of a desert. There was plenty of salt marsh, shallow oceans, and rocky barrens. But no sand, or at least M'chel hadn't seen any.
She hadn't looked very hard, but busied herself with preparing a potential back door, from the hotel to the spaceport, in case things fell apart.
Finally, their coms were returned, and they were notified that two ranking members of the council would come calling.
The pair held the rank of colonel.
Diaya, male, was middle-aged, going to paunch, and his hair transplants weren't taking.
His superior, Suiyahr, was about ten years younger. She had the pursed lips of a fanatic, and could have done with another ten kilos anywhere on her overly athletic body.
"Our intelligence reports you are two of the principals of a firm calling itself Star Risk," Suiyahr said coldly. "You've been responsible for the escalation of the war, from our estimates, and some estimates consider you, or your underlings, guilty of war crimes."
"Possibly," von Baldur agreed.
"And now you wish to betray your employers."
Friedrich shrugged. "We are mercenaries," he said. "We work for the credit, and let others worry about patriotism."
"Hardly admirable," Diaya said.
Von Baldur looked at him, decided that to reply that he personally thought anyone willing to endanger his life for a flag or a medal was a fool was hardly politic, said nothing.
"If we decided to have you arrested, and bring you to trial on certainly capital charges," Suiyahr said, "wouldn't we have crippled the Khelat war effort considerably and saved ourselves a great deal of money? I rather imagine you are quite expensive."
"Quite," Friedrich said amiably. "But that would hardly be the wisest of decisions, since it would certainly anger our colleagues and make them more intent on your conquest.
"Not to mention that the presence of Star Risk, working for the Shaoki instead of the Khelat, with our strategies and advisors, could bring this war to an end.
"With a victory for the Shaoki!"
Riss was admiring von Baldur's logic in keeping them out of a deathcell, and was starting to relax when she noticed his fingers, under the table, were crossed and white.
"A final victory," Diaya said, and Riss saw a glitter in his eyes, just as she'd seen it from King Saleph. "Something our predecessors on the council were unable to realize!"
"Peace," Suiyahr agreed, sounding hungry, "and a final settlement with the Khelat!"
M'chel did relax then.
From here on out, it would be nothing but wrangling about the numbers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOURTEEN � ^ � No," Technician Ells said to Riss, "we'll not be leaving with you."
"Why not?"
"We made a contract with the benighted Khelat before your arrival, and we'll stick by it."
"Will your men and women back you?"
"I'll not ask them," he said. "Not because I'm afraid of their vote, but because of consideration for you."
"Oh?"
"People talk," Ells said. "And I doubt our peerless princes and king would think kindly of being abandoned if they found out. But thank you for giving us the option."
Two of the mercenary units also determined to stay.
"They're thinking," Hore said, in some amusement, "that with you gone, somebody'll have to be the head mother, and it might as well be them."
"They think," Goodnight said, also finding it funny, "they can just tippie-toe in and get the same contract we did?"
"A better joke," Hore said, watching the last of his men file onto waiting transports, "is that we're talking about soldiers for hire and thinking in the same breath. Now that's funny."
The next dawn found a lot of emptiness around various worlds of the Khelat.
Star Risk was gone, with its clerks and specialists, as were Hore's command and Inchcape's destroyers and Vian's patrol ships.
Khelat had suffered only half a dozen casualties in Star Risk's leaving, all of them overly ambitious security people, none of them fatal.
King Saleph raged in vain to Princes
She hadn't looked very hard, but busied herself with preparing a potential back door, from the hotel to the spaceport, in case things fell apart.
Finally, their coms were returned, and they were notified that two ranking members of the council would come calling.
The pair held the rank of colonel.
Diaya, male, was middle-aged, going to paunch, and his hair transplants weren't taking.
His superior, Suiyahr, was about ten years younger. She had the pursed lips of a fanatic, and could have done with another ten kilos anywhere on her overly athletic body.
"Our intelligence reports you are two of the principals of a firm calling itself Star Risk," Suiyahr said coldly. "You've been responsible for the escalation of the war, from our estimates, and some estimates consider you, or your underlings, guilty of war crimes."
"Possibly," von Baldur agreed.
"And now you wish to betray your employers."
Friedrich shrugged. "We are mercenaries," he said. "We work for the credit, and let others worry about patriotism."
"Hardly admirable," Diaya said.
Von Baldur looked at him, decided that to reply that he personally thought anyone willing to endanger his life for a flag or a medal was a fool was hardly politic, said nothing.
"If we decided to have you arrested, and bring you to trial on certainly capital charges," Suiyahr said, "wouldn't we have crippled the Khelat war effort considerably and saved ourselves a great deal of money? I rather imagine you are quite expensive."
"Quite," Friedrich said amiably. "But that would hardly be the wisest of decisions, since it would certainly anger our colleagues and make them more intent on your conquest.
"Not to mention that the presence of Star Risk, working for the Shaoki instead of the Khelat, with our strategies and advisors, could bring this war to an end.
"With a victory for the Shaoki!"
Riss was admiring von Baldur's logic in keeping them out of a deathcell, and was starting to relax when she noticed his fingers, under the table, were crossed and white.
"A final victory," Diaya said, and Riss saw a glitter in his eyes, just as she'd seen it from King Saleph. "Something our predecessors on the council were unable to realize!"
"Peace," Suiyahr agreed, sounding hungry, "and a final settlement with the Khelat!"
M'chel did relax then.
From here on out, it would be nothing but wrangling about the numbers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOURTEEN � ^ � No," Technician Ells said to Riss, "we'll not be leaving with you."
"Why not?"
"We made a contract with the benighted Khelat before your arrival, and we'll stick by it."
"Will your men and women back you?"
"I'll not ask them," he said. "Not because I'm afraid of their vote, but because of consideration for you."
"Oh?"
"People talk," Ells said. "And I doubt our peerless princes and king would think kindly of being abandoned if they found out. But thank you for giving us the option."
Two of the mercenary units also determined to stay.
"They're thinking," Hore said, in some amusement, "that with you gone, somebody'll have to be the head mother, and it might as well be them."
"They think," Goodnight said, also finding it funny, "they can just tippie-toe in and get the same contract we did?"
"A better joke," Hore said, watching the last of his men file onto waiting transports, "is that we're talking about soldiers for hire and thinking in the same breath. Now that's funny."
The next dawn found a lot of emptiness around various worlds of the Khelat.
Star Risk was gone, with its clerks and specialists, as were Hore's command and Inchcape's destroyers and Vian's patrol ships.
Khelat had suffered only half a dozen casualties in Star Risk's leaving, all of them overly ambitious security people, none of them fatal.
King Saleph raged in vain to Princes
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