Part 4 (2/2)

She stopped beside Hennessey's chair and reached out with a three fingered claw sprouting from her wing for the tortilla. Before eating it she gave another screech, this one sounding almost polite. Then she raised the tortilla to her beak and began ripping off pieces with her teeth.

”You don't see many of those around anymore,” Parilla commented. ”There were a lot more when I was a boy.”

”They're smart, you know,” Hennessey said. ”At least as bright as a grey parrot.”

”If they're so smart,” Jimenez asked, ”why are they nearly extinct.”

”It's the feathers,” Parilla answered. ”I daresay if you were that good looking, my ebony friend, people would be hunting you, too. Besides, coming near extinction, in the presence of man, is no shame...except to man.”

”And they still do hang on,” Hennessey added, flipping the bird a slice of fried ham that it caught and likewise bolted down. ”Linda's been looking for a mate for this one.”

”Speaking of hanging on, why did so many of you stay and hang on in the Estado Mayor?” Hennessey asked again, as breakfast neared its end. ”Don't get me wrong. I think you did the right thing. I admire you dumb b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, I did even then. But it was was hopeless.” hopeless.”

Jimenez sighed and shrugged. ”We knew that. But what's a principle worth? What's honor worth, Patricio?

”Not everybody did stay in the Comandancia, you know. Truthfully, I do not know how many took off as the screen between the Transitway Zone and the Estado Mayor collapsed. For a certainty, very few of the real thugs Pina brought in stayed.”

”We found well over a hundred bodies inside,” Hennessey reminded. ”And only the five of you that were too badly wounded to fight that were taken prisoner.”

Jimenez winced. ”Oh, I know, Patricio.”

”d.a.m.n shame. You had some good kids with you that day.”

Jimenez smiled. ”Yes. They were the best, the ones who wouldn't give up.”

Parilla interjected while spreading b.u.t.ter on a piece of toast, ”You will note, young Patricio, that those were men Herrera and I I trained, for the most part the old guard. I wish to h.e.l.l we had their like again in the uniform of the country.” trained, for the most part the old guard. I wish to h.e.l.l we had their like again in the uniform of the country.”

”We do, General,” Jimenez objected. ”The Civil Force boys are as good as what I commanded in 447.” He grinned, ruefully. ”One of the good side effects of having been abandoned by most of their officers is that a lot of good men survived who would have been killed had they been properly led.”

Parilla scowled as he b.u.t.tered a bit of toast. ”But they aren't an army, Xavier. A country needs needs an army.” an army.”

Jimenez looked down at his own plate and, nodding, frowned. ”Yes...well we're not going to get an army again; so we have to make do.”

”We could could have an army again, if...” Parilla didn't finish the sentence. have an army again, if...” Parilla didn't finish the sentence.

Hennessey thought for a bit, then said, agreeably, ”You have good people. They make good troops. If you ever get an army again and need a little help...”

”Yeah, well,” Jimenez said, ”no one believes that here. We lost, after all.”

”So did the Sachsens in the Great Global War,” Hennessey objected. ”Xavier, General...you know I was in the Petro War, too?”

Jimenez nodded as did Parilla.

”Well, let me tell you this. Six companies and less than a dozen independent platoons of Balboan light infantry outnumbered, outgunned, hit without warning in the middle of the night gave the FS Army more trouble than fifty divisions of heavily armed Sumeris. That's the truth; from someone who fought both. Your boys had nothing nothing to be ashamed of.” to be ashamed of.”

Parilla smiled with pleasure. In truth, the Armed Forces of Balboa be they called ”Civil Force,” ”Defense Corps,” or ”Guardia Nacional” had been and remained his one greatest love. To hear good words of an organization and tradition for which few in the country had much use anymore did him a great measure of good.

Just as Parilla was touched by the admission, so too was Jimenez. Normally a block of black ice to the world, still his voice choked a bit as he tried to formulate fumbling words of thanks. Before he could get those words out he was interrupted by Lucinda, gone suddenly pale, bursting in on them.

”Senor, senores ...come quick. Something terrible in the Federated States. On the ...come quick. Something terrible in the Federated States. On the Televisor Televisor. Come quickly!”

Exchanging worried glances, the three arose and hurried to the television room.

Columbian Airlines Flight 39, 0827 hrs, 11/7/459 AC Legs splayed, the stewardess lay face up with her open eyes staring blankly at the ceiling of the first cla.s.s cabin. Her throat was raggedly slashed and a great pool of her blood stained the carpet around her. The blood likewise stained the back of a now abandoned guitar.

Forward of the stew's corpse, halfway up the flight of steps that led to the bridge of the airs.h.i.+p, was another, smaller, pool of blood. It dripped from the steps down onto its donor, the airs.h.i.+p's purser. His throat had been cut at leisure, after he'd been beaten senseless. It was a much neater slash.

At the head of the stairs, there was a bolted door that now sealed off the bridge from the rest of the s.h.i.+p. Inside were eight men, three of them dead and on the deck. Of the five living, all were covered in the blood sprayed from the throats of the crew as they were sliced open. Two of those living sat the pilot's and copilot's seats. Another two guarded the bolted door against some desperate bid on the part of the pa.s.sengers to regain control.

Yusef, the final member and commander of the team, stood behind the two flight-trained hijackers. He had a mobile phone pressed to one ear on which he received reports from the other teams. With each report the smile in his blood-dripping beard grew wider, more jubilant.

”The Merciful, the Compa.s.sionate One smiles upon us in all his glory,” Yusef exulted. ”The other two airs.h.i.+ps are also in our hands.”

Samadi, at the pilot's controls, pointed and exclaimed, ”Brothers, look! There beats the heart of the beast.”

Looking out the bridge's forward window, Yusef nodded with antic.i.p.atory satisfaction at the immense skysc.r.a.per that was their ultimate target.

”If you hanker after Paradise, Brother, then fly us into the base.”

Samadi smiled nervously and nodded. He was not nervous over his impending death; that was nothing. But he was only the best pilot among them, not necessarily a good one. Pus.h.i.+ng forward on the yoke with one hand, the other pushed the throttle all the way forward. The speed of the s.h.i.+p began to climb up to maximum.

Behind them, in the pa.s.senger compartments, the rest of the airs.h.i.+p's pa.s.sengers began to scream at the changing att.i.tude, alt.i.tude and speed. The hijackers ignored those screams completely.

Headquarters, Terra Nova Trade Organization, First Landing, Hudson, Federated States of Columbia, 0829 hrs, 11/7/459 AC As with all poisons, Linda thought, toxicity is in the dose toxicity is in the dose.

The ground floor of the TNTO was also the floor of the Terra Novan Trade Appeals Board, the planet's sole effective effective international court. Thus, that floor simply swarmed with lawyers. The density made Linda's skin crawl. international court. Thus, that floor simply swarmed with lawyers. The density made Linda's skin crawl.

One child in her arms, another held by the hand and the third trailing along, Linda stepped onto an elevator heading up to the office's of Patricio's family firm.

”Your destination, please,” the elevator's speaker asked.

”Chatham, Hennessey, and Schmied,” Linda answered clearly, though with a slight but utterly charming Hispanic accent. The machine running the elevator understood it well enough, in any case.

With a smooth sound the elevator began to shoot upwards until it reached the 104th floor. There it came to an equally smooth stop. The doors opened to either side with a floor. There it came to an equally smooth stop. The doors opened to either side with a whoosh whoosh.

Heart pounding, as it always did whenever she had to meet some of her husband's family Annie alone excepted Linda Hennessey and her children stepped off of the elevator. A sign high on a wall announced, ”Chatham, Hennessey, and Schmied,” the name of the family business.

<script>