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SEVEN
"If we were going in, guns blazing…" "We have guns?" Ressk asked Mashona quietly. She slid the case of food into storage and smacked the top of his head.
"… that would be different, you'd be as welcome to join us as you would be in a war zone."
Werst snickered.
"If we could insert the team undetected," Torin continued, ignoring him, all her attention focused on convincing Presit she wasn't going in with them, "again, no problem. But the only plan we have to get Craig out alive is to pretend we're something we're not and you're too well known."
"I are not pretending to be something I are not!" Presit declared, drawing herself up to her full height.
"I wouldn't ask you to." Years of similar conversations with officers kept Torin's voice level. "You're our backup. Once we're in, if we run into trouble, we'll need a distraction. Something to keep them off-balance. That's when you signal the station, say you tracked my ship and…"
"And you are not telling me how to do my job," Presit snapped. "Why are we not being a ship you are having captured? We are tracking you and you are capturing us; that are proving you are being pirates."
"They could demand we kill you to prove we've crossed the line."
"As I are understanding it-as you are having been telling me," she added before Torin could interrupt, "the pirates are being more thieves than murderers."
"Other salvage stations may have lost perso
"Then wouldn't the surviving salvage operators have been reporting them to the Wardens?"
"Maybe. But the odds are as good they didn't; Station 24 didn't report Jan and Sirin's deaths. You were there when…" Her nails were too short to cut into her palms, but Torin could feel them pressing against the skin. "You know the salvage operators are independent to the point of isolationist. We know one set of pirates kills without hesitation. We can't know how many more do."
"Fine." Presit combed her ruff with one hand. "I are holding back until you are needing a distraction. But you are carrying a camera." She thrust an imperious hand at Ceelin.
He shot an apologetic glance at Torin as he laid a disk about the size of Torin's smallest fingernail on Presit's palm. Matte black, if not for the gold edging, it would have been almost invisible against Presit's skin.
"It are having been designed to look like fasteners what are having been fashionable last season. In fact, it are looking like the fasteners on both tunics and the sweater I are having had Merik pick up for you."
"You didn't need-" Torin began.
Presit cut her off. "You are having only the clothing you are standing up in. Everything else are still being on the Promise. Also, I are knowing you. That are making me certain from the begi
"A camera that size is against the law, and…"
Presit cut her off again. "Pirates are being very much against the law. Theft are being against the law. Murder are being against the law. I are willing to be your backup, but I are not taking a chance that you are being unable to be calling when you are needing me."
Torin heard one of the Krai move, heard Mashona murmur something, and tried to unsuccessfully look past her reflection in Presit's glasses. She looked like shit. After a long moment, she nodded, held out her hand for the disk, and flipped it over to Ressk.
"They'll monitor signals in and out of the station," he said, pressing the disk into his slate. "You don't successfully hijack a government station without being paranoid as all fuk. Question is, do they monitor all frequencies and, more importantly, are they monitoring this frequency? This thing has its own DSP with one fuk of a high compression rate and then it embeds the transmission steganographically in what looks like static, sending stored information out at random intervals."
"But…"
"Random is better," he interrupted, apparently getting the gist of Werst's protest from the single word. "A constant signal is more than likely to be artificially generated and therefore worth monitoring; it will attract attention. The question is…" He looked up at the reporter, nose ridges flared. "… why would you even have this technology?"
Presit flicked her ears. "If it are in a large enough case that are marked with a network signal, it are fully legal."
"So you pulled this out of his case?" Ressk demanded, glancing over at Ceelin, who was doing a good job of hiding his opinion behind his dark glasses and under the thick mask of his fur.
"Don't be being ridiculous."
"You happened to have it handy?"
"I are being in a very competitive business," Presit told him dryly.
"But…"
She cut him off. "Are I asking you to be telling me all your secrets?"
"If we carry this, you're going to know them," Ressk pointed out.
"No, I are going to know hers." She nodded toward Torin. "And if they are monitoring signals, then how are you thinking you are going to signal me without they are knowing? This way, I are knowing, they are not."
"Well?" Torin held out her hand, and Ressk tossed the camera back.
"She has a point." He frowned, hung up in the syntax. "I think."
"All right." Torin looked past Presit to Merik. "Err on the side of caution when adjusting your equations…"
"Wait!" Presit grabbed the front of her sweater. "Adjusting what equations?"
"There's a good chance the station will monitor Susumi portals. Even if Merik thinks he can tag in through the same portal…"
Merik waved a maybe, maybe not.
"… they'll pick up the second ship. You need to emerge outside their sensor range. If Merik believes he can bring you closer without discovery, that's up to him
Prest adjusted her glasses. "In the interests I are having of not being killed, I are willing to be sneaking up on the station until we are blazing in to be saving your collective asses."
"Good." Torin moved her toward the air lock. "Werst, inform the station sysop we're ready to release. Merik, you have the final word on how close you can safely move in. Don't let Presit pressure you."
"I are also interested in not being killed," the pilot told her as he followed Presit into the air lock. "Don't worry, I are more interested in surviving than I are in having a story."
"You are remembering you are working for me," Presit snapped.
He flicked his ears. "Not if you are being dead."
Torin hit the controls and realized she was going to miss, not Presit exactly but, at the very least, the reporter's a
"I are having downloaded some games for you!" Ceelin called out as Presit waved off Torin's comment and the air lock's i
"Station says we have a green on go." His foot against the control panel because he couldn't reach the deck, Werst pivoted the second chair around to face the cabin. "When the air lock reseals, the docking computer will take control."
"You have a plan, Gu
Torin dropped into the pilot's chair, back straight, refusing to relax. She had no one to relinquish control of the situation to. "Not really."
"Well," Ressk said slowly after a long moment where the only sound was the muffled thud of the clamps releasing, "it has the benefit of simplicity."