“My dad is not a king,” Vicky snapped. “Though, if the rumors coming out of the Palace are right, there are a couple of factions trying to talk him into naming himself emperor.” From the tone of her voice, Kris couldn’t tell how much that made Vicky’s bunny jump . . . if any.
“What would that make you, a grand duchess?”
“What it would do is give me a headache. How’s the princess gig going for you?”
“Some days better than others. Listen, Vicky, I’ve been talking to this fellow, Mannie. He recognizes that things are changing. All he wants is to provide a minimum level of protection for the people he works for. They absolutely will stay out of your business. They will pay their taxes and live their lives. If this charter works for them, maybe a lot of other large cities will be offering to do the same thing. It’s not a bad place to start rebuilding the Greenfeld Alliance.”
“I’ll have to think about that. He wants me to come down. How big an honor guard should I bring?”
“A whole lot less than an invasion force,” Kris suggested.
“Your Jack willing to vouch for my safety?”
“Sorry. No can do,” Jack said, leaning forward in his chair to make sure his voice carried. “Keeping one obstreperous and cantankerous princess safe is about as far as I can stretch.”
“I’ll talk to Admiral Krätz about setting up a detail. I take it would be in bad taste for me to send a shuttle down right now for just Maggie.”
“Yes,” Doc Maggie said, “I really think I should stay here and do anything I can to help things come out well for everyone here. They’ve been nice to a woman who had nothing but her own two hands when she first came among them.”
“Why did I know you would say that?” Vicky answered. “I better go see my admiral and let you get on to what matters to you, Kris. Good luck. Hold it, your Captain Drago just walked in, and from the look on his face, I would not want to be one of his crew.”
“Your Highness, is that you on the other end of the line?” Drago asked.
“The one and only,” Kris said, tightening her gut for what was bound to be something bad.
“Did little Cara manage somehow to attach herself to your expedition?”
“No,” Kris said, looking around at the shaking heads of her Marines.
“What’s that little scamp got herself into?” Abby asked of her niece.
“That’s what we don’t know,” the captain said, pain in his voice. “She didn’t show up to plague the cook for the cookies he’d said he might make. She also hasn’t been hanging with any among the boffins or crew. Nobody has seen her since you left.”
“Nelly, what’s Dada say?” Kris said, naming Cara’s computer.
“Nothing. She was turned off shortly after we left the ship. Cara’s been doing that occasionally. A bad habit she’s picked up from her aunt,” Nelly said, dripping disapproval.
“Where could she go?” Kris asked.
“Her credit chit is gone, too,” Captain Drago added.
“If she’s slipped out to go shopping on the station, I’m going to tan her hide,” Abby snapped.
“She’s been complaining to anyone listening that she’s got money but no place to spend it,” Kris said, remembering how, at twelve, it took very little money to burn a hole in her pocket.
“You think she’s slipped out of the ship and onto the station?” Vicky asked.
“The quarterdeck watch swears they haven’t seen her,” Captain Drago said.
Gunny Brown shook his head with fatherly disapproval. Or maybe it was approval. “Any too-smart-for-his-britches private can figure a way off the ship. I just thought a twelve-year-old girl might not be that smart.”
“Even one who has everyone on board wrapped around her little finger?” Kris said. “Captain, you check with the crew. See if she was around when any of them were dealing with a creative way pierside. Vicky, would you ask Admiral Krätz, as a personal favor to me, to turn the station upside down? And tell him he’s free to apply any kind of discipline to Cara before he returns her to us that his years of experience as the father of girls or the commander of sailors might suggest to him.”
“You really want me to?” Vicky sounded shocked.
Kris eyed Abby. “Better him than me,” the aunt said.
“Tell him he has the full authorization and permission of all due Wardhaven authorities.
“May God have mercy on her soul,” Vicky breathed, and cut the link.
Kris leaned back in her seat and let out a long sigh. She tried to remember how many problems she’d had to chase down and whack over the head so far today . . . and she still hadn’t gotten to the main reason she’d come dirtside.
“Would you prefer to go back to your ship?” Mannie asked. “I’d promised my people that I’d keep you down here until Miss Victoria paid us a visit.”
Jack raised an eyebrow and silently mouthed “hostage.”
“Well, no, and I guess a little yes,” Mannie agreed. “Anyway, if this little girl’s problem means you need to get back there . . . ?” He left the rest unsaid.
“The best people to handle the search are up there,” Kris said with a sigh.
“And that imp had better have come down with a serious case of contrite before I lay eyes on her again,” Abby put in.
“And I have a problem, Mannie,” Kris said. “One that I’m not sure that you aren’t causing.”
“I certainly hope I’m not at the root of any problem for you,” Mannie said. “I have a strong suspicion that is not a very good place to be.”
“You can say that again,” Jack said.
24
Kris took a deep breath, let it out . . . and changed the subject. “Among all the things I have to do, there are a few things I enjoy doing. At the top of that list is being an officer in the Wardhaven Navy. Ever met a serious Navy officer?” Kris asked.
“No,” Mannie said cautiously. “You probably know, the dockyards for the Greenfeld Navy on St. Pete are in the city that shares the name.”
“So, all the heavy industry is over there,” Kris said.
“Ah, that’s where all of it, ah, was,” Mannie said carefully. “We weren’t allowed to have any heavy manufacturing. That is one of the things we wanted to address in the city charter.”
“You wouldn’t by any chance,” Jack put in, “be taking advantage of the present disruptions to correct that serious bit of unfairness, would you?”
Mannie took a serious gulp of his coffee. “It’s gotten cold,” he told no one in particular. One of his crew left to corral a warm pot and refilled everyone who didn’t put a hand over their mug.
Kris passed. Today was no day to get the caffeine jitters.
“We did come into the possession of two of the large cargo landers that had been doing the heavy lifting for the Navy yard,” he admitted between blows on his now-too-hot coffee. “If they’d stayed at St. Pete, they would have just been trashed when people walked off with this or that part of them.”
“I’m not here to sit in judgment,” Kris quietly pointed out.
“I understand the crew and their families love their new homes,” Mannie said.
“No doubt,” Kris said. “So, what are you loading into those heavy-cargo shuttles?”
“Various things,” must have sounded lame to even Mannie. He winced.
“Any of that cargo long and thin and wired for high voltage?” Jack asked.
Mannie nodded.
Well, at least the man wasn’t beating around the bush when you dropped it right on top of him, Kris thought.
“I was told,” Mannie went on quickly, “that quite a few merchant ship owners want to arm their property to protect them from pirates. We are only manufacturing 4- or 5-inch lasers. Nothing that could possibly be a problem to Peterwald battleships or even destroyers.” The mayor began to slow down. “At least, that was what I was told.”