The King’s messenger arrived right on time and found the scientist and one of her assistants waiting for him. “If you would follow me, madam, I will take you to the King,” he said.
“Just a minute, please,” said Andrea McCrea. She yelled at the closed washroom door. “Shanks! Time to go! Get out here or we'll go meet the King without you!”
“Sorry about that,” she told the messenger. “For some reason, he’ll never perform bodily functions in front of other people. I walked in on him once and he pulled his trousers up so fast... Ah, here he is!” The washroom door opened and Shanks emerged, looking embarrassed and annoyed. “Hey, Shanks, what's so special about your pisscrack that you won't let anyone else see it?”
“Where I come from, such things are done in private,” the man replied. “It is considered improper to...”
“Yes, yes, all right. Come on!” She turned back to the messenger. “Lead on,” she said, and the messenger led them down the corridor.
At first the scientist thought they were being taken to the King’s private chambers, and her head swam with the honour she was being shown, but instead the messenger took them into the administration wing, the place where the governing of the Kingdom took place. The three visitors looked around in bemusement as they passed offices in which clerks compiled records and wrote reports and rooms in which important looking people were gathered around tables arguing heatedly about matters they couldn’t understand. They were repeatedly stopped by guards and made to show their visitors passes and were twice searched for weapons. “Excuse me,” said Andrea to the messenger. “Are you sure we're going the right way?”
“Just a little further, madam,” the messenger replied.
They arrived at a door flanked by two stern looking guards who opened it for them and then stood aside to allow them to pass. Inside, a large group of people, mostly men, were gathered around a table, and they turned to look at the new arrivals as they paused in confusion. “That's Minister Falow!” said Isaac Clarke, Andrea McCrea's junior assistant. “Minister of Internal Security! I saw him at the Princess’ declaration ceremony last year! And that's another minister! Larren, I think...”
“Minister of Intelligence,” said Adlan Larren, coming forward and offering his hand. The assistant took it and shook it with a numb expression on his face. “You must be the scientists. This is Field Marshall Amberley, Commander, Joint Forces Command, General Glowen, Chief of General Staff...”
“Excuse me, but I don’t think we're supposed to be here,” said Andrea in near terror. She looked back at the door as if expecting a troop of guards to march them away to the cells as suspected spies. She looked at the far wall, where a map of Helberion and surrounding countries had been hung, marked with information that would no doubt have been of great interest to the country’s enemies. She looked away hurriedly.
“Yes you are,” replied Larren with a grin. “The King said there would be scientists present. Make yourself comfortable while we wait for him. He always makes sure to be the last person to arrive for meetings. It's bad form for a King to be kept waiting for late arrivals, you see. The rest of us have to wait for him.” He then introduced the rest of the people present, a total of about thirty people including deputies and assistants. “This is the War Room,” the minister then said. “This is where we decide how we're going to stick spikes up the asses of the Carrowmen.”
“When they're not sticking spikes up our asses, which is happening more and more often these days,” replied Amberley, “and they have one very large spike spreading our bum cheeks ever further apart right now. Any more news, Larren?”
“You would know before I do, George. The riders report to you first.”
“Come now, Adlan! We all know you have your own people out there, reporting to you personally. People right in Grogen's command tent, right?”
“Anything I do, I do in the service of the King!” protested the minister stiffly.
“Calm down, Adlan! I wasn't suggesting anything improper! Of course you have your sources! You wouldn't be able to do your job otherwise!”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that. I can say that I have no new information regarding the escaping prisoners of war.”
“The prisoners of war are escaping?” asked Andrea McCrea in alarm. “All of them?”
“They are indeed, and if they make it back to Carrow we can expect a full scale invasion before the end of the year. Our only hope is that the cavalry finds them and engages them before they reach the border.”
“Why haven't we hard of this before?”
“No point in alarming people before we have to. The King will issue a statement when the prisoners have either been recaptured or have escaped the country. Until then, the matter is confidential, as is everything else said in this room. Repeating it to anyone else is high treason, punishable with death.” He grinned at the scientist, who smiled nervously back.
“You're scaring the woman, Adlan!” chided Amberley. “We need her at her best. Relaxed and at ease. She's no use to us terrified out of her wits.”
“What do you need us for?” asked Shanks, running a nervous hand through his black hair.
“The King will explain everything, when he arrives...”
At that moment, the door was opened by one of the doorman stationed outside. “His Majesty, King Leothan the First!” he announced as the King and Princess Ardria strode past him. Those people who had been sitting jumped to their feet, and everyone stood, the military men at full attention, while the door was closed again. “At ease,” said Leothan, and they relaxed.
“Glad you could make it,” Leothan said to the three scientists. “Thank you for coming. A time of crisis is upon us. We're hoping you can help us with it.”
“Anything we can do to stop Carrow,” said Andrea McCrea, growing increasingly confused. “You only have to command us.”
“Carrow is only a small part of it. There is something much bigger going on. Please take a seat and I'll answer all your questions.” He walked to the front of the room, the Princess beside him.
“Before we begin,” said the King, “I have to issue a commandment to you all. None of you must ever allow yourselves to be adopted by Radiants.”
Several people gasped in surprise. “What...?” said one of the Ministerial assistants. “Why...?”
“This is non-negotiable,” added the King. “Anyone who remains to hear this briefing must commit themselves to forcibly resist adoption by Radiants by every means at their disposal. Anyone who cannot give such an assurance must leave now, and will never be allowed to learn of the matters we are about to discuss.”
People stared at each other in astonishment. Is he afraid of Radiant spies, passing on all our secrets to the Carrowmen? wondered Andrea McCrea in bafflement, and looking around the room she saw the same thought on the faces of several others. Not Amberley, though. He had a strange look on his face as if this confirmed something he'd already guessed. Nobody dared to say anything, though, and one by one they all agreed to the commandment. “I give you my word,” said Andrea when it was her turn, followed by both her assistants.
“Good,” said the King when everyone had spoken. He and the Princess then took seats at the head of the table, and everyone else then sat, the members of the War Council in their usual seats and the three scientists in three chairs that seemed to have been placed for them.
“Earlier today, you said Radiants,” said Amberley. “They're helping Carrow attack us?”
“What?” cried Isaac Clarke, who then looked shocked as if he expected to be arrested for daring to speak in such company.
The King didn't seem offended though. “If I may, I'd like to start at the beginning,” he said. “Tell you how we came to learn of these matters we're about to share with you. I'd appreciate it if you hold your questions to a minimum until I've finished.” He looked around the table, and everyone nodded in turn. The three scientists glanced at each other nervously. Andrea McCrea found that she was starting to shake with nervous tension and wondered how all these important people would react if she suddenly threw up on the table. Get a grip! she scolded herself. You will not disgrace yourself in front of the King! She called upon all her willpower, and gradually brought her body back under control. She sat upright and gave the King all her attention.
“As you no doubt remember,” said the King, “Last year my daughter, Princess Ardria, was inflicted with a blessing that began turning her into a demon.” He gestured towards the Princess beside him, who smiled back. “All our attempts to find a cure for her failed. In the end, I called upon Brigadier Weyland James, asking him whether he’d learned of anything in his travels around the world that might provide an answer...”
Leothan then gave a brief summary of the Brigadier's mission, paying most attention to what he had learned about Radiants, globs and the Hetin folk. He told them of Parcellius' excavations of the Hetin city near Tollbine and the discovery that Radiants and Globs didn't seem to have existed during the time of the Hetin civilisation. He told them of the Brigadier’s visit to the Radiant city and his meeting with the curator of the Hetin museum who had tried to deceive them regarding the circumstances of the Radiants' origin. Then he told them of the Brigadier's return to Mekrol, where he’d discovered that Tollbine had been destroyed by Radiants to prevent Parcellius from learning more about them. Lastly, he told them about their attempt to eavesdrop on the Radiants, using the telepathic abilities the Princess had developed as part of her transformation. He gestured for his daughter to continue the briefing.
“They are utterly evil,” she said with a shudder. “The one thing I remember most about my telepathic contact with them is their utter lack of empathy and compassion, at least as far as we are concerned. We are nothing more than animals to them, beasts whose only use is to be adopted, to become more Radiants. They have allowed us to develop our present civilisation because they think it makes us better adoptees. We make better Radiants. They are growing increasingly afraid of us, though. They are afraid that our scientific discoveries will make is too powerful, and that we will become a threat to them. An increasingly powerful faction among them has therefore decided to destroy our civilisation. They want to knock us back a thousand years, return us to the race of nomadic, hunter gatherer tribes from which we arose. The most extreme of them even intend to keep us in farms, as we cage livestock, so that they can control every aspect of our lives. They intend to put an end to our free range existence.”
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There was a stunned silence as the room digested this. All eyes turned to Amberley, the only one among them whose authority and friendship with the King would allow him to ask the question they were all thinking. He looked at the King, their eyes met and a silent communication passed between them, the Field Marshall asking a question, the King answering with a nod. Leothan understood. The Field Marshall was going to have to play the part of Devil's Advocate, on behalf of all the other people present who didn't dare to.
“Your Highness,” he said to the Princess, therefore. “What you have told us is... quite extraordinary. However... Your Highness, your Majesty, you know that I have the utmost respect for you and for all the royal family. My loyalty to you is absolute. However...” He paused as he searched for the most diplomatic language. “At the time you communicated telepathically with the Radiants, you were half transformed into a demon. Is it possible that... That...”
“That I was deranged,” the Princess finished for him. “That I was delusional and imagined the whole thing. After all, my body was deformed almost out of all recognition. Why not my mind too?”
“Your Highness, I bet you to forgive me for having these doubts...”
The Princess smiled. “There is nothing to forgive, Field Marshall. Your doubts arise from the purest and most profound loyalty. Loyalty to the truth, which transcends your loyalty to my father or myself, as it should. I cannot prove that what I told you was true, I can only assure you that I am completely certain of it. Our minds touched, mine and the Radiant. Nothing was hidden from me. Radiants cannot lie, you see. Either to each other or to us. When we humans talk, we think many different things and then we choose which one we will speak to the other person. Radiants cannot do that. Everything they think is communicated. They have difficulty even comprehending the concept of deception.”
The Field Marshall nodded gratefully. “But, your Highness, you may have heard one thing and, in your, er, confused state, misinterpreted it...”
“There are the other indicators that the Radiants are far from harmless,” said the King. “The destruction of Tollbine, for example.”
“You yourself just said that the only witness to that event was a half raised goat, barely human enough to speak,” said Amberley, gaining confidence. “How much credence can we give to her testimony? And there are other weak points in your thesis, alternative explanations that can be found. Your whole theory, that Radiants are our enemy, stands on shaky ground, your Majesty.”
The whole room held its breath as they waited to see how the King would react. “Each individual item can be dismissed, it is true,” agreed Leothan. “You can even doubt my daughter’s testimony. However, they all point to the same conclusion and, together, they cannot be ignored. If I am right, the Radiants fear we will invent a scientific device that we can use as a weapon against them. Very recently, the RedHill institute, our leading electrical research centre, was destroyed by fire and the best scientific minds in the Kingdom killed. Coincidence?”
“Perhaps. It could very well be coincidence.”
The Carrow soldiers who freed the prisoners of war used field artillery that they could not possibly have gotten into the country by any means we know...”
“That doesn't mean they were carried in by Radiants, in fact that seems to me to be the most unlikely explanation possible. Carrow may have gotten the artillery across the border by some very clever, but completely mundane, means that we have yet to discover. The fact is, Your Majesty, that if this were a murder trial, the case would be dismissed for lack of evidence.”
“I disagree. There are too many indications, all pointing towards the same conclusion. The Brigadier believes it, and so do I and my daughter. You may have doubts, but as your King I command you to act on the assumption that it is true. That the Radiants are now our enemy and have set themselves the task of destroying all human civilisation.”
“As you command, Your Majesty,” replied the Field Marshall, and everyone else in the room bowed their heads in agreement.
“There would have to be Carrowmen who know that the Radiants are helping them win the War against us,” said General Glowen. “I find it hard to believe that they would be complicit in the destruction of their own country. They have to believe that destroying Helberion is the limit of the Radiants’ ambitions. If we could convince them of the truth, that they intend to destroy every human nation, including their own...”
Leothan nodded. “Good idea, Andy. Unfortunately, we have no diplomatic contact with Carrow at the moment, and it's unlikely they'd believe anything we told them in any case, but it's still a good point and worth thinking about.”
“The vast majority of the Carrow people must be unaware that the Radiants are helping them,” added Minister Larren. “We have people in their army, in their government, right in the palace itself! None of them have ever said anything about Radiants.”
“The Radiants themselves don't want their involvement to become widely known,” replied Leothan. “They would insist that as few people as possible know about it. Probably only the King himself, one or two Ministers, one or two Generals...”
“How do they communicate? Radiants can't speak, can they? I mean, I've never heard of one speaking to anyone.”
“They communicate by telepathy,” replied the King. “During his visit to the Radiant city, the Brigadier learned that they use adopted humans to mediate between themselves and normal humans. Adopted humans gain telepathic powers very early in the process, while they still look almost human.”
“Almost human?” asked the Minister.
“Their skins glow. Like Ardria, when she was afflicted. It's pretty much the very first sign of change.”
“So there would have to be at least one such person in Carrow. An adopted human, with glowing skin and telepathic abilities, acting as intermediary between the Carrow government and the Radiants. If we could identify that person, perhaps arrange his death...”
“He would very likely never leave the palace,” pointed out Amberley. “Telepathy has a range of well over a hundred yards, I understand...?” He looked at the Princess, who nodded her agreement. “So he’d be able to remain in the palace, out of sight, and communicate with any Radiant in the vicinity. Radiants loiter about our own palace all the time, we've all assumed they’re looking for people to adopt...”
A number of people gasped simultaneously. “There could be adopted humans right here, in Marboll!” said Larren. “Right now! Within a hundred yards of our present location!” He looked around the room the other members of the War Council. “We have to find them! Search every house, every building for people with glowing skins...”
“We can't do that without letting the Radiants know we're on to them,” replied the King. “The fact that they don't know is the only advantage we have over them at the moment.”
“Perhaps we could come up with some excuse for searching every house in the city,” suggested Mary Collins, Larren's assistant. “Searching for an escaped fugitive, perhaps. A dangerous murderer...”
“We’ve never taken such an extreme step in the past,” pointed out Amberley. “If we did it now, it would raise questions. Then there's the small fact that there have been no unusually extreme crimes in the recent past.”
“We could invent a few juicy murders,” suggested Mary Collins. “Use our imaginations...”
“It would still be out of character for us. Other countries do such things, but King Leothan has a reputation for respecting the rights of the common people. If we suddenly rode roughshod all over those rights...”
“The Field Marshall is right,” said the King. “Kicking in doors is, at present, out of the question. I want the Radiants watched, though. Discretely. I want to know if there's any part of the city they particularly like to loiter around. If we can narrow it down to a particular building that would be even better, although I doubt they'd be that careless. If we can narrow it down to a particular neighbourhood, though, maybe even a particular street, then we can keep an eye on comings and goings in that area. Ask questions on the pretext of looking for a criminal.”
“Leave it to me,” said Minister Larren. “I'll get my people on it the moment this meeting is over.” The King nodded his gratitude.
“Andrea McCrea,”Leothan then said, making the scientist look up fearfully, her heart hammering. “By now you'll have guessed why I asked you here.”
“You think that it is the development of alternating current that the Radiants wish to prevent,” the scientist answered. “Do you want us to abandon our research in this area, or redouble it?”
“Redouble it, retriple it. Perfect your machine as fast as possible. That is the real reason you were asked to come to Marboll. The science fair was just a cover, a plausible reason for you to come here. I don’t care if someone invents a sewing machine or a vacuum cleaner. What we need is a weapon we can use against the Radiants and I think that alternating current holds the key. I believe that Maxine Hester and her staff were killed because they'd made a breakthrough.”
“That may be, but that doesn't mean that...”
The King held up a hand to silence her. “We've considered the more mundane alternatives, that they were killed by a rival scientist or a rival country. I find it highly suspicious, though, that this crime was committed so soon after we learn that the Radiants fear our science.” He glanced at Amberley and nodded in his direction to forestall him. “Yes, you're right, it is thin. Very thin. However, if I'm wrong, there's no harm done except that we achieve a valuable new technology sooner. I'll look like a fool, but that's it. If I'm right, though, and we do nothing...” He allowed the sentence to end itself in their imaginations.
“We will perfect the alternating current generator,” Andrea McCrea promised him. “It basically involves just building upon what we’ve got now. The generator works, however imperfectly. We’ll get it to work better.”
“I also want you to recreate the machine Maxine Hester was working on.”
The scientist stared in dismay. “But, but I have no idea what she was working on!”
“An alternating current converter, I thought?” said the King. “A device that converts direct current to alternating current. That's what she put on her funding applications, anyway.”
“But that's a dead end! If you want alternating current, the best way is to generate it directly! That's what my machine already does! Why would you generate direct current, then convert it? A one step process makes so much more sense!”
“And yet it was Maxine Hester who was murdered, not you. Recreate her machine, Andrea. That is a Royal command.”
“If you command it, then of course I will obey, but I have no idea how her device worked, if it did...”
“Figure it out. That's what you scientists do, right? Figure it out and recreate her machine, and do it in secret! The Radiants must not know what you're doing. Your work on your generator is a front to cover what you're really doing, building the adaptor. Anything you need, anything at all, just tell me and you'll have it, and we’ll say it's for your generator. I've ordered the creation of a new institute of electrical research, in Adams Valley. An old brickworks is being converted even as we speak, staff is being found to look after you, do all the routine work. Draw up a list of equipment you need, give it to me as soon as you can. I'll see you get it.”
Andrea McCrea looked deeply unhappy and insulted, but she nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
The King turned around to say something to one of his guards, who went over to the door, opened it and beckoned for someone to enter. “We'll need to clear some space on the table,” Leothan said as three men entered carrying boxes of books and carefully cleaned archaeological artefacts from Tollbine, the items that the Brigadier had brought back with him, minus those he’d taken to Kelvon to show the Emperor. The men carefully placed the boxes on the table, then bowed to the King before leaving again. Leothan waited until the door was closed again before leaning over and picking up a three thousand year old statuette, a naked man throwing a spear.
“I want you all to familiarise yourselves with all this,” the King said. “All the new things we’ve learned about the Hetin folk, how their civilisation fell, the origins of globs and the Radiants. There may be some clue in here somewhere. Something we’ve missed. Also, if you have any further questions regarding what you've heard so far, please feel free to ask them.”
Some questions were asked, while people left their seats to examine the contents of the boxes. Shanks was one of the first to rise, and picked up ones of the Hetin books which he examined carefully. While he was doing this, he picked up the statuette from where the King had placed it, looked at it for a moment, then placed it back in the box as he returned his attention to the book. One might almost have thought that he wanted to hide it, prevent anyone else from seeing it.
The nude man was just too fascinating, though, and Mary Collins took it back out, stared at it curiously. “Extraordinary!” she said to Shanks. “What do you thing this appendage is for?”
“Who can say?” replied Shanks awkwardly, trying to edge away.
“Its placement, in the groin area, suggests that it's for the passage of urine, but why would they need such a structure for such a simple task? The groinal slit serves us perfectly well for that purpose!” She reached into the box and pulled out a nude female. “And why do only the males have them? And what are these things on her chest?”
“We may never know,” said Shanks, moving back to his seat.
“Maybe Shanks is a Hetin man,” suggested Isaac Clarke with a chuckle. “That's why he never lets us see him naked! He's got a Hetin appendage!” He made a move to grab his fellow assistant’s groin, but then remembered where he was and looked towards the King guilty. Leothan, fortunately, had missed the whole thing, being in conversation with Amberley and Larren, or he would no doubt have rebuked him sternly.
Shanks pointedly ignored the comment and returned to his seat to study the book, trying not to look uncomfortable and afraid as several other people passed the statuettes around, commenting on the bizarre anatomy. This is dangerous! he thought. What will they do to me if they find out? But I must help them defeat the Radiants! It's the first step towards reclaiming our world!