"I have my own precautions, Gar."
"Of course, and I admit I don't know what they are."
"So what do you propose?"
Gar gave a little laugh, not quite gloating.
"You know my terms."
Broey shook his head from side to side, an exquisitely Human gesture.
"Share the rule? I'm astonished at you, Gar."
"Your astonishment hasn't reached its limits. You don't know what I've really done."
"Which is?"
"Shall we retire to a more private place and discuss it?"
Broey looked around at his aides, waved for them to leave.
"We will talk here."
Gar waited until he heard the door close behind him on the last of the departing aides.
"You probably know about the death fanatics we've groomed in the Human enclaves."
"We are prepared to deal with them."
"Properly motivated, fanatics can keep great secrets, Broey."
"No doubt. Are you now going to reveal such a secret?"
"For years now, my fanatics have lived on reduced rations, preserving and exporting their surplus rations to the Rim. We have enough, megatons of food out there. With a whole planet in which to hide it, you'll never find it. City food, every bit of it and we will . . ."
"Another city!"
"More than that. Every weapon the city of Chu has, we have."
Broey's ventricle lips went almost green with anger.
"So you never really left the Rim?"
"The Rim-born cannot forget."
"After all that Chu has done for you . . ."
"I'm glad you didn't mention blasphemy."
"But the Gods of the Veil gave us a mandate!"
"Divide and rule, subdivide and rule even more powerfully, fragment and rule absolutely."
"That's not what I meant." Broey breathed deeply several times to restore his calm. "One city and only one city. That is our mandate."
"But the other city will be built."
"Will it?"
"We've dug in the factories to provide our own weapons and food. If you move against our people inside Chu, we'll come at you from the outside, shatter your walls and . . ."
"What do you propose?"
"Open cooperation for a separation of the species, one city for Gowachin, one for Human. What you do in Chu will be your own business then, but I'll tell you that we of the new city will rid ourselves of the DemoPol and its aristocracy."
"You'd create another aristocracy?"
"Perhaps. But my people will die for the vision of freedom we share. We no longer provide our bodies for Chu!"
"So that's why your fanatics are all Rim-born."
"I see that you don't yet understand, Broey. My people are not merely Rim-born; they are willing, even eager, to die for their vision."
Broey considered this. It was a difficult concept for a Gowachin, whose Graluz guilt was always transformed into a profound respect for the survival drive. But he saw where Gar's words must lead, and he built an image in his mind of fleshly Human waves throwing themselves onto all opposition without inhibitions about pain, death, or survival in any respect. They might very well capture Chu. The idea that countless Rim immigrants lived within Chu's walls in readiness for such sacrifice filled him with deep disquiet. It required strong self-control to conceal this reaction. He did not for an instant doubt Gar's story. It was just the kind of thing this dry-fleshed Rimmer would do. But why was Gar revealing this now?
"Did Jedrik order you to prepare me for . . ."
"Jedrik isn't part of our plan. She complicates matters for us, but the kind of upset she's igniting is just the sort of thing we can exploit better than you."
Broey weighed this with what he knew about Gar, found it valid as far as it went, but it still did not answer the basic question.
"Why?"
"I'm not ready to sacrifice my people," Gar said.
That had the ring of partial truth. Gar had shown many times that he could make hard decisions. But numbered among his fanatic hordes there doubtless were certain skills he'd prefer not losing - not yet. Yes, that was the way Gar's mind worked. And Gar would know the profound respect for life which matured in a Gowachin breast after the weeding frenzy. Gowachin, too, could make bloody decisions, but the guilt . . . oh, the guilt . . . Gar counted on the guilt. Perhaps he counted too much.
"Surely, you don't expect me to take an open and active part in your Rim city project?"
"If not open, then passive."
"And you insist on sharing the rule of Chu?"
"For the interim."
"Impossible!"