stew simmering. She went to meet him and they embraced.
"Well.' Keep yourself busy this afternoon, Rissa? Or maybe take a nap?"
"I found much of interest. Your defenses here are . . . im-pressive. At first, when we arrived, I noticed nothing-but when I began to be curious..."
He grinned. "What all did you find? Now I'm curious."
In proper order, she told him what she had found, and how. "I did not go into the tunnel-nor, since I had no idea where to look, search outside for the other end. It is simpler to ask."
"Yes. Well, the tunnel-it's about a hundred meters-brings you back up behind a storage building, in a gully that gives cover if you have to run for it. About halfway-a litle less-is a side shaft up to a camouflaged pillbox-looks like just any other hummock, but its guns cover the front ap-proach to the cabin."
"Most thorough. And now-what did I miss?"
Tregare laughed. "Less than I expected-even if I'd set you looking."
"There is more, though?"
"Nothing much-except maybe the real reason this cabin is exactly where it is. From the ridge up there, we're at the precise minimum angle so that if anyone wants to swoop in and drop a bomb and not overshoot-he has to slow down enough to be vulnerable himself, to some little fleabite mis-siles I've got planted down a little farther out. From the front or sides of course, they'd have no chance-over the ridge was the tricky part." Rissa nodded. "I am most impressed. But, Bran-are we then in such danger, that your precautions must be so thorough?"
He gripped both her shoulders. "Rissa, I take a lot of pre-cautions I may not need to-if you mean, do I expect to have to use them. I learned that at UET-give them credit for a few good ideas-and maybe improved on the principle a little. When I built this place-had it built-helped build it-I was playing in local politics just a bit, and the situation was con-siderably stickier than it is now. But I don't regret any of the work, wasted effort or not." He released her. "For one thing, word got out-and prob-ably improved in the telling-about what I was doing. It's always good to give the opposition the worries."
"Opposition? Is it anyone I should know about?"
"Not now. One got wiped out as an oligarch, and the rest are running hard as they can to stay in the same place." He sniffed the air. "You started dinner? Good-I wouldn't mind fixing it, but I'm hungry enough that I'm glad I don't have to wait while I do it."
"Yes. So am I. Hungry, I mean. Shall we?"
From a cupboard Rissa had not yet inspected, Tregare brought a bottle of wine. "Let's be a little festive; all right?" Over the meal, he told her of his own afternoon. "It's the delay that makes it rough," he said. "From Inconnu's orbit the message lag is about eight hours. Doesn't sound too bad, right? But the only times either of us can send is when the sender's pointing the right way when the receiver wil be, eight hours later."
Her brows came together, then she nodded. "Yes-I see it."
"Gonnelsen-my First Hat, remember?-he tried to get a better sync on his orbit, out of the computer. But with the length of Number One's day, it didn't fit-he'd be inside the planet he's orbiting!"
"So your communications are irregular."
"Damn near nonexistent. It'll improve, oddly enough, as that planet gets farther away." He pushed his empty plate to one side.
"One piece of good news, though. Inconnu got a clear copy of a message that came in here garbled a few days ago-too weak a signal to punch through atmosphere."
He leaned forward. "You won't appreciate this yet-but it was from Lefthand Thread, two months out, and homing! Which means it's a lot closer than that now."
"Left hand? That is good?" She played up to his baiting.
"The Escaped ship you heard about, that I practically took by force. I had reason-Marrigan was going to take it out in unsafe condition. We can't afford to lose any Escaped ship-so I sort of strongarmed him into selling. I was younger then-crude methods were
"Well.' Keep yourself busy this afternoon, Rissa? Or maybe take a nap?"
"I found much of interest. Your defenses here are . . . im-pressive. At first, when we arrived, I noticed nothing-but when I began to be curious..."
He grinned. "What all did you find? Now I'm curious."
In proper order, she told him what she had found, and how. "I did not go into the tunnel-nor, since I had no idea where to look, search outside for the other end. It is simpler to ask."
"Yes. Well, the tunnel-it's about a hundred meters-brings you back up behind a storage building, in a gully that gives cover if you have to run for it. About halfway-a litle less-is a side shaft up to a camouflaged pillbox-looks like just any other hummock, but its guns cover the front ap-proach to the cabin."
"Most thorough. And now-what did I miss?"
Tregare laughed. "Less than I expected-even if I'd set you looking."
"There is more, though?"
"Nothing much-except maybe the real reason this cabin is exactly where it is. From the ridge up there, we're at the precise minimum angle so that if anyone wants to swoop in and drop a bomb and not overshoot-he has to slow down enough to be vulnerable himself, to some little fleabite mis-siles I've got planted down a little farther out. From the front or sides of course, they'd have no chance-over the ridge was the tricky part." Rissa nodded. "I am most impressed. But, Bran-are we then in such danger, that your precautions must be so thorough?"
He gripped both her shoulders. "Rissa, I take a lot of pre-cautions I may not need to-if you mean, do I expect to have to use them. I learned that at UET-give them credit for a few good ideas-and maybe improved on the principle a little. When I built this place-had it built-helped build it-I was playing in local politics just a bit, and the situation was con-siderably stickier than it is now. But I don't regret any of the work, wasted effort or not." He released her. "For one thing, word got out-and prob-ably improved in the telling-about what I was doing. It's always good to give the opposition the worries."
"Opposition? Is it anyone I should know about?"
"Not now. One got wiped out as an oligarch, and the rest are running hard as they can to stay in the same place." He sniffed the air. "You started dinner? Good-I wouldn't mind fixing it, but I'm hungry enough that I'm glad I don't have to wait while I do it."
"Yes. So am I. Hungry, I mean. Shall we?"
From a cupboard Rissa had not yet inspected, Tregare brought a bottle of wine. "Let's be a little festive; all right?" Over the meal, he told her of his own afternoon. "It's the delay that makes it rough," he said. "From Inconnu's orbit the message lag is about eight hours. Doesn't sound too bad, right? But the only times either of us can send is when the sender's pointing the right way when the receiver wil be, eight hours later."
Her brows came together, then she nodded. "Yes-I see it."
"Gonnelsen-my First Hat, remember?-he tried to get a better sync on his orbit, out of the computer. But with the length of Number One's day, it didn't fit-he'd be inside the planet he's orbiting!"
"So your communications are irregular."
"Damn near nonexistent. It'll improve, oddly enough, as that planet gets farther away." He pushed his empty plate to one side.
"One piece of good news, though. Inconnu got a clear copy of a message that came in here garbled a few days ago-too weak a signal to punch through atmosphere."
He leaned forward. "You won't appreciate this yet-but it was from Lefthand Thread, two months out, and homing! Which means it's a lot closer than that now."
"Left hand? That is good?" She played up to his baiting.
"The Escaped ship you heard about, that I practically took by force. I had reason-Marrigan was going to take it out in unsafe condition. We can't afford to lose any Escaped ship-so I sort of strongarmed him into selling. I was younger then-crude methods were
Similar Books
