[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.The Donetos own her.She's waiting for a cargo.She's supposed to be greased lightning.She trades in places where the republics think they own a monopoly.""A smuggler.""Technically.Her master would argue, though.""He'd sail up the Sawn to Sonsa?""Why not? If he ain't carrying contraband?"Hecht thought there might be a problem, anyway.If he took up his notion.He had been to Sonsa before.Ghort said, "Unless the gods intervene, we can afford another day.If we use the Lumberer.""The what?""That's the name of the boat.A joke.Like calling a big guy Tiny."Hecht understood without comprehending.It was a western thing."Uhm.I wonder.Think we could pull it off?""What?""Sneaking out.To make the pickup ourselves.""Sure.But your excuse is gonna raise a stink like a year-old latrine." Ghort smirked."But if we say we did it ourselves because we didn't have the money to pay our men to, we shame them before the people.""If we pull it off.""Yes.We wouldn't dare fail." Hecht knew what he was proposing was not bright.But sometimes you bull ahead in full knowledge that you are doing something dumb."Goo! Hey! Back to the fun days when we didn't have no responsibilities.""We could get things done right the first time.""Let's do." Ghort was not obsessive about being responsible."Just cancel everything and go, Pipe.""I'm tempted." He was."I'll think about that, too."THE VISIT TO THE BATHS, THE CONFERENCE WITH PlNKUS Ghort, and a visit to Polo in the Chiaro Palace hospital left the Captain-General two hours late for his daily staff conference."I'm sorry.The Clearenza situation has the Collegium in a snit." They would know that he had been called in.Five senior staffers waited in the master planning center at the Castella dollas Pontellas.They included Hecht's new second in command, Colonel Buhle Smolens.Smolens had not been appointed by the Captain-General.Hecht did not know the man.He came from the Patriarchal garrison at Maleterra and was related to somebody Sublime owed money.He did, however, have a solid military reputation.Clej Sedlakova was an observer for the Brotherhood.They insisted.The Captain-General was using their facilities.Hecht could not operate without their approval and support.Sedlakova was new, too, but there was no doubt he knew his way around a battlefield.He had lost his shield arm.His face bore two ugly scars, one down the right side and one across his forehead.The latter was permanently purple.He did not say much.Nor did he interfere.The other three men had been with Hecht since he had taken over the City Regiment in the run-up to the Calziran Crusade.They were Hagan Brokke, a Krogusian who hadbeen a private soldier at the time of the first pirate attacks.He had risen swiftly by demonstrating outstanding abilities.He was Hecht's planning officer.The others were Titus Consent and Tabill Talab, chief intelligence officer and lead quartermaster.Both were Devedian, which made folks like Clej Sedlakova uncomfortable.Consent was in his early twenties.Sedlakova might be uncomfortable but he was implacably tolerant.Both Deves were exceptionally competent.And unobtrusive with their religion.All five men were accompanied by assistants.Managing the Patriarch's armed forces was not a minor enterprise.Hagan Brokke said, "We're working on that, sir." He indicated a vast wall map of Firaldia.That was a permanent feature of the room.Every little county, dukedom, principality, city-state, kingdom, and republic was delineated.Political entities were identified by color, in a dozen shades.Isolated parts of the same entity were connected by black strings.Each entity was tagged with a numbered piece of paper.That referenced a sheet listing significant local personalities, the number and sorts of soldiers available, quality of fortifications, and useful political, marital, and family alliance information.Brokke said, "If we have to attempt the absurd we have garrisons here, here, and here that can support us.I've sent warning orders.""Excellent."Titus Consent said, "The Imperials will expect that.It shouldn't worry them.They won't expect anything to come of it.Our side talks loud but never actually does anything.""We might break that precedent this time."Consent continued."Couriers will alert our intelligence assets in the region, too." He tended to talk that way."Good again." Consent meant messages had been sent to the Devedian ghettoes.There were Deves everywhere.Going unnoticed, they saw and heard most of the inner workings.And their elders, for the moment, were willing to feed information to Captain-General Piper Hecht.Which was useful but embarrassing.Deves were little more popular than demons.They were too educated.Too prosperous.Too smart.You did not want to associate too intimately with that sort
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]