Cobra Alliance

wouldn't have had to work to track him down,' Deutsch argued, fighting hard against the feeling that the battle was slipping through his fingers. He glanced fiercely at Halloran, but the other remained silent. Didn't he care that Jonny could be saved if they'd just make the effort?

'I have to agree with Kennet,' Pazar Oberton, an underground leader from MacDonald's sector, said. 'We've never asked you to rescue one of our people, and I don't think we should all go rushing south trying to rescue one of yours.'

'This isn't a corporation ledger we're running here—it's a war,' Deutsch snapped. 'And in case you've forgotten, we Cobras are the best chance you've got of winning that war and getting these damned invaders off your planet.'

'Off our planet?' Dane murmured. 'Have you officially emigrated, then?'

Dane would never know how close he came to dying in that instant. Deutsch's teeth clamped tightly together as endless months of heartbreak and frustration threatened to burst out in one massive explosion of laser fire that would have cut the insensitive fool in half. None of them understood—none of them even tried to understand—how it felt to watch his own countrymen's failures and stupidities cause the deaths of men he'd come to consider his brothers... how it felt to be defending people who often didn't seem willing to put forth the same effort to free their world... now it felt to share their blame, because ultimately he too was one of them....

Slowly, the haze cleared, and he saw the fists clenched before him on the table. 'Borg?' he said, looking at Weissmann. 'You lead this rabble. What do you say?'

An uncomfortable rustle went around the table, but Weissmann's gaze held Deutsch's steadily. 'I know you feel especially responsible since you were the one who suggested the Wolker Plant in the first place,' he said quietly, 'but you are talking very poor odds.'

'Warfare is a history of poor odds,' Deutsch countered. He sent his gaze around the room. 'I don't have to ask your permission, you know. I could order you to help me rescue Jonny.'

Halloran stirred. 'Imel, we technically have no authority to—'

'I'm not talking technicalities,' Deutsch interrupted, his voice quiet but with an edge to it. 'I'm talking the realities of power.'

For a long moment the room was deathly still. 'Are you threatening us?' Weissmann asked at last.

Deutsch opened his mouth, the words damn right I am on his lips... but before he could speak, a long-forgotten scene floated up from his memory. Rolon Viljo's face as Commander Mendro ordered him removed from the team and the Cobras... and Deutsch's own verdict on Viljo's crime. Misuse of our equipment would pit us against the civilian population of Adirondack. 'No,' he told Weissmann, the word taking incredible strength of will to say. 'No, of course not. I just—never mind.' He sent one last glance around the room and then stood up. 'You can all do as you damn well please. I'm going to go and find Jonny.'

The room was still silent as he crossed to the door and left. Briefly, as he started down the stairs, he wondered what they would make of his outburst. But it didn't matter very much. And in a short time, most likely, it wouldn't matter at all.

Stepping outside into the night, senses alert for Troft patrols, he headed south.

'I do believe,' Jakob Dane said as the sound of Deutsch's footsteps faded away, 'that Adirondack's Self- Appointed Conscience is overdue for some leave time.'

'Shut up, Jakob,' Halloran advised, making sure to put some steel in his voice. He'd long ago recognized that each of the underground members had to deal with the presence of the Cobras in his own way, but Dane's approach—treating them with a faintly supercilious air—was a dangerous bit of overcompensation. He doubted the other had noticed it, but as Deutsch's hands had curled into fists a few minutes ago there had been the briefest pause with thumb resting against ring finger nail... the position for firing fingertip lasers at full power. 'In case you didn't bother to notice,' he added, 'just about everything Imel said was right.'

'Including the efficacy of a rescue mission?' Dane snorted.

Halloran turned to Weissmann. 'I notice, Borg, that you haven't given your decision on assigning underground personnel to help locate Jonny. Before you do, let me just point out that there's exactly one Troft installation we know exists that we haven't got even a rough locale for.'

'You mean the Ghost Focus?' Ama frowned. 'That's crazy. Jonny's a ticking bomb—they'd be stupid to put him anywhere that sensitive.'

'Depends on what they're planning for him,' MacDonald rumbled thoughtfully. 'As long as he's alive they're safe enough. Besides, our self-destructs aren't all that powerful. Any place hardened against, say, tacnuke grenades wouldn't have any trouble with us.'

'On top of that,' Halloran added, 'it's clear from their slow response to Imel and me that they weren't particularly expecting a raid on Wolker tonight. Jonny's booby trap may have been sitting there for months, and it's as reasonable as anything else to assume they weren't really prepared with another place to put him that we didn't already know about. If the Ghost Focus is like their other tactical bases, they'll have it carved into parallel, independently-hardened warrens. They wouldn't be risking more than the one Jonny was actually in.'

'I've never heard that about tactical bases,' Ama said, her eyes hard on Halloran.

He shrugged. 'There are a lot of things you've never heard,' he told her bluntly. 'You ever volunteer to penetrate a Troft installation with us and maybe we'll tell you what we know about those hellholes. Until then, you'll have to take our word for it.' He had the satisfaction of seeing her mouth tighten; to people like Ama the only real power was knowledge. Turning to Weissmann, he cocked an eyebrow. 'Well, Borg?'

Weissmann pressed his fingertips tightly against his lips, staring at and through Halloran. 'All right,' he said with a sigh. 'I'll authorize some of our people for search duty and see if I can borrow a few from other sectors. But it'll be passive work only, and won't begin until after sunup. I don't want anyone getting caught violating curfew— and no one's going into combat.'

'Fair enough.' It was about as much as Halloran could have expected. 'Kennet?'

MacDonald steepled his fingers. 'I won't risk my team randomly tearing up the south side of Cranach,' he said quietly. 'But if you can show me a probable location, we'll help you hit it. Whatever the Trofts want with Jonny, I suspect it's behavior we ought to discourage.'