The Reaches

still quivered with suppressed paroxysms.

'We still have to do something about the situation, though,' Piet said softly.

'No,' I said. From the corner of my eye, I noticed a shadow slip from the main hatch and vanish into the forest. 'The situation has just taken care of itself.'

A smile of sorts played with Piet's mouth. 'Yes,' he said. 'I see what you mean. He doesn't want to be aboard the target his friends are going to blast.'

He turned his head. 'Mister Dole,' he said crisply, 'we'll have the net down at first light. The voyage isn't over, and we may need it another time. I expect to lift fifteen minutes after you start the task.'

'Aye aye, sir!' the bosun said.

'I suppose it'll be weeks before another big gulper takes over this stretch of the river,' Lacaille said.

'Maybe not so long,' Stephen said. He got up and stretched the big muscles of his shoulders. 'And anyway, I'm sure there are more snakes and suchlike folk than the one you and Jeremy met.'

He chuckled again. The sound was as bleak as the ice of Lord's Mercy.

ABOVE RIEL

Day 311

Guillermo's screen showed the world we circled in a ninety-four-minute orbit. The central display was a frozen schematic of Corpus Christi, Riel's spaceport, based on pilotry data, Lacaille's recollections, and images recorded during the Oriflamme's first pass overhead.

'There are fourteen vessels in port that probably have thruster nozzles of the correct size,' Piet said, sitting on the edge of his couch. Thirty of us were crowded into the forward compartment, and his words echoed on the tannoys to the remainder of the crew. 'Besides those, there's a number of smaller vessels on the ground and a very large freighter in orbit.'

'Freighter or not. .' Kiley murmured, 'anything that weighs two kilotonnes gets my respect.'

'Two of the ships are water buffalos without transit capability,' Piet continued. 'We'll have to carry our prize off to an uninhabited system to strip it, so they're out. Likewise, a number of the ships are probably unserviceable, though we don't know which ones for sure. Finally, there's a Federation warship in port, the Yellowknife.'

There was a low murmur from the men. Somebody said, 'Shit,' in a quiet but distinct voice.

'Yes,' Piet said. 'That complicates matters, but two of our nozzles have cracked. Maybe they just got knocked around when we tipped on Lord's Mercy, but it's equally possible that the other six are about to fail the same way. This will be risky, but we have no options.'

'Hey, sir,' Stampfer said. 'We'll fucking handle it. You just tell us what to do.'

That wasn't bravado. Stampfer and everybody else in the Oriflamme's crew believed that Captain Ricimer would bring us all home somehow. Emotionally, I believed that myself. Intellectually, I knew that if I hadn't stumbled as I ran toward the Montreal, the Fed plasma bolt would have killed me instead of the man a step behind.

'For ease of drawing reaction mass,' Piet said, 'the port is in the bend of a river, the Sangre Christi. It's a swampy area and unhealthy, since Terran mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases have colonized the planet along with humans.'

Men glanced at one another in puzzlement. Malaria didn't seem a serious risk compared to the others we'd be chancing on a raid like this.

A slight smile played across Piet's mouth. 'As a result,' he explained, 'the governor and officers of the garrison and ships in port stay in houses on the bluffs overlooking the river.'

His index finger swept an arc across the display. 'That should slow down any response to our actions.'

Piet sobered. 'I'll take the cutter down at twilight, that's at midnight ship's time, with fourteen men aboard,' he said. 'A party of six will secure the Commandatura and port control-they're together.'

'I'll take care of that,' Stephen said.

Piet's grin flickered again. 'Yes,' he said. 'I hoped you would.'

He looked at me. 'There are four gunpits with laser arrays. The fire control system and the town's general communications both need to be disabled. You can handle that, Jeremy?'

'Sure,' I said. The task was a little more complicated than it might have sounded to a layman. You have to identify the critical parts in order to cut off their power, blow them up, whatever. But I shouldn't have any difficulty.

'Or Guillermo could,' Stephen said, scratching the side of his neck and looking at nothing in particular.

'I'll do it!' I said.

'I'll need Guillermo for the other phase of the operation,' Piet said. 'I don't expect any trouble about landing a cutter without authorization, but I personally can't go around asking which of the ships ready to lift have thruster nozzles in good condition. Guillermo can speak to Molt laborers and identify a suitable prize without arousing suspicion.'

He glanced down at the navigator in the couch to his left. 'Mister Salomon, you'll command the Oriflamme in my absence. We'll rendezvous, the Oriflamme and my prize, at St. Lawrence. I don't believe there's any reason to proceed there in company.'

Salomon nodded. Men were tugging their beards, rubbing palms together-a score of individual tricks for dealing with tension. I kept clearing my throat, trying not to make a noise that would disturb the others.

'All right,' said Piet. 'Stephen, you and I will get together and decide on personnel. When we've done that, then we'll go over tactics. I'd like the rest of you to vacate the compartment for a time, please, so that we can organize the raid.'

His eyes met mine. 'Not the people already told off for the mission, of course.'

Crewmen drifted toward the passageway aft. Dole and Stampfer waited grimly. They obviously weren't about to leave unless they got a direct personal order to do so. I doubted Piet would push the point. You want your most aggressive men on a project like this.

I shoved off carefully and caught the stanchion to which Stephen was anchored. 'Didn't want me along?' I said very softly.

Stephen shrugged. He didn't look at me. 'I don't much want Piet risking his neck by leading this one,' he said in a similar voice. 'But there wasn't a prayer he'd listen if I said that.'

He gave me a broad smile. 'I'm responsible for you, Jeremy,' he said in a bantering tone. 'I brought you aboard.'

'Then remember I'm a member of this crew,' I said. 'And a gentleman of Venus!'

The compartment had cleared except for the officers and two petty officers. 'Stephen?' Piet called. 'Jeremy?'

'Oh, I won't forget that, Jeremy,' Stephen said. He directed himself with an index finger toward the consoles at the bow. 'Nor, I think, will our enemies, hey?'

RIEL

Day 312

Our outer hull pinged as it slowly cooled. The pilot's screen was coarse-grained and only hinted at our surroundings. Besides, with fourteen men packed onto a cutter, there were too many heads and torsos in the way for me to see more than an occasional corner.

'Hell,' said Winger. 'With all the chips we're carrying, it'd be easier to buy the engine hardware.'

'This'll be easy enough,' Stephen replied in his chilling singsong. 'It always has been in the past. Dead easy.'

No one spoke for a moment. Our harsh breathing sounded like static on a radio tuned to open air.

'All right,' Piet said decisively. 'Commandatura team and Guillermo first, we others wait five minutes. I don't want anyone to notice just how full this cutter is.'

Dole and Lightbody undogged the hatch, though the bosun would go with Piet to capture the ship that Guillermo picked. Fourteen men weren't many to operate a starship of a hundred tonnes or more, so Piet had picked