Talbot sat on the sofa in the main room, his wounded arm aching. Dya had dropped into the chair across from him. Su and Rebecca huddled defensively on the cushions to his right and left. The children, all but Kylee and the littlest, Shine and Ngyap, sat cross-legged on the floor, thoughtful faces fixed on the adults.
Talina Perez, looking dangerous with her holstered pistol, leaned against the wall next to the great, curving expanse of window. She had her hip cocked, arms crossed, listening.
“The only place they can land something as big as the shuttle is on the fields,” Talbot told his wives. “No telling how many crops they’ll destroy.”
“It’s not like a nonrenewable resource,” Su said bitterly.
“What do we expect?” Rebecca wondered. “Surely they’re not just going to arrest us all at gunpoint, are they? I finished out my contract years ago.”
“I haven’t,” Su said miserably. “I’ve got three years. She can order me arrested.”
“She won’t,” Perez stated. “It’s Talbot she’s after. He’s the key to your cooperation.”
Talbot winced. “Yeah. Listen, what if I’m not here? I can hide out at one of the research stations in the forest. Lay low until—”
“What?” Rebecca demanded. “You’re eaten by a bem, or sidewinder gets you? And what if she leaves a garrison here? You’ve got to come in sometime.”
“No,” Dya said emphatically, her eyes pinning Talbot’s. “We’re family. We face this together. What they do to one of us, they do to all of us. Either that, or we’ve learned nothing from what happened to Paolo and Pak. As a family unit we have a little more leverage than just Mark by himself.”
Su asked, “What’s to stop them from shooting us all down? Even the children? This is just another Corporate Supervisor after all. What value do our lives have compared to the wealth of Mundo Base, let alone the symbolic power of destroying renegades who once dared and defied Clemenceau?”
“She won’t shoot us all down,” Talbot declared, placing a reassuring hand on Su’s knee and giving it a squeeze. “We’re worth way more to her alive than dead. She’s a smart woman, competent, and determined to succeed. From what I learned in Port Authority, her mine and smelter are doomed unless she can figure a way to keep the forest back. She’s desperate. And we’re the key to her ultimate success.”
Dya said, “Mark’s right. The woman I met will stop at nothing to get what we have. Back in Port Authority, the only leverage she had was over Mark. I, however, had something she wanted, so she bargained. But now that they’ve found us? Hey, we’re on our own out here. She can do anything she wants. No witnesses.”
Rebecca asked, “Do you think she’d occupy Mundo? Keep us captive? Make us work at gunpoint?”
“It’s not beyond her,” Talbot agreed, a sinking in his gut. “Like Dya said: Way out here, who’s going to know?”
“So, we’re screwed one way or another?” Rebecca noted. “Whatever’s coming, are we better off to just surrender, hope for the best terms we can get?” She glanced at Dya. “You dealt with her. What do you think?”
Dya shook her head in a hard no. “That woman will take all she can get. If we just offer ourselves up, she’ll snap us up like a scarlet flier does an invertebrate and ask for even more. Our only hope is to figure an angle, how we can negotiate from strength.”
“How do we do that?” Rebecca asked. “I mean, once she’s landed, she’s going to figure out that the secret’s the pine belt. That the wealth is the produce. All she has to do is remind us that this is Corporate property, that Su and Mark are under contract. That the rest of us have been living here for years without contract. Essentially mooching room and board. That what’s in our heads is only fair compensation for what we owe The Corporation.”
“Yeah,” Talbot said with a weary sigh. “That’s pretty much how it’s going to go. That’s the card she played when she landed at Port Authority. The difference here is that we don’t have a whole town behind us. It’s just the four of us. And no witnesses.”
Talbot reached out with his wounded arm and laid his hand on Rebecca’s shoulder as she closed her eyes and fought despair.
“Fuck them!” Su cried, the first tears leaking down her face. “We’re going to lose it all anyway, right? I say fight them. Tell that Corporate slit that if she wants Mundo, she’ll do it over our dead bodies!”
“And the children?” Talbot asked quietly. “You’d do that to little Taung, Ngyap, Shine? Or are you thinking about a Masada-style mass suicide?”
“It would make a statement,” Dya mused. “Eventually it would get out that three pregnant women and all these kids died rather than submit to The Corporation. Perez would tell everyone in Port Authority.” She paused. “But I’m against it.”
“Me, too,” Talbot and Rebecca said in unison.
“Damn it,” Su said between sniffles.
“Corporate’s got us by the balls,” Dya admitted, an emptiness forming behind her eyes. “She’s got the law, the marines, the shuttle, and we’ve got nothing.”
“We could leave,” Rebecca mused. “Move farther back into the forest, start from scratch.”
“It would be hard, dangerous,” Su agreed. “But no one on this planet knows the forest like we do.”
“Be reasonable,” Talbot said. “How would we carry the basic tech? We don’t even have a functioning aircar. The only one that works is back in Port Authority. Trust me, but for my armor, I wouldn’t be here. And sure, we’re all forest-wise, but you know the odds. We might lose half of us in the first six months.”
“What’s the status of your armor, Mark?” Perez asked from where she’d been listening.
“Last I looked, it’s at around seven percent.”
Rebecca added, “I’ve been fiddling with it in my spare time. The power pack’s been so long without a servicing it won’t hold a charge. There’s maybe an hour’s worth of power if it’s not used strenuously. Way less if you push it.”
“As if we could fight our way out of this,” Talbot whispered miserably. “Listen, the best plan is the first plan. Aguila lands, I walk out and surrender. I go back to Corporate Mine as her hostage with the understanding that you all will cooperate and teach her people everything you know about agriculture and dealing with Donovan’s forest. Dya trades her formulae for the ability to stay here and continue her research.”
“Give Aguila everything?” Su protested. “Even you?”
“I’m the weak link,” Mark told them.
“If she keeps to the deal,” Rebecca reminded. “Seeing Mundo, why should she? It’s hers for the taking. Legally.”
“This is all my fault,” Talbot declared.
“The lift would have broken with or without you.” Dya arched an eyebrow. “We’re together in this. However it works out. Family.”
“Family,” Rebecca and Su declared. Then Rebecca added, “I vote that we attempt to hold her to the original deal.”
Talbot said, “As long as she thought it was just Dya, Kylee, and me on a remote farmstead, we had a chance. Once she really sees Mundo, we’re screwed. Completely, totally, and thoroughly screwed.”
“We lose it all?” Rebecca asked in misery, as if she couldn’t believe it.
Perez had been staring out the window at the grounds below. Now she asked, “Rebecca? Do you have a piece of scientific equipment that would project focused heat across a distance of, say, fifty meters? Maybe like an infrared projector?”
“What part of the words ‘agricultural research base’ did you not get, Perez? Of course we do. And, in case you haven’t been paying attention, our lives are falling apart here. We’re about to lose our home and our integrity. So, do you mind?”
Perez turned, expression thoughtful. “Actually, I do mind. And on a whole lot of different levels. Dya and Mark are right about Aguila. As it sits right now, you don’t have a leg to stand on.” She smiled, emphatically repeating, “As it sits right now.”
Talbot saw a sudden hope flicker to life in Dya’s face as she shifted her attention to Perez and asked, “What are you thinking, Talina?”
“Depends on a lot of variables at this point, but I need to know, if it meant a chance to save yourselves, would you tear down those drying sheds that you’ve built on the old landing pad?”
“Tear them down?” Rebecca asked.
“Yeah, to create a space where the shuttle would land right here, next to the shops and storage buildings. Might need to move some of that mothballed equipment, too.”
Talbot shot to his feet, walking over to stare into Perez’ eyes. “Why?”
The woman gave him a catlike smile. “We’ve got at least twenty-four hours, worn-out combat armor, an IR projector, two combat-capable rifles, and tactical position. The unknown is if Aguila will have her marines fully suited up. Still, we start from strength.”
“Didn’t you hear? My armor’s shot. Less than an hour before it seizes up. When it does, I’m essentially paralyzed. Locked solid. And another thing. I’ve got one round of explosive left for the rifle. One. As in uno.”
“Should do the trick,” Perez said airily, and turned to Rebecca, Su, and Dya. “Of course, I’m assuming you won’t mind participating in a little white lie? Falsifying some records, perjuring yourselves in the name of the common good?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Su asked, scrambling to her feet. “And why the hell should we trust a piece of walking shit like you?”
Rebecca rose, placed a restraining hand on Su’s shoulder, and said, “Easy, Su. Talina, assume we’re at your mercy. What do you need?”
“We’ll need a clean sheet of paper. Can your radio room still receive scanned data? Print it?”
“Of course.”
Perez glanced from face to face, and then down at the children where they waited on the floor, looking frightened and stunned. “Okay, folks. Let’s get to work.”
To Talbot she said, “You and Dya, get the armor down to ground level. Then figure out how quickly and cleanly you can knock those sheds down and get the debris clear of the shuttle landing field.”
To Rebecca and Su, she said, “You two, you’re with me. We’ve got paperwork to do.”
“How will this save us?” Su demanded hostilely.
“Not sure it will,” Perez told her. “But even a toilet-sucking chance is better than no chance at all. Either this works, or we’re all dead.”