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Rita Liao caught Be
"Um, okay." It was the Podmaster who had suggested the front-row solitude, but surely it couldn't matter when things were going so well. Be
"—between that speech and our meddling, they should be safe as temps at Triland—"
"Hey, we could beon the ground in less than four Msecs! After all these years—"
"Space or ground, who cares? We'll have the resources to dump the birth bans—"
Yes, the birth bans. Our own, human version of the oophase taboo. MaybeI can finally ask Gonle— Be
She nodded at Rita's suggestion. "That would be nice." Her smile was tentative, and her eyes had barely flicked away from the parlor's display screens. General Smith was climbing down from the speaker's platform.
"Qiwi! Things are working out just like the Podmaster pla
Qiwi petted the kitten in her arms gently, but with a kind of intense protectiveness. She looked at him and her expression was oddly puzzled. "Yes, it's all working out." She rose from the table and followed Be
"I have to talk to him, Corporal.Immediately. " Rachner drew himself up as he spoke the words, projecting fifteen years of colonelcy into his ma
And for a moment the young corporal wilted before his glare. Then the oophase cobblie must have noticed the traces of fizz barf on Thract's maw and the bedraggled state of his uniform. He shrugged, his gaze watchful and closed. "I'm sorry, sir, you're not on the list."
Rachner felt his shoulders droop. "Corporal, just ring down to him. Tell him it's Rachner, and it's a matter of...of life and death." And as soon as he said the words, Thract wished he hadn't asserted this absolute truth. The cobblie stared at him for a second—debating whether to throw him out? Then something like sick pity seemed to rise in his aspect; he opened a comm line and spoke to someone inside.
A minute passed. Two. Rachner paced the visitor holding box. At least it was out of the wind; he'd frozen the tips of two hands just climbing the stairs from Underhill's helipad. But...an external guard, and a holding box? Somehow, he hadn't expected such security. Maybe some good had come out of his losing his job. It had wakened the others to the need for protection.
"Rachner, is that you?" The voice that came from the sentry's comm was frail and querulous. Underhill.
"Yes, sir. Please, I've got to talk to you."
"You—you lookterrible, Colonel. I'm sorry, I—" His voice faded. There was mumbling in the background. Someone said, "The speech went well...plenty of time now." Then he was back, and sounding much less drifty. "Colonel, I'll be up in a few minutes."
FIFTY-THREE
"An excellent speech. It could not have been better if we had scripted it." In the flat video from theHand, Ritser rattled on, well pleased with himself. Nau just nodded, smiling. Smith's peace proposal was strong enough to bring the Spider militaries to a pause. It would give the humans time to a
Nau looked out over North Paw's afternoon brightness, but his huds were filled with a view of Trinli and Vinh, sitting in the flesh just a couple meters from him. Trinli had a faintly amused expression, but his fingers never stopped their flickering work on his assignment, monitoring the nuclear munitions in Kindred territory. Vinh? Vinh looked nervous; the diagnostic tags that hovered by his face showed that he knew something was up but hadn't quite figured out what it was. It was time to move him out of the way, a few brief errands. When he came back events would be in motion...and Trinli would back up the Podmaster's story.
A
"Yes, go ahead." Nau spoke easily, not turning away from the lake. Inside, though, something froze in his guts. This was the closest he had ever heard A
"Our pet subversive has stepped up the pace. There's much less masking. He's grabbing everything that's loose. A few thousand more seconds and he can shut us zipheads down....It's Trinli, sir, ninety percent probability."
But Trinli is sitting right here, before my very eyes! And I need him toback up the post-attack lies."I don't know, A
A
This was not a distraction he needed when forty years' work was coming to a cusp.Which was exactly why an enemy might pick this moment finallyto act.
Kal Omo was standing right behind Nau, and was on the private link with Reynolt. Of the other three guards, only Rei Ciret was actually in the room. Nau sighed. "Okay, A
Nau had given his targets no warning, yet—from the corner of his vision, he saw Trinli's hand flicker in a throwing gesture. Kal Omo gave a gargling scream.
Nau pulled himself under the table. Something slammed into the thick wood above him. There was a chatter of wire-gun fire, another scream.
"He's getting away!"
Nau slid across the floor and bounced up toward the ceiling on the far side of the table. Rei Ciret was in midair, flailing at Ezr Vinh. "Sorry, sir! This one jumped me." He pushed the bleeding body away; Vinh had bought Trinli the instant he needed to escape. "Marli and Tung will get him!"
Indeed they were trying. The two sprayed wire-fire up the hillside, toward the forest. But Trinli was way ahead of them, flying from tree to tree. Then he was gone, and Tung and Marli were halfway to the forest in hot pursuit.
"Wait!" Nau's voice roared over the lodge speakers. A lifetime of obedience stopped their reckless pursuit. They came carefully back down the hillside, sca
Nau continued in a lower voice. "Get inside. Guard the lodge." It was the sort of basic direction a podsergeant would give, but Kal Omo was...Nau floated back to the meeting table, the etiquette of consensual gravity set aside for the moment. Something sharp and shiny was wedged in the edge of the table, just at the point where he had dived for cover. A similar blade had slashed across Omo's throat; its butt end protruded from the podsergeant's windpipe. Omo had stopped twitching. Blood hung all around him, drifting only slowly toward the floor. The podsergeant's wire gun was half out of its holster.
Omo was a useful man.Do I have time to put him on ice? Nau thought a second more on tactics and timing...and Kal Omo lost.
The guards hovered around the lodge's windows, but their eyes kept straying back to their podsergeant. Nau's mind raced down chains of consequences. "Ciret, get Vinh tied down. Marli, find Ali Lin."