Shadow of the Warmaster

16

I watched the last load leave with Churri riding herd on it; I wasn’t planning to sell any of this bit of salvage; I don’t approve of arms dealing and anyway it’s a lot too dangerous for the payoff, but given some of the places I take Slancy into, it’s comforting to have that kind of firepower available and it’s not the sort of thing you can buy whenever you take a notion. And there was Bolodo. If Bolodo execs had any scruples about anything, I hadn’t come across them yet. And I hadn’t a sliver of a doubt there was a destroyer or two stashed somewhere handy where the execs on Helvetia could set them up to take us when we showed. I’d done what I could to pull some cover around us, but cover has a way of springing leaks when you need it most.

Jamber Fausse was squatting by the door with a couple of his men. He got to his feet and came sauntering over to me. “Time?”

“Time. One of you has to go to the Bridge to let Adelaar yabass know we’re ready; she’s still sealed off, I can’t reach her.”

“Tube?”

“Right. The way we got here.”

“Vehim Feda, go.” The younger of the two men got to his feet and went trotting out. “What will you do if Adelaar yabass has not discovered the Dark Sister?”

“Sit here and wait. Nothing else I can do.” I went over to the implosion torp on its dolly. There was a lot of crud still on it, but the batteries were charging steadily, no sign of trouble there, no breakdowns in the timerprogram if the probe wasn’t looping on me. I toured the testmeters and their readings were all good, no glitches. I climbed onto the dolly’s front bench, put my feet up on the console.

“Ah.” Jamber Fausse dropped to a squat beside the door. “Something I know about, sitting and waiting.”

I didn’t expect to do much waiting; Adelaar didn’t waste time or energy when she was working and Vehim wouldn’t be more than a few seconds tubing up to her. I arranged myself so I could see the screen; it was over the door. I counted seconds and got to fifty before it lit up and Adelaar was looking at us.

“Quale,” she said. “I see you’re ready.” She didn’t seem to expect a response so I didn’t give her one. “The auxBrain is scattered through more than a dozen nodes, there’s no way you’ll be able to get them all.”

“Shit! What…”

“Relax. You don’t need to. Do a thorough job on the interface and you’ve neutered our Dark Sister. There’s a weakness in the design. The nodes are connected through that interface. They don’t operate independently unless most of the ship is dead. Not enough power. They’ll probably kick on when she hits the sun, but that’s a bit late to do any good. Implosion torp?”

“Yeh.”

“I thought I recognized the configuration. Under all those meters.” She laughed, a nice sound; she was feeling pleased with herself. “It’s viable?”

“Yeh.”

“That’ll do it. We’d better be outside the skin when it blows.”

“Yeh.” I wasn’t going to argue with that; the Warmaster was big and tough enough to absorb a lot more punishment than one little torp, but she was older than time and there was rot in her hide. “Tubeflow?”

“I’ve reset the tubeflow from your gate, it’ll take you straight in to the clone interface. I’ve given you two minutes to get to the interface, starting when we finish this, five to get set up, plus three for holdups. The three will kick on only if you haven’t gone through the gate there before then. The flow switches outbound automatically, endpoint the lander lock area. Where we’ll be sitting, waiting for you.”

“Bridge?”

“I’ve programmed the mainBrain to clamshell after we’re out.”

“Any sign of the Proggerdi?”

“I haven’t bothered looking.”

I gave a yell for the teddybear. His ears were up fluttering, his lips curled back to show his tearing teeth. He didn’t need telling to watch out for ambushes, but I told him anyway. “That fruitcake could be anywhere,” I said. “Get hold of the tug before you start and have a bodyguard waiting at the tubegate. Adelaar, no arguments. I don’t get paid if I don’t get you back to Helvetia and I intend to collect. You hear?”

She laughed again. Almost hysteria, coming from her. “I hear,” she said. “Time is, Quale. Get yourself in gear or miss the boat.” The screen went dark.

“Right,” I said. “Hop on, Jamo, you and your friend, it’s time to roll.”