Patriots

"If there's a city of fifty thousand in the middle of a tract," Ms. Macey said bluntly, "all we can sell is a lawsuit. And that's what the matter has to do with you. As you saw today, the Zenith syndicate is regranting all the Hestia tracts, settled as well as open. The city could as easily be on your property as ours."

"Oh," said Yerby. His smile made Mark tighten up before his conscious mind recalled that the big frontiersman was his friend. "I don't think they'll be settling my property any time soon. Nor that of any of my neighbors."

"Exactly our point," Daniels said. "We're your neighbors too, Mr. Ba

"All we're asking in return," Holperin said, bending forward slightly on a wooden captain's chair which Mark knew from experience was just less uncomfortable than a torture rack, "is that you act as our agent here. Continue what you did today, that's all. If one large-scale immigrant community is built on Greenwood, let alone a dozen of them, you and your friends will be swamped and helpless. The time to act is now."

"We think a slightly more formal basis would be useful," Macey said. "Form a planetary militia. It's important that you act in accordance with legal forms. Now-"

"Legally, Greenwood is administered by the Protector of Zenith," Mark interrupted. "Are you asking Mr. Ba

"Not at all!" Elector Daniels said. By his title, he was one of the officials elected by the citizens of Quelhagen instead of being appointed from Earth. Given the state of relations between the Council of Electors and the Protector, the Atlantic Alliance authorities would dearly love a chance to arrest Daniels for fomenting rebellion.

"Zenith's claim is not certain," Holperin said. "We don't mean anyone should take arms against the Alliance, Mr. Maxwell. Zenith representatives attempting to grab land by force, however, can properly be resisted by a militia organized among the citizens of the threatened community."

"They're asking you to hold an election and have your friends proclaim you militia commander," Mark translated. He turned to Daniels and continued, "If Mr. Ba

"Pay?" said Yerby. "Say, don't worry about that, lad. I wonder if I'd need a uniform, do you think?"

"I had more in mind a proposal that would benefit the planet as well as you, Mr. Ba

"I don't need to be paid to do my duty, boy!" Yerby said in a near growl.

"Yerby!" Amy snapped. She stepped to her brother and shook her finger under his nose. "Be quiet and speak when Mark tells you to speak! Do you understand?"

Yerby backed a step and cleared his throat. "Sorry, Amy," he muttered toward a corner of the room.

Mark cleared his throat also. "A reasonable recompense for Mr. Ba

He cocked an eyebrow at Yerby in question.

"To do what?" Yerby asked.

"Allow us to place a ten-by-thirty-foot unit with solar collectors in the stockyard," Mark explained. "It'll take the manure as well as the slaughteryard waste and convert it into bricks of fertilizer and animal food."

"There's a market for processed organics for food on immigrant ships as well," Ms. Macey said. She frowned. "But the plants are expensive, especially since Paris has embargoed industrial production on Quelhagen."

"Sure, Blaney'd let me do that," Yerby said. "He's been complaining about the stink when the wind's the wrong way for as long as I've known him. Not that he was going to do anything about it."

They'd need a formal contract with Blaney, but that could come later. The handshake agreement Yerby visualized might not hold when Blaney realized how much profit was involved.

"A deal on those terms, then, madame and sirs?" Mark said. His palms were sweating and the hair along his arms prickled upright, but his voice was steady. He was dealing with some of the richest people on Quelhagen, and they were dealing!

"Wait a minute," Elector Daniels said. "You're asking us to go to considerable up-front expense against what? Whatever Mr. Ba

Yerby started forward. Mark stepped sideways to put himself between the two men. Amy shouted, "Yerby! Please!" this time in fear rather than anger. She knew even better than Mark did what her brother was likely to do to someone he decided had insulted him.

Daniels must have been able to guess, because his face went white and he babbled, "I'm most sorry, most sincerely sorry!"

Mark took a deep breath. He said, "Elector, you'll have Mr. Ba

The investors looked at one another. Mark didn't see the signals they exchanged, but Daniels nodded to him, then to Yerby, and said, "Done on those terms."

Mark felt as though his tendons had all been cut. He was as wrung out as he'd been immediately after the fight in the caravansary.

Amy touched his shoulder to steady him. The camera was in her other hand. Mark had been so focused on the negotiation that he hadn't noticed she was recording the whole affair.

"Despite the embargo, I think it's possible to get a plant shipped from someplace cheaper than Earth," Mr. Holperin said to his colleagues. "There are ways and ways."

"Let's all have a drink!" said Yerby Ba

11. The Voice of the People

The slopes on three sides of the Spiker were colorful with the patterned wings of flyers and the fabric casings of dirigibles, but the area between the tavern and the spaceport had been kept clear for people to stand. Mark sat on the courtyard wall at the base of a speakers' platform cantilevered out from it. There must be close to a thousand Greenwoods staring up at him and the platform where Yerby stood with the Quelhagen investors.

"A quarter of the whole planet's here," Amy said in her version of the same thought. "More than that, really, even though the people who've settled on Zenith grants wouldn't have come."

"Can you boys hear me?" Yerby Ba

Those folk could have moved forward if they wanted to hear the proceedings. They were men and women of the careful sort who were afraid not to attend an assembly called to discuss the future of Greenwood, but who were unwilling to be seen actually taking part in it. By keeping back on the fringes, they hoped to avoid all responsibility.

"The business at Dagmar's focused attention about as well as a threat of hanging would," Mark said. "And I guess most of the settlers live pretty close to here or to the Doodle, which isn't that far away. Most of Greenwood 's still unclaimed."

He raised his eyes to the Quelhagens on the platform. "Except by them."

The crowd was rumbling a general agreement to Yerby's question. A dozen uniformed Quelhagen attendants stood just below the courtyard wall with handheld microphones, but most of the crowd couldn't comment except by shouting yes or no. The settlers at the base of the wall were those whose neighbors granted them status as speakers by allowing them to move to where they could reach a mike.