The Road of Danger-ARC (16 page)

The would-be colonists had hope before them; the orphan Adele Mundy had seen nothing better ahead of her except death. But things
had
become better after all, better for the person the real Adele
was, than they would have been had her life gone in the track she had expected while she was growing up as the studious daughter of a powerful Cinnabar political leader.

Adele had the whole RCN as a family, and she had Daniel Leary for a friend. Her father had had power, but he had neither friends nor family in the sense that Adele had come to understand the words.

The artificial island around the
Phoenix
had been turned into a garden with walkways through its plantings. Adele thought,
Daniel would know whether the trees are native species
.

She reached for her data unit, thinking,
Well, all I have to do is find the catalogue of the garden’s holdings and compare it to the database of species native to Madison
.

She caught herself again. This time she came as close to laughing as she had done in weeks or longer.
I’m not in competition with Daniel. If I decide that I have to compete with him, I should focus on a skill like clambering about the rigging. That would have some practical application
.

An aircar approached from the mainland side. Adele wasn’t particularly interested in vehicles, but she looked at this one, an enclosed gray six-place car, because it drove low and near the causeway. The only passenger sat behind the driver. He eyed Adele as he passed.

If Tovera were here
, Adele thought,
she would step between me and the car—and she would have her hand on the sub-machine gun in her attaché case
.

Adele didn’t reach into her left tunic pocket, but she
consciously
didn’t reach into it. She wasn’t as paranoid as Tovera, but she knew that that she could get into that state very easily if she didn’t constantly fight the tendency.

The aircar slowed and turned inward when it crossed the wall protecting the island. The causeway ended in a circular plaza from which narrow paths led into the garden while a broad one continued to the starship’s entrance. The pavement was probably synthetic, but it was patterned to mimic brick.

The driver angled the car between two of the stone benches set around the perimeter of the plaza. It settled, and a guard at the entry port a hundred feet away shouted angrily.

The driver idled his fans; the passenger, a short, tubby man, got out of the back and walked toward Adele. His hair was intensely black even over a swarthy complexion.

The guard shouted again and started toward them; he wasn’t armed, so that wasn’t an immediate problem. Adele lifted her pistol; she didn’t bring it out of her pocket
quite
yet.

“Lady Hrynko?” the little man called. He was twenty feet away and coming closer with short, quick steps. “I am Liber Osorio, the Cremonan trade attaché here on Madison. Can we go somewhere to discuss a business proposition?”

“No,” said Adele. She thought for a moment. “If you’d care to sit on one of these benches, though—”

She gestured with her right hand. Pedestrians were walking around them, and the guard was coming closer. He had taken a communicator out of its belt pocket.

“—I’ll give you a few minutes.”

Osorio turned and shouted to his driver, “Go to the other side of the water and wait for us.”

The car lifted. It hovered for a moment, then obediently drove over the water toward the mainland side at a moderate pace.

The benches were backless, slightly curved, and about six feet wide. She sat on the left end of closest and gestured Osorio toward the midpoint when he tried to sit closer to her.

Adele said, “Before you tell me your proposition, Master Osorio, explain how you happened to meet me here.”

Her hand was still in her pocket.

CHAPTER 10: West Ashetown

“I didn’t mean to surprise you, Lady Hrynko,” Osorio said, smiling at Adele; he spread his hands to his sides to echo his mouth’s curve. “I had you watched so that I could speak with you without arousing the comment which would ensue were I to visit your yacht, that is all. I must say—”

He gestured toward her, probably meaning to indicate her simple costume.

“—I wasn’t expecting to find you alone.”

“I am incognito,” Adele snapped. “I am here to bathe my soul in the artifacts of Ancient Man!”

She couldn’t imagine a real Kostroman Principal saying that, but she had been on Kostroma long enough to have seen equally—if differently—eccentric behavior among the clan leaders. She thought it would sound bizarre but believable to Osorio; which appeared to be the case.

“You are clearly a person of great refinement, Lady Hrynko,” the little man said, dipping in a seated bow. “As I said, I am my planet’s trade representative here, a position which requires a relatively coarse outlook. I ask your pardon for that. But—”

He gestured to the sides again. His smile made Adele want to slap him.

“—I too have a spiritual side. I dream of a free Sunbright. I am one of a group of like-minded souls on Cremona who are working to help the citizens of Sunbright throw off the yoke of Alliance domination. We hope that you will be willing to aid us—for a fair price, I emphasize. You are a stranger in this region and cannot be expected to care about the hopes of us and our neighbors.”

Adele didn’t speak for a moment.
I shouldn’t be offended by this—he believes I’m who I claim to be, after all. But does he think I’m brain damaged or a child?

Aloud she said, “You’re talking nonsense. If you have a proposal consistent with my honor, make it. Otherwise…”

She sniffed and let her voice trail off.

Osorio bowed at the waist again. “Yes, of course, Your Ladyship,” he said equably. “We Friends of Sunbright are Cremonese citizens who have banded together to provide supplies to the Sunbright freedom fighters. The Alliance Funnel Squadron attempts to capture our ships—our ships and those of like-minded shippers—over Sunbright, but this is a difficult task and the blockaders are rarely successful. You understand this, Your Ladyship?”

He
must
think that I’m a moron
, Adele marveled silently.
Or else he has a lower opinion of foreigners than even Hogg does
.

She sniffed again. Kostroma was a far more sophisticated place than anything she had heard about Cremona.

“Yes, I understand,” Adele said. “Explain what that has to do with me?”

“Now, most of the ships and supplies running the Sunbright blockade,” Osorio said, “come through Madison here even though they make the final approach from Cremona. Madison is a major trading world; we on Cremona do not have either the industry or the volume of shipping to supply the materials needed by the freedom fighters.”

Or to broker the Pink Rice
, Adele thought. Cremona didn’t have a planetary government so much as it did a club in which members of a criminal gang got together to brag and to discuss further banditry.

“Why doesn’t the Funnel administration discuss the matter with their colleagues here on Madison?” Adele said, helping to keep things moving along. “Surely if the Forty Stars Squadron cooperates with the Funnel Squadron, they can end their problem easily. They can end your blockade running, that is.”

Osorio tried to laugh lightly, but Adele was pleased to hear an underlying note of strain. Granted that the fellow wasn’t patronizing Lady Mundy, she still found his attitude irritating.

Was there
any
adult too stupid to realize that the Friends of Sunbright were profiteers who were getting rich by supplying the rebels? If the Alliance forces had needed arms, the Friends would willingly have supplied them. The bloodshed was of no concern to them.

Adele shrugged. The bloodshed didn’t particularly concern her either. She had shed a fair amount of it herself over the years.

“Mistress?” Osorio said in confusion.

“I was thinking of something else,” Adele said, regretting that she had allowed her expression to change, a visible warning. “I was thinking that fighting, whether for freedom or not, is likely to lead to death.”

Her lips—barely—smiled. “But since everything leads to death,” she said, “that doesn’t matter, does it?”

“Ah…” Osorio said. He cleared his throat and said, “Well. You were asking about the Forty Stars Squadron cooperating with the Funnel blockade. This will not happen. The authorities hate each other! Sector Administrator Braun here is pleased to see the trouble Kolpach of the Funnel is having. But there is a better reason!”

“Go on,” Adele said. The Cremonan attaché had already given the correct reason—regional rivalry—for why the Forty Stars government winked at local support of the Sunbright rebels. It was beyond her how any reason could seem better than the true one, but she had long ago learned that most people seemed to have a different opinion on the matter.

“Cinnabar is behind the rebellion!” Osorio said with his usual heavy-handed emphasis. “No, I don’t mean just that Cinnabar sent one of its top secret agents to lead the rebellion under the name Freedom. I mean that the Cinnabar Navy intelligence section on Kronstadt has planned the whole thing. They set up the supply network before the rebellion started
and
they provided enough weapons to make the initial stages practical. It was anti-ship missiles which made the first raid at Tidy possible!”

Adele’s mind cascaded analyses:

I don’t believe that.

It is possible that a Naval Intelligence section here on the fringes of the empire could go rogue.

If Cinnabar’s Naval Intelligence is behind the Sunbright rebellion, it means the war will resume very shortly
.

None of the thoughts reached her tongue. She looked at a couple walking beside a pool in the garden, not far from the causeway. The man was…over-attentive; the woman shied away, but not very far away. From their clothing, they both worked in the government offices on the
Phoenix
.

Osorio must have taken Adele’s silence as meaning that she had not understood the importance of what he had just told her. He leaned forward and said urgently, “The Cinnabar Navy wants the Forty Stars Squadron concentrated around Sunbright with the Funnel Squadron. Then Cinnabar will capture Madison! But Admiral Jeletsky here knows that and he won’t be tricked away. You can see that he’s ready to move at any moment, though. The squadron has been on high alert for twenty days!”

“I see,” Adele said, since she realized that she was expected to say something. “I still don’t understand what this has to do with me. With the Principal of Hrynko.”

Osorio started back. There was nothing in her words to disturb him, so he must be reacting to her face.

Adele had been considering options for correcting the situation if she learned that Cinnabar personnel were really behind the rebellion on Sunbright. It certainly wasn’t the section on Kronstadt, but some other element of the RCN might be responsible.

Mistress Sand would need to be informed, but time would be of the essence. It might be best to solve the problem first, then report it. Adele was confident that she and Tovera would be able to take care of the matter without help from Xenos.

“While the Alliance navy can’t catch many of our supply ships,” Osorio said, meaning the blockade runners which were making him and his friends rich, “the Governor of Sunbright has commissioned a private vessel, the
Estremadura
, which is another matter. It operates in the Madison System—where ships from the Funnel Squadron would not be permitted—and along the route from here to Cremona. It carries ships it captures to a prize court on Westerbeke, where they’re always condemned.”

He puffed up his chest with an air of angry injustice. “
And
,” he concluded, “they always know the real cargo, no matter how careful the owners have been in creating believable documents!”

“I still don’t see—” Adele began, though in fact she finally had a glimmer of understanding of what the Cremonan was getting at.

“You will see!” Osorio said. “You have a real warship, do you not? You can fight. The port officials here say this.”

“Yes,” said Adele. Her suspicion, unlikely as it had seemed, was correct.

“We will hire you!” Osorio said. “The Friends of Sunbright will hire you to protect our shipping. You will have a Cremonan commission so that you will not be pirates, you need not be afraid. We have power in our government!”

The Government of Cremona is a joke
, Adele thought.
And if a Cremonan naval vessel attacks an Alliance naval vessel, it’s an act of war. Even if both ships are auxiliaries
.

“You are authorized to commit your government and to pay the fee I might demand for undergoing this danger?” Adele said coldly. “I would need proof, which I doubt you could provide.”

She pursed her lips and added, “I would be paid in Alliance thalers.
If
I were to do this. Or Cinnabar florins, that would be all right.”

“Then you will do it!” Osorio said. Which was, after all, what Adele’s answer implied, despite the qualifiers she had used to couch it. “I do not have this authority, no no, but you will take me to Cremona. The Council of Friends will meet you; and when we have agreed, the government will issue your commission. On my honor as a gentleman of Cremona!”

I have heard oaths that impressed me more
, Adele thought. Aloud she said, “I will give this matter thought, Master Osorio. I will inform you if I decide we have anything further to discuss.”

In other words
, she thought,
I will talk the matter over with Daniel and we will form our strategy together
.
But I really want to look into your claim that Cinnabar provided missiles at the beginning of the rebellion
.

Reacting—again—to Adele’s lack of immediate response, Osorio said, “Come!” as he rose to his feet.

He made an upward gesture with both hands as though he were tossing grain to winnow out the chaff. “We will eat together and you will understand my position. They have good wines here on Madison, very good wines!”