Free The Court of a Thousand Suns by Chris Bunch; Allan Cole Page B

Emperor was fixing his attention on at the moment.
    "You've read this," the Emperor said coldly, sliding a printout across his desk.
    Sten glanced at the fax. It was an update on the death of Godfrey Alain. Puzzled, Sten scanned it, noting that although there were a few more details, they involved mostly color, with few hard facts. "Yes, sir," he said after a moment.
    "Are you familiar with this man's background?"
    "Not really, sir. Just that he's a terrorist and that he's been a thorn in our side for some time."
    The Emperor snorted. "You'll need to know a lot more than that. But no matter. I've given you clearance for his files. You can go over them after we've talked.
    "I want the people responsible," the Emperor snapped. "And I want every single swinging Richard of them standing before me, not tomorrow or the next day, but yesterday. And I want them delivered in a nice neat package. And no loose ends. Do you understand me, Captain? No loose ends."
    Sten started to nod automatically. Then he stopped himself—no, he didn't understand. And his survival instinct told him he'd better not pretend otherwise. "Excuse me, sir," he finally said, "but I do not understand. Perhaps I'm missing something, but what does Godfrey Alain have to do with the captain of your guard?"
    The Emperor's face clotted with anger, and he started to rise to his feet. Then he stopped, took a deep breath, and sat down again, the anger barely under control. "You're right, Captain. I'm getting ahead of myself." He took another deep breath. "Fine, then. Let me explain.
    "This… accident has put all of us in a world of hurt. And if you do believe that it was an accident, then tell me now, because I obviously have the wrong man for the job."
    Sten shook his head. "No, sir. I don't think it was an accident."
    "Good. Now let me fill you in on the background. And I'm sure I don't have to warn you that not one word I say is to be repeated.
    "To begin with, Alain was here to see me."
    Sten was surprised. The Eternal Emperor meeting with a terrorist? That was absolutely against Imperial policy. But then Sten remembered who set Imperial policy, and kept his mouth shut.
    "He had a proposal—and I'm sure it was a serious one, or I wouldn't have hung myself out like this—to defuse our problems with the Tahn System. Simply put, he wanted to set up a buffer zone, his Fringe Worlds—under my aegis—between the Tahn and the Empire."
    "But wouldn't that make him a traitor to his own people?"
    The Eternal Emperor gave Sten a grim smile. "One man's traitor is another man's patriot. The way I see it is that it finally got through the thick heads of Alain and his people that they are the ones doing all the bleeding.
    "Every time the Tahn act and we retaliate, they're the ones who get it in the neck. And they are also the ones who take all the blame and get nothing in return."
    "And so he set up a secret meeting with you?" Sten said, filling in the gaps. "The Tahn found out and short-stopped him."
    "Not quite that simple. Yes, he was going to meet with me. Eventually. But first off, there was to be an initial meeting with one of my best diplomatic operatives. A man named Craigwel."
    "One of the unidentified bodies in the bar?" Sten guessed.
    "Exactly. And he's going to stay unidentified. Officially, that is."
    "Any other victims in the bar I should know about?"
    There was a long hesitation. And then the emperor shook his head, firmly, no.
    "Just worry about Craigwel and Alain. Now, it was supposed to work like this. After exchanging the usual password, Alain and Craigwel were supposed to request Booth C. It had already been reserved for them and secured.
    "Alain was then going to lay out his plan, and if he convinced Craigwel of his sincerity, we would have gone to the next step. A personal meeting with me."
    "But then the Tahn stepped in," Sten said.
    "Maybe. But don't be too sure of that. There are about five sides too many in this thing, each one of them with a reason