WITH THE LIGHTNINGS(82)

"I watched your other delegates executed earlier today," Adele said. "I don't want to see anything like that again. And I'm certainly not going to be a party to it."

She returned the flat pistol to her tunic pocket. She apparently carried it all the time, though Daniel hadn't had the least notion of the weapon's presence. He'd been surprised, but not nearly as surprised as the majority of the Kostromans who'd died here tonight.

"No," said Daniel Leary. "I'm not going to be party to it either."

He stood. "Woetjans," he said, "the Ahura isn't particularly spacious but there's room for more ballast. We'll carry this lot in the bilges and off-load them on an island when we're a good ways out."

Daniel smiled. A door in his mind had closed. He was very glad not to be looking at what lay behind it anymore.

"I wonder how well the bilge pumps work?" he added cheerfully.



Adele sat cross-legged on the yacht's bow, out of the bustle of sailors carrying equipment aboard and striding back for more. She tested the system once more, then switched off her data unit with a sigh of relief. She'd hoped she would be finished long before the Ahura left harbor. She'd made that personal deadline, but the business had taken nearly an hour longer than she'd expected.

Her expectations had been unrealistic. She should've known that Kostroma's comsat switching protocols would be as ineptly designed as the government data network had been. It was harder to overcome incompetence than it would have been to defeat deliberate protection.

She stood up with the care that her cramped thigh muscles required. She slid the little computer back in its pocket. She'd changed into her own clothes as soon as she'd finished cleaning her pistol. This way she didn't have to worry about the computer falling over the side unless she was going with it; in which case she didn't think she'd care.

The yacht rocked as two sailors boarded carrying a large piece of equipment slung to a pole between them. Adele didn't have any idea what it was. More batteries, perhaps, though she'd have thought the crew had by now stripped every vessel in the harbor that had a compatible electrical system.

Adele stepped around the forward solar sail; its furling mechanism was under discussion by three sailors. The sky was still an hour short of true dawn, but the crew needed to learn how to operate the equipment on which their lives would depend.

She entered the open cockpit just as Hogg left Daniel with a wave and a loud, "Okay, sir, you leave it to me!" Woetjans had been about to speak, but she nodded to Adele in deference.

"Daniel, you said you didn't trust the ship's navigation equipment," Adele said. "The Alliance fleet dropped a geopositioning system in orbit as soon as they arrived. I've tapped it. On a minute's notice I can tell you our location within three meters."

"You can?" Daniel said. "You did? That's wonderful! Woetjans, tell Racine to stop worrying about harmonizing the gyros and go help the team rigging the charging system shunts."

"Right," said the petty officer as she left the cockpit at a gliding run. After a lifetime among academics, it amazed Adele to see people who moved fast as a regular practice.

"I also modified the satellite controller to void all record of our use of the system," Adele added. "There's no risk of anyone tracing us back through our queries."

"What?" Daniel said in a tenser version of his previous surprise. "Is that really possible? I didn't think it was."

Adele sniffed. Her smile mirrored the cold pride within her. "I could do it," she said. "Though since the trace would have to be done through the Kostroman grid, I couldn't do it very easily."

Daniel laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. She blinked. That sort of friendly contact wasn't a part of academe either. "Well, we're getting there," he said. He seemed to relax to a degree as he talked to her. "I want to get under way as soon as the sun's up enough to power the engines, but . . ."

He shrugged, grinning like a little boy. "Until it happens, I won't be sure," he said.

Palfrey walked down the quay toward the yacht with fishing rods over one shoulder and a large case of some sort in the opposite hand. "The material you're taking," Adele said, nodding toward the sailor. "We're taking . . . ?"

She let her voice trail off in question.

"As of earlier today," Daniel said, "Cinnabar is at war with the Commonwealth of Kostroma." His voice now had no more give in it than a stone block does. "I won't countenance looting by any person under my command, but I'll cheerfully seize any material of military value."

His mouth quirked up at one corner; the expression was nothing at all like Daniel's normal friendly smile. "And if it's necessary to destroy civilian property to disrupt the enemy's military objectives," he went on, "I'll do that too. One of their objectives being to neutralize my detachment."