Steven Brust - My Own Kind of Freedom

River said, “Technically speaking, it isn’t treason if there are—”

“It doesn’t have to be,” said the fed.

“Let’s move on,” said the captain. “I want to know if everyone is in.”

“I’m always in,” said Kaylee.

“I’m in,” said Zoë.

“Already told you,” said Jayne.

Wash said, “Can I just find out why — ” then he looked at Zoë, shrugged, and said, “All right, I guess I’m being told I’m in.”

“Good boy,” said Zoë.

Simon felt the captain’s eyes on him. He hesitated, then said, “If someone comes in hurt, I’ll patch him up. Is there something else I’m supposed to do?”

“Yes. Tell me you’re with us.”

“Does that have some practical effect I don’t understand?”

“No, I just want to hear it.”

“Without letting me know what it is? What it’s about?”

“Sakarya is a bad guy, and we mean to take him down.”

“Now we’re in the business of taking down bad guys?”

Kaylee said, “What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, for one thing, we’re criminals. Doesn’t that make us bad guys?”

“I expect it might,” said Mal.

“But, what, he’s worse?”

“All kinds,” said Mal.

Wash cleared his throat and glanced at Zoë. When she didn’t give him a sign, he said, “This has something to do with stuff I found on the Cortex, right? Forced indenture, child labo—”

“Yes,” said Mal.

“I just want to say,” said Simon, “that if you’re asking me to sign up for things, I’d rather be told what’s happening as it happens.”

The captain said, “Doc—”

Simon looked at Kaylee, who was looking right back at him, her eyes very large.

“Okay, I’m in,” he said.

The captain nodded. “All right. River?”

“River has never been out,” she said.

It wasn’t over yet.

There was no way to know what was coming, how it was coming, or when, but it wasn’t over.

That had always been the problem with the gorram Alliance: they just couldn’t leave a man alone. And they kept coming. They’d found a way to put a man on the inside, but he’d been exposed, making him useless; so now they’d come up with a new way.

He turned around, facing out at his pond, and watched the ducks.

Now that was the question, really: why had they let their man blow his cover? The Alliance had never been sneaky: just big, clunky, big, determined, and big. It rolled over you, it didn’t try to outfox you. If they had pulled their man, it wasn’t a trick, it was because they needed him for something else.

Question one: What was the something else?

Question two: Did he actually need to know?

The ducks swam in single file, around and around the pond. Occasionally the mother would turn her head, and was maybe giving out an instructional quack. He should get some microphones installed out there, so he could hear them. Duck sounds would be pleasant, from time to time.

A direct attack?

Probably not; that isn’t how agents work. But then, there were things going on that he hadn’t figured out, yet. He needed to plant someone in with them so he could find out. He’d have done it long ago, if he’d had any idea they were interested in him. But that was for later; for now, he’d put his security forces on alert, just to be safe.

And that ship, Serenity. It was a wild card. Had they slipped off? No, he just didn’t think so. If they couldn’t be found in the sky, it was more likely they’d…

Yes, gorram it. They’d landed. They’d come back. Not the Alliance, but Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds, that was what had been bothering him all day.

Yep. No doubt about it: he needed his security forces on high alert, and he needed to be hunting for that gorram ship. The only way to stop someone like Reynolds was to get to him first, and hit him hard.

He pushed a button on his desk, and began giving the necessary orders.

“Okay,” he said. “Kit, let’s see those plans.”

The fed nodded and unrolled a sheaf of paper on the table.

“Here are the entrances,” he said, pointing to five spots, “plus ground floor windows here, here, here, here, and here.”

“Where do we go in?” said Jayne.

“We don’t know yet, Jayne” said Mal. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. You know, make a plan and all that.”

Kit continued, “The perimeter guards are here and here, a pair each, and another two pair making a circuit, covering every point every two minutes. Any given spot might be out of sight of live guards for thirty seconds, max, though there are still cameras.”

“Looked at where?”

“Guard station in the house, here, and also in the security office, though there’s a fair chance no one in the security office is bothering to look at them.”

“Can’t count on that,” said Mal. “Sakarya’s probably putting them on alert.”

“Think he knows we’re coming?” said Kit.

“I’d count on it.”

“All right.”

“How are they armed?”

“The guards have rifles, sidearms, and shockrods. The rest of the force on duty, about forty a shift, are quartered here, between the house and the security office. They can deploy and be anywhere in the house or on the grounds within about three minutes after the alert is given.”

Wash said, “Are they Locals, or private security?”

“Both,” said Mal and Kit at the same time.

“Forty,” said Jayne.

Kit nodded.

“Let me think. Forty of them, four of us. That’s… uh, more of them.”

“Can’t get one past you, Jayne,” said Mal.

“So, we blow up the barracks?”

“Don’t think that’s like to happen,” said Mal.

“Why not?”

Zoë said, “Jayne, we’re not going to blow up forty Locals. We’re not at war with the Locals. The Alliance won’t take to us blowing up forty Locals. They’ll notice. They’ll—”

“The Alliance? Now we’re worrying about the Alliance? If we were worried about the Alliance, why did we invite a gorram fed to this party?”

“In fact,” said Kit, “it’s the gorram fed inviting you to his party, and he isn’t entirely sure why he’s doing it, but he promises you it’ll be a bad idea to blow up forty Locals.”

Jayne said, “Not if we start out by blowing up the fed.”

“Jayne,” said Mal. “Your question’s been answered.”

“All right,” said the big man. “So what do we do?”

“We could give up,” said Wash. “Surrender. Throw ourselves on their mercy and beg forgiveness. Maybe if we sound really sincere—”

“How do they get word?” said Mal.

“Hmm?” said Kit.

“If the manor gives an alarm, how does the barracks get it?”

“Oh.” Kit frowned. “I have the frequency, if you’re thinking we could jam it.”

“Was thinking that. They have a backup system?”

“Don’t know.”

“Could you jam it, Wash?”

“Yep. Course, someone figures it out, he could work around it.”

“How long would that take?”

“Depends how good he is. Thirty seconds? Five minutes? An hour? There isn’t any way to know.”

“All right. Let’s say we can keep them reinforcements out. We still need to get past the guards on the perimeter, and in the house.”

Jayne said, “Can we, like, shoot somebody? Or we just going in waving our guns around hoping to scare ’em to death?”

“Disarm them and immobilize them,” said Mal. “Defend yourself if you have to. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I’d rather get past as many of ’em as we can.”