The Road of Danger-ARC (29 page)

If the Friends did attack her, Adele was confident—she smiled mentally—that she and Tovera could kill everyone in the hall by themselves. They were going to run out of ammunition shortly thereafter, however, unless Tovera was even more paranoid than she had demonstrated in the past.

“Who do you think you are, woman?” Mangravite said. He slapped his hands down on the tabletop and put enough weight on them to make his flesh wobble, though not enough to really lever him out of his chair.

“I am Principal Hrynko,” Adele said, raising her voice more than she cared to do. The uproar made it necessary, and even so only those seated nearest to her would be able to hear. “I own an armed yacht which my officers assure me is capable of removing the costly thorn from your flesh. As you have no other choice of dealing with the
Estremadura
, I am telling you my terms.”

A real Kostroman Principal might have been just as arrogant, but she would not have displayed the same perfect control;
that
also Adele had from her mother. Esme Rolfe Mundy had been committed to the principles of the Popular Party, which her husband led. She had cared deeply about the plight of the common people and told those around so at every opportunity.

That said, mother had been acutely aware that common people
were
common and she, a Rolfe by blood and a Mundy by marriage—two of the most noble houses on Cinnabar—was nothing of the sort. It would have been no kindness to allow simple folk to get above themselves.

Her daughter had a different and much clearer view of the lower orders, having been a member of them for the fifteen years following her parents’ execution. When necessary, however, she could still ape her mother; and it was necessary now.

Adele had visualized Cremona as being as sophisticated socially as it was technologically: a crude copy of Cinnabar or Pleasaunce. In fact the planet was organized like a small town run by shopkeepers.

The five men at the table were wealthy by Cremonan standards, but Osorio had admitted that the bulk of the blockade running was done by off-planet factors because most of the locals couldn’t afford the outlay. Privateering—or crude piracy—was as much as they were capable of.

The lesser gentry filled the chairs set to either side. A few of them appeared to have risen well into the middle class. The rest were farmers or mechanics; in a good line of business, perhaps, but obviously more comfortable wearing work clothes than in the frilled dress clothing they had squeezed into for this meeting.

An advantage to dealing with people face to face
, Adele thought in conscious self-mockery. Given an hour and their names—which she could have gathered herself within another hour’s searching—she would have known just as much about the Friends. It had only taken her a few seconds to scan the room, but she would rather have spent a few hours on the bridge of the
Princess Cecile
.

“Lady Hrynko?” said Master Osorio.

By a conscious effort of will, Adele turned her face toward Osorio instead of twitching the image into view on her display. Of the fifteen people in her direct vision at the moment, he was the only one who seemed at his ease.

“You have stated your terms, your Ladyship,” he said. “As businessmen ourselves we can appreciate both your restraint and the limited ranges of options open to us—and you noted. How quickly are you prepared to undertake the mission should we Friends agree to your terms?”

In describing the situation while they were still on Madison, Osorio had said that five of the major nobles were the real power of the Friends and that the score of other members were merely makeweights. Now that Adele had seen the Friends in conclave, she would have amended that to say that Master Mangravite, a landowner who also owned a significant trading house, was himself the Friends of Sunbright, and that four of his noble colleagues had significant shares in the risks and profits—but not in the direction.

Osorio obviously had ideas about changing the last point. He was—in a very conscious way, it appeared—using Lady Hrynko’s presence and power to erode Mangravite’s autocratic rule. The pudgy little man was a good deal more clever than Adele had believed.

I wonder if he has consciously been irritating me in the expectation of how I would react when I met Mangravite? He can’t possibly be
that
clever, can he?

“I won’t go into the tactics which my officers have outlined to me,” Adele said, “but we will need two additional vessels of no great force in order to eliminate the
Estremadura
. Under the circumstances, the rental costs will be tantamount to purchase. Because of the risk, that is.”

What Adele had taken for a window on the wall beyond Osorio was actually a bull’s-eye mirror that provided a panorama of the entire room. There was a similar mirror in the opposite wall. They accomplished through simple optical methods what her personal data unit did by very sophisticated imaging software.

I shouldn’t hold the Cremonans in contempt for their lack of sophistication. At any rate, I shouldn’t hold Master Osorio in contempt
.

“The additional ships will need crews, of course,” she said. “I’ll provide commanders and perhaps some key personnel, but the common spacers will be hired locally.”

Mangravite had subsided briefly in the face of Adele’s frozen haughtiness. The business discussion had allowed him to recover, however. He said, “What do you consider the proper conversion rate between Alliance thalers and our credits, your Ladyship? Since of course we will be paying in Cremonan currency.”

“The exchange rate doesn’t enter into the matter,” said Adele. Cazelet had briefed her on this point before she left the corvette. “I can’t pay my crew in credits—which are scarcely useful to buy rotgut in your dockside taverns! And even if I were willing, I have to buy—procure, at any rate—ships and crews. Unless you gentlemen—”

She surveyed the room with the air of a hawk scanning a meadow for prey.

“—and both you ladies care to provide the ships and crews out of your private resources, I’m sure that the owners will require hard currency. As will the spacers, since the blockade runners they would otherwise sign with pay in thalers. Or florins, of course.”

The room broke into general discussion, occasionally heated. The men to Mangravite’s right and left both leaned toward him and began to speak with worried earnestness. Mangravite snarled at the beginning but then subsided. He clenched his huge fists and hunched like a lion being pelted by hail.

Osorio smiled toward Adele in a commiserating fashion. After waiting with his hands before him for long enough to let the first edge of the arguments to pass, he rose to his feet and raised his right arm.

“My fellow patriots!” he said, turning to sweep the room with his attention. “A moment, if you please!”

When the level of noise reduced abruptly, Osorio said, “My friends, we are being discourteous to our guest. Please, for the honor of Cremona and of our assembly, let me discuss what I see as a possible solution. Do I have your approval?”

Adele happened to glance at Mangravite at the other end of the table.
If looks could kill
… she thought.

The fat man’s face had swelled in purple fury. All the renewed babble was agreement with Osorio in some fashion or other.
It won’t matter how rich you are if you burst a blood vessel in your brain
.

Osorio bowed to one side of the room, then the other. Still standing, he said to Adele, “Lady Hrynko, we Friends cannot quickly raise such sums in hard currency, but we can provide you with notes to be redeemed in hard currency which you can negotiate.”

“That isn’t acceptable,” Adele said. “I would have to discount them by ninety percent to get anyone to take them.”

She would never be a financier, but years of learning to manage her increasing wealth—and the training which Daniel’s elder sister Deirdre had provided in handling that wealth—had taught her a great deal. Deirdre Leary approached finance in the same spirit and with the same genius as her brother showed for astrogation.

“Not by so much, I hope,” Osorio said, nodding, “but with a significant discount of course. We would adjust the notes to reflect a portion of that discount. And—”

Adele raised an eyebrow as she waited. She wondered how much of this performance was for Osorio’s fellows rather than really aimed at her.

“—after your victory over the
Estremadura
, the value of our notes will increase to near par, providing your Ladyship with a very handy profit, is it not so?”

There was a gasp of delight among the Friends who understood the proposal, and a wash of whispering among those who did not. Finance at this level was unfamiliar territory for many of those present.

Adele considered the matter. Osorio was putting a very positive face on the proposition, but it wasn’t completely unreasonable. Adele needed a plausible reason to do what she intended to do anyway: to punish the
Estremadura
. This offer provided that color, though she would ask Cazelet to knock down the details.

There was one further point to pursue, not so much for its own sake as because it would further Adele’s plans to learn as much as possible about the affairs of the Sunbright rebels and thus their leader, Freedom. She let her eyes rest on the fixtures which flanked the door, cascades of dangling crystals that diffused the light efficiently while sparkling like the sun on wavetops off the coast of the Leary estate.

“Insofar as the hire of
The House of Hrynko
is concerned,” Adele said, “I accept Master Osorio’s offer as a matter for detailed discussion with my business manager. That does not cover the hire or more likely purchase of two subordinate vessels and payment for their crews, however.
That
will require hard currency, as you put it, and I will
not
defray those expenses myself.”

Again there was a babble. Osorio, still standing, settled his face warily. He had been grinning broadly about the room, though he was careful not to let his gaze settle on Mangravite. From the fat man’s expression, it was not beyond imagination that he could be goaded into lurching from his chair and crushing his rival like an avalanche.

“I can suggest an alternative to you Friends finding the thalers yourself,” Adele continued, raising her voice. Silence spread in waves. Those who had understood what she had said whispered to those nearby until everyone in the room had been informed.

Adele looked left, then right, before focusing on Osorio. The Friends
could
provide hard currency in the necessary quantities: the five major members each controlled shares in blockade runners to the equivalent of two full ships apiece. It would require many days and the publication of their private financial records—which Adele could do, but which would make an enemy of each member affected—in order to get that money, however.

“I believe your group has influence with the government of Cremona?” she said blandly. Mangravite sneered, and both men to Adele’s right at the table chuckled at the idea. They knew, as she did, that the government of Cremona was whatever a wealthy and powerful individual wanted it to be.

“Very good,” Adele said. “If the government is willing to give me authorization, I will raise the necessary sum in the form of loans from the foreign factors here in Halta City. Can you procure me that authorization?”

This time the chatter was delighted. Mangravite sat silently, his fists clenched like hams on the table before him.

“I believe that should be possible, since the proposal doesn’t affect any member of this group,” Osorio said, cutting through the enthusiasm.

He turned and for the first time looked directly at his rival. “That is true, is it not, Master Mangravite? Do you agree that we Friends of Sunbright should use our influence to permit Lady Hrynko to solicit loans for this purpose?”

“The factors will never agree!” Mangravite said. His words were almost lost in their growling overtones.

“I believe you’re wrong, my good man,” Adele said, the syllables sounding like whip-cracks. “But in any case, I do not require anything of you save the legal authorization to try. Do I have that agreement?”

No one spoke for a moment.

Adele put down her control wands, though she kept her hands on the tabletop for now. “Do you grant me that authority, Master Mangravite?” she repeated.

“Yes, damn you!” the fat man said. “And much good may it do you!”

Shouts of delight filled the room. Several Friends clustered about the beaming Osorio.

It will, Master Mangravite
, Adele thought as she leaned back into her chair for the first time since she sat down.
It will serve my purposes very well
.

CHAPTER 19: Halta City on Cremona

Osorio’s driver set the aircar down on the apron in front of the three-story brick warehouse. Adele had asked to borrow him with the vehicle. Not only was the fellow very skillful, he could stay with the car while she and Tovera were inside. There were bollards to keep trucks away from the building except at the loading docks, but he had simply skimmed over them.

“I’ll do my best, mistress,” Tovera said as she eyed the Wartburg Company headquarters. “But there’ll be a lot of places to snipe from inside, and if we have to fight our way down from the penthouse…”

The walls on the ground floor were solid, though orbital imagery had showed that there were windows on the courtyard side. The warehouse wasn’t air conditioned, so the multi-pane casements on center pivots the length of the second and third floors were necessary for ventilation as well as for light during daytime. The glass was clear, in a manner of speaking, but its coating of grime would block vision as thoroughly as muslin curtains.

“We’ll hope it doesn’t come to that, Tovera,” Adele said austerely as she started for the pedestrian door which had been propped open by what seemed to be the stator of an electric motor. “Master Brock agreed politely to meet me in his office, after all, so I can scarcely object to where that office is, can I?”

Adele wore a russet pants-suit rather than formal robes. She was no longer the technological illiterate she had portrayed on Madison and had intended to remain on Cremona. Her current role—for this too was acting; she was acting in all her appearances outside the hull of the
Princess Cecile
, which had become her real family home—was that of a well-born woman from a world more sophisticated than Cremona.