The monitor went blank, none too soon for Penny’s sanity. What kind of music would come out of a band with that name?
Jack was scratching his chin. “Will surprises never cease. A pair of newsies that actually use their heads.”
“Don’t worry, they’re still young. They’ll get educated,” Penny assured him.
“So, someone had the bomb makings well before we got here.”
“And that someone was plenty smart. They kept the bomb well back where Nelly couldn’t sniff it, then dropped it on Kris.”
“It was a team effort. Two bomb throwers upstairs and at least one lookout in the lobby.”
“Hard to say, but definitely the bad guys had to know all about a meeting set up only this morning.”
“But they didn’t know about Kris’s exit. Hell, even I didn’t know,” Jack muttered ruefully.
“She does like to do her own thing. Maybe now she’ll listen to us.”
Left unmentioned was the assumption that she would live through this latest and have enough brain left to apply any lessons learned.
“This planet is dangerous. A whole lot more dangerous than any of us were led to believe when we were sent here. And someone’s been planning this danger for a long, long time,” Jack said.
“I think we better recalibrate all our assumptions,” Penny agreed.
“So, is this a homegrown problem, or did at least some of it get imported? They never had bombs thrown before. What you want to bet me they hired that skill?” Jack spoke the words as he thought them. “Sal, when did the last ship come by here?”
“About three months ago,” he said. “It had only sixteen passengers who disembarked.”
So Sal was learning to get ahead of Jack, Penny thought. Good for him.
“Let’s look at them,” Penny said, and pictures of sixteen people appeared on the blank wall in front of them. Five were a family, husband, wife, three kids, vouched for by a relative. Six more were young couples from Earth looking for a new beginning according to their application. One pair were doctors, the other pair college-trained in animal husbandry. They’d been staked by one duke or another.
The last man was alone. Officially, he was a businessman, bound for Denver. No one vouched for him, but he’d posted the required bond, one million Earth dollars, say, ten thousand Wardhaven.
He’d given an address for contact.
“He’s not at the address,” Sal said.
“The name on the passport has not been used for any purpose except for the first five days after he landed,” Mimzy added. “After that, he vanished.”
“I’m trying to match the photo with the universal database,” Sal said. “The photo is of poor quality. If I didn’t know that you couldn’t provide retouched photos for passports, I’d say he did just that.”
“Lesson one for you, Sal. Never trust a human farther than you can throw them,” Jack said.
“I can’t throw a human. I’ve no arms.”
“So you see the reason for lesson one,” Jack said.
“Humans,” Mimzy muttered.
“Can’t live with them,” Sal said, “and wouldn’t want to live without ’em.”
“Let me know if you change your mind on that,” Jack said.
“I think I’m getting a match on this guy,” Mimzy said. “He changed a lot about his face, but I don’t think he was planning on having to defeat a search by one of Nelly’s kids.” There was more than a hint of pride there.
“Talk to me,” Penny said.
“How does Willy Stone grab you?” Mimzy said, bringing up a new file. The list of arrests and convictions went all the way down the wall.
Jack whistled. “And all of that before he turned thirty. What’s he been doing since?”
“He’s either walking the straight and narrow,” Penny said, “or gotten a whole lot better at not getting caught.”
“My money’s on the last,” Mimzy said.
Penny went down Willy Stone’s rap sheet. Kid stuff to start with, then more and more heavy-duty crime: murder, robbery, more murder. Notes on the side identified even more murders and several bombings that he was tied to, but not arrested for.
The last item brought a grin to Penny’s face. “Hey, folks, Willy was on New Eden when Kris put a stop to that revolution. Looks like Willy was hired to help with that uprising but cut and ran early so he made good on his getaway.”
Jack shook his head. “So is he here for pleasure or professional reasons?”
“Can’t he be here for both?” Penny asked.
“Sal, go through the ID he used when he got here. Look for any connections to anyone here on Texarkana. Any phone calls he made. Anything.”
“Sir, I’ve been doing just that since we first noticed his disappearing act. He is clean. Nothing.”
“Don’t you hate it when the bad guys are this good?” Penny muttered. “Abby, are you available?”
“Colonel Cortez and I are tied in via your computers and ours. I hope you don’t mind us looking over your shoulder.”
“Not at all, but don’t you have anything better to do?” Jack asked.
“Things are rather quiet out here,” said the colonel. “Captain Drago has refused to leave his ship, but we’ve got enough people down here to manage the housekeeping. The boffins are rapidly drinking up the limited stock of consumables that were left here, but I’m told a caravan of twenty trucks, full of fresh meat, vegetables, fruit, brews, and spirits, is headed our way. Due here tomorrow morning sometime.”
Jack eyed Penny. “I got a bad feeling about any contact you have with the outside. That convoy. Why are your supplies coming in a convoy?”
“The honcho for Ranch Austin says that no one travels the roads alone out to here this time of year. If a truck broke down, the folks could starve before anyone noticed they hadn’t shown up.”
“You believe him?” Penny asked.
“I did when I was talking to him. After listening to what you’ve been kicking around, I’m not so sure.”
“What are my Marines doing?”
“Ah, Captain,” the colonel said, “helping the boffins drink us dry, I think.”
“Colonel, would you get ahold of my two platoon leaders and brief them on developments. Tell Gunny the bar is closed as of now.”
“Wait one,” the colonel said. He was back on in much less than a minute. “Your lieutenants are headed this way. ETA two minutes.”
“Colonel, could you patch through to us a picture of your general situation at the lodge. Do you have any overhead pictures?”
“I’ll call up the Wasp. They’ve been doing a full sensor scan every time they pass over us. So far we’ve spotted three bears and one truly beautiful couple skinny-dipping in a lake a few miles from here.”
“Colonel, I wouldn’t take anything on this damn planet on face value.”
“I’ve come to that conclusion, too, Captain. We’ll check out the bears and bare-assed a lot more carefully and get back to you.”
“What about that convoy? You got any pictures of it?”
“Sending them along with the others.”
The wall across from Penny lit up as Mimzy beamed a map of the ski lodge onto it. A huge lodge made from rough-hewn logs filled the center of the area. It faced an expansive and empty parking lot. The runway showed the heat from shuttle landings but was empty now. Behind the lodge was a large swimming pool and other smaller cabins spreading out into the trees. A ski lift for taking people up the mountain was not working at the moment.
“Show me the trucks,” Jack ordered.
The map zoomed out then back in to show thirteen trucks. “I thought you said there were twenty,” Jack said.