Chapter 49 - The Kraken Gate
We were skirting the manor on our way back to the hunting lodge when Ellen intercepted us. She jogged lightly down the steps that overlooked the Great Lawn.
‘How did you get past Nurse Vanning?’ she asked.
‘Nurse Vanning and I are best friends!’ I quipped. ‘Look…she gave me a gift.’ I waggled the cane.
Ellen made a stern eyebrow at me. ‘Riiight! Well, back in the real world, Director Harman wants to speak with you.’
‘Ah, I expect he wants to make sure I don’t say anything to Chancellor Gordon that he doesn’t approve of.’
‘You got it. The Chancellor has invited you to meet him in the Green Dining Room at two bells.’
‘Very well. Ellen, Inigo…I could use your support.’ I turned to Na-Su, Ankush, Mahkran and James. ‘Why don’t you take the afternoon off? Things haven’t been easy of late, and there’re about to get a lot harder. Let’s meet again at five bells.’
James announced he would teach the others how to play cueball. He’d found the baize table in the games room and wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. We parted company and I tried to keep up with Ellen as she led the way into the manor.
‘This is good,’ I said, gripping my crutch tightly. ‘I have some things to say to Harman.’ We needed to up our game. If our enemies were already here, creeping around the estate and spying on us, we could be in for a very unpleasant surprise. I didn’t think we had long to counter that threat.
Harman frowned when we all trouped into his study. ‘Just you, Ms. Derringer,’ he snapped.
‘You hired my company, not me,’ I said, already angry. ‘Anything you say to me can be said in front of my team, and in case you’d forgotten, I’m injured, so I’m counting on them for some help.’
The industrialist fixed me with his steely, grey eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he shrugged his shoulders. ‘You’ll be seeing the chancellor shortly.’
‘So I understand.’
‘When you do, you need to be direct with him about the purpose of our missions to Ganessa.’
‘I intend to be, Director. Unless there’s something you’d rather we kept to ourselves.
‘Not at all. We’re setting up a semi-permanent base at the touchdown point, securing it from all threats as soon as possible and expanding our surveys. If my people can work safely, then we scale up our exploration and search for minerals.’
‘And the return to the site of the previous touchdown?’
A spark of annoyance fleetingly crossed Harman’s face. ‘You needn’t mention that. It’s inconsequential, a brief detour to provide scientific data to Maddison’s efforts, that’s all. Moreover, the chancellor and his busybody friends on the Council have begun to put the incident at Winslow Hall behind them. It would be a shame if they were reminded of the destruction your failsafe wrought.’ He finished with a tight-lipped smile. So the incident at Winslow Hall is entirely my fault now. Time has shifted Harman’s views, and I don’t like the direction they’ve taken.
‘I understand, Director. Is there anything else you’d like to add?’
‘Yes. Those Draxil-cursed power couplers still aren’t fixed. Maddison is having trouble getting the parts he needs, so there will be more delays.’
‘This must be the most complex machine ever built,’ I said, thinking of the dynamos, the generators, hundreds of leagues of cabling and all the instrumentation. ‘Isn’t a brief delay acceptable, given the risks?’
Harman picked up a newspaper from his desk and tossed it to me. Yesterday’s Emberly Times.
“Nallian Spies Infiltrate Emberly” said the headline, the small print mentioning the capture of two suspected enemy insurgents and going on to question how many more were running free in Emberland’s cities.
Ellen was reading over my shoulder. ‘We’re losing the war.’
‘Of course we’re losing the war,’ cried Harman. ‘You and the professor want to slow things down, as though the passing days were of no consequence, when nothing could be further from the truth.’ The old man got up and came out from behind his desk. He wagged a finger at me. ‘If we don’t get this contraption up and running, Emberland will be wiped out…subjugated by the Nallian Empire.’
I kept my gaze cool and level. Between Harman’s eagerness and the people queuing up to kill me and my team, this job was close to of spiralling out of control.
‘Fine, you don’t want any more delays?’ I began, ‘Then there are things we need.’
‘Such as?’
I proceeded to itemise. The touchdown point needed to be moved closer to its previous location, or we would spend an eternity wandering around in search of it. The Charg were numerous, and they’d showed themselves to be capable of organisation, so we needed to be better prepared and build more effective defences, and while all this was going on, the manor and its grounds needed to be made impregnable.
‘On the first point, Ms. Derringer, I am not the expert, so you have my permission to speak with Professor Maddison. From my limited understanding, it is just a set of numbers on the machine that needs to be adjusted. Asking to pinpoint an exact location may be out of the question, but shifting a league or three one way or the other sounds possible.’ Harman steepled his fingers. ‘As to the second and third points, what do you propose? They are more in your domain.’
‘We’ll need to borrow a number of the estate’s staff to help us build the fortifications we need on Ganessa. A great many more. They’ll be prefabricating what we need, carrying it through the portal, and helping us to assemble it all on the other side.’
‘You can’t use the marines?’
‘No. Not even if Chancellor Gordon allowed it. This place is terribly vulnerable, Director.’ I told him what we’d found in the copse. He didn’t react. ‘If the Nallians have spies in Emberly, we should assume they will follow us here, or have done already. Even with two squads, Lieutenant Scott will be hard pressed to lock down a place this size.’
‘I admire your directness, Ms. Derringer. It’s possibly your greatest strength, but I cannot help in that regard. Perhaps you should ask the chancellor. My people are not soldiers, but you may recruit as many as you see fit to help you establish a beachhead on Ganessa. Speak with Rigsby and Mr. Morten. I’ll see that they do what’s necessary.’
Director Harman sat back behind the desk.
The interview over, I managed to grab a bite to eat and rest my leg for half a bell before I was due in the Green Room. When I arrived, it was to discover that I wasn’t the only person having a rough day. Emberland’s elected leader looked exasperated. He was standing partway along the acreage of polished white oak that was the Green Room’s dining table. Papers were arranged in varying degrees of tidiness all over it, some stacked, some fanned and some in plain old disarray. Chancellor Gordon was staring sightlessly at the ceiling, arms slack at his side with a sheaf of papers in one hand. I knew that look, as everyone who has offered a soundless entreaty to the silent gods knows too.
Secretary Lampton pretended he hadn’t seen me. Yet another person I’d rubbed up the wrong way. ‘I’m terribly sorry, sir.’ He said, trying, and failing, to look both contrite and supercilious at the same time. ‘I only mentioned it because I thought it was important.’
‘Gods, Lampton. Of course it’s important! He’s the Aripole-blessed Commodore of the Port of Emberly. He’s upset because the blockade is slowing the ingress and egress of shipping to the city with its stop and search policy.’ Here, the chancellor lowered his gaze and caught sight of me. One raised finger asked me to wait briefly.
‘I know this isn’t easy, Lampton, but let me ask you, if you were in my position, and the Commodore of the Port of Emberly asked you to lift the blockade, what would you do?’
‘I…I, err, don’t know, sir,’ stammered Lampton. ‘I’m not sure there’s anything that can be done.’
‘There you are then!’ Chancellor Gordon exclaimed. ‘Surely then, you can see that putting this fellow’s complaint in front of me is a waste of time? Use some judgement, man, and help me deal with my bloody workload.’
Lampton brushed his lank hair aside anxiously. ‘Yes sir. Of course, sir.’
‘Right, thank you. Would you give Ms. Derringer and I some privacy please.’
Chancellor Gordon waited until his secretary had left the room before tossing his handful of papers onto the table.
‘I suppose I should be grateful, Ms. Derringer. History will remember me for a small set of critical decisions relating to the war. I can ignore or postpone many of the petty issues that usually trouble someone in my position.’
‘I’ll venture it doesn’t give you much comfort, Chancellor.’
‘Indeed not.’ The chancellor gave a wry smile. ‘Spoken like someone used to bearing responsibilities. I hear you were injured. Are you healing well?’
‘Thank you, Chancellor. I am.’
‘I’m glad to hear it. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll come to the point. I’m sure I’m not the only one with a great deal of work to do, eh?’
‘My time is yours, Chancellor, but yes, in order for future trips through the gate to be a success, we have to establish a forward base on Ganessa, and that means we need to prepare supplies.’
‘Ah, yes indeed, because we both appreciate that wars are won and lost on supplies, yes? And what does Emberland have? Timber, coal, some iron and trace amounts of the lodestone.’ Chancellor Gordon poured himself a glass of water from a carafe and took a drink. I obviously do a good parched look, because he poured a second glass and handed it to me. I’d forgotten what thirsty work healing is.
‘To stand any chance against Nallia, Emberland needs more iron,’ Chancellor Gordon continued, ‘vast quantities of it, copper too, and in the long-run, we will need leverium for our own airships; new tracts of farmland wouldn’t hurt either. Fighting is hungry work.’
No one had told Chancellor Gordon that iron couldn’t be brought back through the Koulomb Gate. That was interesting.
‘I understand, Chancellor. The Koulomb Gate must succeed if we are to win the war, and avoid future ones. I don’t believe this is controversial.’
‘Ah, now Ms. Derringer, you and I agree upon this, but perhaps others don’t see it the same way. You’re aware, of course, that Captain Banks has been seconded to the marines to keep an eye on Director Harman.’
‘I am.’
‘Banks is a good man. He may not have been here long, but he has already relayed valuable intelligence to his CO in S.I.S, a Colonel Pawlish. Pawlish and I are well acquainted, he was in the Eighteenth, you know. Anyway, I am not at liberty to disclose details, but suffice to say that Homeland Protection have reason to believe our industrialist may have a hidden agenda, despite what he says.’
‘And the evidence?’
‘Is thin, for now.’ The chancellor rubbed his chins with one paw. ‘What is your perspective on the matter? I know he is your employer…’
‘Client,’ I corrected.
‘I know he is your client, but I believe you would do the right thing, if you found out that he was up to no good.’
I nodded my head in a way that I hoped could later be interpreted as ambiguous. Chancellor Gordon hadn’t finished though.
‘Have you seen anything suspicious?’ he pushed.
‘I’ve seen plenty that’s suspicious,’ I said, pointing out that it was my job, and listed the various troubles I’d encountered since our previous meeting. Then I went on to describe Director Harman’s speech to us before we’d gone through the gate. I told him that Harman had stressed the importance of resources to secure Emberland and how the Koulomb Gate would help bring that about.
‘I can’t say that the Director is my favourite person,’ I finished up, ‘but I don’t know of anyone who is more committed to winning the war against the Nallians, unless that is, you happen to know someone whose spent hundreds of millions of their own personal wealth to benefit Emberland?’
I’d angered the chancellor. He scowled. ‘You won’t be on Harman’s payroll forever Ms. Derringer, and your company’s future may depend on the Council’s goodwill.’ The chancellor’s voice was a low growl. ‘ Believe me, you don’t want the department for tax crawling all over Lockhouse Security. They’ll suck the life out of you, even if you’ve got nothing to hide. So…’ he said, turning back to the papers on the desk, as though unconcerned with me. ‘You hear even a whisper that something’s not right, you speak with Banks, or Scott. They’ll relay the message on to me.’
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