I switched off the PA and stepped down from the throne. “Happy?” I asked Chen sourly.
“What was that nonsense about a party and cardsharps?” she demanded, her face dark with suspicion.
“It’s a private joke,” I said briefly, striding past her and dropping onto the couch next to Rhonda.
“Make it a public joke,” Chen ordered.
I could feel Rhonda’s eyes on me, and could only hope she wasn’t frowning too hard at this private joke she’d never heard of. “It goes back to a time on Bandolera when I got him into some trouble,” I said. “I called him while he was in the middle of a game and told him to get back to the transport. He was winning big, and said he wouldn’t be back until he’d finished the round. He turned off his phone; so I tracked down the numbers of the other players and started calling them and telling them to please send Bilko home.”
“I imagine he was immensely pleased by that,” Chen said.
“I don’t think he ever lived it down,” I said. “At least, not with that bunch. The point is the reference means he’s to get his rear over here now, and not just whenever he finishes the current round or has won enough money or whenever.”
Chen lifted the gun warningly. “He’d better.”
“He will,” I sighed, mentally crossing my fingers a little harder.
Peter cleared his throat. “I’m curious, Miss Chen,” he said. “When you spoke earlier of changing the shape of Expansion space travel with our engine design, I naturally assumed a certain degree of exaggeration. Now that we know your true affiliation, do I now assume you were speaking literally?”
“Quite literally, Your Highness,” Chen told him. “In ten years, the Chen-Mellis family is going to completely dominate intrasystem space travel. We’re going to create super tankers, mining ships like no one’s seen since the Jovian Habitats went down, passenger liners ten times bigger than the Swan of Tuonela—”
“And warships?” Rhonda asked quietly.
Chen didn’t even flinch. “Of course we’re going to need to defend our interests,” she said. “I don’t anticipate any actual warfare, though.”
“Of course not,” I said sarcastically. “Subtle threats and economic pressure bring the same results without making so much of a mess, don’t they?”
Chen shrugged. “You learn slow, Smith. But you do learn.”
“Possibly faster than you do,” I said. “Has it occurred to you that there may be a limit to how big a ship the flapblacks are going to be able to carry?”
“Of course it has,” she said. “That’s another reason why I want to try to bring the colony back with me. If they can carry the Freedom’s Peace, then the sky is very literally the limit.”
From across the room came the whisper of air that signaled the opening of the double doors. Chen spun around to face that direction, dropping her arm to her side to conceal the gun against the back of her right thigh. I felt my muscles tense, reflexively estimating the distance to her gun and the chances I could get there before she could aim and fire...
Obviously not as subtly as I’d thought. “Don’t, Jake,” Rhonda hissed into my ear, gripping my arm. “It’s still set on three-needle.”
“Hello, everyone,” Bilko said, wandering almost casually into the room. Wandering in alone; and even as I tried to catch a glimpse of anyone else who might be out in the foyer, the doors swung shut again. “Sorry to be late, Jake—my game went a little longer than I’d expecte—”
He broke off as his eyes landed on the gun Chen had brought back into view again. “Relax, Hobson, it’s not what it seems,” she assured him. “My name is Andrula Chen, second cousin of the Chen-Mellis family, with the mission of bringing this colony back to the Expansion. Unfortunately, the power structure here is resisting me, and I’m going to need your assistance.”
“Well... sure,” he said, throwing a puzzled look at the rest of us on the couch. “Jake?”
“Captain Smith wanted more than his assistance was worth,” Chen said. “He demanded ten million neumarks; I could only offer five.”
She looked at me as if daring me to contradict her. But though her eyes were on me, her gun was pointed at Rhonda. I held her gaze, and kept my mouth shut.
Bilko snorted derisively. “Five million neumarks not good enough, huh? Well, that’s management for you. OK, Ms. Chen, you’ve got yourself a deal. What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to plot us a course from here back to Angorki,” she said. “Can you do it?”
“Sure—no sweat,” he said, glancing around and starting toward the desk. “I just need a computer—there must be one back here somewhere.”
And across at Peter’s end of the couch, Suzenne suddenly inhaled sharply.
Chen heard her, too. “Just a minute,” she snapped, throwing a suspicious glare at Suzenne. “What was that all about?”
Suzenne seemed to shrink back into the cushions. “What was what?”
“What’s over there at the desk?” Chen demanded.
“Nothing,” Suzenne said guardedly. “What could be there?”
“Yeah, what could be there?” Bilko agreed, taking another step toward the desk. “Computer’s probably in one of these drawers, right?”
“Get away from there,” Chen said sharply, spinning back to face him. “I said getaway.”
“Sure, OK,” Bilko said, taking a hasty step back and holding up both hands. “What’s the problem?”
“Maybe you’re a little too cooperative.” Chen threw me a hard look. “And maybe there was more to Smith’s private joke than he let on. Move away—I’ll find the computer.”
“Whatever you say,” Bilko shrugged, taking another step back. Chen circled around behind the desk, clearly trying to watch all of us at once. She pulled the desk chair out and half stooped to pull open one of the drawers—
The thick glass panels were so perfectly transparent and moved so fast that they were almost impossible to see. But there was no missing the sudden thundercrack as they slammed out of disguised cracks in the floor and thudded solidly against the ceiling, sealing the desk and the area around it into its own isolated space.
Chen’s curse—I assume she cursed—was lost in the echo of that boom, as was the sound of her shot. She ducked reflexively back as the needles ricocheted from the barrier; and then the guard who’d come through the doorway that had magically appeared in the wall behind the desk was on her, the momentum of his diving tackle slamming her hard against the glass. By the time the second and third guards made it through the door, she had run out of fight.
“Don’t hurt her,” Peter called. We were all on our feet now, though I personally couldn’t recall having stood up. “Take her to a holding cell.”
“Make sure you search her first,” Suzenne added. “Thoroughly.”
They hustled her out through the hidden door, and Peter turned back to me. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “However you did it, we’re in your debt.”
“No problem,” Bilko assured him, coming up to join us. “When Jake says to whistle up the cops, I whistle up the cops.” He looked back toward the desk, watching as the glass panels receded back into the floor. “Now that it’s over, can someone tell me what I just blew five million neumarks over?”
“The biggest attempted hijacking in history,” I said, looking at Peter. “And unfortunately, it’s not over yet.”
“You really think her people will be coming to look for her?” Suzenne asked.
“It’s worse than that,” I said grimly. “The implication she’s out here alone is nonsense—no Chen-Mellis second cousin would be stupid or reckless enough to come out here without backup already on its way. My guess is we’ve got maybe two or three days before they get here. Maybe less.”