Free Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman

auditorium,
pointing out into the audience ... but no, the memory is gone now.
    "What is he up to?" says Natch over ConfidentialWhisper. "What
does he want?"
    Petrucio leans his head back to face the roof of the hoverbird and
closes his eyes, mimicking sleep. "He wants MultiReal."

    "For his rebellion."
    "I don't know for sure. But that's my worry, yes."
    At first it seems ludicrous: why worry that someone might overthrow Len Borda? But then Natch thinks about the Council lieutenant
standing in the midst of the Prime Committee's auditorium, with the
power of MultiReal at his command. Unassailable, unconquerable.
And suddenly he can understand Petrucio's hesitation.
    What does Magan Kai Lee represent? What are his aims and goals?
The man is accumulating a rebellion almost solely from the public's
hatred of Len Borda. His own beliefs remain an enigma. Does he support Islander sovereignty? What is his position on public funding of
TubeCo? Is he capable of balancing a budget? What will Magan Kai
Lee do with MultiReal, if he gets ahold of it? Would that be better or
worse than if Len Borda should get MultiReal in his possession? Natch
recalls the aphorism he has heard many times recently about the
wisdom of preferring the known enemy to the unknown enemy. The
world has suffered much under the stern rigidity of Len Borda-but is
replacing that rigidity with a blank cipher any less frightening?
    And are either of these alternatives better than putting MultiReal
in the hands of Brone and his Thasselian disciples?
    It's all too confusing, and not for the first time Natch wishes he
could return to that time of simpler loyalties. When he was merely an
entrepreneur looking out for his own ass, when his enemies announced
their intentions with press releases, when a single incontrovertible
authority filed winners and losers into slots of descending order every
hour.
    "I don't understand why you're not handing me over to the
Council," says Natch over the silent channel. "I assumed you and Frederic were working for them."
    "Honestly, so did we." Petrucio chuckles softly. "Shortly after Margaret recruited us to help her finish MultiReal, we signed another deal
with a faceless shell company. We were to continue our work with Margaret as agreed. But on the side, we were to construct MultiReal
prototype programs. Defensive programs, code named MultiReal-D.
The deal was negotiated, signed, and paid for by Magan Kai Lee from
an untraceable Vault account. We figured he was acting on behalf of
the Council."

    "And it didn't bother you to go behind Margaret's back like that?"
says Natch, surprised at his accusatory tone.
    Petrucio's lips curl into a half-smile. "It was a different world then.
A plum military contract with a big paycheck, no oversight, nobody
looking over our shoulders? Why not? I didn't really understand what
Margaret was building out there in Andra Pradesh, and neither did
Frederic. It didn't occur to us that Magan might be doing this behind
Borda's back. But now ..."
    He pauses, but Natch does not need him to fill the gap. He knows
what MultiReal can do. Sometime in the past three months, the world
has been remolded.
    Petrucio sits up and looks Natch straight in the eye with an
earnestness that's atypical for a Patel. "You and I are businesspeople,
Natch," he continues over the 'Whisper connection. "We're not kingmakers. Politics ... war ... madness and freedom ... it's not our
domain. And it certainly isn't Frederic's.
    "Magan Kai Lee knew you'd turn up in Sao Paulo eventually. He
figured we'd have no problem handing you over to him. But that puts
me and Frederic in a very difficult position. If we hand you over to
Magan, his rebellion will be a fait accompli. If we allow you to fall into
Len Borda's hands, the rebellion will be crushed." Petrucio weighs
these two options with his hands on an imaginary balance scale. "We
can't keep you here forever; sooner or later Magan will come around