THAT’S THE SECOND GROUP, KRIS. ARE YOU GOING TO LET THEM DO THAT?
Kris struggled to get her stomach under control. She’d said this station was Greenfeld territory. She’d heard a lot about Greenfeld practices. It didn’t prepare her for this.
“Your Highness, you do not look well,” Admiral Krätz said.
“I don’t feel well,” Kris admitted, trying to figure out which to respond to, the admiral’s solicitousness or the lieutenant’s, daughter of a cop, outraged sense of justice.
What had the admiral said on the quarterdeck, the challenges of alliance operations?
She’d told Jack she’d control the elephants. Just now, she felt trampled by a herd of them.
PENNY, WHERE ARE THE THREE THAT COOPERATED WITH US LAST NIGHT?
I’VE GOT THEM LOCKED AWAY IN THE WASP’S BRIG. I THINK THEY ARE SAFE.
THEN THEY MAY BE THE ONLY ONES WE CAN PROTECT, PENNY.
I THOUGHT A LONGKNIFE WOULD DO BETTER THAN THIS, Penny spat inside Kris’s skull.
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH, I THOUGHT A LONGKNIFE COULD, BUT APPARENTLY I’M WRONG. Kris turned back to the admiral and struggled to find words that might stop the slaughter.
“Kris, there’s a call coming in from the planet,” Chief Beni announced. “It’s Ms. Carita van da Fitz for Admiral Krätz.”
“Oh God, is that woman here?” he asked to the overhead.
“I think she’s the big woman on planet,” Kris said. “She’s been trying to get someone up here to talk to her for most of the morning. I’ve managed to dodge her, but I suspect the call that got out of the station has brought her up to speed on matters.”
Vicky shot her own scowl at the overhead.
The admiral shook his head. “This is not going to be pleasant. It may also change our plans. Vicky, call Commander Fervenspiel and have him stop the rat-eradication program.”
“Yes, Admiral,” and Vicky was quickly on her commlink.
One of the staff officers who had accompanied the admiral plugged in a box with an old-fashioned phone on it. The admiral picked up the receiver, said little, then began listening.
Kris gave Penny a shrug. LET’S SEE WHAT COMES OUT OF VICKY’S CALL. LET ME KNOW IF THE SHOOTINGS STOP.
WHY DO I NOT FIND THIS AT ALL SATISFYING?
BECAUSE WE’RE GROWN-UPS, AND IT TAKES MORE THAN CHOCOLATE COOKIES TO MAKE US HAPPY.
Kris turned back to Vicky. “Who’s this Carita person?”
“Just one of the board of directors of the N.S. Holding Group. Think Nuu Enterprises doubled, and you’ll have the part it plays in the Greenfeld economy.”
“What’s someone like that doing out here?”
Vicky turned her back on the admiral and all the other officers in the room, her voice dropped to where only Kris could hear her. “I’m sure a Longknife has heard the story that my family made its money running booze, drugs, and other illegal activities back when Earth was the only game in town.”
“I had,” Kris admitted.
“And that we recouped our fortunes some ninety years ago by using the Unity thugs to help us distribute drugs to the old Society of Humanity before the Unity War.”
“That was never proven,” Kris pointed out.
“And don’t you ever say I said it was so, because I won’t. But some folks close to my dad may have heard the story and think it is a good way to recover the corporate losses they are suffering during this present economic crisis.”
“Oh,” Kris said. “So, what’s about to happen?”
“I have no idea,” Vicky said.
“Kris, this is Jack. We’ve got Cara,” Nelly passed along to Kris out loud.
“That’s great news,” Vicky said. The admiral, still talking to Ms. van da Fitz, gave Kris the thumbs-up.
“How’s it going on your end?” Kris asked.
“Everything is under control at the Seebrook Plantation. I dropped a platoon on the farm to the east and west of here. One of them has identified a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Kris asked. Once again today, her gut took a nosedive.
“We’re looking for merchant crew members. Pirates take merchant ships. The crews have to end up somewhere.”
“That sounds logical,” Kris said.
“I’ve been talking to the freed slaves here. All are either hijacked sailors from the Greenfeld fleet or civilian refugees from St. Pete. Mostly the last. No one here knows of any sailors.”
“That doesn’t help our case.”
“At the next farm over, Pleasant View, Lieutenant Stubben found several people who said they had six or seven slaves who claimed to be merchant sailors, taken by pirates.”
The admiral continued to listen to the voice on the other end of the phone and make placating sounds at regular intervals. But now he was very attentive to Kris and Jack’s conversation.
“Has Stubben found the sailors?” Kris didn’t really want to ask the question. Whenever Jack led her slowly to a point, she usually didn’t like what she saw when she got there.
Still, Jack led. She followed.
“We think we found five of them, Kris. I’m putting them on your view screen.”
Suddenly the wall in front of Kris was a life-size scene. It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at.
Then she had to cover her mouth.
“Dear God in heaven,” Penny whispered, and ran from the room.
There were similar mutterings from the Greenfeld staff officers. Two lost their lunches before they could make it out of the Tac Center.
“Apparently, someone shot five of the merchant sailors in the back of the head, execution style. They tried to burn their bodies, but our Marines put out the fire before it got too far. I’m not sure whether we can make ID on the corpses. I’ve ordered the forensic team down from our MP detachment. I’d like Penny to supervise the crime scene.”
“I’ll tell Penny you want her and see that she’s on the longboat with the MP team.”
“Where’s Penny?” Jack asked.
“She had to step outside for a moment.”
“Yeah, I’d like to step outside just now. Do you need anything more from me?”
“Try to find the two missing sailors. Send any spare Marines you can afford to the farms around the ones you’ve taken. Maybe you can save any sailors there before they get the same treatment. I’ll have the Marine companies from the Dauntless and Blood dropped to you as soon as I can.”
“Don’t you need them to control the station?”
“Admiral Krätz is here, and he’s taken over responsibility for matters hereabouts.”
“Will he be sending troops down here?”
“I should know in a few minutes. I’ll tell you then. Longknife out.” NELLY, TELL CAMPBELL AND KITANO THAT I WANT THEIR MARINES HEADED DIRTSIDE AS SOON AS THE ORBIT ALLOWS.
YES, KRIS.
Kris now focused her attention on Admiral Krätz. She didn’t say anything, just watched him as he watched her, holding the phone away from his ear. The high-pitched words from it seemed to dribble out of the handset and collect in a puddle on the deck.
“Ms. van da Fitz, I’ll get back to you in a moment,” he said, and hung up.
They stared at each other, Kris and the admiral. Neither blinked.
“It seems we have a bloody mess on our hands,” he finally said.
“With ‘bloody’ the operative word,” Kris said, risking a glance at the bodies on the screen beside her.
“Could you please reduce that down to a size more suffer-able,” the admiral said.
“Nelly.”
“If you say so, Kris,” Nelly said.
The screen stayed full size.
“I’m saying so, Nelly. We can’t be running out to the head to vomit every time we look at that.”
The picture shrank to something the size you might find in a history book. It also changed to black and white. THANK YOU, NELLY.
I SWEAR, KRIS, IF THESE SAILORS’ DEATHS GET SWEPT UNDER THE RUG, I’LL PUT IT BACK UP FULL SIZE AND IN BLEEDING, BLISTERED COLOR.