David Drake: Patriots

The raiders weren't an army: they were a gathering of extreme individualists. They'd follow Yerby, but there wasn't a soul among them who thought their leader was in any sense better than they were. Everybody had to be treated alike, at least on the face of it.

"Won't work," Dagmar explained. "The truck we got is surface-effect. It skims the ground, but it won't fly over a wall,"

"I'm not so flaming sure it'll skim any ground, neither," said Holgar Emmreich. "We're working on it, though."

"The other problem is that Sergeant Papashvili and her squad of construction engineers have built a shelter for themselves in the courtyard," Mark said. Amy adjusted the reader to show the workmanlike construction of plastic sheet-stock, nestled into one of the fort's six points. "They're likely to be alert."

"Ain't there rooms in the fort?" Yerby asked with a frown.

"None fit for human habitation, she believes," Mark said. "And she's right. According to the rosters there's supposed to be guards inside the fort, but the sergeant and her people aren't as…"

"Rotten," Amy said. "Captain Easton's company has been stationed on Dittersdorf too long. They've just mildewed away."

"But all these corridor junctions have emergency doors," Mayor Biber noted. "If one of them is shut, what are you going to do? You don't have any way to blast or burn through them."

A splendid though sodden figure entered the common room from outside. He wore red trousers, a dark blue tunic, and enough medals to anchor a small boat. He was Berkeley Finch, wearing the dress uniform of a Zenith Protective Association colonel.

Finch threw back his shoulders. "Thank goodness I've arrived in time!" he declaimed as if he were addressing a political rally.

"Finch!" said Mayor Biber in the tone of a man who's just found his dog on the dinner table eating the roast. "What in blazes do you think you're doing here?"

"I've just arrived from Hestia," Finch said, striding to the center of the gathering where Yerby stood with Amy and Mark. "The Assembly of Self-Governing Worlds has granted me a colonel's commission in its own armed forces and appointed me to command of the Dittersdorf expedition."

"The devil you say!" Biber blurted. "The devil!"

Finch's boots squelched. He took a recording chip from his pocket case and offered it to Amy. "Here's the commission," he said. "Really, Biber-you didn't imagine that the Assembly would overlook someone of my long experience with military affairs, did you?"

Amy didn't take the chip.

"Ah…" Finch said. "There wasn't time to have a new uniform made, so I'm wearing my Zenith kit still. But the Assembly commission is fully valid."

"Finch, I'm not having this!" Biber said. His voice rang from the caravansary's high dome. "You think being a war hero's going to make you president of Zenith when we've got free elections. Well, you're not hijacking this expedition! I've paid all the costs out of my own pocket. I have to stay here to guarantee return of the truck, and you're staying too!"

"Tsk!" Finch replied with a sneer of disdain. The effect would have been greater if rain weren't still dripping from his nose. "Zenith's only been a member of the Assembly of Self-Governing Worlds for ten days, and already traitors are appearing."

He looked at Yerby and added, "You understand the situation, don't you, my good man? At any rate, I'm sure your legal advisor-" A nod toward Mark. "-does."

"I understand that Greenwood hasn't joined your assembly on Hestia," Mark said. By now we probably have, but Finch can't besure of that. He must have left Hestia before Dad and the Greenwood envoys arrived.

"Dittersdorf has sent envoys, however, Mr. Maxwell," Finch said, his expression hardening. "An operation on Assembly territory must be conducted under Assembly auspices if it's not to be judged piracy punishable by hanging rather than an act of war."

Mark wondered if the colonel was bluffing about Dittersdorf's position. Would the stockbreeders here have emerged from their blanket of rain clouds to send a delegation to Hestia? Finch was a lawyer and clever enough to try a double bluff. Mark wasn't sure the Zenith aristocrat fully understood the terms on which this power struggle might be fought by a frontiersman like Yerby Bannock, though.

"Now, lad," Yerby said with a chuckle. He stepped toward Finch, forcing the colonel to sideways or be literally overshadowed by the frontiersman's greater bulk. "We don't stand on ceremony on Greenwood. What's a little formality like that between friends?"

Finch looked surprised. Mark was surprised. He'd thought Yerby's most likely response would be to toss Finch back through the outside door. The other possibilities ranged from more violent to very violent indeed, including tossing Finch through the outside door with his torso separate from his head and limbs.

"Well, fellows," Yerby continued to the raiders, most of whom looked as dumbfounded as Mark, "you've heard Mr. Finch. He's come here with some words from a bunch of people none of us ever heard of and a pretty uniform. A real pretty uniform if it was dry, I reckon."

"I have battle dress in my luggage!" Finch said sharply. "I have six complete sets of battle dress in my luggage."

"And I reckon they're pretty too, Colonel," Yerby said as if he were praising a child's drawing. "Besides which, Mr. Finch is a military genius. A lot of you remember how he showed us that a few months ago on Greenwood."

Laughter chorused through the common room. Woodsrunners bent to explain the joke to recruits from other planets. The story didn't lose anything in the telling, and the merriment continued for some time.

"So I guess it's clear to all of you," Yerby resumed with a grin as broad as a jack-o'-lantern's. "You've got to follow Mr. Finch here." He patted Finch on the head as a final insult.

"Like hell," Dagmar Wately said. "We didn't come here with some pretty boy from Zenith."

"Yeah," Zeb Randifer agreed. "Look, if the choice is go home or go on with that dipstick leading us, I'm going home. And the ship's right outside, too!"

The chorus of agreement was loudest from the non-Greenwood recruits. They were determined to show they were part of the same team as the original Woodsrunners.

Berkeley Finch went white, then red. It was hard to tell whether his primary emotion was anger or embarrassment.

Yerby smiled gently at him and said, "Well, Colonel, it seems like it's this way. You can join the expedition I'm leading. Or you can go dig up an expedition of your own, which I wish you the best of luck for doing. Now, what'll it be?"

Finch swallowed. Amy's camera was on him, its lenses the triple eyes of fate. Finch had only one option unless he wanted to go on record as being the man who'd scuttled the independence movement because it conflicted with his personal ambition.

"Colonel Bannock," he said formally, "I would be honored if you'd let me join your expedition."

"Glad to have you, Finch," Yerby said. "And glad to have your pretty uniforms, too. Now, getting back to just what we're going to do tomorrow night…"

As the meeting broke up for dinner and serious drinking, Berkeley Finch bent close to Amy's ear and said, "Ms. Bannock? Might I have a word with you in private?"

"No," said Mark, "you can't. I've had experience of what it means to be caught alone by you, Finch."

Mark was jealous. He knew that, but he could legitimately claim there was a chance that Finch hoped to use Amy as a hostage to control her brother.

Finch grimaced. "Nothing like that," he muttered.

Amy nodded coolly. "I think this is as private as we need to be, Vice-Protector," she said, using the Alliance title to keep Finch ill at ease. "Nobody's listening to the three of us."