Yana had been watching this, also making certain that neither Giancarlo nor Ornery made any sudden moves toward her. She thought maybe Torkel’s emotional display was genuine, but the man was devious-it could as well be a diversionary tactic. She couldn’t take any chances. “Chill out, Torkel,” she said. “These people are exhausted and in shock. They’re not going to be fool enough to risk their lives going back in there.”
But if Torkel was acting, he was doing it with enough conviction that he ignored her waving the gun. “You didn’t actually see the volcanic blast destroy the shuttle, did you?” he demanded of O’Neill.
“No,” O’Neill said tiredly. “It was intact when the force of the blast blew it off course.”
“Ah, but it blew it away from the path of the debris, right?”
“Well, yes. It was debris, too, as far as the volcano was concerned,” O’Neill told him.
“But there could have been survivors of the crash?”
Connelly, who Yana sensed was slowly being convinced by Torkel’s insistence, told him in a weary but not unsympathetic voice, “That was three hours ago, Captain, and that volcano’s been raining down and spitting mud out …”
Torkel heard the sympathy in the man’s voice and pounced on it. “Will you guide me?”
But he had pushed too hard. Connelly withdrew and favored him with a disbelieving look, shaking his head. “The only one I’m guiding is me, out of here, when the copter gets back.”
“Listen up, Connelly, and the rest of you, too,” Giancarlo said. “Captain Fiske is not just any military captain. As son of Board member Fiske, he also holds the position of ranking executive on this planet at this time. Failure to cooperate with him and with this mission will have serious repercussions on your career.”
“So,” Connelly said, “will death. I’m not sticking around here waiting for that mountain to blow again for the chairman of the board. Besides, in these flying conditions”-he waved his hand off to the north-“no copter, any copter, would stay airborne for more than ten, maybe fifteen minutes.” He snorted. “You’d do better using your feet.”
When Giancarlo started toward him angrily, Yana spoke up again.
“I wouldn’t, were I you, Colonel,” she said. “They’ve done enough just making it here. And you both should know,” she added, flicking a glance at Torkel, “how useless it would be to fly a copter in there!”
“Then, by all that’s holy”- Abandoning his frantic make-‘em-see-reason attitude, Torkel drew himself up into a noble-against-adversity stance. -“I’ll make it on foot. Your packs there,” he said, pointing to the pile slowly accumulating a cover of ash, “can be replaced at company expense when you get back to base. They won’t be of much future use to you considering their present condition, but I would very much appreciate being able to scrounge what I need from them.”
Connelly and Sven exchanged looks and shrugged. The woman, with an anxious look at Yana’s gun hand, darted over and extracted a small sack from the pile, skittering back to the protection of her colleagues.
“Might as well. There’s not that much there,” Connelly said, “and if the company’ll make good …”
“Of course, the company will make good,” Giancarlo snapped. “Your equipment was company issue to begin with. Who else do you think would replace it?”
“I promise you it won’t be debited from your pay,” Torkel said quickly. “And any personal effects you’ve lost will be replaced, as well. The company takes care of its own.”
O’Neill flicked him a resentful glance. “The way you were going to take care of the wounded?”
“Frag it all, O’Neill, I’m not some kind of a monster,” Torkel said, even as he gestured for Giancarlo and Ornery to help him collect the packs. “I told O’Shay to radio for another bird for your wounded and for yourselves. A few minutes would have made no difference to them. You’ll all get out safely. My father, and the crew of that shuttle, are still out there in that inferno.”
Yana couldn’t believe Torkel’s gall, trying to guilt-trip the survivors. He sure was a company man: give with one hand, shuffle the shells, and take with the other! But she had no objections to him going after his father, as long as he didn’t fore* anyone else to do it, too.