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Chapter Thirty-Two
"You know, Boss, we can't keep this up forever," Luis Palacios remarked as he slid the final charge into its hole.
"You think Suttles and his yahoos can actually find their ass with both hands?" Stephen Westman shot back with a chuckle.
"Matter of fact, they can, Boss. Well, maybe not Suttles , but Trevor Ba
Chief Marshal Trevor Ba
"All right." Westman nodded. "I'll grant you old Trevor's bright enough. And he's a pretty good dog to set on any trail. But if we keep on being careful, sticking to the rules for security, he's going to play hell catching up with us."
"Reckon you're right." Palacios tamped the charge, and his nimble fingers began fitting the detonator. "That wasn't the point I was aiming to make, though."
He fell silent, working carefully at his task and obviously concentrating hard, and Westman stood behind him, watching him with affectionate exasperation. Luis Palacios had been Westman's father's foreman before the old man's death. He'd been respectfully warning his new, younger boss against mistakes for as long as Westman could remember. And he preferred to do it by throwing out cryptic utterances until sheer frustration compelled Westman to ask him what he meant.
Like now.
"All right, Luis," he sighed. "What point were you aiming to make?"
"The point that we can't keep hitting them hard enough to convince the Manties and Rembrandters to mosey on home and not start hurting people," Palacios said, turning to look up at him, and his voice was very, very serious.
Westman looked back down at him in the lantern light. The artificial light did strange things to Palacios' expression. The foreman's scarred face looked older, thi
"You're right," he agreed quietly. "I mean to postpone the moment as long as possible, but I've always said it was bound to happen if they wouldn't listen to reason. You know that."
"Yep." Palacios gave the charge and its detonator one last, careful examination, then stood. He slapped his palms together, dusting them off, then reached into his shirt pocket for a twist of the dried native plant the colonists had named backy. It didn't really look like Old Earth tobacco, but it was pleasant-tasting, mildly stimulating, and easily grown and cured. Palacios cut himself a short length, popped it into his mouth, and began to chew.
"Thing is, Boss," he said, after a moment, "you've warned all of us about that. And we've believed you. Problem is, I'm not so sure you've believed yourself."
"What do you mean?"
If any other man alive had said that to Stephen Westman, he'd have been furious. At least angry at the implication that he'd lied to himself. But Luis Palacios wasn't "any other man." He was the person who probably knew Westman better than Westman knew himself.
"Boss, I'm not saying you haven't considered the possibility of actually hurting, even killing, the people who get in our way pretty damned seriously. And I'm not saying you're not willing to get your hands dirty, even bloody, if you have to. And I'm not even saying I think you'll hesitate if the time comes to do any of those things. But the truth is, Boss-and you know it as well as I do, if you're honest with yourself-you don't want to do it. Matter of fact, I don't expect there's a single thing in the world you want less. Except maybe-maybe-to see the Manties take us over."
"I never said I did want to." Westman's voice was harsh, not with anger, but with resolution. "But I will. If I have to."
"Never doubted it," Palacios said simply. "But you've been moving heaven and earth to avoid it. And, truth to tell, I don't much like what I reckon it's going to do to you if it comes down to it. Don't expect I'll much care for how the other folks on this planet'll think about all of us, for that matter. Not that I'm about to pack it in on you at this point. I just want you to be thinking about the fact that we've probably come pretty close to playing this string all the way out. Reckon we'll get away with it today without hurting anybody. It won't be that way much longer, though. And sooner or later, we're go
He paused again, looking very levelly into Westman's eyes.
"I've known you a lot of years, Boss. Grown pretty fond of you, too. But it's not go
Stephen Westman looked back into his foreman's eyes for several seconds, then nodded.
"I'll think about it," he promised. "But I've already done a lot of that. I don't think I'm going to change my mind, Luis."
"If you don't, you don't," Palacios said philosophically. "Either way, the boys and I'll back your play."
"I know you will," Westman said softly. "I know you will."
"He said they're going to what ?"
Warren Suttles sat back behind his desk in the spacious, sun-drenched office of the System President and looked at Chief Marshal Ba
Which was the main reason he didn't reply to what he recognized as a rhetorical question. It wasn't the only reason. As a matter of simple fact, Trevor Ba
And even if it didn't, this son of a bitch's the duly elected President of my star system, his policies represent the freely expressed will of damned near three quarters of the electorate, and I'm bound-both by law and my personal oath-to enforce the law and to protect and preserve the Constitution of Montana against all enemies, foreign or domestic. Including enemies who happen to be close personal friends.
"Can he really do that?" Suttles asked, finally moving on from useless questions to some which might actually be worth -answering.
"Mr. President," Ba
Warren Suttles clenched his jaw and managed-somehow-to keep himself from glowering at the man seated across his desk from him. If he'd thought for a minute that he could politically survive firing Ba
"I'm aware of that, Chief Marshal," the System President said after a moment. "Just as I'm aware that, so far, we don't seem to've come a single centimeter closer to apprehending him than we were after that first escapade of his."
That was about as close to a direct criticism of Ba
"What I meant, Chief Marshal," Suttles continued a bit stiffly, "was that it seems incredible to me that even Mr. Westman and his henchmen could pull this one off. I'm not saying they can't; I'm just saying I don't understand how they can , and I'd appreciate any insight into their capabilities you could offer me."