Cavallo said nothing; he was aware of the irony of his present position. He had chosen mess duty as a welcome break from the tedium of being a Special Response Team leader on a picket ship where nothing happened . . . and here he was, back in his own territory, but without any of his equipment or a trained team.
"Better let the major know I'm coming in," he told the pilot, who shot him a quick glance.
"You, Sarge? But you're a cook—" The pilot had known Cavallo only in his present duty; perhaps he thought the extra bulk was a supply sergeant's overindulgence.
"Not entirely," Cavallo said. "My primary specialty is NEM Special Response."
The pilot looked nervous, the usual reaction to someone discovering that he was sitting next to one of the few Fleet personnel trained to kill in hand-to-hand combat. "You're a NEM?"
"Yup. So call me in."
"Yessir."
Although the supply shuttle had not been fitted out with a combat mission in mind, all Fleet shuttles carried some basic emergency equipment. There was no combat armor to fit Cavallo, but he grabbed the largest p-suit and the ready pack of demolitions supplies, intended to create a small hull breach if that should be necessary in an emergency. Three bricks of LUB explosive, five standard fusing options and the components for others, detonation signallers . . . he checked it all, and by the time the shuttle docked, he had repacked it and was ready to dive out the tube.
Sarknon Philios had been celebrating the successful auction of the
Mindy Cricket II
—the old tub had sold for more than he paid for her, though not more than he'd sunk into her—and the sale of his interest in the minerals they'd towed in. His crew, equally delighted with the outcome, and the promise of a new—or at least better-quality used—ship on the next run, had joined the celebration as well. While they hadn't quite drained the
Spacer's Delight
dry, they'd made its proprietor richer, and as the morning commuters rushed past, Sarknon was finally ready for bed. Bed was two stops away on the station tram; he gathered his crew and led them across to the tram stop.
There a man in Security green demanded their IDs—even though they wore their shipsuits with patches prominent on the left shoulder, and even though it should have been clear who and what they were.
"What is, man?" asked Sarknon. "We been at the
Delight
, you musta seen us crossin' oer. We's shipcrew, we bother nobody."
"Your IDs, Ser." Station Security normally went unarmed, but this one carried an acoustic weapon slung over his shoulder. Down the platform, Sarknon could see two more Security men, now looking this way. Annoyed though he was, Sarknon didn't intend to cause trouble.
"Foodlin' shame, I say, leapin' on folks as is just shipcrew come to spend money at station." He fumbled in his shipsuit's pocket and brought out his ID folder. " 'Tisn't enough to let yon pubkeeper charge twice too much for his wares, now you have to act as if you don't know who we are."
Even when Security did ask to see ID, which happened rarely, they always just glanced at it. Not this time. Sarknon stood, swaying slightly as the man glanced from his papers to his face, again and again, and finally had had enough.
"What, you think I am not Sarknon Philios? You never heard of
Mindy Cricket
, of our strike? Or am I too ugly for you?"
"Take it easy," the man said, closing the folder and handing it back. "We've trouble—we're looking for rockhoppers with demolitions experience. Looks like you're it."
"A contract?" Sarknon blinked; he knew he was not a good negotiator when he was drunk; that's how he'd ended up paying too much for the
Mindy Cricket II
. "Can't talk contract now, m'head's fuzzled. Next shift, maybe, when the drink's left me."
"Now," the man said. The other two had come nearer, without Sarknon noticing, and now he found himself facing drawn weapons.
"Trouble, Harv?" asked one of the others.
"No—found us a demo crew, but they're soused. Help me get'm to medical."
Sarknon had paid good money for his drunk, and was not inclined to see it dispersed for nothing. "I'm not goin' to med; they'll just waste my money . . . I earned that drunk; it's mine—"
He saw the hand coming towards his face, but was too uncoordinated to evade it. When he woke again, he was on a cot in the station medical clinic, and he woke entirely, in an instant, with the unnatural clarity of the detox patient. "Dammit," he said. "An' I bought a whole jug of that Surnean ale!"
"Never you mind," said the young woman who slid the needle out of his vein. "You save those kids and I will personally buy you two jugs."
"Well, then." Sarknon sat up, not regretting the headache he didn't have, thanks to detox, and looked around for his crew. "If it's that kind of job . . ."
"It's that kind of job." He didn't recognize the man's uniform, but the tone of voice was unmistakable. Sarknon followed him along the corridor to a compartment full of people in EMS vests, and five minutes later he was explaining all he knew about demolition.
Instead of the organized, disciplined planning groups Cavallo was used to, a roomful of civilians were muttering, arguing, and even (in the case of one fat man in the corner) shouting. Cavallo spotted the major at once, and made his way over. "Sgt. Cavallo, sir; NEM Special Response Team."
"That's good news—how many of you?"
"Just me, sir. I was inbound on a supply run—I've been acting as supply sergeant for the picket boat."
"A NEM supply sergeant? No, don't tell me—later, when we have time. We have a real bad situation here." Quickly, the major laid it out—the intruders, the preschool field trip, the information he had so far on station resources. "They don't have anything equivalent to your training," he said. "Good basic emergency services, but nothing to handle large-scale terrorist actions. They'd been warned, but they didn't really know where to get the information they needed. That's why I was here. And those kids are really our problem now. The med staff has told me that they're more susceptible to sudden pressure changes than adults—they get shock lung more easily, and it's harder to treat. Same is true of chemical riot-control agents, or the acoustics. We're going to end up hurting the kids no matter what we do, so we have to be very, very fast."
"Negotiation, sir?"
The major shrugged, with an expression Cavallo couldn't quite read. "They've got the usual complement of mental health professionals, and two of them have some experience in small-scale stuff. Man holding his ex-wife hostage and threatening the kids, that sort of thing. But nobody with this kind of experience, and I'm not sure they realize how different it is. I suspect that our bad guys wouldn't talk to a Fleet officer . . . and as you can tell I have an accent that won't quit."
"These those New Texas guys?" Cavallo asked.
"Don't know yet. So far we have no contact. The stationmaster cut all com right away; I've been unable to convince him to reopen at least one line. He's afraid they'll override the security precautions to the main computers, I think."
"We can fix that, sir," Cavallo said. "I brought the demolitions and communications kits from the shuttle."
"Good man. Let me get you to the stationmaster."
"If they want to kill the children, to make a statement or something, the kids are as good as dead—if they aren't already. We can't prevent it. What we can do is talk to them. Our sources tell us they have very strong family connections, especially to their children. We can hope they are less likely to kill children, more likely to negotiate where children are concerned."
"But they think our children are heathens—"
"Yes, but they didn't hurt the children from the
Elias Madero
. They wanted to save them. They aren't likely to have planned this for the one day a year the preschool has its field trip."
Cavallo's Irenian accent had amused his Fleet associates at first. After twentysome years he could turn it on and off like a tap—his implants helped—but at the moment it might be useful.
"Anybody there?" he asked, drawling it out.
Silence followed. Then, in a thick accent made familiar by the newsvids of Brun's captors, "Who you?"
"I'm lookin' for that teacher—Sera Sorin. We're worried about those children."
Silence again, but not so long. "What children?"
"Those children in the tram. It's time they was home, don't you think?"
"What you mean havin' chillen in a transgrav tram? Don't you care about 'em?"
"Of course we care; that's why I'm callin'. Can I talk to the teacher, please?"
"Puttin' chillen in the care of a woman like that. Boys too. Downright disgustin'. No, you cain't talk to her; she's doin' what she's tol', keeping them chillen quiet."
"But they're all right? I mean, you know kids, they need the bathroom, and they get hungry and thirsty—you got enough snacks for 'em?"
Another voice, this one older and angrier. "No, we don't got food for kids. Your kid down here, mister?"
Cavallo had considered trying to impersonate a parent, but kids that age couldn't be fooled easily. If he claimed to be some boy's father and the boy said "That's not my dad!" they'd be worse off than they were now.
"No," he said. "Not mine—but it might's well be. Children are everyone's responsibility, where I come from."
"And where's that?"
"Irene." They might or might not know anything about Irene, but if they did, that would fit—Irenians had a Familias-wide reputation for idealistic child care.
"Oh." A pause; Cavallo wished he'd been able to get a vid tap in; facial expressions would tell him a lot. But the vid pickup was still snaking its way through the utility lines, a good seventy meters from Heavy Cargo Two. "Well . . . it's too bad about the kids, but—"
"I can get you supplies for them," Cavallo interrupted. "Food and water. For you, too," he added as if this were a new thought rather than an orchestrated tactic.
"Listen, you, whoever you are—"
"Fred," Cavallo said, choosing an uncle's name at random. "Fred Vallo."
"Well, Fred, thing is, these chillen are dead if we want 'em to be."
"I understand that," Cavallo said.
"So you better give us what we want—"
"If the children die," Cavallo said, letting the steel into his voice, "none of you will get off this station alive."
"If you want 'em alive, you do what we tell you," the voice said. Behind it, another younger voice protested, "But we can't kill
children
."
Cavallo smiled to himself. Trouble in the enemy camp, and talking to a negotiator . . . they had already lost. If only small children hadn't been involved.
"I need to speak to someone who can assure me that the children are unharmed," he said. "If not the teacher, one of the other adults on the tram."
"Wait," said the older voice.
Cavallo muted his mike and turned to the major. "You heard, sir? There's at least one who's going to cause their leader trouble if he hurts the children, and so far they're willing to talk."
"Yeah . . . but how long will it last? Wonder if he'll really let you talk to one of the adults?"
"I—" The light blinked on his set, and he turned the mike back on.
"Go on—" said the voice he was used to. "Tell them the chillen aren't hurt."
"But they want to use the toilet—" came another voice, a man's.
"Tell 'em."
"Uh . . . this is Parkop Kindisson . . . with the Little Lambs field trip? . . . you know about that?"
"Yes, Ser Kindisson," Cavallo said. "Are the children unharmed?"
"Well, they aren't
hurt
, but they're scared, especially Bri because he saw his father get hit, and they need to use the toilets, and they won't let us, and they're getting hungry, and they won't let us get them anything at the tram station snack bar, and—"
"Enough!" The angry voice was back; Cavallo could just hear the distant protest of the other man. "You know this Kindisson fellow?"
"Not personally, no," Cavallo said. He had skimmed a file on all the adults with the field trip, and knew that Kindisson was a single parent, taking a day off his job as a coater for the housing authority to help chaperone the children.
"Seems kinda excitable, not like a normal man—"
"He's worried about the children. So am I. How about if we arrange some snacks for 'em? Or carry-pots, so they can use the toilet right on the tram?"
"The tram has toilets?"
"No—that's why I said carry-pots. Families have them here, to take along with a small child, if there's not a toilet around."
"There's toilets in the tram station, though, aren't there?"