for Coeur—who was beginning to wonder if loving acceptance was etched on the face of the priest—it was almost a relief to see his reaction. Staggered, he reached backward for the nearest seat and fell into it.

  "Oh my. "He bowed his head, rapidly murmuring an invocation, and several times drew his faith's triangular sign in the air.

  "Are you all right? "Zorn asked, sitting down in the next chair.

  Anthony nodded his head, wiping the corners of his eyes.

  "Yes, I'm fine. Ifs the risk we accept when we take our vows. Her soul will be at rest."

  "Maybe we should give him a little while alone, "Coeur whispered to Zorn.

  "No, "Anthony said, getting back to his feet. "No, I'm all right. Is there anything else your men discovered?"

  "Yes, "Coeur said. "Cari and Katzel might still be alive."

  "Well, thank God for that, "Zorn said.

  "Yes, we should, "Anthony agreed.

  "Perhaps, "Coeur said, "but all I know is that two of our people have been captured, and I want them back."

  Zorn nodded, gratified to hear that. Technically, Coeur had no obligation to Cari and Katzel, but apparently Coeur didn't look at things that way.

  "Perhaps, "Anthony said, "It is time you met the rebels. ”

  "Could you arrange that?"

  "I could try. But it's a good distance to the nearest camp. In the wasteland on the far side of Albegar. We could not walk that far before dawn. ”

  "You're forgetting the broomsticks, "Zorn said. "With V's, we have three—enough for six people."

  "Can they fly that far? "Anthony asked. 'They seem rather...."

  "Fragile? "Coeur asked.

  "Yes."

  "They are. Brother Anthony, but they've got long legs. You could fly one all the way out to the ocean and back if you had to."

  "Goodness, "Anthony said, boggled by the prospect of such a 200-kilometer flight. So impressed was he, In fact, that he removed the vial of holy water from his vestments and sprinkled a generous portion on Coeur, Zorn, V-Max's broomstick in the hold and himself. Zorn, for her part, was amused by the blessing, but Coeur took it with respectful equanimity.

  What the hell, she thought. It's not like I don't pray every time I turn on the jump drive...

  ***

  Back in the grav APC with the rest of her crew, when Coeur learned the extent of Drop Kick’s bravado—trailing the APC all the way to the bunker—her first impulse was to give him a good stiff kick in the butt. A moment's reflection put her off that tack, though, as she realized she would have done the same thing in his place.

  We don't leave people behind, Coeur thought, remembering the Arse's motto, but if we do, we get them back.

  "Really, Drop Kick, "Zorn said, back in the G-carrier with V-Max, Brother Anthony, Coeur and the remainder of the personnel Coeur had brought down to the surface, "you don't have to take those kinds of risks for my people."

  "Nah, it's all right, "Drop Kick said, having flipped up his visor to access the straw of a box of high carbohydrate punch. "We got good secondary intelligence, like the layout of the city, and the fact that they're not real sharp with their sensors."

  "Fond of Russian roulette, are you, Drop Kick? "Physic asked.

  "Please clarify your meaning, "Newton jumped in, baffled by the expression.

  "I think what she means, "Gaffer said, "Is that we’d die if they had good sensors, and wouldn't if they didn't. Actually, though, those odds are a lot worse than Russian roulette..."

  "Which is?"

  "Spinning the cylinder of a revolver with one round in it, pointing it at your head and pulling the trigger.

  "I am confused, "Newton announced. "What purpose would that serve?"

  "Well, "Gaffer said, "It's a sort of a game—you know, a game of chance—except with higher stakes."

  "Higher stakes, sergeant?"

  "Well, yeah, you could die."

  "Oh, I comprehend. When you say you point the gun at your head, "you actually mean you point it at your brain. ”

  Gaffer didn't know quite what to make of this.

  "Wen, yeah. What else?"

  "As it happens, "Newton explained, "our brains are not located in our 'head, ""but in our torso. But about the revolver— how many chambers must it have to present a statistically acceptable risk to the players?"

  Before he could give an answer, Gaffer caught himself, recognizing that no matter what he said, the bizarre human motivation to play suicidal games of chance would doubtless remain inscrutable to the Hiver.

  "Forget about it, "Gaffer said. "It's just another way of saying that the flight into Soledad was dangerous."

  "You can say that again, "Physic admonished, staring at the Marines with her arms crossed.

  "Anyway, "Coeur said, directing her people's attention back to herself, "It's time we sortied. Zorn, you're with me. Brother Anthony, you'll ride with V-Max. Drop Kick, you and Gaffer will cover us from a discreet distance."

  "How discreet? "Drop Kick asked.

  "As discreet as possible. You work it out. Layoff the radio unless it's life or death."

  "Understood."

  "What about guns? ” Zorn asked.

  "Well, Drop Kick and Gaffer will certainly carry their weapons, "Coeur said, "but I don't think the rest of us should. It probably wouldn't give a good first impression."

  "If I may interject, "Brother Anthony said. "I think that would be an error. Provocative as guns are, they may be your only defense against the nightjacks if we meet them."

  "What do you mean'your'? "Zorn asked.

  "Oh, well, I don't need a weapon. Nightjacks—being evil creations—seldom attack priests."

  Coeur was dubious of that, but accepted the wisdom of taking along some marginal protection. She strapped on a gauss pistol while Zorn and V-Max settled for personal defense lasers.

  "All right, "Vink said. "Now what about us?"

  "Oh, don't worry, "Zorn said. "Red's got a special job for you."

  "Oh?"

  "Yes, "Coeur said. "We have to assume that—strong or weak as they might be—Cari and Katzel could reveal this location under torture. It's your mission, therefore, to move the vehicles to another spot about 20 kilometers north and reestablish the camp."

  "Oh great, "burly Whiz Bang complained. "Now we have to set the camouflage up all over again."

  "And like it, trooper, "Drop Kick said.

  "Yes, sergeant major."

  "May we assume that this position has been previously surveyed, Captain? "Newton asked.

  "Affirmative. It was mapped from orbit, so I'll show you the position. I'll want you to get there and set up quickly, though, so you can continue monitoring Soledad's radio traffic for messages about the prisoners."

  "Messages? "Newton asked.

  "Ransom demands, requests for parley, that kind of thing. If we're lucky, the kids were taken as bargaining chips to get to their captain. If we're unlucky...."

  But Coeur didn't have to spelt it out. The Arses might always try to get their people out, but often as not, those people were dead well before a rescue party could arrive to help them.

  ***

  Although they knew their hours of nighttime were limited (the sun would rise around 0600, in five hours), the three broomstick teams followed to make sure the G-carrier and ship's boat relocated safely before moving on. HEPIaR thrusters were fairly noisy, so Coeur was concerned at first that the peasants and tractor bosses below might hear them and alert the Soledad armed forces to investigate, but a moment of reflection reminded her that the prevailing southerly winds would carry the keening of the engines away from the people below. Anyway, the relocation went without incident.

  As Coeur intended, the new site had all the advantages of the old one—namely, that it was well-concealed at the base of a ravine and close to a slope overlooking farmland below and the River Loro and Albegar beyond. Once settled into this new niche farther north in the same Lomarica hills, the spacers in the G-carrier and ship's boat promptly spilled out to replace their IR shrouds and camouflage nets, and Coeur was satisfied that they were now as safe as they could be.

  "Okay, "she signaled by Anslan to V-Max on the lead broomstick, "move out."

  The choice of V-Max as point was based on simple reasoning— he'd been on the planet the longest and was carrying Brother Anthony, their guide. Under Anthony's direction, the line of three broomsticks—with Coeur and Zorn second and the sergeants far to the rear—swung out over Albegar and headed toward the wasteland beyond.

  Since they were now flying into a southerly head wind, the very Tight broomsticks could not reach their top speed, and Drop Kick and Gaffer were given a slower, more detailed view of Albegar than they'd had earlier that night. Now they saw what they had not seen before—gangs of peasant laborers marching through the streets to the fields, watched over by armed tractor bosses and the odd Soledad track-laying APC. In the middle of the broomstick flight, Coeur and Zorn saw this, too.

  "You know what it probably is? "Zorn said to Coeur, through the broomstick's hard-wired intercom link between their headsets. "A feudal society. Like Oriflamme, only more primitive."

  'Somehow, I don't think Oriflamme would like the comparison, "Coeur replied, noting the application of nightsticks to work gang stragglers. 'Those people don't look like they have any choice of occupation."

  "True, but neither do some Oriflammen."

  Given the sorry state of the population—tattered, shuffling men, women and children—Coeur suspected that their condition was far from a new thing. That and the relatively light force available to keep them in line—a handful of TL6 troops and vehicles watching over countless thousands of peasants—suggested a TED, a technologically elevated dictatorship, long passed into the status of an institution.

  I've only been here a few hours, Coeur thought, and already I hate this Brak. But I'll have to watch that emotion and keep it in check. Killing Brak is not our mission objective.

  Despite herself, though, Coeur found herself thinking about Carl and Katzel even as the lead broomstick of V-Max and Brother Anthony sailed over a crumbling monorail abutment and into the darkness beyond the city. Her eyes continued to scan for movement all around them. In the low-light pandrama perceived through her goggles, but at the same time she remembered two singular young spacers from her time on Zorn's patrol cruiser....

  Coeur learned their names soon after Vi Et Armis left Sauler, alter the pirate went into jump just ahead of a flight of angry SDBs. The crew was still elated a lull day into jump space, as they realized they had cheated death, blown up the Guild's offices and mode off with a megacredit in gold bullion (ironically, the Guild's payment for killing the Hivers at Ra).

  However, no one was quite as happy as the crew of the ship's boot, whom Coeur and Drop Kick met when Zorn led them down to the boat bay during their first four of the ship. Quite young, Cari and Katzel, female and male first cousins from Nike Nimbus, were both 21 and exhibited a youthful vigor that was distinctly at odds with the hard-edged gravity in the expressions of their older mates.

  "Hey there, skipper, "Katzel said, lifting his wrench to solute Zorn.

  "Hey, "Cari seconded, "how's it going, sir?"

  "Quite well, "Zorn said, "thanks to Red Sun and Drop Kick here. “

  "Wow. So you're the people who helped us blow up Sauler Downport, "Katze! said to the Arse and Marine. "Cool."

  "Well, not the whole port, "Drop Kick said, "Just the port authority."

  "Yeah, "Zorn sold, "and there I was, all set to nuke the whole city, but Red here talked me out of that"

  Katze! leaned back, Impressed.

  "You must be pretty convincing, "Katze! said to Coeur. "The skipper never listens to me."

  "Yeah, me neither, "Cari rejoined. "You'd think she'd be owed by our breadth of experience."

  "Don’t worry, "Zorn said, smiling indulgently. "I'll let you two get some dirt-side duty one of these days."

  "That's what she always says, "Katzel said in a stage whisper, leaning toward Coeur.

  "Be careful what you ask for, "Coeur replied, conspiratorially. "You might get it"

  "We con handle it, ” Katzel shot back proudly.

  Walking away, Coeur and Zorn smiled at the enthusiasm of the young crewmembers.

  "You've known them for a while? "Coeur asked.

  "Yeah, friends of the family. I took'em aboard as a favor to their parents. ”

  "Too be pirates? How thoughtful."

  "Hey, piracy is in the eye of the beholder, Star Viking."

  Coeur bristled. At least I don't spread plagues! But under the circumstances, she thought better of insulting her hosts.

  "Yeah, some people think so, "Coeur mused. "But kids are always in such a hurry to grow up."

  "Yeah, that or get killed, "Zorn replied, her smile lading. "That's too easy to do out here. Their time will come soon enough. Sooner than it ought to."

  Presently, V-Max's broomstick began to drop toward the rubble, and Coeur concentrated all her attention on maintaining stability in the southerly wind as she lost speed following V-Max down toward the ground.

  Although the terrain below seemed nothing but uninter-rupted rubble, Coeur's wide-spectrum goggles caught occasional spots of heat from the tracks and bodies of living organisms—rats, dogs, cats and people. Given the silence of the broomsticks, Coeur doubted the people on the ground would have any impulse to glance upward when the spacers passed overhead, and besides, the broomsticks were so small they would probably not be spotted against the starry sky. Even so, she was mindful of her pistol's weight as they came down out of the sky to land atop a weed-strewn hill.

  As per their instructions, Drop Kick and Gaffer did not come down, but Coeur was still reassured they were up there, circling at 400 meters. The spot Brother Anthony had chosen was rather exposed, and very windy, with only a ruined rectangle of stone to mark the perimeter of a long-extinct structure.

  "This was a church, "Anthony explained, after the two lead broomsticks were on the ground together. "It is sometimes used as a meeting place by the rebels."

  "I sure don't see any here, "V-Max said, confirming the view of the women.

  "One cannot be certain, "the priest replied. "Give them a few minutes."

  Anthony then wandered off a short distance, to the pedestal of what might once have been an altar, mumbling what sounded like an incantation.

  The spacers looked on, completely nonplussed.

  "Defender, "Anthony pronounced, raising the prayer to an audible level, "son and daughter of God, protector of Heaven and Earth,"

  "Hear my prayer."

  "Grant us:"

  "The grace to forgive our transgressors,"

  "The strength to forebear our fortune,"

  "The wisdom to accept your providence,"

  'Until death, and the reunion of souls."

  Sounds pretty middle-of-the-road, as prayers go, Coeur thought, but where are the rebels?

  They aren't here, "Anthony said, after a long moment. "We must try another location."

  Minutes later, they relocated to another hill several kilometers to the north—also the location of a demolished church—and invoked the presence of the rebels. But again, they did not show.

  "Maybe they just don't want to be found, "Zorn suggested.

  "We must try again, "Anthony suggested. "We cannot try in the daytime."

  Coeur shrugged, and they moved on.

  Not until three stops later did they find their quarry.

  Brother Anthony was noticeably reticent about suggesting this last location, but that fact in and of itself prompted Coeur to want to see it. In a region called the imponsero District. it was well outside the power grid but near a number of standing structures that loomed with exaggerated size in the darkness. Most were empty apartment buildings, rendered in a blocky style perhaps chic at one time, but the true giants were warehouses, some aglow with fires of huddled camps and all riddled with divots blown out of their ferroconcrete shells by the impact of energy artillery.

  In short, Coeur thought, a battleground.

  The chapel Anthony selected this time was among the warehouses, amazingly retaining its overall structure though the roof and rafters had long since collapsed. Bits of debris and dangling metal, shifted by the wind, banged and skittered noisily in adjacent structures, confusing Coeur's ears as she strained to hear the motion of other feet in the rubble.

  As before, Anthony prayed alone for several minutes, eventually building to a volume that could be easily heard, then stopped.

  And silence fell on the chapel.

  Then the chilling sound of rifle bolts—dozens—clattered down on them from every direction. Zorn, who reached to draw her gun, was stayed by a warding hand from Coeur.

  "All right, people, "ordered a disembodied voice, "on your faces on the ground, hands behind your backs! You too, brother!"

  An armed force of squad strength then swarmed into the building, enforcing the voice's will by bayonet point. V-Max was the only spacer to be hurt, when he protested Zorn's being forced to the ground and got a butt slock in the kidneys for his trouble.

  What luck, Coeur thought wryly, feeling gravel pressed into her cheek as strange fingers tied her hands behind her back and relieved her of her gun. Our tint night on Mexit, and already we're making friends for the Coalition.

  Chapter Twelve

  Having witnessed firsthand the cruelty of more than one TED, Coeur was understanding of her captors, even as they tied a rope around her hands, took her weapon and her communicator, replaced her night-vision goggles with a blindfold and hauled her upright for a thorough frisking. As a potential spy, she deserved no better.

  What she fervently hoped was not that she would be treated better, but that their captors would take better care of the broomsticks they were dragging along behind the prisoners, and that Drop Kick would have the restraint to refrain from a rescue attempt.

  Well, at least until they actually try to execute us.

  Brother Anthony was given better treatment, and Coeur heard him explain their objective even as they were lead away from the chapel.

  "We told you only to come here alone, Brother Anthony."

 

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