Almost automatically, she keyed through a series of settings on her optical enhancers as she walked up toward the house, spotting things about the building and grounds that she'd never known before. The infrared setting showed what seemed to be a minor heat leak in the corner by her bedroom-no wonder that room had always felt colder than the rest of the house in the winter. Telescopic enhancement showed that the allegedly permanent siding was beginning to crack near the guttering; and a telescopic/light-amplified study of a hole in the tall sideyard borlash tree won her a glimpse of bright animal eyes hiding there.

Memories of the past, thoughts of the future-all of it mingled together with the reality of the present. The reality that, against all odds, she'd achieved her life's ambition.

She was a Cobra.

The sound of a decelerating car behind her registered on her consciousness and she turned, expecting to see one of her uncles driving up.

It was Mander Sun.

"Hey! Jin!" he called, leaning his head out the window. "Hold up a minute."

She retraced her steps and crossed the street as he pulled to a halt against the opposite curb. "What is it?" she asked, belatedly noticing the hard set of his mouth. "Is anything wrong?"

"I don't know." His eyes probed her face. "Maybe it's just rumors... look, I heard something this afternoon from a friend of my dad's who does datawork for the Directorate. Do you know why you were approved for the Academy?"

The obvious reasons-the official reasons-came to Jin's mind, faded unsaid. "I know what I was told. What did you hear?"

"That it was a quiet deal," he growled. "That your uncle-the governor-put himself on the line for you. If this mission succeeds he gets to keep his position. Otherwise... he has to resign."

Jin felt her mouth go dry. The memory of that horrible night so many weeks ago flashed back to mind: the night her father had shot Monse... the night she'd gone and pleaded with Uncle Corwin to get her-somehow-into the Cobras. "No," she whispered. "No. He wouldn't do that. Politics is his life."

Sun shrugged helplessly. "I don't know if it's true or not, Jin. I just thought... well, that maybe you didn't know. And that maybe you should."

"Why?-so that I can be more nervous about the mission than I already am?" she snarled, the numbness suddenly flashing into anger.

"No," Sun said quietly. "So that you could hear it from a friend. And so I could tell you that the rest of the team is behind you."

She opened her mouth, closed it again as the anger vanished. "So that... what?"

He held her gaze. "I talked to Rafe and Peter before coming over here," he said.

"We all agreed that you were a good teammate who didn't deserve this kind of extra pack on her shoulders." He snorted gently. "We also agreed that anyone who would pull a scummy move like that on Governor Moreau was a full-blooded phrijpicker, and that a guy like that might arrange to leak the word to you just before we left-little extra squeeze value, you know. And like I said... I thought you'd do better to hear it from friends."

She looked back toward the house so that he wouldn't see the moisture in her eyes. It was true, of course-in retrospect it had to have been something like that. Oh, Uncle Corwin... "Yes," she said. "I... yes. Thank you."

A tentative hand touched hers where it rested on the car. "We'll do it, Jin,"

Sun said. "All of us together-we'll do such a bang-up job on Qasama that they'll be lucky if they don't have to give us a full-city parade and canonize Governor

Moreau in the bargain."

Jin blinked the tears back and tried a smile. "You're right," she said, squeezing his hand briefly. "We'll make them sorry they tried to pick on a

Moreau."

"And even sorrier that they tried to use a Sun to do it," Sun added with grim pride in his voice. "Anyway. I've got to get moving-my family's waiting for me.

You going to be okay?"

"Sure," she nodded. "Mandy... thanks."

"No charge. Partner." Reluctantly, she thought, he pulled his hand away from hers. "Well. Look, you take care of yourself-try not to get into any trouble-and

I'll see you at the starfield in a week."

"Right. Bye."

"Bye."

She watched until his car turned a corner and vanished from sight. Then, taking a deep breath, she straightened her shoulders and started back toward the house.

Not all the nuances of this mess were clear to her, but one of them was clear enough. The family didn't intend for her to know about Uncle Corwin's bargain; and so, as far as they were concerned, she wouldn't. She'd never had any formal acting experience, but she'd grown up with two older sisters and had long since learned how to bend the truth with a straight face.

Or even with a smiling face. She was going to a party, after all, and ought to at least try to project an image of excitement. Whether she felt that way or not.