Free Robert Charrette - Arthur 03 - A Knight Among Knaves by Robert N. Charrette

passing the followers had also lost the brilliant mind behind the plans Quetzal had set in motion. Their councils remained divided about what to do next. But there were clues in their holy books, in what Quetzal had ordered done in his brief time among them, and in the key that Quetzal had uncovered. Especially in the key. Van Dieman's eyes caressed the twisted sculpture. There were secrets in the subtle, sinuous curves of the key, secrets that he was teasing out. Already he knew that the Awaited One and the Strong One of the texts were not the same person. The Strong One who would arise and lead the faithful had not yet come to his power.
    But he would.
    Van Dieman's time was coming. Already his team of specialists, monitoring Quetzal's magical resonators, had observed patterns in their functions. The secrets were unfolding. The resonators were enhancers, lenses to concentrate the effects of mundane processes. One exaggerated effect was already clear at the strongest focal point. There, at the bottom of the world, the rate of ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere was increasing. It was a sign. The spreading of industrial decay, what the prophet Luciferius had railed the man-blight, was a major sign that the time of the Opening was soon to come. Soon harbingers would arrive, die heralds of the new age, and he, Anton Van Dieman, the Strong One, heir to the mantle of Quetzal, would be waiting to honor them and to receive their benisons and gifts of gratitude.
    For Van Dieman, Nakaguchi's folly would become a blessing.
    For Pamela Martinez, Nakaguchi's folly might become a blessing.
    Or a curse.
    The Quetzal incident had gained notice within the Keiretsu, especially when the fool Nakaguchi had managed to get himself killed by his resurrected monster. His actions had imperiled Pamela by exposing her secret Charybdis Project. No longer was she able to hide from her superiors her investigations into paranormal occurrences and the resurgence of magic. Nakaguchi would have a last use, however: she intended to lay all the improper secrecy at his door.
    In his brief reign over the project, Nakaguchi had tumbled it into a shambles and perverted it from what Pamela had begun. She was still reassembling the pieces and trying to make sense of the chimera Nakaguchi had left her. Sheila Rearden, her best computer jockey, was still teasing her way into Nakaguchi's files, uncovering more and stranger data with every file she cracked. Already it was clear that Nakaguchi had made connections in occult circles that gave him access to information unknown to project researchers. Some of that information would be most useful in refocusing the project.
    If she was allowed to continue.
    There was still a chance. It had turned out that Nakaguchi had been acting on his own, without the knowledge or approval of Mitsutomo-sama. Pamela had used that fact to the fullest when her superiors had called for a full report on the Quetzal incident. She had been given an opportunity to distance herself from the disaster and she intended to take advantage of it.
    The Mitsutomo board had assembled on the telenet to hear her report. Her strategy had been to cast Nakaguchi as a rogue and loose cannon responsible for the project's improprieties, while painting herself as the loyal company servant who sought to protect the Keiretsu's interests. She could not' conceal that she had been instrumental in the direction of the

    charybdis Project, but Passerelli in Relations had helped her prepare her report, putting things in the best possible light, and Rearden had provided credible data trails involving directives from Nakaguchi in place of Pamela's own orders. She had made her presentation to the board, and now she could only hope that she had put the right spin on it.
    Sitting and waiting in her office while the board considered her report made her feel as if she were waiting in a judgment dock; which, of course, she was, though her office was infinitely more