“Adele, the relative you have here?” Valentina said. “That is how you rescued Georgi from the trouble when we first arrived, yes?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Adele said. “My cousin is one of a community of Cinnabar expatriates in the Cluster navy.”
The port officials were closing their airsuits to return to their own ship. Adele had offered her resources to help with the bribe, now that the Klimovs were no longer the owners, but Daniel had assured her he could meet the requirements himself.
“And you will be visiting your relative and his colleagues when we land?” Valentina continued. “Because of the emergency you mention.”
“Yes,” said Adele, speaking even more carefully than she normally did. The Klimovna obviously knew more about the “Cinnabar expatriates” than Adele had told her. “Why do you ask?”
Valentina turned to the Count. “Georgi,” she said, “we will loan them the aircar. They will want to make an impression, and they will be in haste because of the trouble. They should not have to hire the trashy common vehicles here.”
“What?” the Count said. He shrugged. “Yes, of course. If you wish, my dear.”
He rubbed his hands as he smiled quietly into the distance. “Our business will be here in the harbor anyway,” he said. “And we’re in haste as well. I don’t even think I’ll find a card game on this visit.”
* * *
Daniel preserved a pleasant smile and kept his right arm sprawled loosely on the top of the aircar’s door, but doing that took more effort than facing the dragon with a clubbed gun had. It was easier to act in the face of oncoming disaster than to keep from acting. The aircar’s speed and Barnes’ white-knuckled grip on the control yoke were an oncoming disaster if Daniel had ever seen one.
“Perhaps we should put down in the street, Barnes,” Daniel said, hoping that he sounded reassuringly positive. “The courtyard of Commander Purvis’ palace isn’t really made for landing—”
“Hang on!” shouted Barnes. He apparently wasn’t listening. All things considered, Daniel supposed he wanted the driver to be completely focused on his job—given that even with full concentration he looked likely to make a real mess of it.
“You got that bloody right!” Hogg snarled from the far back where he sat alongside Dasi. “I swear t’ God, master, I’m going to walk back if this don’t break both my legs first!”
Daniel glanced over his shoulder with the instinct of an officer for the personnel under his command when things got tight. Adele and Tovera were in the middle seat. Tovera had a cool expression, while Adele was viewing something projected by her commo helmet. The image was a blur from Daniel’s side.
“Adele, you’ll want to hold—” Daniel said on a rising note. Tovera reached across her mistress and gripped the handrest, smiling at him.
To blazes with looking confident! Daniel braced his right arm against the dashboard and grabbed the bottom of the seat with his left. The aircar skimmed over the palace’s facade, banked into a turn like a paperclip, and dropped into the middle of the courtyard. The screaming children managed to scatter in time, but a gout of bloody feathers as the car bounced showed that one of the chickens hadn’t been so lucky.
Daniel held his mouth wide open so the shock didn’t break his teeth on one another, but he came up hard against the seatbelt. When the car hit the second time, he found the cushions weren’t up to the job of keeping the seat from trying to punch his spine through the base of his skull.
The car was still turning tightly, so this time it mowed down the poles supporting the clotheslines along the south face of the courtyard. When they finally halted, bright-colored garments festooned them like holiday bunting.
Barnes lifted an orange-and-yellow-striped tunic away from his face, then shut off the fans. He beamed at Daniel.
“Bloody hell, sir,” he said cheerfully. “I was worried there for a minute, but I guess we come in all right after all!”
Daniel unlatched his door, untangled the set of baggy pantaloons that kept it from opening fully, and got out. “Some of the laundry’s gotten into the fan intakes, Barnes,” he said. “Remove it before we lift off, will you please? I’ve had enough excitement for the morning.”