The Emperor of Everything

“I can, and I can include the report the lords’ forensic people gave me — you may find something useful there, though it was a very clean operation,” said Diamond Bob. “But I’ll give it to you only if you’ll agree to share what you learn with me. I’ll pay a fair price for any new data you can add to the file, plus market value for the slaves you lost — and a very good bounty for Remint’s head.”

“It’s a deal,” said Ruiz in a ragged voice.

“Good,” she said. She rose and took a datawafer from her writing desk and dropped it into his hand. “But I have a caution for you, don’t be greedy. Find out what you can, deliver your information to me, get paid, and survive. What you’ve told me leads me to suspect that Remint is still somehow connected with his brother. Don’t make the mistake of dancing with Alonzo Yubere — he plays in a much bigger league than we mere mortals do. Don’t attempt to take Remint’s head, unless the odds favor you very heavily. He’s a legend, as I’ve said — a man-shaped demon.”

“Probably good advice.”

She grinned, an incongruously predatory expression in that neutral gray face. “It is — unless, maybe, you actually are Ruiz Aw.”

A brace of killmechs escorted Ruiz to the entrance.

Back aboard the sub, he was gratified to see that Albany still held his graser aimed at Publius. He had half expected the situation to have deteriorated even more thoroughly than it already had.

Ruiz took a leash from a storage bin and tossed it to Albany. “Take him back into the cargo hold and attach him to the bench.”

Publius leaped up, face shading toward a familiar purple. “This is too much, Ruiz. I’m not your prisoner; we’re allies.” He threw up his chin, to display the madcollar. “Treat me with the proper respect, or I’ll punch our tickets right now. I have my clones; what do I care for this old flesh?” He extended his controller in a trembling hand, his finger hovering over the trigger.

Ruiz was too tired to feel anything but impatience. “Do it, then,” he said.

A long moment passed and Ruiz wondered if Publius had by some strange quirk meant what he had said. He still could not bring himself to be very interested in the answer.

Finally Publius snapped his hand down and turned away. The hatred that boiled off his body was an almost-tangible thing, an almost-visible distortion of the air. “No. No, don’t let the little man destroy us,” he muttered. “More important things must be considered; even dignity must be discarded for a while, if necessary. If we must, if we must….”

He walked ahead of Albany into the hold, and presently Ruiz heard the click of the leash being fastened.

Albany returned and laid down his graser with a sigh of relief. “What now, Ruiz? I see you’ve got more troubles. Where’s your true love?”

“Stolen. I’ll explain later.” He tried to glare at Albany, but he was just too tired. He decoupled the sub and guided it out of the lagoon, and as soon as it cleared the entrance, he angled it into the depths. He set the autopilot to take them down to the sub’s maximum cruising depth, and then programmed it to shut down the engines and drift silently with the sluggish currents at the roots of SeaStack. They’d be as safe there as anywhere else.

“I need to rest for a couple of hours,” Ruiz said. He fought down his misgivings; Nisa might be lost forever if he delayed, but in his present condition, he was sure to make some foolish fatal mistake. “You do too, I know, but we’ll have to take turns. Even with the madcollar and the leash, I can’t bring myself to trust Publius. He’s resourceful.”

“No doubt about it,” said Albany. “While you were gone, he told me how he was going to be Emperor of Everything. Had me going for it, a little, even if he didn’t explain how it was going to happen. But then I got to thinking how he probably wasn’t the sort to forgive and forget — and I’m a guy who put a gun to his head.”

“I can’t fault your logic,” said Ruiz. “Look, I’m going to pass out in the pilot’s chair. Wake me in two, and it’ll be your turn.”

He prepared a ject of soporifics and vitalizers, then shucked off his armor. He touched the ject to his arm and lay back in the chair. His eyes fluttered shut, and he slept.

When he knew that he was dreaming, his first dream-clouded thought was a sense of gratitude that he wouldn’t remember this. He never had good dreams, never… no matter how promisingly they began.

He was with Nisa at the landing, watching her bathe in the little fountain. The air had that golden radiance, the untruthful brilliance that surrounds events remembered from the perspective of a long lifetime. Already, Ruiz mused, the dream was wrong; surely that moment was no more than a few years in the past.

Ruiz watched her with an oddly wistful sense of delight. She scrubbed at her white skin industriously, using the black sand from the bottom of the pool, and her pale lovely body gradually turned pink. She gave him a sweet smile, and the soft amber light shone in her dark eyes.