He looked directly at Simonie, whose right eyelid flickered. For the second time in a day Troblum didn't need a program to interpret a human emotion. He nodded back, and fired the ship-to-ship neutron laser.
For Paula it really hadn't been difficult to discover who was Troblum's ally on Sholapur. Troblum's clandestine money transfers had been subject to forensic accounting by an office at the Commonwealth Senate Treasury ever since Justine reported on his strangely empty hangar at Daroca spaceport. The Treasury office had quickly determined that Stubsy Florae's accounts had been the beneficiary of a great deal of money over the years, and ANA Security had accumulated a large file on the dealer's activities. An irritant rather than any kind of threat, Florae moved objects around the Commonwealth, which he had no legal right to do. The majority were basically harmless like Troblum's War relics, though he did supply weapons to agitator groups. As far as ANA knew he didn't involve himself with any Factions or their agents. Despite what he liked to imagine, Stubsy was very small-time in relation to the real political and economic subversives operating on the edges of Commonwealth society.
So she arrived in her ship, the Alexis Denken, a day before the agreed meeting. Descended through the atmosphere in stealth mode at night, easily evading the sensor sweeps run by Ikeo's defence system, and sank under the water twenty miles away from Florae's villa. When she arrived just offshore, she was interested to find the wreckage of a high-performance glide-boat resting on the sand close to Florae's charming white-sand beach. An examination by sensorbots showed it had been cut apart by a disruptor pulse. Paula guessed that she wasn't the only one who wanted to meet the elusive Troblum. It would be difficult for a Faction to intercept calls to ANA: Governance security, but hardly impossible. And Troblum had promised to divulge what he considered important activity concerning the Accelerators. Ilanthe would inevitably send a representative to intercept him. Possibly even Marius himself. Paula would enjoy arresting him, though he would probably self-destruct before he allowed any such humiliating indignity to prevail.
Five small passive sensor remotes slipped out of the sea to take up position on various high points around the estate, and she settled down to wait. Her piano slid out of its padded storage alcove; three hundred years old, made out of fiwood that glimmered with a soft red-brown sheen in the cabin's subdued lighting. The instrument had been handcrafted in a workshop on Lothian by a Higher artisan who'd taken a hundred and fifty years to perfect his craft, exceeding even the quality of Earth's legendary piano makers. Paula had commissioned it new, and the lush sound was well worth the ninety-year waiting list.
She sat at the velvet stool, pulled the sheet music out, and once again tried to play 'Für Elise'. Her trouble was the lack of practice time. It would be all too easy to use a music program linked with a dexterity function. But Paula wanted to be able to play the piece properly. A piano as beautiful as this one deserved that level of respect and commitment. Fingers ruled by a program would be no better than simply playing a recording.
Curious native fish nosing round the unusual ovoid resting on the sandy seabed were subjected to the ancient melody repeated dozens of times, interrupted, and begun again with relentless determination.
A day later, when she was playing with a lot more confidence, Paula had to admit Troblum's ship was extremely well shielded. She was caught off guard by the large figure in a shabby old toga suit riding a small scooter out of the forest on the far side of the Florae estate. None of her sensors had caught the Mellanie's Redemption coming down out of orbit. Her fingers hung motionless above keys of vat-grown ivory as she waited to see what would happen.
The scooter stopped just outside the estate boundary posts. It wobbled oddly as Troblum opened a link to Florae. Then the perimeter disarmed, and Troblum flew on unsteadily to the villa.
Soon after he arrived at the front door and went inside, a force field came on over the villa. The leading edge of the monsoon had arrived.
Troblum called ANA: Governance security division who relayed the call to Paula. Her remote sensors couldn't quite get close enough to the villa boundary to give her a clear image of him standing beside the pool, but she could certainly see the line of exotic yellow and green flowering plants that hedged in the one open side of the pool area as she talked to him. She didn't lie. She would definitely be at the villa within two hours.
Paula told the smartcore to retract the piano back into its alcove, climbed into her armour, activated three of the combat-bots stowed in the starship's forward hold, and stepped out through the airlock. The suit's regrav lifted her straight to the surface, emerging into driving rain as the heavy storm clouds raced overhead. She flew in a low fast curve to the top of the cliff above the white beach, landing beside one of the estate boundary's silver pillars. The three combatbots hovered protectively overhead, difficult to detect in the deluge. Lightning flashed constantly. Sensors locked on to her, and the villa's smartcore demanded she identify herself.
'You are expecting me. I am Paula Myo, an ANA representative on official business. Let me in now.
There was no reply. The boundary posts remained active, so she used a proton laser to kill the eight nearest to her. Her suit flew her towards the villa, keeping five metres above the ground. Ahead of her, the force field was hardening. She curved around until she was facing the open end of the three sided building. Water rippled down the force field, blurring direct visual observation. However, she saw three Amazon-like women in bikinis hurrying round the pool to take up positions behind the waterfall boulders. The small intelligence file on Florae had mentioned the kind of bodyguards he favoured.
'Oh, come on, she muttered. They weren't even wearing armour. Stupid amateurs.
Their formation was a standard one, protecting access to the centre of the villa. Paula guessed that would be where their boss was cowering, along with Troblum.
Two of the combatbots dropped a flock of energy-dumps onto the top of the villa's force field dome. The small dark spheres skidded and slithered down the curve. Bright energy flares whipped out around each contact point, and the dumps began to slow as if the dome had somehow become tacky. Lightning flashed out from the clouds overhead, attracted by the brawny spray of ions fizzing out from each dump to slam into the force field. The darkness surrounding the dumps began to expand and slowly sink through the force field that was now sparkling a dangerous stressed crimson.
Hot, steaming water began to seep through the force field to splatter the pool area. The villa's protective force field shone like a red dwarf sun that was being eaten by black cancers. Paula's full field function scan was burning its way through the faltering dome. She could make out several weapons enrichments powering up in the Amazon women. But there was no sign of Troblum.
'Where are you? she muttered. Another heavily enriched human was moving slowly inside the villa. Hard to pinpoint with the tormented force field still obstinately functional. Her field function still couldn't locate Troblum, he must be deeper inside, possibly underground.
Lightning lashed down again. The combatbots added three proton laser strikes to the impact. It was too much. The force field collapsed in a devastating sonic Shockwave that ripped the pool plants to shreds, sending a plume of smouldering leaves cascading up into the sodden sky. Windows burst apart, flinging long shards of glass across the paving slabs.
Paula swooped into the pool area as the downpour saturated the villa. The Amazon women fired a barrage of x-ray lasers and disruptor pulses at her. Jelly gun shots slashed harmlessly across her armour's force field. She was puzzled by that. Surely Stubsy or whoever had blown apart the glide boat had stronger weapons that this?