Crown of Slaves

But far less charitable about it.

'Go, you worthless bitch,' she hissed softly. 'Run back to your kennel.'

She turned her back on Naomi's departing figure and studied a different woman.

This one, on the other hand…

* * *

'So what's next, Victor?' Thandi asked. 'When do you want me to board the Felicia?'

His face still seemed like something made of marble. She was almost surprised to see the lips move.

'Not for a number of hours, yet. At least twelve, maybe eighteen.'

Her surprise overrode her concern. 'Why that long? I'd think you'd want to keep pushing.'

'Keep pushing with what, Thandi? Sure, you could probably keep driving ahead. But everyone else-including me-needs some rest. Besides, we've got a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid. It doesn't do us any good to take the Felicia before we're ready to do anything with it. The truth is, so far as that goes, we could wait for several weeks.'

She was trying to follow his thoughts, and failing completely. 'What are you talking about? You've already got the incident you need. Templeton's mania did for that. All you've got left to do is grab the Felicia and be able to show the universe that it is in fact a damned slaver and…'

Her words trailed off. Victor's face was still expressionless, but there was something gleaming in those dark eyes.

Berry spoke up. 'You're planning way ahead, aren't you?'

'It'd be more accurate to say that I'm jury-rigging ahead. But, yes. Something the princess said-Ruth, I mean, the real one-made everything fall into place. That's why I asked her to get that Manticoran captain over here. She should be talking to him soon.'

However mature she might appear at other times, at that moment Berry looked all of seventeen. She was practically clapping her hands. 'Oh, that's nifty! Is there a part for me to play too?'

Thandi saw the gleam in the dark eyes brighten, and felt her own heart sinking.

'Victor, you can't be serious.' Almost desperately: 'I can take that damn ship alone, if I have to. With the codes-I'm an expert with a skinsuit in open-space maneuvers, and that's not a warship with military-grade sensors. They'll never spot me coming-I can enter through any one of… God, it's a merchant vessel, there must be dozens of ports. From there-I can take weapons this time, too-I'll only be facing half a dozen Masadans and Scrags and a ship's crew that by now is probably pissing in their pants anyway. They're meat, Victor-and I'll plop 'em right on your table. Dressed and boned.'

'I don't want them,' he said harshly. 'We need the ship, Thandi. More than that. We need it, to all appearances, still under Masadan control-and for weeks. There's no point in having a Trojan Horse if you haven't got the men to fill it with. And that'll take weeks. The Ballroom is scattered all over the place. Even leaving aside the fact that it's going to take days anyway to talk the Manticorans and your preci-ah, Captain Rozsak-into their end of the deal.'

She shook her head, trying to clear the confusion. 'What are you talking about? And what the hell is a 'Trojan Horse'?'

She'd seen Troy mentioned, in one of the books she'd read. But her knowledge of ancient history and mythology was really pretty spotty.

Apparently, though, the term meant something to Berry. The girl's eyes were very wide. 'I get it now,' she whispered. 'You want me to keep pretending to be the princess, and get over to that ship… but then… Oh. Of course. It's obvious.'

Her own eyes were now gleaming. Thandi's heart sank deeper and deeper.

'It's perfect!' Berry almost squealed. 'You'll have a classic 'tense standoff.' God, the press will have a field day! They'll come running from every star nation around, slobbering all the way. The Princess of Manticore, still a hostage even though most of the fanatics died in the attempt-yeah, that'll work, dead bodies will make anything seem plausible and you sure left a lot of dead bodies lying around-but where does Captain Oversteegen… ? Oh, sure!'

This time, she did clap her hands. 'He's perfect!Just the kind of stiff-upper-lip Manticoran nobleman who will be damned, Sir! if he'll let a bunch of lousy slavers and pirates hold the Star Kingdom to ransom, but-he is my distant relative, after all-well, okay, the real Ruth's-and so he won't really want to pull the trigger. So…'

At that point she began to falter a bit, but Thandi could see the rest. She didn't have Berry's quickness of thought, perhaps, but she did have a much better grasp of military affairs.

The look she bestowed on Cachat was completely hostile. She had to restrain herself from striking him with her fist.

'You cold-blooded bastard. You'd use this girl-she's seventeen, Victor-just to buy you time so you could pack that ship full of your damn Ballroom killers and then-yeah, swell, the deal is made-the Felicia is finally allowed to go to Congo where supposedly the 'Princess' finally gets released from captivity. God damn you, Cachat! They're maniacs! What'll happen to her in the meantime? Weeks she'll be trapped in there with those-'

Cachat's eyes weren't gleaming now. They just seemed… pained. And Berry was actually glaring at her.

'Oh,' Thandi said.

'Oh,' she repeated. She felt like a complete idiot.

But at least Berry wasn't glaring at her any longer. 'It's okay, Thandi,' she said, patting her arm. It was a bit like a kitten patting the arm of a tigress, granted. But Thandi still appreciated the gesture.

Especially when she saw the pain still in Victor's eyes.

'I am sorry,' she said softly. 'I wasn't thinking. All you need is to get Berry over to that ship, and for them to let her in.' A further realization came to her. 'That's why you insisted I keep that one Scrag alive, isn't it? But also told me I could hammer him as hard as I wanted. All the shuttle's viewscreen will show those pirates is the Princess and a mangled but still alive Scrag coming over. Probably with Berry here making the call, desperate because she's alone in a craft she can't handle. They let her in-what else can they do, with a Manticoran cruiser ready to turn them into vapor?-and while they're being distracted…'

'You'll be there already,' Berry said. 'Just like Victor planned. I'm sure that was part of his plan, all along. Wasn't it, Victor?'

He didn't reply, but Thandi had no doubt at all that he had planned it that way. Why wouldn't he? She knew by now that he was genuinely brilliant at this kind of thing.

There was no reason to keep the pirates alive a second longer after the princess made the crossing. The weeks-long 'standoff' which followed could be faked easily, so long as Thandi had gotten onto the ship secretly- which Victor would know, before he let Berry make the crossing. Except for those involved in the plan, no one else would realize that there were no pirates left alive on that ship-and hadn't been, from the moment Berry Zilwicki set foot on it.

It was so obvious-and would have been obvious to her, except…

Except for the memory of a cold-eyed man shooting another in the head, just to terrify three more into giving him what he wanted. The same man who had, ruthlessly, stood by and watched instead of intervening before Templeton's gang murdered perhaps three dozen Manticoran soldiers and Erewhonese civilians, in order to further his own plans.

Victor nodded, very stiffly. 'Walter Imbesi has already seen to it-at my request-that Felicia will continue to get garbled news account from this space station indicating that a long-running and desperate struggle has ended with a standoff in one of the tubes. That will keep Felicia immobilized, since by now Templeton's men will have established control over there and they certainly won't do anything until they discover what's happened with their leaders and the other fanatics. That buys us the time we need immediately. Other than that, there's nothing more to be done now except convince Captain Oversteegen of his part in the affair. Which I, a citizen of Haven, am hardly the person to do. Hopefully, Princess Ruth will manage the business.'