The Family/Clan/Factions of the Rim are still responding to their defeat in the mass attempt on our defenses of last Decamo.  They appear severely chastened.  Small police actions are all that we need anticipate over the next planning period.  Further, our operatives in the Rim find no current difficulties in steering the F/C/F toward a natural and acceptable cultural rejection of economic developments which might lead them to improved food production.

- From a Dosadi Bureau of Control document

An angry Broey, full out and uninhibited anger, was something to see and quite a number of his Gowachin aides had seen this emotional display during the night.  It was now barely dawn.  Broey had not slept in two days; but the fourth group of his aides stood before him in the sanctum to receive the full spate of his displeasure.  The word had already gone out through their ranks and they, like the others, did not try to hide their fear or their anxious eagerness to restore themselves in Broey's good graces.

Broey stood near the end of the long table where, earlier, he had met with Gar and Tria.  The only visible sign of his long sleepless hours was a slight pitting of the fatty nodes between his ventricles.  His eyes were as sharp as ever and his voice had lost none if its bite.

"What I'd like explained is how this could happen without a word of warning.  And it's not just that we failed to detect this, but that we continued to grind out complacent reports, reports which went exactly contrary to what actually was happening."

The aides massed at the other end of the table, all standing, all fidgeting, were not assuaged by Broey's use of "we."  They heard him clearly.  He was saying:  "You!  You!  You!"

"I will be satisfied by nothing less than an informant," Broey said.  "I want a Human informant, either from Chu or from the Rim.  I don't care how you get this informant.  We must find that store of city food.  We must find where they have started their blasphemous Rim city."

One of his aides, a slender young Gowachin in the front rank, ventured a cautious question which had been repeated several times by other chastened aides during the night.

"If we move too strongly against Humans in the Warrens, won't that feed the unrest that . . ."

"We'll have more riots, more turning of Gowachin against Human and Human against Gowachin," Broey agreed.  "That's a consequence we are prepared to accept."

This time they understood that Broey used the royal "we."  Broey would accept the consequences.  Some of his aides, however, were not ready to accept a war between the species within the city's walls.  One of the aides farther back in the ranks raised an arm.

"Perhaps we should use only Human troops in the Warrens.  If we . . ."

"Who would that fool?" Broey demanded.  "We have taken the proper steps to maintain our hold on Chu.  You have one task and one task only:  find that store of food and those hidden factories.  Unless we find them we're finished.  Now, get out of here.  I don't want to see any of you until you can report success!"

They filed out silently.

Broey stood looking down at the blank screen of his communicator.  Alone at last, he allowed his shoulders to slump, breathed heavily through both mouth and ventricles.

What a mess!  What a terrible mess.

He knew in his node of nodes that he was behaving precisely as Jedrik wanted him to behave.  She had left him no alternatives.  He could only admire her handling of the situation while he waited for the opening which he knew must come.  But what a magnificent intellect operated in that Human head.  And a female at that!  Gowachin females never developed such qualities.  Only on the Rim were Gowachin females used as other than breeders.  Human females, on the other hand, never ceased to amaze him.  This Jedrik possessed real leadership qualities.  Whether she was the one to take over the Electorship remained to be seen.

Broey found himself recalling those first moments of terrible awareness in the Graluz.  Yes, this was the way of the world.  If one chose the survivors by other than a terrible testing process, all would die.  It would be the end of both species.  At least, it would be the end of them on Dosadi and only Dosadi mattered.

He felt bereft, though.  He felt betrayed by his God.  Why had God failed to warn him?  And when questioned, how could God respond that only evil could penetrate the mind of a fanatic?  Wasn't God omnipotent?  Could any awareness be closed to God?  How could God be God then?

I am your God!

He could never forget that voiceless voice reverberating in his head.

Was that a lie?

The idea that they were puppets of a false god was not a new one.  But if this were the case, then the other uses of those like Pcharky eluded him.  What was the purpose of being a Gowachin in Human form or vice versa if not to elude the God of the Veil?  Quite obviously, Jedrik operated on such a premise.  What other motive could she have than to prolong her own life?  As the City was to the Rim, so was the power to elude the God (false God or true) to those of the City.  No other assumption fitted a Dosadi justification.

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