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Moscow and create an umbrella impervious to attack. A special team of couriers was dispatched from
Castle Englewood to the Imperial Palace, carrying with it the notorious Patent. The instant that was
delivered safely into the hands of the Empress Pro Tem, Fleet Admiral Armstrong himself led a company
of space marines into the Grand Ballroom and broke up the party by placing Grand Duke Nicholas and
his
entire retinue under immediate arrest for treason.
The Grand Duke was taken at once to the Pacific Island to confront the Emperor himself. As Stanley
Ten
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watched, his own personal physician administered the nitrobarb to his long-unrecognized half-brother.
Then Zander von Wilmenhorst came forward to conduct the intensive questioning that the situation
required. Slowly but surely, the full story emerged.
Banion had been placed in an orphanage by his mother when he was slightly over two years old, and
had
eventually been raised by a foster family that knew nothing of his royal ancestry. Aimee Amorat had kept
the Patent hidden herself, and kept equally close tabs on her son as he grew and matured. Finally, when
he was sixteen years old, she had come to him and told him the true story of his birth. He hadn't believed
her at first, but she had all the proof at hand to convince him - including the Patent, the most conclusive
evidence of all. She told him that the Throne and the Empire were his for the taking if he wanted them
badly enough; his heritage would depend on his own skill and cunning.
She left the Patent of Royalty with him and then vanished. Though he was to search every corner of the
Empire for the next fifty years, there simply was no trace of her to be found. It was as if the Beast of
Durward had been swallowed up by the Universe.
But the dream she had left with him had conquered his soul. By the time he was twenty years old, he had
already formulated his first tentative plans for galactic domination. By age thirty he had built up a small
but
intensely loyal organization and was reaping enough profits to allow him to approach Grand Duchess
Olga of Sector Twenty. Shrewd woman that she was, she saw the immense benefits to be gained by
backing this pretender to the Throne. Their marriage accelerated tremendously the growth of his
subversive organization until today, thirty-seven years later, it was undermining and sapping the strength
of the entire Empire.
Under the Head's expert probing, Banion revealed all the major hierarchical details of his traitorous
organization. With those particulars to work from, the Emperor issued his orders and Fleet Admiral
Armstrong carried them out. Since it is much faster in these matters to work from the top down than
from
the bottom up, full information - including the names of ninety-eight percent of the people involved in the
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organization - was obtained in less than a week, and the roundup of the miscreants began.
Nicholas and Olga Otamar were tried jointly before the High Court o justice, with Stanley Ten himself
presiding as judge. They were found guilty by a unanimous vote of their peers and were summarily
executed. The Dowager Duchess Tanya was also tried and found guilty of abetting treason. She was
sentenced to death, but that sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on Gastonia and loss of all
titles in exchange for her renewed vow of loyalty to the Crown. Other participants in the conspiracy
received sentences ranging from death to several years in prison, depending on the degree of their
involvement.
-78-
The vacancies in the various services that resulted from this housecleaning operation were many and
terribly shocking, but the menace that had hung like a cloud over the Empire for sixty-seven years was at
long last ended. And most importantly - at least to Jules and Yvette d'Alembert - the Service of the
Empire
was finally scoured clean of even the slightest taint of treason.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE IMPERIAL STARS
Becauseof their high intelligence, their superbly catlike agility,their hair-trigger speed ofreaction and
theirenormous physicalstrength, DesPlainians were always in demand as fighters, bodyguards and
spies. They had been the best secret service agents of, in turn, the Central Intelligence of Earth, the
Galactic Intelligence Agency and the Service of the Empire. And of all DesPlainians throughout the
years,
thed'Alemberts had been by far the best. The fact that the Circus of the Galaxy was SOTE's right arm
did
not leak from Earth because only the monarch, the Head and a very few of their mosthighly trusted
intimates ever knew it. Nor did it leak from the Circus. Circus people have never spoken to rubes, and
the
inflexible Code d'Alembert was that d'Alemberts spoke only to d'Alemberts and to the Head. (
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unpublished
data)
Again it was late at night. Again the d'Alemberts' Service Special slanted downward through the air
toward the roof of the Hall of State of Sector Four. This time, however, the little speedster was not
riding a
beam and there was no spot of light upon the building's roof. Except for the light of the almost-full moon,
everything was dark and still.
Yvette was doing the driving this time. She was now the Yvette of old, shorn of all disguise and
artificiality,
and wearing what she considered one of her most presentable pants suit ensembles. Jules, again
shorthaired
and smooth-shaven, looked much like his usual self; only the crutch resting beside him gave any
indication that he had been affected by this case.
Coming down with scarcely even a bump, Yvette landed their vehicle near the kiosk of the ultra-private
elevator
tube. She opened her door and leaped lightly out, then turned to help her brother clamber stiffly and
awkwardly out of his side of the car. Duchess Helena came running up to them through the darkness in
an extremely un-ducal fashion.
'Oh Yvette, I'm so proud of you. You were absolutely marvelous!' She put both arms around Yvette's
neck
and kissed her three times on the lips. 'I'm so glad Father let me be the one to come out and meet you.
I've been telling him all along that we ought to have more female agents; now maybe he'll listen to me.'
Then she turned to Jules, who was standing beside her and smiling in the darkness. Very carefully, so as
not to upset his balance, she slipped her arms lightly about his waist and gave him an affectionate hug.
'And you, Jules! I just can't begin to tell you ... butsurely you can hug a girl tighter than this, can't you?
Even with a bum leg?'
Jules, returning her kisses enthusiastically, tightened his arms a little, but not much. Then, lifting her by
the armpits, he held her effortlessly out at arms' length with her toes twenty-five centimeters above the
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ground. 'Sure I can,' he said with solemn voice but sparkling eyes; 'but the trouble is, I never hugged an
Earther before and I'm afraid of breaking you in two. It wouldn't be quitede rigeur , would it, to break a
duchess's back and half her ribs?'
'Oh, there's no danger of that. I'm ever so much stronger than . . .' She broke off and her eyes widened
in
surprise as her hands, already on his arms, tried with all their strength to drive their fingertips into his
flesh.
'Oh, I see,' she said quietly. 'I never quite realized how densely packed you were.'
Jules lowered her gently to the roof and she led the way into the elevator tube. She did not tell them why
the Head had summoned them here tonight, nor did they ask. She was looking a little thoughtful, and as
-80-
the three of them started to descend she said timidly, 'Jules, I have something to confess. I was all set to
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