He grinned harshly.
“—friendly territory?”
“I’ll let our guest field that one,” Pritchard said with a tip of his hand toward the woman in the jumpsuit beside him. “Troops, this is Captain Mauricia Orichos of the Point Gendarmery, their army. Captain Orichos?”
“We’re not an army,” Orichos said. Her pleasant, throaty voice complemented her cheerfully cynical smile. “The job of the Gendarmery is primarily to prevent outsiders from harvesting our Moss. Without paying taxes on it, that is.”
She let that sink in for a moment, then continued, “My own job is a little different, however. You might say that I’m head of the state security section. I contacted my opposite number in your regiment—”
Which means Joachim Steuben. Huber hoped he kept his reaction from reaching his facial muscles.
“—and asked for help. The situation is beyond what the Gendarmery, what the Point, can handle by itself.”
The map had vanished when Orichos began to speak. Now in its place the car projected first the close-up of Melinda Grayle speaking, then drew back to an image of her audience—a long plaza holding several thousand people: mostly male, mostly armed. Mostly drunk as well, or Huber missed his bet.
“Generally,” Orichos continued, “Grayle’s supporters—they call themselves the Freedom Party—have stayed in the backlands. They’ve got a base and supposedly stores of heavy weapons on Bulstrode Bay—”
The map returned briefly, this time with a caret noting an indentation on the west coast of the peninsula, near the tip.
“—which is completely illegal, of course, but we—the government—weren’t in any position to investigate it thoroughly.” Her smile quirked again. “It seemed to me that most members of the government were concerned that we’d find the rumors were true and they wouldn’t be able to stick their heads in the sand any more.”
Huber and the other Slammers smiled back at her. Cynicism about official cowardice was cheap, but mercenary soldiers gathered more supporting evidence for the belief than many people did.
The image of Grayle appeared again, but this time the point of view drew back even farther than before. The crowd itself shrank to the center of the field. On all sides were the two- and three-story buildings typical of Plattner’s World, set within a forest which had been thinned but not cleared. This was a city. It was larger by far than Benjamin, the administrative capital of the UC.
“Two weeks ago,” Orichos said, “Grayle ordered her followers to join her in Midway—and come armed. Her Freedom Party has its headquarters directly across the Axis, Midway’s central boulevard, from the Assembly Building. They’ve been holding rallies every day in the street. This was the first, but they’ve gotten bigger.”
“And you can’t stop them?” Captain Sangrela asked. He tried to keep his voice neutral, but Huber could hear the tone of disapproval.
Orichos had probably heard it also, because she replied with noticeable sharpness, “Apart from the ordinary members of the Freedom Party, Captain, there are some ten thousand so-called Volunteers who train in military tactics and who’re considerably better armed than the Gendarmery—as well as outnumbering us two to one. I am doing something about them: I’m calling in your Regiment to aid the Point with a show of force.”
“Captain Sangrela was merely curious, Mauricia,” Pritchard said mildly, though his smile wasn’t so much mild as dismissive of anything as trivial as status and honor. “Task Force Sangrela’s arrival in Midway will prove Mistress Grayle was wrong about the Slammers being unable to reach the Point in a hurry . . . and if a more robust show turns out to be necessary, that’s possible as well.”
The imagery vanished. Pritchard looked across the arc of officers, his eyes meeting those of each in turn. In that moment he reminded Huber of a bird of prey.
“Troopers,” he said, “route and intelligence assessments have been downloaded to all members of your force. The resupply convoy brought a full maintenance platoon; they’ll be working on your equipment overnight so you can get some sleep. I recommend you brief your personnel and turn in immediately. You’ve got quite a run ahead of you starting tomorrow.”
“Blood and Martyrs!” Lieutenant Myers repeated. “That’s not half the truth!”