‘Holy cow. You okay?’ Steel asked Stratton, scrutinising him in case he had missed any obvious physical injury.
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘You said booby-trapped. How?’
‘Classic grenade set-up,’ Stratton explained.
‘You’re shittin’ me. Do we know who did it?’
Victor shook his head.
‘Did we lose everything?’
‘We still have sixty per cent of what you sent us.’
‘Wow,’ Steel muttered, getting up to take a turn around the room and looking as if the news had sickened him.
Stratton watched him, wondering if any of his reactions were genuine. He looked like a ham actor who was doing an unusually fine job. It was hard to tell since he did not know Steel well enough. But the display of concern seemed out of character.
The door at the end of the room opened and Sebastian stepped through, together with Louisa.
‘Colonel Steel,’ Sebastian said. ‘Good to see you again.’
Steel turned on the charm. ‘Sebastian.’ He walked over and gave the rebel leader a bear hug. ‘It’s good to see you too. You’re looking great. Hey, I just heard about the explosion yesterday. That’s crazy. We’ve never had anything like that before. Are we looking at government infiltration or something else?’
Sebastian turned away and sat in his chair. ‘Sit. Please.’
Steel sat opposite him.
‘It was probably inevitable that something like this would happen,’ Sebastian said. ‘I’m surprised it did not happen sooner—’
‘Wait a minute,’ Steel interrupted. ‘Sebastian. Excuse me, but I need to be clear on one thing first. Was this internal politics or not?’
‘I don’t know. It’s possible.’
‘Hector?’
‘I would not point a finger at anyone right now,’ Sebastian said.
Steel sat back and stared thoughtfully at the older man, his thoughts appearing to run in several directions. ‘I wanna summarise where we are right now. Do you mind? I need to get my bearings back about all this. You’ve got problems. That means the rebellion’s got problems. There’s a power struggle going on. It looks to me as if you’re being isolated. Would you say that was fair?’
‘I would not argue with that assessment. But it lacks depth.’
‘I know. Sorry. I’m just trying to synopsise it. Before we can come up with a strategy we have to be sure of the ground and the threat. Look, I’ll be honest. I knew a lot about these issues before I got here. It’s part of the reason I’m here. I didn’t know about the attack, though, the booby trap. But it falls in with the symptoms.’
The others were all watching Steel without interrupting him. He was an assertive, overpowering individual, but it wasn’t just that. Any implied or open criticism of what he had to say would simply provoke a diatribe in which he would insist that his personal support and that of his country was the key to the rebellion’s success and that therefore whatever he said was gospel. To be spared that tedious rhetoric people tended not to question him. Yet there was no denying that he did provide substantial aid and political leverage and so he could not be ignored. An air of suspicion hung about him like a mist, nonetheless.
‘Can I throw a theory out there?’ Steel asked.
Sebastian gestured to him to go ahead.
‘Okay. This is classic. You know it, I’m sure. It’s how I see it, anyway. You have five powers, all supposedly equal, your five brigades. They remain even, more or less, because of that balance, that equality. So how do you get rid of one of them, for whatever reason? Say you don’t like a particular commander any more. Doesn’t matter why. He doesn’t like you, you disagree on policy - whatever. This strategy goes back to the Wars of the Roses and beyond. How do you get rid of him without the others punishing you for stepping out of line? The answer’s simple. You need them on your side against him. To achieve that you get them to fear him. One way to do that is to make him stronger than you and the others. It’s difficult for him to resist as well. I mean, everyone wants to be top dog. But it upsets the balance. And what happens? The others turn on him. They band together in order to be able to destroy the one who’s become the strongest. And the one secretly manipulating everything, well, he gets what he wants, which is to get rid of him. I think that’s what’s happening here. Someone made you a threat to the others. And now they are banding together to bring you down.’ ‘Hector?’ Victor