“Right on both points,” Daniel said. With no equipment or safe hiding place, his detachment had very few options. Their best chance would be to seize a starship tonight before the Alliance forces consolidated their hold on Kostroma.
There was almost certainly an Alliance squadron no more than a few hours out from the planet, though. The chance of the escapees being able to lift before the warships arrived was even slighter than the chances of twenty-odd unarmed Cinnabar citizens reaching the Floating Harbor alive, let alone capturing a ship there.
“Thing is, sir,” Hogg said in great embarrassment, “I’ve got friends like I say, but it isn’t like we’re family or something. Maybe if it was you alone we could hole up for a good while, but if it’s a whole army . . .”
“It’s certainly the entire naval detachment I command,” Daniel said more sharply than he’d intended. Hogg had worded the statement so carefully that it didn’t have to be read as a suggestion that Lieutenant Leary abandon the ratings to save his own neck. “First we’ll need clothing. Then—”
“I can get the password into the navy warehouses,” Adele said. “I’ll have to return to the library. My personal data unit got in the way while I was sorting books, so I took it out of its pocket and left it there.”
“By God!” Daniel said. He could suddenly imagine a path to the future that didn’t end in a flare of plasma or Zojiras laughing as they used swimming Cinnabars for target practice. “With Kostroman naval uniforms we just might pull this off! And there’ll be food stores. If we can hide for the next few weeks till normal traffic in the port resumes, there’s a damned good chance!”
That wasn’t really true. Still, they’d have a chance that could be measured in percents instead of tenths of a percent.
“There’ll be weapons in store, I’d guess,” Hogg said. “Can we . . . ?”
“No,” Daniel said. “Much as I’d like to, I can’t imagine any circumstances in which the armory wouldn’t have extra guards tonight; and probably Alliance guards. Guns will have to wait.”
Hogg shrugged, “My friends put a few little somethings in the cab,” he said. “Nothing I want to go fight the Alliance army with, but guess we’ll make do.”
“I’ll check which buildings have what you need.” Adele said. She seemed detached rather than nonchalant. Though their lives depended on this, Adele had been more animated when she was searching for an answer to Daniel’s zoological question. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She turned. Hogg stepped back and sideways so that he blocked her path without seeming to. “Maybe I should go along to protect the lady, sir,” he said.
“Mr. Hogg,” said Daniel. “This is a command decision. Do you understand?”
Hogg grimaced, nodded, and gave Adele another minuscule salute as he stepped aside.
“If I hadn’t forgotten my handheld, I could examine the warehouse contents now,” Adele said. She half smiled. “There’s something else I should do in the library before I leave, though, so I suppose it’s just as well.”
She walked toward the palace entrance. “I’ll see you as soon as I can,” she called over her shoulder. Straight-backed and unhurried, she made her way through the nervous crowd as steadily as a drill enters wood.
“Goddam if I don’t think I’m going to start praying as a habit,” Hogg muttered. He wiped his forehead with his beret.
Daniel sighed. He doubted Hogg was worried about what might happen to Adele, but it wasn’t necessary to pursue the question.
Vanness’s body had been removed from the library. Judging from the smears on the tile flooring, they’d dragged it onto the loggia overlooking the gardens. Adele grimaced at the thought of her late assistant being tossed over the railing and loaded onto a truck to be disposed of in the harbor with the rest of the city’s garbage. Adele hadn’t wanted to look at the corpse again, though.
Her mild pleasure at not seeing Vanness was more than counterbalanced by finding Bracey and his two drinking companions in the library with a pair of women. They had bottles, but the men’s main present concern seemed to be to coax one of the women into sex with all three of them. She wasn’t quite drunk enough, and the other woman seemed to be more competition for the men than an alternative target.