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"Will she conclude you are truly mad, then?"
"Of course she will. That "psychobabbler" was a load of manure, and let's face it—by her standards, I am buggy. And one thing the Cadre doesn't do is let out of control drop commandos run around loose. Terrible PR if they accidentally slaughter a few dozen i
"So." Mental silence hovered for a moment, broken by a soundless sigh. "Well, Little One, in this instance I have little to offer. Once I might have spirited you out of anyone's power, but those days are gone, and friends are always harder to escape than enemies."
"Don't I know it." Alicia wrapped herself in consideration for a long moment, thinking too quickly for Tisiphone to follow, then smiled. "Okay. If they won't let me go, we'll just have to bust out. But not yet." She rubbed the tractor collar again. "Not till we get to Soissons, I think. Nowhere to hide if we tried it here, anyway. Unless you'd care to take me back to that place where 'time has no business' of yours?" "I could, of course. But we could not stay there forever, and when I released you, you would return to the exact spot you had left."
"To be grabbed by whoever sees us. Hell, what if they knock down the hospital and clear out entirely? Freezing my keister in the snow in a hospital gown isn't my idea of a good thing."
"It would seem to have drawbacks," Tisiphone agreed.
"Indeedy deed. All right, it'll have to be Soissons. And if they think I'm crazy anyway, we might as well use that."
"Indeed? How?"
"I think I'm going to become extremely buggy—in a harmless sort of way. Something I learned about the brass a long time ago, Tisiphone: give them something they think they understand, and they're happy. And happy brass tend to stay out of your way while you get on with business."
"Ahhhhhhh, I see. You will deceive them into lowering their guard."
"Exactly. I'm afraid I'll be talking to you—andthe recorders—alot. In the meantime, I think you and I had better figure out exactly what capabilities you still have to help out when the moment comes, don't you?"
"I do, indeed." There was a positively gleeful note to the mental whisper, and Alicia DeVries gri
"Well, Tisiphone," she said aloud, "it doesn't sound like they're going to be too reasonable. The Cadre can be that way, sometimes. In fact, this reminds me of the time Sergeant Malinkov's pharmacope got buggered on Ba
She tucked her hands behind her head and babbled cheerfully on to Tisiphone's invisible presence ... and the recorders.