The Alembic Plot: A Terran Empire novel

  4a. Shannon's Reaction

  Shannon had decided to take advantage of Cortin's skill during theafternoon session. It had been some time since he'd combined his twopreferences purely for pleasure instead of as an "object lesson"--sincePiety, in fact--and he was overdue for some recreation. He'd told hisaide he was tired and would be napping after lunch; Cortin wouldprovide the violence, Victor the sex. Victor was homo, raised in afamily that saw the Church's increased tolerance in the last two and ahalf centuries as abhorrent. But Victor couldn't deny his drives; thebest he could do was conceal them, feeling guilt whenever they becamestrong enough to make him take action.

  Shannon had picked him for that, perhaps more than for hisadministrative ability, then arranged for Victor to find him apparentlyasleep, naked. Since then he could count on the man sneaking into hisroom several times a week; it relieved some of the tension, andVictor's guilt not only added spice to the affair, it made him evenmore devoted to the one he thought he was victimizing. And, Shannonthought smugly, he couldn't possibly be faulted for being an innocentvictim.

  Stretched out, with only a sheet covering him, Shannon waited forVictor to decide he was asleep. In the meantime, he considered the twoordinations that had just taken place. He found them abhorrent, eventhough he was aware of their necessity. His continued existence couldwell depend on four humans who would, except for the approachinginvaders, be major enemies--two here, one in the Terran Empire, and onecurrently dead. Three of the four, to his disgust, had to be priestsof the Crucified One. That was galling enough, but the worst part wasthat he had to promote faith himself! Not necessarily in thatparticular deity, though it would benefit most, he thought bitterly.There were times he was tempted to rebel again, tell the Adversary todo it all, instead of having to drive people toward that one, ratherthan urge them away as he preferred. Existence, though, wasn'tsomething to be given up, even if maintaining it meant doing somethings he found truly repugnant.

  Cortin, of course, was his immediate concern, though Odeon wouldultimately be the source of far more difficulty for him. Before then,though, the scar-faced man could be made to suffer--which would be avery enjoyable procedure indeed, after the problems that particularindividual had caused him since their last encounter. And there wasalways the chance Odeon would make a bad decision--though consideringthe effect that would have on Shannon himself, he couldn't seriouslywish for it.

  To main storyline: 5. Azrael