Part 19 (1/2)
”d.a.m.n,” Mary and Dumont echoed. ”Nice to have an inside man,” Mary finished, then went on, ”Are we just after the workstations? Are there backups?”
”All along this wall.” Jeff thought of the blimp and its limited lift. ”Say, twenty feet of shelving, eight shelves high. I don't know what that weighs.”
”We'll find out,” Mary a.s.sured him.
”What's on the upper floor?” Dumont asked.
”Books, printed maps, pictures of dead ancestors, as Vicky puts it. Souvenirs collected over the years. A few bits of jewelry that Great-Great Aunt Elma made. She fancied herself an artist. Vicky keeps threatening to melt them down to make something practical out of them, but Mom liked them. I don't think there's anything up there you'd be interested in.”
”Books?” Mary reminded him.
”I think they're all on disk. Maybe not all, but do you really want someone's old art book from Earth?”
”I don't know.” Mary shrugged. ”I guess we can always go back for more if we have to.”
”I'm bushed, Mary.” Dumont stepped away from the map table. ”Jeff has got to be. Let's go over this in the morning again.”
”I've got some locals laying out a full-size mock-up of this place so we can practice tomorrow. Need to add a stairs.”
”You want to bunk at the barracks tonight?” Dumont offered.
”I'd rather go back to the inn,” Jeff mumbled.
”See how the girl is,” Dumont nodded.
”Take my mule,” Mary offered. ”Be back at oh-six-thirty.”
Jeff glanced at his wrist, realized he still had some marine's commlink. ”Who do I give this to?”
”Keep it,” Mary said. ”That way I can call you in the morning. You're sure as h.e.l.l going to need it tomorrow night.”
”Thanks,” Jeff answered. ”Thanks for everything.”
”You've earned it, you poor dumb s.h.i.+t,” Dumont grinned. ”You're one of us now.”
Hazel Dell was dark as Jeff drove its streets. He parked in the alley behind the Public Room and let himself in the back door. One candle burned in the room, showing Annie and her dad still in the same chairs they'd been in this morning when he left. Mrs. Mulroney quickly stood from the chair between them. ”Would you like something to eat?” she asked.
”I'm not hungry.” Jeff hadn't eaten since breakfast, but his stomach was not interested.
As her mom settled back into her chair, Nikki made her way slowly to the keg. Jeff shook that off. ”Tea,” he said. ”Hot.”
”What's wrong?” Annie said hoa.r.s.ely, as if they were her first words of the day. Her eyes did not move from the patch of wall they'd been staring at for the past two days.
”Nothing,” Jeff answered, searched for more words and settled for ”I'm alive.”
”Where have you been?” her mom asked.
For a long moment, Jeff didn't know what to answer. Nikki arrived with tea. He sipped it slowly. ”h.e.l.l. Maybe.”
Now Annie's eyes came around to him, looked at him for the first time since she'd returned. ”What did they do to you?”
”It's what I did to them,” Jeff answered, putting down the tea and taking Annie's hands in his. Hers were cold, so cold. His still had the warmth of the tea on them. Still, he began to slowly rub her hands as he told the story of his day.
The words came out in a monotone, the people coming at them when anyone with an ounce of sense would have fled. People with airguns taking on the marines. Taking on Jeff. Dying under Jeff's gun sights. The three hung on Jeff's words; even Annie's dad started to show a response or two.
”What is happening to us?” Annie's mom moaned.
”I don't know.” It was the only answer Jeff could make.
”Would the starfolk shoot Daga, the others if they found them and the box?” Nikki asked, eyes wide.
Jeff thought about that, let it rumble around in his tired mind. ”Yes. They would. I would, now.” His words sank into the darkness of the room. Hung there. Tears in her eyes, Nikki tore out the front door. No one went after her.
”She'll come back,” her mom said softly, eyes still on the slammed and half-open door.
”She will,” Annie agreed.
”I've got to get some sleep,” Jeff said, standing. ”We're going after the Sterling archives tomorrow. I'll be home late. Maybe not until morning.”
”You'll be using the rifle,” Annie's dad said.
Jeff glanced at the webbing crossing his chest, realized for the first time that he'd brought his rifle with him. ”Yes.”
”Be careful,” Annie said.
”I will.”
”I'll wait up for you tomorrow.” For once, neither Annie's mom nor dad censured her. What had Jeff heard the Colonel say, ”Everything is changing”? Maybe all of it wouldn't be for the bad. Jeff climbed the stairs to his room, unslung his rifle, and fell into bed, clothes and boots still on. That was how he found himself when his commlink buzzed, and the duty officer informed him it was 0600 and he was due back in half an hour.
TEN.
MARY NEEDED THINGS: a good target mock-up, someone to play Vicky's goons, and better information on the guards' routine. Mary needed lots of things; she wasn't going to get them. She tried to be philosophical, but she'd survived enough firelights to know unmet needs like these caused casualties. With luck, they wouldn't be anyone she knew.
The old feeling was back, the cold in the pit of the gut, the tightness around lips and eyes. It was time to soldier. Time for people to die or live, and she would be the angel of death deciding which. d.a.m.n! I don't want to do this again! I earned my right to be an overpaid security guard. The only killing I want to make is mining this planet!
If the Colonel said right, they already had made one killing, an artificial intelligence Ray called the Gardener. Well, he hadn't known, and she sure as h.e.l.l had no idea she was mining the guts out of something when she tapped that mountain. Accidents happen. And s.h.i.+t happens. And a combat drop was about to happen and Mary was going to do her level best to see that it happened the way she wanted it.
Mary had tapped a young woman blimp driver for the mission; she liked Rhynia's flair. When told Mary needed a blimp to swoop down out of the sky with marines dangling from it on ropes, Rhynia's reply was a dimpled smile and a ”Why the h.e.l.l not?”
Mary planned several full rehearsals to give both marines and blimp a chance to work together. The morning started with Jeff walking them through a mock-up of the archives in the field behind the shuttle hangar. Red tape showed the main floor plan, blue tape the bas.e.m.e.nt. Jeff pointed out each workstation's location and the back entrance for the security team.
”Du, your squad heads downstairs first thing and ties down the guards,” Mary said. ”All else, we use sleepy bullets. If Jeff's big sis wanders into our s.n.a.t.c.h, we don't want to accidently pop her. Put anyone to sleep who has a gun, knife, or looks to cause trouble.” Jeff started to say something, but Du gave him a wink and said he'd explain later. Mary walked the marines through their part in the s.n.a.t.c.h. Each had something to do every second, going someplace, looking someplace, guarding someplace, or grabbing something-not a free moment.
Jeff's mouth hung open. ”Sis likes everyone busy, but nothing like this.”
”Sis never worked with live ammunition and dudes who know how to use it,” Dumont laughed.