Judas Unchained

Nigel’s e-butler showed him security sensor images of Campbell greeting his visitors down in the lobby. Justine Burnelli unbuttoned a snow-white fur-lined coat and gave Campbell the demure kiss of a trusted friend. Nigel had only just realized Justine was pregnant when she arrived for the emergency War Cabinet meeting; now the little bump was quite visible under her stylish gray cashmere dress. It surprised him; someone of her age and status nearly always used a womb tank. When he checked with Perdita she hadn’t known either, let alone who the father was—also unusual—the Grand Families always had strong financial agreements concerning their children, yet nothing had been filed in the New York legal registry. The security sensors showed him her inserts were maintaining a heavily encrypted link to the unisphere, which he guessed led directly back to Gore.

Investigator Myo was exactly as he remembered, her lovely face forever cursed with a slightly melancholic expression, wearing a well-cut charcoal and blue suit with a salmon-pink blouse, her hair brushed to a gloss. Nothing to indicate that less than thirty hours ago she’d been crammed into an armor suit, in the thick of a firefight on Illuminatus.

His real attention, though, was reserved for Mellanie. Her wavy golden hair had been given a cursory brush, leaving it mildly unkempt; that and the way she kept clenching her jaw in a resentful fashion gave her an aggressive appearance. A dramatically short white skirt, long suede boots, and simple thin blue denim shirt managed to be both trendy and trashy. Dudley Bose stuck to her as if there were some kind of membrane holding them together. The petulant anger leaking out over his youthful face was exactly the same as Nigel recalled from the notorious “welcome back” ceremony.

Nigel faced the office door as the lift arrived. He noticed that Campbell had managed to stand as far as possible from Mellanie during the ride up in the small lift. Perdita was right, then.

“Ready?” Nelson asked. The Dynasty security chief had also picked up on the implications of the meeting, but then he’d been observing events on Illuminatus a lot more closely than Nigel.

“Be nice to get a few answers, finally,” Nigel said. He pulled his suit jacket straight. Stupid vanity.

He greeted Justine and Paula formally, then turned to Mellanie. “At last.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “Excuse me.”

“I’ve been following your recent activities with a lot of interest. It’s very exciting for me to finally meet you in person.” Which was an understatement. In the flesh she was fabulously attractive, great figure, slightly wild appearance, as if she’d just finished having sex—and wanted more. He held on to her hand. She didn’t try to pull it back, just twitched her lips roguishly as she reviewed him.

“Me, too,” she said; her voice must have dropped a couple of octaves.

“Hello again,” Dudley said. He somehow slid in front of Mellanie to stick his own hand out.

“Dudley; glad to see you’re recovering.” Nigel avoided any inflection in case the neurotic astronomer picked up on the irony.

“That’s all thanks to my Mellanie.” His hand went around her shoulders. She didn’t try to hide her look of disapproval.

Nigel offered them all seats as the e-seal came on around the office. “Well, this is all very serious, Justine. It can’t just be about your committee battle with Valetta.”

“In a way it is,” Justine said. “The Halgarths now have control of the navy.”

“Yes, but I have the nova bomb. And the rest of us have a great deal of input into the navy budget. Heather is balanced. That’s the way the Commonwealth works.”

“I have a question,” Paula said.

“I imagine you do,” Nigel said lightly. “I’ve spent most of the last few hours trying to work out what it’s going to be.”

“For the past century, I’ve been pressing the Commonwealth Executive to impose inspections on all cargo being shipped for Far Away, with no success whatsoever. That kind of examination would have enabled me to restrict the Guardians’ weapons shipments, and possibly even shut them down altogether. Just before he was assassinated, Thompson Burnelli discovered that you have been opposing me for all that time. I’d like to know why.”

Nigel couldn’t help the way he sneaked a help me out look at Daniel Alster, who was in his usual position, a helpful couple of meters to one side. “Have I? I had no idea, or memory…”

“There’s no policy file on that,” Daniel said quickly.

“This is critical,” Paula said. “Thompson believed it to be true.”

“Find out,” Nigel told Daniel. “Call Jessica right now.”

“Sir.”

Nigel stole a glance at Mellanie, who gave him a playful wink and crossed her legs. He wondered what the best approach would be for a girl like this. Just come straight out and ask her to bed. Probably. Though the one thing he didn’t understand was: Why Dudley? What could she possibly see in him?

“Er, our political office has been pursuing that policy,” Daniel said; he sounded embarrassed.

“Why?” Nigel asked.

“Ozzie ordered it.”

“Ozzie?”