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"Yeah." Caravel District was getting more built up every day, but there were still vast tracts of forest area surrounding the towns . . . and if the new pred...
"Yes, sir; I'll have these on the public net in half an hour. Uh-Governor-General Zhu also called this evening. He wants all the syndics at a special meeting...
Jonny snorted. "A ceremonial brunch for the visiting Committi, no doubt."
"I don't think so, actually," Yutu said. "Committi D'arl will be there, but it sounded a lot more important than that. The governor-general seemed preoccupie...
"Thanks." Jonny glanced at Chrys, mindful of his promise of a vacation. But her eyes were worried, and she nodded fractionally. "All right, I'll try to show ...
"Understood, sir."
"Thanks for calling. Good-night." Jonny broke the connection and again shut off the phone. Looking up at Chrys, he opened his mouth to apologize . . . but sh...
"Gwen and Cally are both going to Paleen," she said quietly. "If something that dangerous is in the vicinity . . ." She shuddered. "Should I go ahead and tak...
Jonny sighed. "Yeah, probably. No telling how long that meeting will take. Though on second thought . . . if I was running Dawa District, I'd probably cancel...
"And maybe join in the hunt?" She held up a hand against his protests. "No, I understand. I don't have to like your risking your life to know that you have t...
"Thanks a raft," he snorted. "Thirty-nine is hardly middle-aged."
She smiled. "Why don't you quit protesting, then, and come to bed . . . and show me just how young you are."
Afterward, they lay side by side in the dark, and Jonny's thoughts drifted back to Adirondack. There, the people he cared for had always drawn back when they...
But his dreams that night were frightening things, centering around a giant creature that walked in haze, killing spine leopards and Cobras and disappearing ...
* * *
Seated beside Governor-General Zhu at the conference room table, Committi Vanis D'arl could at first glance have passed for any other Aventine citizen. Middl...
Zhu's introduction was a subtle underscoring to the latter, lasting only a fraction of the time the occasion should have dictated. "Thank you, Governor-Gener...
Jonny felt his breath catch. D'arl's eyes, sweeping the table, shifted to him, and for an instant the two men locked gazes. "Your reports," D'arl continued c...
Here it comes, Jonny thought, his stomach tensing. A steady stream of Cobras through the Corridor, maybe forever.
But even he was unprepared for D'arl's next words. "Since it seems inefficient for the Dominion to equip and train Cobras only to send them here, we've decid...
Jonny's jaw dropped. No! he shouted . . . though the word never made it past his frozen tongue. But D'arl nevertheless noticed, and his eyes were steady on J...
Jonny was on his feet almost before the last word was out of D'arl's mouth. "With all due respect and gratitude, Committi D'arl," he said carefully, "I feel ...
D'arl's eyebrows rose politely. "How so, Syndic Moreau? It seems to me your government has adapted remarkably well to the presence of a disproportionate numb...
"If you're referring to the Challinor rebellion, yes, we've managed to avoid a repeat of that," Jonny said. "But the cost has been an unnatural distortion of...
"You speak, I presume, of the fact that at all levels of government Cobras have more than the single vote given to ordinary citizens." D'arl's face was expre...
Across the table, Brom Stiggur of Maro District rose slowly to his feet. "Perhaps then, Committi, a more concrete objection should be raised," he said. "You ...
"You seem to have a pretty low opinion of the sort of man who'd volunteer to be a Cobra in the first place," Tamis Dyon said stiffly from a few seats down. "...
"You're oversolving the problem," Jonny spoke up as murmurs of both agreement and disagreement rippled across the table. "We simply don't need full-fledged C...
"And how about the spine leopard killers?" Jor Hemner spoke up quietly. "Can you handle them, as well?"
All eyes turned to him. "What are you talking about?" Zhu demanded.
"My office put the bulletin on the net late last night," Hemner said. "We found a spine leopard dead yesterday near Paleen, mauled by something as big as a g...
From the shocked looks around the table Jonny gathered the report was news to nearly all the other syndics. "We certainly don't want to make any decisions on...
"The evidence-" Hemner broke off suddenly, and Jonny turned to see D'arl standing with hand raised for silence.
"I must point out that Syndic Moreau is perfectly correct in warning against a hasty decision," the Committi said. "I've given you some of the reasons the Co...
"I'm declaring a short recess so that we can all have time to examine the information Committi D'arl mentioned," the governor-general announced. "The relevan...
Jonny joined the general exodus to the building's office wing, but unlike the other syndics, he didn't stay there long. Picking up his copy of D'arl's magcar...
Twenty minutes later he and Cally Halloran were on an aircar, heading southeast for Dawa District.
* * *
The last page flicked from the screen of Jonny's comboard, and with a snort he flicked off the instrument and tossed it onto the next seat. Across from him, ...
"Not a single argument that could hold vacuum in space," Jonny growled. "We can answer all the problems D'arl raises without resorting to a Cobra assembly li...
"But your solutions come from an Aventine syndic, while his come from a Dominion Committi?"
"You got it." Sighing, Jonny gazed out the aircar window at the lush Aventine landscape below. "I don't think I've got a hope in hell of pushing a no-vote th...
"I'm not sure what that'll accomplish, actually," Halloran said, tapping his comboard. "If the stuff in here on spine leopards isn't exaggerated, you may wel...
Jonny remained silent a long moment, wondering whether he should give Halloran the rest of it. At best his suspicions were slanderous; at worst they could po...
Halloran's eyebrows rose. "Are you implying he did manufacture it?"
Jonny shook his head slowly. "No, of course not. Probably not. But I still can't get over the timing."
Halloran shrugged. "That part of Dawa District's undergoing a pretty severe drought right now, with the Kaskia branch of the Ojaante River dried up and all. ...
"Not a chance. Gantuas are pure herbivores, with no meat-eating capability at all. There are a couple of that type of pseudo-omnivore here, but they're far t...
"Then maybe the drought drove some other creature down from the mountains," Halloran persisted. "I'm keying on the drought, you see, because that's also an u...
"And you think D'arl's visit just happened to coincide with our first drought?" Jonny said almost reluctantly. "Well . . . maybe. But I still don't like it."...