Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,80
shook her head. “No. It’s too risky. As much as I’d like to see the Druckers snubbed, or outright destroyed, my yacht could be damaged if not completely destroyed. I’ve not risen to this position by throwing away resources. But you knights and your tongues are still welcome to come over and visit for a couple of hours.” She blew Bjarke and Asger kisses, ignoring Qin and Bonita, and sashayed back to her ship.
“I don’t like that woman,” Qin said.
“This being a civilized station,” Bonita said, “I don’t suppose we can kidnap her, lock her in a cabinet, and take her ship.”
“That may be frowned upon,” Asger said.
All except one of the delegates wandered off, Jemadari and his robo-parrot. He walked up the ramp to face them, and Bonita expected more questions about gate pieces or Casmir’s whereabouts.
“My ship isn’t as swanky as Dya’s, but it’s less than a year old and has the latest engines and equipment. I would consider letting you use it if you really could get rid of those pirates. They’ve also robbed from me before.” Jemadari pointed across the bay at an elegant black yacht with aesthetically appealing curves. “I’d been thinking of leaving before the talks are over anyway. Rumors abound about mercenaries on the way to attack the station. Many of the others are convinced they’ll be safe here under the asteroid’s surface-mounted weapons. I’m not so sure. Mercenaries don’t start fights unless they believe they can win.”
“Do you have room for knights and crushers aboard that ship?” Asger asked.
“Even a fake cargo if you think they’ll run scans before attacking.”
“What would you want in return?” Bonita found the man’s altruism suspicious.
“Besides the destruction of pirates that have vexed my people in the not-so-distant past?” Jemadari shrugged. “Protection as I fly from the station and to the gate. It’s not safe to travel alone out there with all those mercenaries in the area. Your allies are the Kingdom warships, yes?”
Bonita started to say they weren’t her allies, but Asger and Bjarke both said, “Yes.”
“They will come to help if we get in over our heads.” Jemadari smiled. His bird squawked semi-realistically, and he patted it on the wing. “Shall we make plans?”
“Come on in.” Bjarke waved him into the cargo hold and led the way toward the ladder up to the lounge.
“Should we trust this guy?” Qin asked.
Bonita shook her head. Trusting any stranger, especially some wealthy Miners’ Union stranger, was never a good idea.
“We’ll look him up,” Asger said. “I’m also going to let Casmir know we’re going to need some crushers.”
“Maybe you should let him know that half of the station is looking for him too,” Bonita said.
“He may not want to know that.” Asger spread his hand. “What’s he supposed to do to help people get the gate pieces from the Kingdom anyway?”
“Maybe they think that since he facilitated the original free-for-all, he’s going to be on their side.”
“I don’t know, but I better let Ishii know about this development. And that the Kingdom may have a bargaining chip. There must be something special about one of the pieces they snagged.” Asger scratched his jaw. “I’ll let Casmir know about it too. He’s more likely than Ishii or Romano to use the information to his advantage in a negotiation.”
Asger headed after Bjarke and Jemadari.
“When did Casmir become such a linchpin to everything going on in the systems?” Qin asked when she and Bonita were alone.
“I don’t know, but it’s probably going to get him killed.”
Qin shook her head sadly. “I hope not.”
18
We need some of the crushers, Casmir, Asger messaged from wherever he was on the station. A couple dozen if you can swing it.
Casmir, his mind and his eyes bleary after being up all night and morning, couldn’t remember why Asger might need crushers. He was lying on his back under a console in the station’s control room, using his contact camera to take photos of all the circuitry in the slydar detector. He’d already spent hours examining and copying the software program. Soon, he should have enough data to recreate the slydar detector, but to do so, he would need access to a manufacturing facility again. And he hadn’t admitted to Shayban what he was really doing here.
Are Viggo’s robot vacuums not sufficient for keeping the Dragon in good shape?
They’re fine. I understand you can lick the decks with your tongue if you want.