need now is to bloody them in half a dozen places at once.'
He slapped his fingertips at the Edge patch on Jommy's shoulder. 'This is our key.'
'I do not like this,' His Honorest said flatly. 'They are children. It is not right to make war against children.'
'But it's all right for those same children to make war against us?' Lieutenant Cue Ball demanded, starting to sound impatient. 'Come on, think. Use those heads of yours for a change.'
'What do you require of us?' the Defense Master asked.
Lieutenant Cue Ball gave a sound that was almost a sniff. 'Nothing at all,' he said. 'We'll get what we need by ourselves. I just thought you'd like to be brought up to speed on what was happening, that's all.'
He jerked his head toward the door. The Shamshir soldiers nudged the prisoners, and the whole group turned and went outside again.
'Idiots,' one of the soldiers muttered.
'Of course they're idiots,' Lieutenant Cue Ball said as he led the way back toward the human-style buildings by the landing area. 'All aliens are. Ignore them and concentrate on the job.'
'What happens if we don't feel like cooperating?' Alison asked.
Jack winced. It was not a smart thing to say, and he was pretty sure everyone else in the group knew it.
Lieutenant Cue Ball certainly did. 'That sounded like a challenge, puppy,' he said quietly. 'I like challenges. Don't worry, one of you will talk. Maybe you, huh?'
'Lieutenant?' a melodious voice called.
Jack turned to see the second of the uniformed Agri hurrying up behind them. 'The Defense Master's compliments. He wishes the human children to be placed in custody under Agrist Protector authority.'
'Return the Defense Master's compliments fourfold,' Lieutenant Cue Ball said courteously. 'And inform him that the prisoners will be delivered to his custody when I'm finished with them.'
'The Defense Master specifically said—'
'You will deliver my compliments, and my message,' Lieutenant Cue Ball said, turning his back on the alien. 'This way, puppies.'
He took them into the larger of the two buildings, into a back room that seemed to have been specifically designed to be a jail cell. There were no windows, the door was equipped with two separate locks, and there were a dozen metal rings embedded halfway into the concrete floor.
At Lieutenant Cue Ball's instructions, the soldiers produced handcuffs. Ordering the prisoners to sit, they secured their wrists to the rings. 'Right,' he said briskly when they were finished. 'Someone want to save all of us a lot of time and effort and give me the access codes right now?'
Jack didn't dare look around at the others. He kept his eyes on Lieutenant Cue Ball; and after a moment the man gave a smirk. 'Didn't think so,' he said. 'Fine. We'll do it the hard way.
He looked around the room, and his gaze fell on Jack. 'You—Bright Eyes. Let's go.'
One of the soldiers unfastened the ring end of Jack's handcuffs, leaving the other end attached to his wrist. Hauling him to his feet, he marched him out of the room. With Lieutenant Cue Ball again in the lead, they took him back outside and into the other building.
The whole procedure seemed to be taking a lot of unnecessary time, Jack thought, especially for people who claimed to be in so much of a hurry. But he'd been through this same routine a few times with various police departments across the Orion Arm. It was all for show: dropping vague threats and then giving the victim time to think and sweat about it.
And the fact that they'd taken Jack out of the room first meant that he wasn't the primary target of the evening's entertainment. Lieutenant Cue Ball hadn't given him nearly enough time to think and sweat, after all.
No, they were probably targeting little Rogan, he decided uncomfortably. Either him or one of the girls.
This second building seemed to be set up more along the lines of the Edge's HQ back on Carrion, with normal offices and hallways and everything. The soldiers took Jack to what looked like a conference room, where he found Tango Five Zulu's fold-top computers laid out neatly around a large oval table. They were plugged in, turned on, and ready to go.
All they were waiting for was the proper access code.
'Okay,' Lieutenant Cue Ball said, gesturing to the computers. 'Like I said, we can do this easy or we can do it hard. You've got one last chance to be smart.'
'Oh, I'm already smart,' Jack assured him, watching his face closely. 'Problem is, I'm also poor.'
Lieutenant Cue Ball's eyes narrowed. 'What's that supposed to mean?'
'It means I want to know what's in it for me,' Jack said.
One of the other Shamshir snorted loudly. 'You get to stay in one piece,' he said.
'That's important, all right,' Jack agreed, shivering. He needed to play this out, so that he knew how much wiggle room he had here. But at the same time, he definitely didn't want to push these men too far. 'But it sounds like you guys are in a hurry. I work faster when I'm inspired.'
One of the soldiers took a step forward. 'You want inspiration?' he bit out, drawing a long knife from a sheath at his side. 'Let me give you some inspiration.'
Lieutenant Cue Ball twitched his hand. Reluctantly, Jack thought, the man stepped back. 'Okay, I'll play,' the lieutenant said. 'What do you want?'
'My aunt and uncle indentured me to the Whinyard's Edge,' Jack said. 'Fifty thousand for two years of slave labor.'
'And what, you want us to buy your contract?'
'Hardly,' Jack said. 'I want cash and a door out of here.'
A cynical smile tugged at the corners of Lieutenant Cue Ball's mouth. 'I see the Edge is still squeezing a quart of loyalty out of each fresh recruit,' he said. 'Fine. Cash on the drum for value received. What can you give us?'
'That depends on how much you can pay,' Jack countered. 'How does a hundred thousand sound?'
'Like you think we're stupid,' Lieutenant Cue Ball said darkly. 'Or desperate.'
'I don't know about the first,' Jack said thoughtfully, rubbing at his chin. The loose end of his handcuffs bounced against his chest as he did so. 'But on the second, it seems to me that you're pushing up against a deadline here. The Defense Master could send his people around at any time to collect us, you know. I don't think the Agri would like it if they found out you were planning to torture a bunch of human children.'
