be treated with the utmost respect while you are my guest. You’ll be scanned, but only to ensure that you’re not armed. You’ll not be otherwise interrogated or held against your will. You’ll be allowed to depart at any time you so choose, and given a five-light-year head start to prevent pursuit. On this, you have my personal word, and that of House de Vena.”
He smiled at the plump little woman. “I look forward to our meeting.”
“She’s disappeared,” Dieter shouted. “Completely disappeared. She and that Carristan woman.”
“Calm down,” Nadama said tiredly. He was in no mood to deal with his son’s hysteria. He poured himself a stiff drink, then poured one for Dieter as well. “Here,” he said, handing it to him. “Drink that. It’ll calm you.”
“I don’t want to calm down.” He tossed the drink down in a gulp. “How dare she defy me this way?”
“I take it you had an argument?”
“Yes,” Dieter said, lowering his eyes like a chastened child.
Dieter had a hot temper combined with a vicious streak that could create problems. “Did you strike her?”
Dieter raised his eyes and looked Nadama in the face. “No.”
He was probably telling the truth, but certainly not all of it. “Good, but be very careful. Keep that temper of yours in check until after you’re married. Then you can do what you please with her, as long as you don’t kill her.”
“But she’s gone.”
“Not for long. Where can she go? Perhaps to some distant relative. We’ll just quietly make it known that anyone who harbors her will suffer considerably. And after a few tendays we’ll hear from whoever it is. We’ll give them a little reward and reel her back in.”
At moments like this Dieter took on an almost inhuman appearance. “I’m going to kill that Carristan woman, though.”
CHAPTER 24
OVERLORD
On his way back to Starfall Charlie stopped briefly at Andyne-Borregga. The transformation that had occurred during his absence was amazing. Roger and Momma Toofat had opened up a large promenade with restaurants, bars, and shops. At present, the shops provided mostly functional supplies and a few luxuries for spacers, the restaurants tended toward simple fare, and the bars provided mostly booze, gambling, and girls. Momma Toofat assured him that, as time progressed and more commerce showed up, all the establishments would attend to more than just the needs of transient spacers. As it was, with warships from the Free Aagerbanni Resistance making extensive use of the new shipyards, and with ships from Istanna, Finalsa, Toellan, Terranzalbo, Allison’s Cluster, and the Scorpo Systems all taking advantage of Andyne-Borregga’s free port status for gunrunning and other smuggling efforts, Roger told him the station might soon be operating at a profit. Charlie didn’t want to damp Roger’s enthusiasm so he didn’t tell him that wasn’t good enough. Even a slight negative operating margin was draining his finances rapidly.
Charlie also learned that ships from the independent states were surreptitiously supporting the Free Aagerbanni Resistance, frequently in direct confrontations. The more they hindered the consolidation of Aagerbanne, the longer it would take Lucius and Goutain to look for their next target. The resistance was slowly heating up into a real shooting war. Certainly more headaches for Lucius and Goutain, but Charlie feared that it was heating up too fast.
He didn’t stay on Andyne-Borregga for long—in fact he only had time to sit briefly with Arthur—but left and hurried quickly back to Luna. He needed to be there when Del showed up.
“Where are we?” Charlie heard Carristan say angrily in the reception area outside his office. “This isn’t Aagerbanne. Where have you taken us?”
“Just a brief stop,” Nano said. “Come. Please.”
Carristan had approached Nano under the pretense that Del was nothing more than the noblewoman’s servant.
For Edwin Chevard, Charlie had selected a large administrative office in an isolated wing of Starfall on Luna. He had activated it and staffed it with only the most trusted servants and guards. Nano and the guards Charlie had assigned to the two women for their journey had made sure that Carristan and Delilah never got an exterior view, merely the inside of a ship, then the inside of a hangar, then the inside of a maze of corridors. And the rooms Charlie had had prepared for them had no exterior views. Charlie thought he could probably trust Del, but he still didn’t know if he could trust Carristan. And Roacka and Winston constantly reminded him that any knowledge of his covert activities should remain on a need-to-know basis, and that