Lt. Leary, Commanding by David Drake

Hogg eyed the neighboring brush. He chose a plant, then notched its stem with his shovel and stripped a line of bark up from the cut. It was as tough and flexible as rawhide. “I’ll tell you what, young master,” he said. “You leave me here for an hour or so to set a snare. And then we’ll see if something doesn’t come to us.”

Daniel chuckled. “Yes, all right, Hogg,” he said. “Commodore Pettin ordered me to make a survey of constructions on South Land. This hole appears to be one of the more recent constructions . . . and I wouldn’t want the commodore to think I’d disobeyed his orders.”

* * *

Adele worked at the seven separate screens on her display while Tovera stood behind her chair, facing toward the bridge proper. The servant wore, unusually for her, an RCN commo helmet. She was echoing Adele’s display on the visor.

“By God!” Lt. Mon said. He slammed his fist on the command console and stood. “By God, I won’t have them play games with the RCN! Officer Mundy, a word with you!”

Adele locked her display and set her wands on the flat surface. She rotated her seat to face Mon, but she was rubbing her eyes instead of meeting his furious gaze.

“Koop and Lamsoe just called in from South Land,” Mon said. “They’ve reached the site and done everything but plow the ground up. Captain Leary isn’t there, there’s no sign that he ever was, and I can’t get through to the Captal da Lund for an explanation! A message says he’s not taking calls!”

A part of Adele wondered idly whether that was the sort of information that all RCN commanders thought they had to tell their signals officers. Whose console did Mon think the calls were routed through?

Aloud she said, “Yes, I’m sorry, Mon, I should’ve kept you better informed. I’ve been busy.”

She gestured toward the command console. “Sit down again and I’ll explain what’s been going on.”

Mon’s face darkened for a moment; Adele realized that her brusqueness had tripped Mon’s little-man belligerence. He nodded, remembering her civilian background, and sat down obediently.

“Sorry,” Adele muttered, irritated with herself. If she’d been a man instead of a slender woman whose physical presence threatened no one, her error might have precipitated a scene in the current charged atmosphere.

She faced around and unlocked the display, saying, “No one’s come out of the Captal’s compound since his driver and aircar returned late yesterday evening.”

Her wand highlighted a movement log, culled from the compound’s own sensors.

“The car came back?” Mon said. “By—” He caught himself. “Go ahead, Officer Mundy,” he said with the controlled tension of a gymnast balancing.

“Yes,” said Adele, throwing up time-slugged imagery of the car landing in the courtyard. “And if you’ll look here—”

She split the display to show two versions of the vehicle’s left quarter panel recorded when it left the compound and on its return. The quality wasn’t good enough to show detail, but the fist-sized dents in the latter image were sufficiently clear.

“It appears that shots hit the car between the time it left and when it came back,” Adele said. “That implies that at least one member of the expedition was alive after Dorotige left them.”

“Can you get me through to the Captal da Lund?” Mon said in a cold voice. “I’d like to discuss the matter with him.”

For all the lieutenant’s bubbling temper, he didn’t bluster when there was a serious task in front of him. That was probably why Daniel liked having Mon as a subordinate.

“I can get you through his blocking program,” Adele said. “I don’t recommend that, however, since it would alert him to how open his systems are to intrusion. I have full access to his security system, for example. That’s where this imagery is coming from.”

Mon’s mouth opened, then closed. “Christ,” he said in a wondering voice, “you are a wizard, just like they told me after I got out of a cell on Kostroma. Do you have a plan?”

“I’m working toward one,” Adele said carefully. Put as baldly as Mon had, she realized that she should’ve been discussing matters with the acting captain at every step of the way. “I have some ideas.”

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