The Return of the Emperor by Chris Bunch; Allan Cole Read Free Book Online Page B

Mission accomplished!
    The explosion that followed surprised them as much as anyone else. The bomb might have been a nice touch. But it was inconceivable that Sullamora would commit suicide. The council members assumed the madman, Chapelle, was merely making sure of his target. Oh, well. Poor Sullamora. Drakh happens.
    Although it meant there were more riches to divide, they honestly mourned the man. As the chief of all transport and most major ship building, Tanz Sullamora could not be replaced. They also badly needed his skills at subterfuge, as well as his knowledge of the inner workings of Imperial politics. His death meant that they had to learn on the job.
    They didn't learn very well.
    The Emperor had stored the AM2 in great depots strategically placed about his Empire. The depots fed great tankers that sped this way and that, depending upon the need and the orders of the Emperor. He alone controlled the amount and the regularity of the fuel.
    Defy him, and he would beggar the rebel system or industry. Obey him, and he would see there was always a plentiful supply at a price he deemed fair for his own needs.
    The privy council immediately saw the flaw in that system, as far as their own survival was concerned. Not one member would trust any other enough to give away such total control.
    So they divided the AM2 up in equal shares, assuring each of their own industries had cheap fuel. They also used it to punish personal enemies and reward, or create, new allies. Power, in other words, was divided four ways.
    Occasionally they would all agree that there was a single threat to their future. They would meet, consider, and act.
    In the beginning, they went on a spending spree. With all that free fuel, they vastly expanded their holdings, building new factories, gobbling up competitors, or blindsiding corporations whose profits they desired.
    The Emperor had priced AM2 on three levels: The cheapest went to developing systems. The next was for public use, so that governments could provide for the basic needs of their various populaces. The third, and highest, was purely commercial.
    The privy council set one high price to be paid by everyone, except themselves and their friends. The result was riches beyond even their inflated dreams.
    But there was one worm gnawing a great hole in their guts. It was a worm they chose too long to ignore.
    The great depots they controlled had to be supplied. But by whom? Or what?
    In the past, robot ships—tied together in trains so long they exceeded the imagination—had appeared at the depots filled to the brim with Anti-Matter Two. Many hundreds of years had passed since anyone had asked where they might come from. An assumption replaced the question. Important people knew—important people who followed the Emperor's orders.
    Like all assumptions, it rose up and bit the privy council in their collective behinds.
    When the Emperor died, the robot ships stopped. At that moment, the AM2 at hand was all they possessed. It would never increase.
    It took a long while for that to sink in. The privy council was so busy dealing with the tidal wave of problems—as well as their own guilt—that they just assumed the situation to be temporary.
    They sent their underlings to question the bureaucrats at the fuel office. Those poor beings puzzled at them. "Don't you know?" they asked. For a time, the privy council was afraid to admit they didn't.
    More underlings were called. Every fiche, every document, every doodle the Emperor had scrawled was searched out and examined.
    Nothing.
    This was an alarming state of affairs, worthy of panic, or, at least, a little rationing. They only panicked a little—and rationed not at all.
    They were secretive beings themselves, they reasoned. It was an art form each had mastered in his or her path to success. Therefore: An emperor had to be the most secretive creature of all. Proof: His long reign—and their momentary failure at figuring his system out.
    Many