Empire of Two Worlds

“What is it you want? Girls? You can have all the girls you want. I’ll get you plenty. You can have anything you want here in Rheatt, provided it’s only a one-way trade. You’re too important to me to let anything go worming into your guts. I need your undivided energy, and that means nobody goes changing your mind about anything or turns you soft.”

“Who’s going soft?” I challenged.

He snorted softly. “The Klein I first knew in Klittmann would have had Dalgo bumped off without a qualm. I knew then that you had something else besides our Big Project on your mind.”

“Project?”

“You know what I mean. What we’re doing here in Rheatt is only our platform for the real operation. Neither Rheatt nor the Rotrox are of much interest to me: they don’t have the right qualities, they’re weak punks, klugs. Killibol’s the world, the world we’re going to transform. It’s like a bomb waiting to be let off. We’re going to release all the energies pent up in those cities. We’ll make a society, an empire, where almost anything will be possible. …”

His oddly glittering eyes met my sullen stare, meeting the hatred and beating it down. He seemed to know that I found this vision of his irresistible. It was the idea of working for something bigger than yourself, something that would outlast you and be permanent. Bec also knew that I was the only one of the mob who understood this idea.

“It has to be this way, Klein,” he said. “It’s a matter of destiny. If you want a part in it then you have to belong to me, not to that woman in the tower. It’s too big a job for that. I don’t want any emotional entanglements. You can have girls but they can’t have you. Have fun, but your feelings can go in only one direction.”

“Did you have to do it this way?” I said, still surly.

“Why not, it’s as good as any other. Don’t tell me you’re going to fold up like a sack of water?” He gazed at me curiously. “It’s a funny thing, you get guys who are brave in the face of bullets, grenades, cops, anything you can name, but they haven’t got what it takes when something hits them in the gut like this. Don’t tell me you’re one of those hollow men. I hope I know character better than that.”

“I can take it.”

“I thought so.” Bec was silent for a moment. Then he cocked his head, looking at me slyly. “Tell you what I’ll do, Klein. You can have the woman back. Go on, take her. Only you’ll be out of it, like you just said. You’ll have quit. You’ll live out your life here in Rheatt and nobody will bother you. I’ll do the job on my own. Nothing can stop me now, anyway.”

I gave a deep sigh. “You know me better than that.”

“I think so.”

For a moment he looked at me with what might have been sympathy. I remembered Gelbore, the girl on the raft with us. I wondered when Bec was going to stop making emotional demands of me.

I didn’t try to see Palramara after that. Bec, however, continued visiting her regularly.

Eleven

I had just woken up when the gentle tone sounded. Becmath’s face came up in monochrome on the television screen, which was muted to suit Klittmann eyes.

He was frowning. “Can you get over here, Klein? There’s something needs attending to straight away.”

“I’ll be with you,” I said, and the image faded.

I dressed quickly, wondering what was up. I hadn’t seen Bec in the flesh for over half a year.

We’d been in operation now for something like four years. Everything had gone fairly smoothly, barring a few wrinkles here and there. The production lines were now turning out weapons, aircraft, and a modified version of the sloop. About fifty per cent of everything we made went to Merame, as well as masses of other manufactured goods and raw materials.

Rheatt was still garrisoned by Rotrox troops, but everything was quiet and their numbers grew less every year. Bec had recruited an élite organisation from among Rheattite youngsters who had never taken Blue Space, given them training in arms, concocted an ideology and indoctrinated them with it. They were contemptuous of the life styles of their parents and looked on Bec almost as a god.

Bec had done all this without so far arousing the opposition of the Council of the Rotrox. He had even persuaded them to put off their conquests of other Earth nations and continents until sufficient stocks of the new weapons had been built up.

The fact that Rheatt was running like a well-oiled machine was due entirely to Bec’s master-planning, with a little help from me and the boys. It didn’t alter the fact that we, the new masters of this country, were essentially mobsters and still thought and acted like mobsters.