Aretine had left her console. As Daniel spoke she reappeared at one of the gunnery displays, wrenching the man there aside and sitting down in his place. The unit was supposed to control three of the automatic impellers in unmanned barbettes on the outer wall. It was as dead as a pile of gravel now; the Falassan commander jerked at the joystick uselessly in frothing fury.
Adele frowned, realizing that she could have shut down the fort’s active defenses much sooner than she did, thus saving lives among the Dalbriggan attackers. Though . . . looking at the thugs guarding Kelburney, that wasn’t a prospect for which she could summon much enthusiasm.
“I realize you’ll need to discuss this among yourselves,” Daniel continued. He sounded utterly sincere, but he winked to those watching him from the interior of the fortress. They’d have thought he was simple-minded if he hadn’t. “You have five minutes to accept or reject my offer; and if the latter, a trifle longer to make your peace with God. RCN out.”
The Astrogator looked down at Adele. “You, Mundy?” he said. “Can you make all my people hear me the way you warned about you Cinnabars driving up in the car?”
“Yes, I can do that,” Adele said, keeping her tone neutral. If another Cinnabar aristocrat had spoken to her in so brusk a fashion, she would have called him out; but Kelburney was clearly being polite in his own fashion. The custom of the country. . . .
“Do it, then,” Kelburney said, “and I’ll warn ’em about the prisoners. We don’t want any slipups.”
He nodded toward Tovera with a grim smile. Truly, the Astrogator wasn’t a man who missed much.
Adele pulled off her RCN helmet and tossed it underhanded to Kelburney. “Use this,” she said.
“Would to God I had you on my ship,” Kelburney muttered as he settled the helmet on his head. The lining adjusted automatically to his larger skull. He nodded toward Daniel, engrossed in the interplay visible through the fort’s seventeen displays. “I thought he was blind to pick a girlfriend like you.”
“I prefer not to be called a girl at all, Master Kelburney,” Adele said. “You can address your personnel now.”
On the range of miniature screens monitored through the personal data unit, the one-handed Falassan turned with a snarl and grabbed the bell-muzzled weapon beside him. Three splashing holes in his chest flung him back into the console. It went dead when a second burst ripped through the man’s body and the box itself.
“This is the Astrogator!” Kelburney said. “Listen up! The bastards who holed up in the HQ are gonna surrender in a minute or two. We’re gonna let ’em. Hear me! You’re gonna treat ’em all like they was your long-lost sister, you hear? Anybody shoots a prisoner, he goes out an airlock without a suit, I don’t care who you are!”
Aretine was no longer visible. The Falassans weren’t looking at their displays; some of them remained at their consoles, but they’d rotated the seats outward and held weapons ready. Sparks crackled from the wall in front of an unused display, submachine gun projectiles disintegrating on concrete.
Kelburney gave Adele a lopsided grin. “Figure that’ll do the job?” he said.
She shrugged. “You know your people better than I do,” she said. “It seemed clear enough to me, certainly.”
Kelburney squatted beside her, his eyes on Daniel who appeared oblivious. “Takes a lot on him for a young fellow, doesn’t he?” Kelburney said.
Three Falassans carrying pistols ran through the image field of the console at which Aretine had sat when Daniel began his speech. One of them threw his hands in the air and toppled forward.
“He’s acted as his father’s envoy since he turned sixteen,” Adele lied in a conversational tone. “This is a relatively minor matter compared to some he’s undertaken.”
“What?” Kelburney said in amazement.
Daniel walked a little apart as though he were completely lost in the events within the fort. He and Adele hadn’t had a chance to plan this, but from their first meeting they’d shown an aptitude for counterpointing one another. Now, if only Aretine will hold out for a few minutes longer.