"As do I." Manak frowned and looked around what had been Archbishop Tanuk's office. Its splendid luxury had yielded to the fleet chaplain's spartan hand, and Lantu found its present austerity far more comfortable.
"I've received word from the Synod," Manak continued. "They've decided - for the present, at least - to confirm me as acting archbishop." He snorted. "I imagine none of the regular bishops wanted the job."
"Wise of them." Lantu was careful to limit the bite in his tone.
"Unhappily true. But that means 7 set policy now, and that's what I wanted to see you about. Colonel Huark and Father Shamar have both protested your new deployment orders."
`I'm not surprised, Holiness, but if they want to stop these attacks instead of just responding to them, then - "
"Peace, my son. I know you too well to question your judgment. unlike some others." The fleet chaplain's face was momentarily bitter, but he shook the expression aside. "I've told them you have my full support. In return, I'm going to need yours, I think."
"Oh? In what way, Holiness?"
"I've read the report your charming secretary put together." Manak smiled slyly, and Lantu grinned - Manak had badgered him for years about his duty to take a wife as Holy Terra expected - but the churchman sobered quickly.
"You're right. The execution totals are far too high, even excluding reprisals. If your figures are as accurate as I expect, we've killed almost thirteen percent of the population. That is not the way to win converts."
Lantu nodded feelingly.
"What you may not realize," Manak went on, "is that our conversion rate - our claimed conversion rate, I should say - is under five percent. I find that truly appalling. Surely infidels should be willing to at least pretend conversion to escape death."
"They're stubborn people, Holiness," Lantu said mildly.
"Indeed they are, but this is still highly disturbing."
"I suspect, Holiness," Lantu said cautiously, "that the Inquisition has been. over zealous, let us say, in its use of punishment."
"Torture, you mean," Manak corrected bitterly, and Lantu relaxed. That sounded like the Manak he knew and respected. "One shouldn't speak ill of the dead, perhaps, especially not of martyrs in the cause of Holy Terra, but Tanuk never could tefl right from left without an instruction book."
"I never knew the archbishop - "
"You missed very little, my son. His faith was strong, but he was ever intolerant. It's one thing to carry the jihad home against the infidels; it's quite another to slaughter them out of frustration, and that's precisely what the Inquisition is doing. If they prove impossible to reclaim, then we may have no option, but the Inquisition will win more converts with love than with hate. And whatever they may have become, they are still of the race of the Messenger. If only for the love we bear him, we must make a true effort to restore them to their Faith."
"I agree, Holiness. But I think our problem may be more difficult than simply restoring their Faith."
"Oh?"
"Holiness," Lantu considered his next words carefully, "I've been studying the planetary data base ever since we got here. There are many references to Holy Terra, but only as another world - the mother world, to be sure, but with no awareness of Her divinity. Could the infidels be telling the truth when they say they never heard of the Faith, much less rejected it?"
"Of course they are.' Manak sounded a bit surprised. "I thought you understood that, my son. The Satan-Khan's influence is pervasive. All references to the Faith have been suppressed."
"But, Holiness," Lantu said cautiously, "I see no gaps, no evasions. Could something so profound be suppressed so tracelessly?"
"Lantu, this planet was settled nine years after their apostate Treaty of Tycho. Believe me, it wouldn't be difficult to delete all reference to the Faith from a colonial data base and keep it deleted. When we liberate Holy Terra, we'll find the evidence."
He sounded so positive Lantu merely nodded, but the admiral found his very assurance disturbing. The Church had always been zealous to protect its children from spiritual contamination, which was why access to the original Holy Writ in Starwalker's computers was so restricted. But Manak's confidence suggested something else. Was it possible he knew how simple it would be to suppress data because it had already -?
He chopped off that dangerous thought in a hurry.
"Getting back to my original point, though," Manak continued, "I'm going to disband the extermination squads - which Huark will hate - and I'm going to cut Archbishop Tanuk's camp execution levels in half. Sha-mar will hate that, and he'll hate it even more when I send in chaplain inspectors to limit his use of torture and make sure ne abides by my quotas. They've both got powerful sponsors in the Synod, too; thats why I need your support."
"You have it, of course. What do you need me to do?"
"Just stand around and look efficient," Manak said dryly. "I'm basing my case on military expediency by arguing that a reduction in `punishment' and the death totals will undermine popular pressure to support the terrorists."
"I see." Lantu fingered his muzzle. "It should have that effect, to some extent, at least. But it won't end it, Holiness."
"I know, but if I can justify it militarily long enough to raise the conversion rate, I won't need to justify it on any other grounds."
"I see," Lantu repeated, nodding with renewed respect. "And if I should just happen to score a few successes in the field -?"
"Exactly, my son," Manak said, and smiled.
"Jaysus!" Angus MacRory threw himself flat as yet another vertol swept overhead. A cluster of armored GEVs snorted through the underbrush like a herd of near-hippos barely a klick down-slope, and he heard the putter of infantry bikes following the paths the GEVs had flattened.
"My sentiments exactly," Caitrin muttered, and raised herself cautiously, peering uphill. "I think the rally point's still clear."
"Aye, and let's hope it stays clear." Angus drew the AP clip from his grenade launcher and replaced it with one of shaped-charge HEAT grenades. They had enough punch to deal with a lightly-armored GEV. assuming they got past the reactive armor's explosive strips first.
The thick smoke billowing through the canopy of distant treetops on the lower slopes had been a Shellhead extermination center, and Angus hoped the hostages they'd released had made a clean getaway. The guerrillas' civilian supporters were waiting to spirit them out to isolated farmsteads beyond the OZ, and they should be safe there. If they ever got there.
The speea of the Shellhead reaction had been almost as astounding as its strength. There must be at least two companies out there, and they'd dropped out of the sky before he and his people had gotten more than fifteen kilometers from the site of the raid. Fortunately, the Grampians thrust a stony tentacle close to the coast here, but -
He looked up as a rocket motor snarled and a captured Shellhead SAM raced for a lumbering personnel vertol. Its proximity fuse exploded close to the port engine, and the aircraft lurched away, trailing smoke. Angus smiled grimly. They weren't going to find any handy clearings to set that beastie down in.
His smile vanished as a heavily-armored attack helicopter darted at the SAM team's position. A ripple salvo leapt from its rocket pods, followed by a hurricane of tracers. Then the chopper flashed over the spot, and the orange glare of napalm belched through the shattered trees.
Unless that team had been very, very lucky, it was dead. These new, powerful response teams were going to make things ugly.
"Weel, let's gae,' he sighed, waving for Caitrin to proceed him while he lay still to cover her. She darted to their next chosen bit of cover, and he rose, jogging quietly past her.
It nad to be the new Shellhead military type. The one called Lantu. The Shellhead com techs had finally begun to develop an awareness of basic security - probably another gift from this Lantu - but the resistance was still picking up enough to identify its new foe.
It might, Angus mused as he flopped down behind a fallen tree and waited'for Caitrin to lope past him, be worthwhile to see if they couldn't find a way to send him to join Archbishop Tanuk.