“Let’s see YOU overwrite it,” Lechat said.
Stanislau touched in some commands, and immediately all references to C Company were replaced by references to D Company. Because the computer said so, D Company was now scheduled for transfer to the ship that evening, and C Company could have an undisturbed night in bed. Stanislau promptly reset the references to their original forms. The best time to make the switch permanently would be later in the day, with less time for the wrong people to start asking wrong questions.
Lechat nodded and seemed satisfied. “That gets us up there,” he said. “Now what about getting into the Communications Center?”
Stanislau entered more commands. A different table of information appeared on the screen. “SD guard details and timetable for posts inside the Columbia District tonight,” Stanislau said. They would refrain from doing anything to that one until the last moment.
“Good enough?” Sirocco asked, cocking an eyebrow at Lechat.
Lechat nodded. “It’s amazing,” he murmured.
“Well done, Stanislau,” Sirocco said. “Let’s hope that the repeat performance will be as good later today.”
“You can count on it, sir,” Stanislau said.
Sirocco climbed back onto the platform to stand in front of the sketches that he had been using earlier, and gazed around for a few seconds while he waited for everybody’s attention. “Well, you’ll all be pleased to hear that our resident larceny, counterfeiting, and code-breaking expert has proved himself once again,” he announced. “Phases one and four appear to be feasible, as we discussed.” To one side and below-the platform, Stanislau turned with a broad, toothy grin and clasped his hands above his head to acknowledge the chorus of murmured applause and low whistles, rendered enthusiastically, but quietly enough not to attract undue attention to the block at that time of the
morning.
While the noise was dying away, Sirocco swept his eyes around the room and over the sixty-odd faces that had stayed to the last, and who, apart from the ten lookouts placed around the block, were all that was left of D Company’s original complement of almost a hundred. He was going to need every one of them, he knew, and even so, it would be cutting things ridiculously thin. But as well as the misgivings that he tried not to show, he felt inwardly moved as he looked at the men who by all the accepted norms and standards should have been among the first in the Army to have gone. But apart from the SD units, D Company’s record was second to none. It was a tribute to him personally, expressed in the only common language that meant anything to the mixture of oddballs and misfits that fate had consigned to his charge. But Sirocco had always seen them not as misfits but as individuals, many of them talented in their own peculiar and in some eases bizarre ways, and had accepted them for what they were, which was all they had ever really wanted. But the term misfit was a relative one, he had come to realize. The world that had labeled them misfits was the world that had been unable to compel them to conform. Chiron was a world full of individualists who could never be compelled to conform and who asked only to be accepted for what they were or to be left alone. Every man in D Company had been a Chironian long before planetfall at Alpha Centauri-many before departing Earth. The highest form of currency that a Chironian could offer was respect, and these Chironians were paying it to him now, just by being there. Their respect meant more than medals, citations, or promotions, and Sirocco permitted himself a brief moment of pride. For he knew full well that, whatever the outcome of the operation ahead of them all, it would be the last time they would formally be assembled as D Company.
“Very well,” he said. “Stanislau has had his encore. Now let’s get back to business.
“First, let’s recap the main points. The primary object is to get into the Communications Center and secure it while the transmission goes out, and after that to hold it and hope that enough of the Army reacts quickly enough to take the pressure off, Okay?” There were no questions, so Sirocco continued. “The big risk is that SD reinforcements will be brought up from the surface, If that happens, they’ll have