Cobra Alliance

'Yeah, me too. Has Challinor instituted the old rank system over there, or something?'

'Don't know—I haven't been to Thanksgiving for weeks.' MacDonald glanced at his watch. 'I suppose it's time to remedy that deficiency, eh? Let's go see what Challinor wants.'

'Come back after it's over and tell me what happened,' Chrys said as they all stood up.

'It could be late before we get back,' MacDonald warned as he kissed her good-bye.

'That's okay—Dad's coming home late, too, so I'll be up.'

'All right. Car's out back, Jonny.'

Thanksgiving was a good twenty kilometers east-northeast of Ariel along a dirt-and-vegebarrier road that was, so far, the norm in the newer areas of the human beachhead on Aventine. MacDonald drove, guiding the car skillfully around the worst of the potholes while avoiding the occasional tree branch reaching out from the thick forest on either side.

'One of these days a spine leopard's going to jump a car from one of those overhangs and get the surprise of his life,' MacDonald commented.

Jonny chuckled. 'I think they're too smart for that. Speaking of smart moves, you and Chrys to the point of setting a date yet?'

'Umm... not really. I think we both want to make sure we're right for each other.'

'Well, in my opinion, if you don't grab her while you've got the chance you're crazy. Though I'm not sure I'd give her the same advice.'

MacDonald snorted. 'Thanks a kilo. Just for that I may make you walk home.'

Challinor's house was near the outskirts of Thanksgiving, within sight of the cultivated fields surrounding the village. Two other cars were already parked there; and as they got out and headed for the house, the front door opened, revealing a slender man in full Cobra dress uniform. 'Good evening, Moreau; MacDonald,' he said coolly. 'You're twenty minutes late.'

Jonny felt MacDonald stiffen beside him and hurried to get in the first word. 'Hello, L'est,' he said, gesturing to the other's outfit. 'I didn't realize this was a costume party.'

Simmon L'est merely smiled thinly, a mannerism whose carefully measured condescension had always irritated Jonny. But the other's eyes showed the barb had hit its target. MacDonald must have seen that, too, and brushed silently by L'est without delivering the more potent blast he'd obviously been readying when Jonny stepped in. Breathing a bit easier, Jonny followed his friend in, L'est closing the door behind them.

The modest-sized living room was comfortably crowded. At the far end, on a straight-back chair, sat Tors Challinor, resplendent in his own Cobra dress uniform; at his right, looking almost drab in their normal work clothes, were Sandy Taber and Barl DesLone, the two Cobras stationed in Greensward. Next to them, also in dress uniforms, were Hael Szintra of Oasis and Franck Patrusky of Thanksgiving.

'Ah—MacDonald and Moreau,' Challinor called in greeting. 'Come in; your seats are right up here.' He indicated the two empty chairs to his left.

'I hope this is really important, Challinor,' MacDonald growled as the two men crossed the room and sat down. 'I don't know what things are like in Thanksgiving, but we don't have a lot of time in Ariel for playing soldier.' He glanced significantly at the uniforms.

'As it happens, your lack of spare time is one of the topics we want to discuss,' Challinor said smoothly. 'Tell me, does Ariel have all the Cobras it deserves? Or does Greensward, for that matter?' he added, looking at Taber and DesLone.

'What do you mean, 'deserves'?' Taber asked.

'At last count there were about ten thousand people in Caravel District and exactly seventy-two Cobras,' Challinor said. 'That works out to one Cobra per hundred-forty people. Any way you slice it, a town the size of Greensward ought to have three Cobras assigned to it, not two. And that goes double for Ariel.'

'Things seem reasonably calm at the moment in Ariel,' MacDonald said. 'We don't really need any more firepower than we've got.' He looked at Taber. 'How are conditions around Greensward?'

'Firepower isn't the issue,' Szintra put in before Taber could answer. 'The point is that we're required to do a lot more than just guard our villages against spine leopards and falx. We have to hunt down wheat snakes, act as patrollers in domestic squabbles—and if we have any spare time left, we're supposed to help cut down trees and unload supply trucks. And we get nothing in return!'

Jonny looked at Szintra's flushed face, then at the other three uniformed men. A cold knot was beginning to form over his dinner. 'Ken, perhaps we should get back to Ariel,' he said quietly to MacDonald.

'No—please stay a while longer,' Challinor spoke up hastily. 'Cee-three Szintra was a bit more forceful than necessary, but stuck all alone out in Oasis he perhaps sees matters more clearly than some of the rest of us.'

'Let's assume for the present that he's right, that we don't get the respect we deserve,' MacDonald said. 'What solution are we discussing here?'

'It's not simply lack of respect, or even the way we always seem to be taken for granted,' Challinor said earnestly. 'It's also the way the syndic's office takes forever to process the simplest requests for equipment or supplies—though they're prompt enough when it comes to picking up surplus wheat and gluevine extract when we have it. They seem to have forgotten that the whole planet isn't as comfortable as Rankin and Capitalia, that when a frontier town needs something we need it now. Add to that the mania for making lots of little frontier settlements instead of consolidating the territory we've got—which is why we're spread so damn thin—and you get a picture of a government that's not doing its job. To put it bluntly, we feel something has to be done about it.'

There was a long moment of silence. 'What do you suggest?' DesLone asked at last. 'That we send a petition to the Dominion with the next courier ship?'

'Don't be denser than you have to, Barl,' Taber growled. 'They're talking about replacing Governor-General Zhu themselves.'