‘I’m afraid you’ve wasted a journey, Captain,’ Yashego said, taking a sip from his cup of Hyahan tea with affected nonchalance.
They were sitting in the Governor’s office, a well-appointed executive room with a large Trafalgar desk at one end and extensive briefing facilities at the other. Even out here on the very periphery of the Outer Ring, they had not escaped the UN’s penchant for classical decoration. The room was lined with expensive wood panelling, decorative striped wallpaper in tasteful, muted hues, and large, gilt-framed impressionist paintings of the badlands surrounding Theseus. Holos embedded in the bay of arched windows behind the Trafalgar desk had vanished the five-metre concrete fortifications outside, giving them a glorious, albeit fictional, view of Independence Boulevard beyond.
‘I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, Governor,’ Vasco replied.
‘Adrian—may I call you Adrian?’
‘No, sir, Captain will do just fine.’
A wry smile played across Yashego’s lips. ‘Captain, your credentials are unimpeachable, I can’t deny that. We don’t see too many things out here with a Vargonroth seal on it.’
‘We’re wasting time,’ Kgosi muttered over their private comlink. He was standing at the far end of the room. He and Sev had kept their helmets on; Vasco heard it on his eardrum implant.
‘Governor, I have a mandate from the highest levels of government to take you, General Rhodes and Ms Brock offworld—’
‘And to where, exactly?’ Yashego sneered.
‘To a place of safety,’ Vasco said, trying to keep his cool. He was acutely aware of the mission timer ticking away in the corner of his vision. ‘It’s classified.’
Yashego laughed. ‘How serious this all is. How impressive. What an impressive display of the UN’s power and influence. Men all the way from Vargonroth, all the way out here, to take little old me off world.’
Vasco gritted his teeth. ‘Governor, as of three days ago your names are all on the Ascendancy Roster. At present, life expectancy for someone named on the Roster is six days OTS. If you don’t leave with us, you will be killed.’
Yashego waved him off. ‘We’ll all be killed anyway, Captain; the UN has seen to that.’
‘Goddamn it, Cap, can’t we just leave this asshole?’ Kgosi snapped. Yashego heard nothing emanate from the sealed confines of the corporal’s helmet.
‘He doesn’t have to be conscious, Sir,’ Sev said reasonably. ‘Shit, Almeida wasn’t even intact.’
‘Governor—’
‘Don’t call me that!’ Yashego suddenly snapped, slamming a palm down on his desk’s leather surface. ‘Don’t! I am an Ariadnian! I have lived my entire life on this world! The UN has done nothing for us! Now they have abandoned us! I will not leave here, skulking out the back door on to a UN warship, while millions of innocent people are left here to rot!’
Vasco stood, silence, letting the silence stretch out until Yashego became uncomfortable.
‘Cap,’ Kgosi said, impatient.
‘K, go and see Brock,’ Vasco said out loud. He waited until the corporal had left the room.
‘Want me to go and speak to Rhodes?’ Sev asked.
‘Good idea,’ Vasco replied, and the door opened and closed a second time.
Vasco took two steps forward, and sat down. The chair in front of the desk creaked under his weight.
‘Governor,’ he said, calmly and deliberately, ‘you are in serious danger.’
‘Captain,’ Yashego said, ‘my decision in this matter is final. I was born on Ariadne, and I will die on Ariadne. I will not serve a United Nations that does not serve me and my people.’
Vasco sat back. He clacked his tongue a few times. ‘Governor, I would rather you came with me willingly,’ he said. ‘It will be easier and safer.’
Yashego looked confused for a second. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘I mean exactly what I said; I would prefer it if you would agree to come with me and my team.’
The Governor’s expression hardened. It suited him. He was a man with many seething resentments written into the crags and crevices of his features. Vasco had read his file; misspent youth, loudmouth dissident in the colonial council, champagne revolutionary, and then the UN Governorship and a career of resentful, soulless efficiency. Installing him as the UN’s highest on-world representative had been a cynical, brilliant move by Vargonroth, instantly robbing the most popular dissident of his credibility. Now here he sat, his final chance to prove that he had been an Ariadnian all along, that it had all been an inside job, that he was a local just like the rest of them, and he would be damned if he was going to let Vasco swoop in, take him away and confirm to the world exactly what they already thought of him.
‘You can’t just take me out of here. I’ve told you I won’t come. My decision to remain is the end of it.’
‘With respect, Governor, I have a warrant of executive of authority that says otherwise.’
Yashego made a frustrated noise. ‘These are my people! You’ll not take me away from them!’
Vasco looked past Yashego, through the windows behind him, and out to the falsely-transparent compound wall. The crowd had reformed with a vengeance. They shouted and chanted and hammered on the wall with improvised clubs. Above, civilian drones flew in swarms, most displaying seditious propaganda and slogans. There wasn’t a police cruiser in sight. In a few hours, perhaps less, the situation was going to become uncontrollable.
‘They don’t look like your people,’ Vasco said. ‘They look like they would kill you, given half the chance.’
Yashego scoffed. ‘Their anger is with the UN! This whole compound is a bloody UN monument! There’s a great bronze statue of Admiral Hannah right there! Where else would they focus their hate?’
Vasco winced inwardly. The addition of a monument of Admiral Hannah, revered by the Veigis worlds as the pioneer of the Outer Ring, loathed in the Outer Ring as a conqueror and murderer, was inauspicious; in fact was not beyond the bounds of possibility that Vargonroth had commissioned it deliberately.
‘You would feel comfortable, going out there? Walking among them?’ he asked.
Yashego scoffed. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘In fact I plan to give an address within the next hour or so, once you’ve left me to finish writing my speech.’
Vasco shook his head. ‘I’m afraid for your own safety, Governor, I can’t let you do that.’
Yashego’s expression turned venomous. ‘That’s it. I’ve had enough of this nonsense. Captain, please leave now. I have told you I will not be coming with you. Your warrant of executive authority has no sway here on Ariadne.’ He paused to cough, a thick, expectorate cough that lasted for twenty seconds. Vasco had the table machine make him a glass of water, but Yashego waved it away irritably. ‘I trust I’ve made myself clear,’ he said once he’d regained his composure.
Vasco nodded and stood. ‘Crystal clear, Sir.’ He walked to the end of the office, and stopped near the door. ‘Could you just do me one favour, please, Governor?’
Yashego sighed, exasperated. ‘What now, Captain?’
‘Could I ask you to just remain in this room for the time being, until we’ve assessed the security situation? Then we’ll be out of your hair.’
Yashego coughed again, before swallowing down a mouthful of phlegm. This time, he took a long draw from the glass of water Vasco had prepared for him.
‘Yes, yes,’ he said, waving Vasco off. ‘I’ll be in here for a short while.’
Vasco nodded, and left.