''No, because my Marines would be dead before they hit the deck.''
Kris blinked and silently eyed the Captain.
''They've set up a radar on the roof. Docile little thing. Comes on every thirty seconds. Does a sweep. Always on the same frequency. Cuts off. Want to bet if we try to jam it or if it catches something coming in that it will take off frequency jumping and lead us in a merry chase? And they have jokers walking the building roof. What you want to bet me they have seeking missiles on their belts?''
''Have you tried to infiltrate nano recon bugs?''
The Captain scowled. ''You trying to teach your mother to suck eggs, Lieutenant? I sent them down on the gig that brought you up. First one burned thirty seconds after it got in. They phoned to say they'd shoot a hostage if we sent another one in.''
''Think they mean it?'' Kris asked.
''We don't know yet.''
''That a live picture of the building?'' Kris asked, pointing at an aerial of the convention center and deciding questions might make for an easier relationship with this destroyer skipper.
''Yes, I launched several satellites out of the Halsey's stores when this started. We'll have one continuously.''
''But we don't know what's going on inside,'' Kris grumbled.
''Not quite true,'' Penny said. ''Their jammer has closed down the center's comm net, but it has a range limit. We've got a woman inside just on the limit of that range. She's talking to us. Says they shot ten, twenty people taking over the main room. They have all the delegates down on the floor now. A couple of them appear to be rigging explosives to some of the hall's supports. Now they're rounding up the delegates, using plastic to cuff them together into groups of five or six. Oops, they just found our talker. No more news flashes from inside.''
''Are Tom and Aholo okay?'' Kris asked.
''She said Aholo was. I think Tom is, but she didn't really know him from Adam, so I'll just have to bite my nails. Kris, when are we going in and getting them out?''
''I need the design schematics of that building.''
''I've got people working on them. Okay, now there's action at the front door,'' Penny said.
Heads turned in CIC to a screen showing the local news take. A large Islander in a lavalava walked out of the convention center. Kris recognized him, Vea Ikale, principal adviser to the queen, and on this trip, to Aholo. Beside him was a woman in a business suit. Both held their hands up and their pace down. They got halfway to the street, say twenty meters. Then rifle fire from masked gunners at the door cut them down.
''Want to bet,'' Santiago said, ''the woman was our talker.''
A moment later, other hostages began bringing out bodies and laying them on the sidewalk a few feet from the center. A woman put hers down, stood looking at it for a moment, then broke for the street. She almost made it before rapid fire dropped her crumpled at the curb.
''What's their message? What do they want?'' Kris asked thin air.
''That is their message,'' Jack said. ''They aren't afraid to kill people in cold blood. They have the upper hand. They will tell us what they want us to know in their own damn time.''
''Can't argue with that.'' Santiago sighed, turning back to her board. ''Penny, we really need those building specs.''
''Maybe my contacts will work harder now.''
''Now that we understand each other, maybe this will be a whole lot easier,'' came in a confident voice from the news screen. Heads in the CIC turned back to it. The voice was young and very, very confident.
''We want a planetary government like everyone else has. A parliament, say with two hundred MPs. One man, one woman, one vote. Nothing special for Islanders. We're all just one big happy family. Maybe the parliament can even agree to have a queen. A constitutional queen. I don't mind having the naked tits of some Island cutie on my money. But no veto, no control.
''Now I heard that the folks here were authorized to vote on just such a government. Course, they are shy a few folks, the ones that fought us, and the ones that mouthed off when they shouldn't have. Talked on their phone when we told her not to. But the rest, they could vote that government in real fast. They do, and we'll all be out of here by evening.
''But I'm told that politicians can take forever to decide on the shape of the table they sit at, so I figure we better encourage them along. If they don't give us a constitution to vote on by, oh, say six tonight, we let three more walk out, see if they can make it to the street. At midnight, we let four try for the street. Who knows, in the dark, one of them just might make it. Come morning, we turn five loose. It just keeps getting bigger until we run out of delegates or the ones left give us a new constitution.
''Oh, and ladies and gentlemen, you, too, guys in skirts, those of you that resist doing your duty and giving us what we want, you'll be the first ones that get to take the walk.''
Kris shivered. That must have been spoken straight at the hostages. ''We got to get them out tonight,'' she said.
''That's exactly what they're expecting,'' Santiago snapped, shaking her head.
''Well, tomorrow night's not going to do a whole lot of people much good. How long before they decide Princess Aholo's a problem for them?''
''If she's been hanging around a Longknife, not long.''
''I've got the building files,'' Penny said, cutting that debate off. Santiago opened a separate window on her battle board and a 3-D schematic of the convention center began to rotate before them. ''The terrorists apparently drove into the receiving dock on the south end of the building. At least when we sent in reinforcements there during the fight, they got shot up badly, and the survivors reported seeing three trucks. We checked with the owners. They don't know why their trucks are there,'' Penny said.
''New employees?'' Kris asked.
''Yep. Checking them out, but the local database is light.''
''We don't have those kinds of problems here,'' Kris said.
''I'm hearing that enough down here, don't you start saying it,'' Penny grumbled.
''What about the rifle we captured?'' Kris asked Santiago. Rather than rely on the locals, she'd brought it up to the Halsey. The Captain tapped her board.
''The rifle is a cheap knockoff of the obsolete M-5,'' came a quick response. ''New Hong Kong has six or seven plants stamping them out to meet the rising demand. Ammo cassettes also appear to be from there. The serial number has been filed down, but we figure to recover it and match it to production in another half hour. Longer if it's not in our database.''
''Thanks, intel.''
''The Marines helped, ma'am.''
''Figured they would.'' Santiago smiled.
Kris absently tapped the board, opening a window, closing it, opening it… ''A fancy radar. Nano guards to beat our recon bugs. Weapons better than any seen on this rock…''
''You getting déjá vu all over again?'' Santiago asked.
''If these folks ain't got the banker of those bastards on Harmony, they got his sister's banker.'' Kris shook her head and made a judgment call. ''Nelly, get me Hank Peterwald.''
That got frowns from Jack and Santiago, but no one opened their mouth to argue with her.
''What do you want, Longknife?'' came a second later.
''You know about the situation in Brisbane?''
''Kind of hard to miss it. I heard you hotfooted it out of range real fast.''
Kris gritted her teeth for a second and breathed out the anger that snide remark brewed in her gut. Hank knew her enough to calculate just how much it would set her off. ''Yeah, you know how it is,'' she said, as offhanded as she could manage, ''the security types get you in a hammerlock, and next thing you know you're stuck watching it from the cheap seats.''
''Yeah, like on Turantic.''
''You must admit, I got you an interesting view.''
''From my own yacht. So, Longknife, why you calling me now?''
''Well, I couldn't help but notice that the terrorists are very well-equipped compared to what the local constabularies have, and someone had to pay to import all those expensive goodies. I thought maybe you, having talked to folks holding many of the same views as them, might know who's bankrolling them.''