The door opened and we heard him greet Max. I walked into the room and saw that they were shaking hands. Max knew about the concealed holster.
My move was pretty obvious, and in retrospect I suppose it wouldn’t have worked if the sheriff had been on guard. I faked tripping on the rug and dropped the mug of tea. Cried out, “Oh, shit!”
As the sheriff turned, Max clamped his forearm around his neck and grabbed his right arm. The sheriff tried to kick back, but Max had anticipated the move and blocked it; meanwhile, I reached into the sheriff’s vest and yanked out the pistol.
“Don’t choke him, Max!” Max dropped his left arm enough to let him breathe, at the same time forcing him to his knees.
The sheriff coughed twice. “What is this?”
“Figure it out,” Max said. “Use your group mind.” Marygay came out of the office holding a big roll of building tape. “Into the cell! William…point the gun at him!”
I was holding it loosely, aimed at the floor. Might go off. I gestured with it. “Keep a hold of him, Max.”
He didn’t resist. “You’re going to be in real trouble. Whatever you think you’re doing.”
“You’ve got that right,” I said. “Real trouble now. But by the time we get back, it won’t make any difference.” Max had walked him into the first cell, and pushed him down into the chair. “What? You think you can…you’re going to take the starship?”
“These guys are fast,” Max said. Marygay secured him to the chair with the tape.
“We don’t mean you any harm, Sheriff,” I said, “nor anyone in Centrus. We’re just going ahead with what we proposed–with what you approved of.”
He was regaining some composure. “But that was provisional. Before we heard from the Whole Tree.”
“You do what you want,” Marygay said. “We don’t have to take orders from Earth.”
“From Taurans on Earth,” Max said.
“But it’s not practical,” the sheriff said with an edge of exasperation. “The three of you–”
“Seventeen,” I said.
“Even seventeen, you can’t steal the starship and run it.”
“We have a plan. Just sit back and watch us.”
A few people had come in and were standing at the door. “You don’t seem to need any help,” Jynn said.
“Look around and see if you can find any more weapons,” Max said.
“There aren’t any,” the sheriff said, nodding at me. “Just the pistol. Just for emergencies.”
“Like this.” Max stuck his hand out and I gave him the pistol. He aimed it at the viewscreen over the keyboard and fired. The explosion was loud in the small room. I shielded my eyes and didn’t see what it looked like, but the result was pretty dramatic. There was more hole than viewscreen.
“What the hell was that?” somebody shouted.
“Testing.” He handed it back. “Works.”
“You aren’t going to steal the starship with an old pistol.”
“We really just have to steal a shuttle,” Marygay said. “The starship will do what I tell it to.”
“And we’ll have more than a pistol,” Max said.
Cat came to the door. She and Marygay exchanged nods. “We found some crowd-control stuff. Gas grenades and tanglefoot.”
“Probably what they’ll use on us, in Centrus,” I said. “Might as well have our own.”
“The mask would be more useful,” the sheriff said.
“What?”
“The gas mask. It’s in the top right-hand drawer of my desk.” He shrugged. “Might as well cooperate.”
“We couldn’t get that one open,” Cat said. “Thumbprint?”
He nodded. “That’s where the ammunition is, too.” He wiggled his thumb. “You could bring the desk here, or set me free.”
“It’s a trap,” Max said. “It probably sends a signal.”
“Do as you wish,” the Man said.
“Why would you want to help us?” Marygay said.
“For one thing, I’m on your side; I’ve known you since I was a boy, and know how much this means.” He looked at Max. “Also, you have the gun. At least one of you could use it.”
Max pulled out a big pocket knife and the blade snapped out. “I could cut off your thumb.” He sawed at the tape and freed him. “Move slowly, now.”