tried to lie to itself and believe that Pell’s values could survive in such
times.
There were those who could shift from side to side, play any politics going. Jon
Lukas could do so; evidently had. If Mazian had sense to judge men, he would
surely see what Jon Lukas was and reward him as he deserved. But Mazian did not
need honest men, only men who would obey him, and impose Mazian’s kind of law.
And Jon would come out a survivor, on either side. It was his own mother’s
stubbornness, that refusal to die; his own, maybe, that did not seek approach to
his uncle, whatever he had done. Maybe Pell needed a governor in these latter
days who could shift and survive, trading what had to be traded.
Only he could not. If he had Jon in front of him now—hate… hate of this measure
was a new experience. A helpless hate… like Josh’s… but there was revenge, if he
lived. Not to harm Pell. But to make Jon Lukas’s sleep less than easy. While a
single Konstantin was loose, any holder of Pell had to feel less secure. Mazian,
Union, Jon Lukas—none of them would own Pell until they had gotten him; and that
he could make difficult for them, for as long as possible.
Chapter Three
« ^ »
Downbelow main base; 1300 hrs; local night
There was still no answer. Emilio pressed Miliko’s hand against his shoulder and
kept leaning over Ernst, at com, while other staff clustered about. No word out
of station; no word from the Fleet; Porey and his entire force had gone hurtling
offworld into a silence that persisted into yet another hour.
“Give it up,” he told Ernst, and when there was a murmuring among other staff:
“We don’t even know who’s in control up there. No panic, hear me? I don’t want
any of that nonsense. If you want to stand around main base and wait for Union
to land, fine. I won’t object. But we don’t know. If Mazian loses he might take
out this facility, you understand? Might just want to destroy it beyond use. Sit
here if you like. I’ve other ideas.”
“We can’t run far enough,” a woman said. “We can’t live out there.”
“Our chances aren’t good here either,” Miliko said.
The murmuring swelled into panic.
“Listen to me,” Emilio said. “Listen. I don’t think their landing in the bush is
that easy, unless they’ve got equipment we haven’t heard of. And maybe they’ll
try blowing up this place; but maybe they’d do that anyway, and I’d rather have
cover. Miliko and I are taking a trip down the road. We’re not going to work for
Union, if that’s what it comes to up there. Or stand here and deal with Porey
when he comes back.”
The murmuring was lower this time, more frightened than panicked. “Sir,” said
Jim Ernst, “you want me to stay by com?”
“You want to stay here?”
“No,” Ernst said.
Emilio nodded slowly, looked about at all of them. “We can take the portable
compressors, the field dome… dig in when we get somewhere secure. We can survive
out there. Our new bases do it. We can.”
Heads nodded dazedly. It was too hard to realize what they were facing. He
himself did not, and knew it.
“Flash it down the road too,” he said. “Roll up the operation or stay on as they
choose. I’m not forcing anyone to head into the bush if he doesn’t think he can
make it. One thing we’ve already seen to, that Union won’t get their hands on
the Downers. So now we make sure they don’t get their hands on us. We get food
from the emergency stores we didn’t mention to Porey; we take the portable com;
take some essential units out of the machines we can’t take with us… and we just
take a walk down the road and into the trees, by truck as far as we can take the
trucks, dump the heavy stuff in hiding, carry it to our new dig bit by bit. They
might blast the road and the trucks, but any other answer is going to take them