A Dark and Hungry God Arises Read Free Page B

incompetence on the part of the UMCP are vast and frightening for a species already threatened with extinction by the Amnion - a species protected only by the same men and women who have just allowed a convicted pirate and his most dangerous accomplice to slip through their fingers. '
    There was more: a recap of Captain Thermopyle's arrest and conviction, and a summary of Deputy Chief Taverner's record, followed by an exhaustive analysis of events by a whole panel of self-appointed experts - genophobes, libertarians, free-market crazies, native Earthers; every political fringe group that wanted votes on the GCES and didn't have them. Holt Fasner had stopped listening, however. He was already on the intercom, securing a channel between the home office and UMCPHQ
    - putting the fear of the Dragon into every technician and secretary between his mother's sickchamber and Godsen Frik.
    His hands shook the entire time.

WARDEN
    From his personal Command Operations Room in UMCPHQ Center, Warden Dios watched Trumpet run out smoothly through Station control space. Except for Min Donner, his Enforcement Division director and occasional bodyguard, he was alone: he'd sent everyone else away, even the communications techs who were supposed to keep him in instant contact with every department and activity of the United Mining Companies Police. He hadn't locked the door, but he had silenced all the CO Room pickups, monitors, and logs.
    Solitude was rare for the UMCP director. Silence was even rarer. Being with Min may not have been the same thing as being alone; but at least she didn't talk unless she had something important to say.
    So far Trumpet's departure was meticulous. The ship hadn't filed any kind of destination report, and hadn't been asked for one; but her blip on the screens showed that she was following her assigned trajectory exactly: on course at the correct speed; responding precisely to the data and demands from the navigational buoys which managed UMCPHQ's - and Earth's - heavy in-system traffic.
    Had Warden Dios expected anything else? Not really.
    Trumpet had only two men aboard, and neither Angus Thermopyle nor Milos Taverner was likely to begin improvising so early. Angus was as perfectly welded as Hashi Lebwohl could make him - and Hashi was a wiz-ard of cybernetics. The idea that Angus would ever diverge from his programming was almost inconceivable.
    In any case, Milos would keep him in line.
    And whatever actions Milos' uncertain loyalties might inspire, they certainly wouldn't be of a kind to attract attention - or doubt - this close to Earth and UMCPHQ. He'd been too well trained, too thoroughly threatened. In addition Warden had arranged to burn Milos' bridges behind him. The news bulletin which Protocol had released through one of Godsen Frik's subordinates, announcing Angus' 'escape' and Milos'
    'complicity", enforced Milos' cooperation. The former deputy chief of Com-Mine Station Security might eventually dare many things; but he wouldn't dare them here.
    The UMCP director had no reason to stay where he was. He was a busy man. He should already have gone on to other duties. Still he valued the silence and the near solitude. Alone with Min Donner, he remained in the privacy of his CO Room, watching Trumpet- and a piece of his own fate - pass out of his control.
    He believed the whole human species was at issue.
    Otherwise he would not have been able to do what he did.
    He was a strong man, with a thick chest and powerful arms. The lines of his face and jaw seemed hard enough to have been cut from metal. And the patch glued over the prosthesis of his left eye, like the crookedness of his nose, only made him look stronger. But sometimes he needed more than strength to stand the strain of his oblique intentions. He needed to remind himself of the consequences if he failed.
    If he failed, Holt Fasner would win.
    Warden Dios had done too much to help create the Dragon's power: he couldn't turn his back on his