Charles Stross - The Merchant’s War

It took the three of them half an hour to unload the Hummer. Besides backpacks full of clothing, they brought in a number of wheeled equipment cases, a laptop computer, and couple of expensive digital camcorders. Finally, the air mattresses. "Elena? You take the back bedroom. Yul, you and I are roughing it up front in the master room."

Huw dragged his mattress into the front room and plugged the electric pump in. Some of the houses were still furnished, but not this one. Be prepared wasn't just for scouts. Her Grace Helge had done pretty much this same job, on a smaller, much less organized scale-but Huw had been thinking about it for the week since the white duke had called him in, and he thought he had some new twists on it. He mopped at his forehead. "Listen, we're about done here and it's half past lunchtime, so why don't we head into town and grab a pizza while the air-conditioning makes this place habitable?"

"Works for me." Hulius grimaced. "Where's Lady Elena?"

"Here." Elena leaned against the banister rail outside ihe door. "Food would be good." She grinned impishly. "How about a couple of bottles of wine?" Like all Clan members, her attitude to wine was very un-American- tempered only by the duke's iron rule about attracting unwanted attention in public.

Huw nodded-thoughtfully, for he was still getting used to playing the role of responsible adult around the other two. "We'll pick something up if we pass a liquor store. But no drinking in public, okay?"

"Sure, dude."

"Let's go, then."

An hour later they were back in the under-furnished living room with pizza boxes, a stack of six-packs of Pepsi, and a discreet brown paper bag. "Okay," said Huw, licking his fingers. "Taken your pills yet?"

"Um, 'scuse me." Elena darted upstairs, returning with a toilet bag. "Hate these things," she mumbled resentfully. "Make me feel woozy." She threw back her head when she swallowed. What fine hones she has, thought Huw, watching her with unprofessional enthusiasm. That was one of the reasons she was along on (his trip: because she was sixty kilograms, the stocky Hulius could carry her piggyback if necessary.

"Where were we?" asked Hulius, pausing with a slice of Hawaiian halfway to his mouth.

Huw checked his wristwatch. "About an hour and a half short of time zero. You guys cat, I'll repeat the plan, interrupt if you want me to explain anything."

"Okay," said Hulius. Elena nodded, rolling her eyes as she chewed.

"First, we assemble the stage one kit. Clothing, boots, cameras, guns, telemetry belts. We triple-test the belt batteries and set them running at five minutes to zero hour. There's no post on this trip, even if we get some results. Elena piggybacks on Yul, on the first attempt. If you fail, we call it a wash today, switch off the telemetry, and break open the wine. If you succeed, you evaluate your surroundings and proceed to Plan Alpha or Plan Bravo, depending. Now." He tore off a wedge of cooling pizza: "It's your turn to tell me what you're supposed to do as soon as you find yourself wherever the hell you're going. Hoping to go. Plan Alpha first. Elena, describe your job...?"

The carvery in the hotel wasn't anything Miriam would have described as a classy restaurant, but after being locked in the basement of a brothel for most of a week it felt like the Ritz. Miriam was ravenous from a day pounding the sidewalks: but Erasmus, she noticed over the soup, ate slowly but methodically, clearing his plate with grim determination. "Hungry?" she asked, lowering her spoon.

"I try never to leave my food." He nodded, then tore off another piece of bread to mop his soup bowl clean. "Old habit. Bad manners, I'm afraid: I apologize."

"No offense taken." Miriam nodded. "You need to put on weight, anyway. I haven't heard you coughing today, but you're so thin!"

"Really?" He made as if to raise his napkin to cover his mouth, then grinned at her. "When you start you know about it, but when something goes away... it's an unnoticed miracle." A waiter arrived, silently, and removed their bowls. "I don't feel ancient and drained anymore. But you're right, I need to eat. I wasn't always a sack of bones." He shook his head, and the grin slipped into rueful oblivion.

"It was your time in the north, wasn't it?" The statement slipped out before Miriam could stop it.

Erasmus stared at her. "Yes, it was," he said quietly.

She licked her lips. "Sorry. Didn't mean to say that."

"Yes you did." He glanced sidelong at the other occupants of the room: no one was paying them any obvious attention... "But it's all right, I don't mind."

"I don't mean to pry." The waiter was returning, bearing two plates. She leaned back while he deftly slid her entree in front of her. When he'd gone, she looked back at Burgeson. "But I'd be crazy not to be curious. Months ago, when I said I didn't care what your connections were... I didn't expect things to go this way."

He shrugged, then picked up his knife and fork. "Neither did I," he said shortly. "You are curious as to the nature of what you've gotten yourself into?"

She took a sip of wine, then began to methodically slice into the overcooked lamb chops on her plate. "This probably isn't the right place for this conversation."

"I'm glad you agree."

He wasn't making this easy. "So. Tomorrow... train back home? Then what?"

"It'll be a flying visit. Overnight, perhaps." He shoveled a potato onto his fork, holding it in place with a fatty piece of mutton: "I need to pick up my post, make arrangements for the shop, and notify the Polis." His cheek twitched. "I've reserved a suite on the night mail express, leaving tomorrow evening. It joins up with the Northern Continental at Dunedin, we won't have to change carriages."

"A suite?" She raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that expensive?"

Erasmus paused, another forkful of food halfway to his mouth: "Of course it is! But the extra expense, on top of a transcontinental ticket, is minor." He grimaced. "You expect travel to be cheaper than it is. It can be-if you don't mind sleeping on a blanket roll with the steerage for a week."

"Yes, but..." Miriam paused for long enough to eat some more food: "I'm sorry. So we're going straight through Dunedin and stopping in Fort Petrograd? How many days away?"

"We'll stop halfway for a few hours. The Northern Continental runs from Florida up to New London, cuts northwest to Dunedin, stops to take on extra carriages, nonstop to New Glasgow where it stops to split up, then down the coast to Fort Petrograd. We should arrive in just under four days. If we were really going the long way, we could change onto the Southern Continental at Western Station, keep going south to Mexico City, then cross the Isthmus of Panama and keep going all the way to Land's End on the Cape. But that's a horrendous journey, seven thousand miles or more, and the lines aren't fast-it takes nearly three weeks."

"Hang on. The Cape-you mean, you have trains that run all the way to the bottom of South America?"

"Of course. Don't your people, where you come from?" They ate in silence for a few minutes. "I'd better write that letter to Roger right now and mail it this evening."

"That would be prudent." Burgeson lowered his knife and fork, having swept his plate clean. "You'll probably want to go through my bookcases before we embark, too-it's going to be a long ride."

After the final cup of coffee, Burgeson sighed. "Let us go upstairs," he suggested.

"Okay- yes." Miriam managed to stand up. She was, she realized, exhausted, even though the night was still young. "I'm tired."

"Really?" Erasmus led the way to the elevator. "Maybe you should avail yourself of the bathroom, then catch an early night. I have some business to attend to in town. I promise to let myself in quietly."