David Drake - When the Tide Rises

"Yes, all right, get on with it!" Adele said. "If we don't hurry, they'll split the treasure among themselves and we won't get any. Tovera, come over here."

The street door opened outward. Beyond was a narrow anteroom in which stood two more guards. Their sub-machine guns were aimed at her.

"Come in here and lie flat on your backs!" said the older, balding one. There was another door behind him, just as sturdy as the outer one. Adele wasn't surewhat Lampert had heard about her and Tovera, but he obviously wasn't taking chances.

Adele took the data unit from its pocket and set it on the floor of the anteroom, then obeyed the command. Tovera walked across the street and lay down also. She'd protested in Secretary Yager's office, but when she accepted Adele's judgment she accepted it without reservation.

Tovera knew that she was a sociopath, lacking some of the pieces that real human beings have. She couldn't grow a conscience, so she let her mistress supply its absence. She'd realized from the first that Adele's conscience didn't bar her from doing the quick, lethal things that were Tovera's only pleasures in life.

The search was complete and professional. Adele's mind was in another place. That was no great trick for her; this was just one more incident in a life filled with indignity and unpleasantness.

The younger guard's right arm had been burned from wrist to throat. The scarring was bright pink but flashed white when the muscles moved. It must be very painful still…

"All right, they're clean!" the older guard said.

The younger man gave Adele a final prod and straightened, grinning. "Hell, Bill, I thought we was getting a couple women. Better luck next time, hey?"

"Shut up, Darrell," the older guard muttered. Another guard with a sub-machine gun opened the inner door.

Adele stood and tucked in her tunic. "May I have my personal data unit, please?" she said to the older man. "I may need it for my presentation."

"You'll do without it," said the guard. He stepped in front of the unit and twitched his sub-machine gun meaningfully.

The third guard said, "The other one stays out here with you guys. I take Mundy up to see the boss."

"Yes, all right," Adele said. She walked past the guard, ignoring his weapon, and started up the stairs. They were wood and meant to be impressive, though there were limits to what was practical on a lot with a twenty-five foot frontage.

The runner had been ornate. It remained colorful on the edges where the wear of years hadn't worn it to the nap.

The last guard looked over the second floor railing. When Adele reached the landing midway, he gestured-with his weapon, as usual-and said, "Minister Lampert'll see you in the conference room here."

"And make sure you don't try anything!" said the man following Adele.

There was nothing about his voice that Adele found attractive, but he seemed to like the sound of it well enough. She thought of asking him what he imagined she could try, but that would've been a waste of breath. The best thing to do with people of his sort was to ignore them. Though Adele smiled slightly.

– there was a certain attraction in the alternative Tovera would probably suggest.

Douglas Lampert was wearing a dark blue uniform with a great deal of gold piping. His cloth-of-gold sash displayed even more medals than graced the breasts of his jacket. Its shoulders were padded to half again the width of the man within; the effect unfortunately accented pudginess that might've gone unremarked in a less closely tailored garment.

"Your Excellency," Adele said. She made a formal curtsy that would've pleased her mother. She'd been raised to be a lady. This was one more proof that there is no useless knowledge.

"I appreciate your seeing me without an appointment," Adele continued, as smoothly agreeable as though this man's thugs hadn't just been groping her, "and-"

She made a deprecating gesture.

"-under difficult circumstances. The meeting is in both our interests, however. The Conyers treasure is huge. I can't even estimate the value of the jewelry, but Governor Platt's inventory listed it as three milliards of Alliance marks."

"What?" said Lampert, his mouth gaping.

"And the credit chips amounted to an additional two milliards," Adele continued. "Colonel Chatterjee took a one-third share, but Commander Leary and I secreted the remainder on theLadouceur to divide it between us. Captains Hoppler and Seward arrived while I was away from the ship, and they struck a deal with Leary which excluded me. Unless I'm very much mistaken-"

She gave Lampert a tight, cruel smile. He'd mistake the reason, but the expression was quite natural to Adele under the circumstances. Lampert would learn the reality soon enough.

"-your subordinates haven't informed you of the treasure. I propose that we confront them before they're able to get that wealth off-planet."

"No, they certainlyhadn't informed me," the minister said. He flushed, and his breath came in deep snorts. "So those foreignmonkeys think they're going to rob me!"

He gestured to the guard who'd brought Adele into this conference room. "McClelland, bring the car around. I'm going to pay a visit to theLadouceur, and I want all four of you with me. There may be trouble."

The guard who'd stayed with Lampert all the while laughed. He was about fifty but extremely fit. "If there is, sir," he said in a Pleasaunce accent, "we'll finish it."

"Tovera and I will accompany you, your Excellency," Adele said calmly. "Oh, for our own reasons, of course, but you'll need us to locate the treasure if the conspirators don't cooperate."

She smiled again when Lampert seemed to hesitate. "Besides," she said, "they may have already started to move the treasure off the ship. Tovera has special skills which will be useful in making the thieveswish to cooperate. For that matter-"

Adele's expression was quite real, but the image in her mind was not of Hoppler and Seward but of the scarred young soldier who'd searched her.

"-you might be as amused as I will to watch her work on the men who robbed us."

Lampert made a moue and looked aside for a moment. "Right, there's room for the two of you in the aircar," he said as he started for the stairs. "Come along, Brodsky, I'm going to end this right now!"

The creature was the size of Daniel's thumbnail and had ten legs, but the front pair had been modified into tentacles with spiky hairs on the inside to help it grasp prey. Daniel didn't know what planet it was native to; perhaps Schumer's World, where the cruiser'd been captured, but it could be from anywhere in the Alliance or even farther.

He didn't think it was from Pelosi, though. Equivalent life forms here had exoskeletons, while this little fellow's tough, rubbery hide was like that of a mollusk.

The guard outside Daniel'sde facto cell was talking with another spacer. There was no provision for locking anybody into the compartment, so Hoppler'd had a sliding bolt and hasp welded on the corridor side of the hatch. The guard was to prevent anybody from releasing the prisoner; though the bolt was simple, it was an inch thick-Daniel'd examined it when guards brought in food-and beyond his strength to force.

The little predator stood on the edge of the desk, facing Daniel's left hand. Daniel extended his index and middle fingers toward it, keeping the others curled into his palm. He twitched the index finger up and down twice, then twitched the middle finger.

The creature twitched its right tentacle twice, then its left. Its body had been a dull mauve; it now flushed crimson in bands moving slowly from its head backward.

Hoppler had disconnected the cabin display from theLadouceur 's communications system. The cruiser didn't have a large natural history database, and Daniel couldn't access the one loaded into thePrincess Cecile now. He was sure that Adele would've been able to circumvent the block, but that was Adele.