The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds Page B

you’d blink an eyelid at killing Jane, if she got in our way.’
    â€˜She doesn’t have to die, Sheridan. She’s a brave woman and a good prefect. But she has principles. They’re admirable, in their own way, but they’d compel her to obstruct our arrangements. She would commit the error of placing loyalty to Panoply above the greater good of the people.’
    Gaffney ruminated over the possibilities. ‘Aumonier’s been under a lot of pressure lately, that’s for sure.’
    â€˜Enough to concern Doctor Demikhov?’
    â€˜So I gather.’
    â€˜Well, things are certainly not going to get any less stressful for the supreme prefect any time soon. Perhaps you could arrange her removal from power on compassionate grounds?’
    â€˜The other seniors won’t go for it if they think I’m after her job.’
    â€˜We don’t need you in the hot seat, Sheridan, we just need Jane out of it. The other key players - Crissel, Baudry, Clearmountain ... which one would be her natural successor?’
    â€˜Baudry has automatic seniority.’
    â€˜How will she perform?’
    â€˜Baudry’s competent, but she’s detail-focused, not someone with Jane’s strategic overview. There are going to be a lot of balls in the air when we go live. I think Baudry could end up dropping a few.’
    â€˜In other words, she’d suit our requirements very well.’ Aurora looked pleased with him, or with herself: he wasn’t usually able to tell. ‘Start making arrangements, Sheridan.’
    â€˜I’m still concerned about Dreyfus. You can bet he’ll fight Jane’s corner. Baudry and the other seniors have a lot of respect for him, so it’ll be difficult to squeeze Jane out while he’s around.’
    â€˜Then I see only one possibility, Sheridan. You’d better remove Dreyfus from the picture. He’s a field prefect, correct?’
    â€˜Long in the tooth, but still one of the best.’
    â€˜It can be dangerous work, being a field prefect.’ For a moment she seemed absent, as if the face had pulled away from the mask. Gaffney drummed his fingers against the pedestal of his chair until she returned, feeling like a little schoolboy left alone in a big office. ‘Perhaps I can help,’ she continued. ‘I’ll need to know his movements when he’s outside Panoply. I presume you can feed them to me?’
    â€˜It’ll be risky, but—’
    â€˜You’ll do your best. See to it, Sheridan,’ she urged. ‘And don’t worry. I know that you are a good man and that deception does not come easily to you. Your natural instincts are to duty and loyalty, to the service of the people. I’ve known that since Hell-Five. You stared into the moral abyss of that horror, saw what freedom can lead to when freedom is unchecked, and you said no more. You knew that something must be done, even if it meant good men doing unpleasant things.’
    â€˜I know. It’s just that occasionally I have doubts.’
    â€˜Purge them. Purge them utterly. Have I not vouchsafed unto you the consequences of our inaction, Sheridan? Have I not shown you glimpses of the world to come, if we do not act now?’
    She had, too, and he knew that everything boiled down to a choice between two contending futures. One was a Glitter Band under the kindly rule of a benevolent tyrant, where the lives of the hundred million citizens continued essentially as they did now, albeit with some minor restrictions on civil liberty. The other was a Glitter Band in ruins, its population decimated, its fallen glories stalked by ghosts, revenants and monsters, some of which had once been people.
    â€˜I have the weevil data,’ he said, when the silence had become unendurable.
    â€˜I must see it immediately.’
    â€˜I’m encapsulating it into the comms feed.’
    Aurora closed her eyes. Her lips opened slightly, as if