She gestured back toward the Tree. “Your library is interesting,” she went on. “There are many unusual holdings and perhaps a few that’re unique; but I’ve worked in collections that’re easily a hundred times more extensive. I love them, I love the environment, and I could be back there now—but I’m not. I’m here in what’s again an RCN warship with all that implies. I’ve killed many times, many scores of times since I put on this uniform—”
Her right thumb and index finger pinched the mottled fabric of the opposite sleeve of her utility uniform.
“—and I’ll kill more people, I’m sure of it, until the day someone kills me as I’m also sure will happen. This is my choice, Sister, my choice: I chose the world!”
Adele dropped the girl’s arm and strode up the boarding bridge. She didn’t look back until she was in the access compartment and the main hatch had started to close.
Margarida was staring after her with a blank expression. Suddenly the girl turned on her heel and started back toward the Tree with determined strides.
CHAPTER 25
The Princess Cecile orbited Todos Santos, but so long as Adele had work to do she’d remained oblivious of the weightlessness. Now she set her console to complete the processing and looked over to the Klimovs in the bridge annex.
The Count seemed irritated; Valentina had a withdrawn, half-sad expression. Previously they’d been coddled during landing procedures; this time they were left to their own devices; they were no longer owners of the ship on which they travelled. Daniel was negotiating with the port inspectors, while Adele dealt with her own self-appointed task.
They don’t really belong anywhere, Adele thought. Their wealth gains them entrée to most societies, but they aren’t really of those societies. Everyone else aboard the Sissie is part of the same family.
“Your excellencies?” Adele said, speaking across the ten feet of open space instead of using the intercom. The ship while orbiting wasn’t silent, but its systems didn’t make the cacophonous racket they would when under power. “I’m providing you with a list of the ships in San Juan Harbor with their values listed for tax purposes, the records of their captains where those are available, and the vessels’ histories—again as available. The tax listings are relative, of course.”
“But I don’t see . . . ?” Klimov said, still frowning but now in confusion rather than pique. “What is this you’re telling us?”
“You’ll be buying or hiring a ship here, I presume,” Adele said. From the look of comprehension on Valentina’s face it was obvious that she already understood, but Adele continued for the husband, “I believe this information will make it easier for you to negotiate.”
She cleared her throat. “I have an acquaintance—a relative, in fact—on Todos Santos. Under other circumstances I’d suggest that he use his good offices on your behalf, but the present emergency precludes that. Still, you should be able to find acceptable transportation home.”
The Princess Cecile had dropped into normal space some four million miles from Todos Santos. Most astrogators merely hoped to make their initial reentry within the solar system for which they were aiming, though she knew Daniel had on occasion done even better. The first thing Adele did was to alert the Cinnabar exiles through their emergency net. She and Daniel had a meeting arranged in Adrian Purvis’ mansion in three hours time or however much longer it took them to work through the landing formalities.
“We’ll return to Cinnabar aboard a trader, I believe, and hire a Cinnabar ship to Novy Sverdlovsk,” said the Count. “Without discussing in detail the curios we’ve collected.”
He frowned and went on, “But Mistress Mundy, why is it that you went to this trouble for us? You’ve gathered information on more than a hundred ships, not so?”
Adele pursed her lips. A quick answer would’ve been, “It wasn’t any trouble.” That was true at least for her, but it wasn’t really the answer.
“Your excellency,” she said, “you’ve behaved like a gentleman during our contact on this voyage. The Mundys of Chatsworth have a reputation of giving as we receive, in good or ill.”