RR: Rialto #15 (1/3): In the

[cloudbusting]

It would have been easier had the memories returned in dream. They
deserved to play on without the context of the moonlight against the
greysilver walls, to not share the stage with the fatigue in her blood or
the unfocused tension behind her eyes. Tonight, however, was not a night
for sleep.
Twenty years before the present, thirty-one years after her birth,
Eduard Tombolo entered her life with the innocent arrogance that
characterized his approach to everyone and everything. A newly-promoted
Vice President of Applied Research, he was making the rounds of every
Megacorp-owned-or-controlled research facility in the bounds of the
still-young United Compact of Planets. As Megacorp's Director of
Biotechnic Research on Mars, she was expected to meet with him, give him a
tour, an appraisal of the work her teams were doing, and talk with him at
length concerning the abstract future. Her thrill at the prospect was such
that she absented herself from welcoming his arrival, in order to complete
the initial analysis on the effects of wraithspace exposure on the pineal
gland. It was only when the Assistant Director summoned her that she went,
anger tightly contained by her taut skin and angular expression. On
entering the A.D.'s office, she accidentally struck Eduard's arm, sending
the bottle of single-malt scotch he had brought as a gift tumbling. It
caught the edge of a bookcase and shattered.
Forward nine years, two promotions and a transfer to Sutter's Ridge.
Eduard was away, no doubt to see the new Biotechnic Research Director of
the Mars Facility, Melinda Canton, visiting Megacorp's headquarters for a
conference. Edo never told him that she knew about his dalliance, thanks
to the diligence of Carmen Elarosa, the company's rising star, a formidable
neurochemist with aspirations to the Board and a talent for manipulating
those under her control. He was drifting out of her life and she felt no
need to pull him back. He shared her bed, but not her passion for her
work, for the goal of perfecting humanity. Often, he seemed to merely
indulge her, to humor her, in his innocent, arrogant way.
That night, he returned, unexpectedly, to find her in bed with a
stranger. She remembered Eduard's face, the look of surprise, innocent
shock, arrogant anger. The words broke from her, torrents of invective, a
shrill scream against his image, his innocent justifications for every
brutal maneuver on his path to the Board. Most of what she yelled had to
be incomprehensible to him; afterward, seething, alone (the stranger having
left), she could not recall her words, though they seemed so right at the
time.
Forward to now. Geld, the mysterious blond man who met her only days
ago in the woods outside her residence, was stealing her work. He only
wanted Rialto, he told her. Megacorp would be hers. All she had to do, in
his words, was 'sit back and enjoy the ride.'
"Idiot," she murmured. "Megacorp is the last thing I want."
Forward to Rialto. The Exocet Project, in the form of Elizabeth
Stuart, was there, tangled in a dense mass of intrigue that was a hair's
breadth from detonating. The perfection of her theories, the cumulation of
a lifetime's work, endangered by the need to secure that work by taking
control of Megacorp away from Eduard's arrogant hands. Unfertilized ova
from the Stuart girl were all that was necessary for the continuation of
the plan. Ova... and control.
Damn the need for control. Eduard didn't understand her creation,
didn't share her passion for it. Nor, truthfully, did Carmen, but she had
a qualification Eduard lacked: her justifications were never innocent or
arrogant. She wouldn't destroy what Tamlin had built out of concern for
illusions of doing right. She wouldn't wrest the creation away and tell
her to 'sit back.'
The terminal screen came to life as her fingers danced along the keys.
The message was ready to send, ready as it had been for years, the last
contingency against disaster. Geld's power play had forced her to it. It
would mean a loss of control... but only for a time, and on her terms.
She thought of the stranger in her bed that fateful night when Eduard
caught her, a stranger that Carmen had arranged for her to meet. He was
young -- a vagrant, a nobody searching for a menial job, recently arrived
from hell-knew-where. A competent lover who tried to dominate her,
overwhelm her, wanted her to 'sit back.' A man with Geld's features.
"Just how long *have* you been watching me," she whispered, "and why
the hell didn't you learn anything from that night?"
Her finger hovered over the send key. She hesitated once, then
pressed. The message transmitted, setting the new path she would adapt to.
Forward to the future.
"I don't 'sit back.' Not for you. Not for Eduard. Not even for
Carmen." She disconnected from the MegaNet and powered down her terminal.
"Time I reminded you of that."

>>>***-***<<<

Space, the final avenue of exploitation...
Authorial Productions
in association with
Mademoiselle Muse, Inc.
and
The Coalition For Safe Bagels
presents:

RIALTO
(the best kept secret in trousers)

Episode Fifteen
"In the Shadow of the Hammer"

by
Gary W. Olson
(your licensed lutefisk dealer)

>>>***-***<<<

"To dominate through lies, or submit without faith, is to live in the
shadow of the hammer. It may descend tomorrow, or not at all;
nevertheless, deception is vulnerability, not only for the deceiver, but
for those around him. It is a drain upon the chi'pi, a saboteur to the
ko'pi."

-- Rialto Sun-Tei,
"Collected Works"

"The Ohm lives in the light of truth. The Ohm has no shadow."

-- Rialto Sun-Tei,
"Evolutions"

>>>***-***<<<

The House of Merhacha did not so much rest upon the clifftop as
consume it, additions and wings swarming into the soil and towers arching
above, an always-symmetrical growth that never failed to awe Leiphali.
Earth had many larger structures, he was aware, but the holos showed none
whose majesty affected him the same way. It was a bias, he knew, but one
he clung to. All the others were either long lost or on shaky ground.
His flyer's comm buzzed for attention again. He raised his hand, then
pulled it away. It was a breach of procedure to approach by flyer a house
of a ruling Chi'velt, particularly that of the su'Rialto, without
establishing voice identification. It invited attention, warnings and
attacks, even in the most peaceful of times. But he did not want to
announce his identity on easily-eavesdropped channels, and since the flyer
he was using had been taken out to the desert by Rilia, the su'Rialto's
wife, he considered it unlikely that they would shoot him down. On the
other hand, Rilia had not been popular in the House of Merhacha in quite
some time....
He took a direct route to the flyer pad adjoining the southern wing,
where Tami's personal staff made their residence. Rilia's quarters were
there, as were his. The pad seemed deserted, the flyers in their orderly
berths without so much as a guard in evidence. The flyer shuddered once as
he set it down.
It wasn't until he opened the door and stepped out that he saw
Mancoti. The ko'velt was standing before the lift doors that led to the
underlevels, his mouth half-open, a word dead on his lips, caught on his
teeth, eyes wide as the desert. It was the first time Leiphali recalled
seeing Mancoti look genuinely surprised at anything.
"Is he here?" Leiphali asked, walking towards him as though he had
just left earlier that morning, instead of two months before. "It is
urgent that I have speech with him." Mancoti was still having trouble
forming words when Leiphali swept past, stepping into the lift, narrowly
missing the slate-grey doors as they swept open. "First sub-level." His
feet rediscovered movement, and he joined Leiphali just before the lift
started its descent.
"I was... expecting Rilia..." Mancoti finally managed to say. "She
sent instructions that I was to clear the guard and the halls and meet
her--"
"She loaned me her flyer," Leiphali explained. "I did not want my
return advertised before I could talk with Tami."
"He is not here," said Mancoti. Leiphali started to speak, then found
he was the one whose throat would not obey him. He closed his mouth and
his eyes for a moment and pictured the folded, curled yihhni plant.
"Send him a message," Leiphali instructed. "What I have to say--"
"I do not know where he is," Mancoti replied. The lift stopped and
Mancoti stepped out into the well-lit hallway, a passage that seemed to
have no other function than that of letting a traveler enter the House
unwatched by anyone on the surface. Leiphali wondered, briefly, if Mancoti
had ordered the monitors shut down.
"Explain."
"We received a visitor today. The leader of the underground."
"Chi'velt Rijaei--"
"Chi'velt Diana Dumont."
Leiphali walked, silently, for the next twenty yards.
"Quite a day for the dead to return, wouldn't you say?" he asked.
"So it would seem," Mancoti agreed. "Where have you *been?* Don't
you know that Tami has been a whisper short of falling apart since your
disappearance?"
"You said Diana Dumont visited today."
Mancoti clenched his teeth a moment before speaking. "Yes, she was
here. I recorded her words, per his orders...."
"I would like to hear them, if that is still permissible."
"I'm certain he'd want that," said Mancoti. Leiphali heard a tinge of
bitterness in the man's voice and realized the source. Mancoti's bond with
Tami was not a loveless one, and he had had to watch his chi'velt
experience indominatable pain... pain that Leiphali's leaving had caused.
"Shortly after her departure, Tami took a flyer. He left no orders, no
destination."
"You could try to contact him."
"I have. He has switched his flyer's comm set off."
"I... see."
They were at the end of the passage. A door slid open to reveal a
service lift, into which both stepped.
"You realize," Mancoti said, "that I cannot allow you to leave until
Tami returns, or until he gives orders to the contrary."
"I know," Leiphali replied. "Have the recording of Tami and Diana
Dumont routed to my quarters. Continue attempting to contact Tami...."
"You are not the Chief Ko'velt of the House of Merhacha any more,"
said Mancoti. "Not until and unless Tami says you are. You are still
considered to be Convalescent. Do you understand that?"
"Yes. Come to my quarters after you've followed my instructions.
I'll explain my whereabouts fully to you then."
Mancoti raised a hand to his temple and massaged it. "You know," he
said, "I used to think you were impossible *before* all this happened...
what happened to you out there?"
"I fell apart," Leiphali said, as he stepped into the empty side
corridor. "Now I'm falling together... but some pieces are missing." He
took off down the passage, heading to the auxiliary entrance to his suite.
Mancoti did not follow. Leiphali smiled, slightly, upon hearing Mancoti's
low-voiced rejoinder.
"I'll just bet you're missing a few pieces."

>>>***-***<<<

Tami su'Rialto watched Challisar's flyer descend toward the pad in
silence. Borsi had gone to meet her, as head of the House of Suspire.
Challisar didn't have quite the adjustment to make as Tami did, coming from
early evening instead of late afternoon. Still, she would not be in an
agreeable mood, having been pulled to another continent on a moment's
notice.
"Chi'velt Tami," she said, from the vicinity of the doorway behind
him. "I am given to understand that this impromptu meeting was your idea."
"It is," Tami replied. "Borsi has told you."
"He's told me what the underground has done to your ko'velt,"
Challisar replied. "He has not said much about your plans." Tami turned
and regarded her as she approached, stopping two feet short of him. He
remembered when they had last been alone together, the sharing that had
taken place. The months past felt as years.
"They involve dominating the Policad so as to drive the UCP and
Megacorp as far from Rialto as possible, though we may not be able to
physically throw them off," Borsi stated. "To preserve our very way of
life."
"How perfectly vague," Challisar replied, dryly. "Am I to take it
you've come around to Borsi's viewpoint?"
"We have, curiously enough, met at a point near the middle," Tami
said. "The underground, which he backed as a tool for pushing our enemies
distant, has become corrupted, out of control."
"The very soul of Rijaei," said Challisar, with a nod.
"Rijaei no longer leads the resistance," Tami told them.
Borsi crossed his large arms and lowered his chin, his face suddenly
glowering. "Who does, then?"
"Diana Dumont."
"The former ambassador?" Challisar asked, stunned.
"Unless you know of another with that name, yes. She came to my House
several hours ago, under the false assumption that I would submit to her."
Tami paused, noting the expressions on Borsi's and Challisar's faces. Both
seemed surprised, but only the latter was shocked. "At one point, I would
have. But now, knowing the truth... she is my enemy, the corruptor."
"I have received no indication of a change of leadership in the
resistance," Borsi noted. "A reflection of my distant patronage, perhaps."
"She made no overt statement, though she did not deny being an
important part of the resistance's leadership structure," Tami admitted.
"Even as she... she did not reveal the entire truth. She never does. But
the path the resistance has taken since her incorporation into its
hierarchy tells me she cannot be any less than its leader."
"Months ago, after the murder of Daxton Smythe," Borsi reflected, "I
confronted Rijaei concerning his method, only to learn the assassin he
sent, one with a subtle ability to kill with a touch, was not Smythe's
killer. Rijaei said to me, 'for once, I decided the quiet maneuver was
better.'"
"And at the Emergency Convocation," said Challisar, "he was the soul
of mediation. When before has Rijaei *not* sat back to savor carnage?"
"If Rijaei has been co-opted by Diana Dumont," Borsi said, "we cannot
wait for the Policad."
"Agreed," Tami replied.
"You will need Coda's consent to strip Rijaei of his seat on the
council," Challisar noted.
"There is precedent for three."
"Long ago, at the price of a six-month civil war."
"Hmmm," Tami said, rubbing his chin as he considered. "I do not wish
to reward her scheming...."
"Her 'schemes,'" said Borsi, "are what any of us would do, were we in
her place. None of us are innocents, Tami... least of all you and I."
"Very well."
"Do you have any other secrets you'd like to share with us?" Challisar
asked. "If we are to retake our world, we cannot live--"
"--in the shadow of the hammer, I know," Tami finished. "More than
anyone else, right now. Diana... or Rijaei... used blackmail to keep
Leiphali silent, and I do not doubt she would use the incident to further
blackmail. I have proof of her survival and membership in the underground
that I am using in turn, but I fear it will not hold. She is quite adept
at turning disadvantage into advantage."
"Then we must reveal all we know to one another," Borsi stated. "I
can provide concrete information concerning the location of resistance
operations and methods. Should it be necessary to send soldiers to drag
Rijaei to a convocation in chains, you shall need it."
"I have informants in the branches of the resistance on my continent,"
Challisar said. "They believe as we do, in the need to secure our way of
life from the outworlders. We can tap into the restlessness, the anger
they are spreading on every continent, in every city. Their struggle must
once again be ours."
"Then we are agreed," said Tami. "I have much to tell you."
"We're listening."
"Two weeks ago, I hosted a most interesting meeting and negotiated a
most interesting agreement...."

>>>***-***<<<

The sudden intrusion of harsh white light wrenched Carmen Elarosa from
a fitful sleep. Were they moving her so soon? They had said the transport
would be leaving in the morning....
(Papa's voice. "No remorse.")
"Sit up," a familiar voice commanded. "I don't have time to waste
with you."
"Tam..." Carmen gasped. She started to sit up from her bunk, only to
get knocked back against the wall by a well-placed boot. Long fingers
grabbed her hair at the hairline and pulled her forward, off the bunk and
onto the floor.
"Going to kill me, were you?" Edo asked, voice controlled and
malicious. Carmen tried to form an answer, but the words came out as an
inchoate groan as Edo pulled her to her feet and tossed her on the bunk
again. Her head a corner, but not hard.
"No...."
Fingers clutched around her throat. She could see Edo now, looming
above her, blocking out the light.
"Lie again and I'll kill you."
(Seated before Papa, in his cell. The priest was waiting outside.)
Her hand left Carmen, who gasped for breath for a moment, while Edo
stepped back, to the closed cell door. "I found the programming you left
in your private records. Elizabeth Stuart was going to make quite a mess
of me, it seems." Edo shook her head. "And Eduard gets away with mere
poisoning."
"I thought... being killed by your creation... would be fitting,"
Carmen replied. "I know how you love irony."
"Yes, I'm sure you do," said Edo. Her eyes narrowed. "Now that that
happy question is answered, I have a proposition for you."
"Ah," Carmen groaned, rubbing her scalp. "So this was your
pre-negotiation gambit. Very... direct."
"Have you known me to be otherwise?"
Carmen decided not to answer. Edo went on.
"Halworth Kreig was murdered by a man named Geld--"
"Who?"
"Geld," Edo said, irritably. "He has a special interest in Rialto,
and recently came to me with a means to ensure our successful takeover of
Megacorp."
"You went along with him?" Carmen asked.
"His plan was sound. Mine was to have Halworth Kreig find planted
evidence of treason on Eduard's part. That would be reported, he'd get
branded a traitor, who, being too far away to respond directly to the
accusations, would have no hope of clearing his name. Geld's modification
was the idea of securing the U.C.P.'s backing, in case Kreig somehow
managed to find the truth, by offering to develop parahuman soldiers for
their armed forces."
("My mistake was remorse. You see what it has done to me.")
"How did killing Kreig and framing me fit in?"
"It didn't," Edo said. Her earlier anger was gradually disappearing
from her face, replaced by something Carmen could have sworn was sadness.
"The idea was to get you out of the way. That way, he could take your
place as the holder of the leash."
"What do you know about him?" Carmen asked.
"Virtually nothing," said Edo. "He's buried his past quite well."
She paused, as though not sure of how to continue. "As I said, his plan
was sound. This morning, I carried it out... with modifications of my own."
"Which are...."
"Data indicating you were acting under coercion from Eduard himself,
via a secret military group whose aim is to disband the U.C.P. and
establish direct control for Megacorp. Enough to clear you and bury him...
and Geld."
"They'll be suspicious."
"Certainly they will. However, the chance to acquire the ability to
create paranormal soldiers should be an irresistible inducement to overlook
any irregularities in the data. If the President's office agrees to back
this initiative, I'll turn over control of the Exocet project to them.
Megacorp will continue to develop and administer the program, but the
U.C.P. will be giving the orders."
"I see," Carmen said. "President Molone isn't our man, and would take
any opportunity to diminish Megacorp's considerable influence in the
government. It won't change the inevitable, of course -- merely postpone
it."
("Learn from this. I began with nothing. I scaled the mountains of
power. The peak was in sight. Now... again I am nothing.")
"Molone thinks he understands my motives," Edo said. "Just like you did."
"Oh, no, I *did* understand." Edo looked at her, sternly. "I
understood you wanted someone to take care of the details, someone you
could trust to look after your creation after you were gone. You don't
expect to survive. You don't want to."
Edo looked scared for a moment, before masking her eyes again. She
nodded, slightly. "We're too weak, too frail. Evolution is too slow for
the changes we need to make, the enemies we'll encounter. Nobody really
understands it -- they all buy the bullshit that somehow we're going to be
the most adaptable, the most intelligent, the most vicious creatures the
galaxy has ever seen. Everybody's going to be amazed by human ingenuity."
She shook her head. "We're no different than the Rialtons, so set in our
ways that we don't see the end rushing at us--"
"I've heard this rant, Tamlin," Carmen interrupted, gently.
"I'm not going to let it happen," Edo continued. "I've sacrificed my
ethics, my soul... to keep it from happening. I'll sacrifice my life if I
have to."
("Today I will be executed.")
"Is that likely?"
"Clan MacLeod headquarters on Edinburgh was hit by a bomb yesterday,"
Edo replied. Carmen blinked, wondering for a moment if Edo heard her
question correctly. "Arinium charges -- blew apart half the administrative
complex. A terrorist act, they're calling it. They're trying to pin the
blame on Megacorp already."
"What does this have to do--"
"Geld has backing," Edo said. "That much is obvious. He wouldn't be
able to get so close to me without detection otherwise. I expect he'll
learn I've visited you today from an inside agent here." Carmen looked
around. "I've had the monitors disconnected. We can speak freely."
"You think Geld ordered that bombing?"
"I'm sure of it. Word from Rialto is that Ruiraidh MacLeod and
Karleen Dumont are heading back to Edinburgh. Pindar's staff replacements
are days from arriving. Eduard has some staff he can trust, but not
enough. Geld's going to use an agent on Rialto to murder him...."
"...giving us all the reason and justification we need to clamp down
on Rialto and take full control," Carmen finished. "Which we would hand
over to him." Edo nodded. "This organization of his...."
"It's not his," Edo said. "I don't know of any terrorist group with
even a passing interest in Rialto's fate. Their goals coincide with his,
much like his coincide with mine, but he's giving them something in
exchange for their backing. Something I can't let him have... something
he'll kill me to get."
"The Exocet project."
("Today I am nothing but a corpse that yet speaks.")
Edo nodded again. "The first of our enemies has arrived, Carmen.
Much as I'd like to beat you to a bloody pulp, I don't have that luxury.
He'll be gunning for me when he learns I've stolen his victory from him --
if he hasn't already. If I die, someone will have to carry it through."
"That would be me," Carmen noted.
"Or Pindar or Edgerson," Edo added. "You'll note I didn't mention
their names when I spoke of framing Eduard. I would not prefer them --
they still imagine they have scruples."
"You think I don't?"
Edo's eyes narrowed. "I know you don't. That's why I need you... why
I've always needed you. Even now."
Carmen felt her throat tighten slightly. She looked away.
("Kill all remorse inside you. Your love is a weapon, but it will not
decimate your enemies until you free yourself from regret. Only then will
you climb where I aspired.")
(I'm here, Papa. Now what?)
"What is your proposition?" she asked, not acknowledging the growing
pain behind her eyes.

(continued in part two, following...)