"Well, if it isn't the tinker!"
Kheder Bijan nodded as the female, no longer looking either meek or unintelligent, padded across the room to secure the door.
"Please pardon my deception on your approach. It was necessary to prevent your destruction."
"What do you mean?" Jasco's natural suspicions had not been particularly eased by having someone step out of a "solid" wall behind him. "Trust me, nobody would be destroying us, bucko!"
"You can be killed," Bijan replied. "You were badly hurt at Voitan. You lost, I believe, some thirty out of your total of ninety."
"Slightly off," Kosutic told him with a thin smile. "You must have had someone counting wounded they assumed would die, but we're tougher than that."
Bijan clapped his hands quietly in agreement.
"Yes, my own count showed that the numbers were off. Thank you for that explanation. Nonetheless, if you hadn't come to Marshad, you would have been destroyed on the road to Pasule. Even if Radj Hoomas had needed his entire army to accomplish it, you would have been destroyed."
"Why?" Jasco demanded. "What the hell did we do?"
"Not what we did, Sir," Julian said. "What we are. We're his ticket to power."
"Exactly." Bijan nodded at the sergeant. "You are his 'ticket' to control of the Hadur. Make no mistake, Pasule is but a stepping stone. After Pasule comes Turzan and then Dram. He'll use you until you're used up."
"That's more or less what we figured," Pahner said to Kosutic and Jasco. He was using a discrete frequency to avoid having the rest of the company listening in; this was not a morale-boosting conversation. "And we can't afford the time. He has a plan, so ask him what it is."
"What's the plan?" Kosutic asked, cutting Jasco off.
"Let Kosutic take the lead, Lieutenant," Pahner coached when the lieutenant looked sharply at the noncom. "It's customary to let a lower-level person take point. That way if you decide to hang somebody out to dry, it's the Sergeant Major, not you."
"You have to have a reason to contact us," the sergeant major continued, suppressing a smile. The captain would be hard pressed to ever "hang somebody out to dry," but it certainly made a good excuse to let the grown-ups do the planning.
"You have a schedule to keep," the spy told her with a Mardukan grunt of humor. "Yes, I know even that about you. You have to reach this far distant coast within a set time frame. You can't afford to spend a year here campaigning."
"How in the hell—!" Jasco exclaimed.
"Nice piece of information," Kosutic said. "But you still haven't mentioned the plan."
"There are those who don't look with favor upon Radj Hoomas, obviously," the tinker said. "There are many such in Marshad. Perhaps even more, at least among those with power and funds, in Pasule."
"And you are what? A friend of these people? A believer?"
"Call me a friend," the spy said. "Or a humble servant."
"Uh-huh. Okay, humble servant, what's the plan of this anonymous group of people?"
"They simply wish to change the status quo," the spy said unctuously. "To create a better Marshad for all its inhabitants. And, among those in the group who are from Pasule, to save themselves from conquest by a madman."
"And why should we help them?" Kosutic asked. "Given that we might be 'monarchy: like it or die' types."
"You aren't," Bijan replied calmly. "My conversation with the O'Casey made that clear. She was very interested in the ownership of land, and pleased when I told her Pasule practiced free ownership by the farmers themselves. Furthermore, you're trapped; you must destroy the House of Radj or miss your rendezvous. Nor will your part be difficult. On the day of the battle, you will simply switch your allegiance. With the aid of your lightning weapons and the forces of Pasule, the local rebels will be able to overcome Radj Hoomas' forces, most of whom will be involved in the attack on Pasule in your support."
"And what about our commanders?" Kosutic could see that the plan was as full of holes as Swiss cheese, but she also suspected that those holes were traps for the humans. "How do they survive our 'switch in allegiance'?"
"There are partisans within the palace," Bijan replied easily. "Between them and your leaders' guards, the purely Radj forces can be overcome. Certainly they can secure your leaders' safety until either you arrive to relieve them or the palace is taken by the city partisans.
"However," he continued, with a hand slap of regret, "whether we can guarantee your leaders' security or not, you have little choice. If you don't assist us, you will be here a year hence, trapped, I suspect, in this horrible little backwater for the rest of your lives. Which, given that Radj intends to use you over and over again for shock troops, will probably be short ones."
Kosutic made sure her smile was broad and toothy; Mardukans didn't show teeth except in aggression.
"You've figured all the angles, haven't you?"
"You need our help," the spy said simply, "and we need yours. It's a simple meeting of needs. No more."
"Uh-huh." The sergeant major glanced over at the female. "Is that our contact?" she asked, gesturing with her chin.
"Yes," Bijan answered. "Her family was from Voitan and has... different customs. She's an excellent conduit."
"Nobody notices me," the diminutive female said, standing by the door with her broom and dusting idly. "Who would notice a brainless female? Even if she heard something, how could she remember it?"
The girl grunted evilly and Kosutic smiled, then nodded at the spy.
"Stay here. We need to go talk." She jerked her head at the command group to precede her out of the kitchen's Stygian heat. They went as far as the second guardroom, where she made the "rally here" hand sign.
"Captain, you there?" she asked.
"Aye. We got it all, too," the CO said.
"Yeah," Roger chimed in. "Every goddamned bit of it."
"I want suggestions," Pahner went on. "Julian, you first."
"We need to go with the plan, Sir. At least at first. Like the guy said, right now I don't see a way around it."
"Don't worry about us," Roger said. "I don't know if Captain Pahner fully agrees, but I believe we'll be able to hold our own if most of the guards are involved in the assault."
Pahner's sigh was audible over the radio.
"I don't like it, but I more or less agree."
"We should be able to turn the tables on the ground," Jasco said, shaking his head. "But it's gonna be a helluva fight at the bridge, and then we'll be in a running battle all the way up to the palace."
"Actually, Sir," Kosutic said, thinking about the terrain, "the problem will be on this side."
"Correct," Pahner agreed. "If formed forces make it to the city, you'll be fighting every step of the way through that warren. That sort of fighting will whittle us down to nothing. If you have to fight street-to-street, we might as well surrender now."
"So you think that if the Marshad army is on the Pasule side of the river—and stays there—then the Company can relieve us?" Roger asked carefully.
"Yes," the Marine said after a moment's thought. "We'll still take some casualties. But if we can get some assurances that the Pasule forces will cover our retreat, we should be all right. However, we still face the problem of how to keep them from cross..." His voice trailed off. Then—"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking, Your Highness?" He asked carefully.
"Maybe. It depends on whether or not we can smuggle one of the Mardukans out of the visitors' quarters."
"Yeah," Julian and Kosutic said almost simultaneously. The two NCOs looked at each other and laughed.
"If we can get some armor for one of the Three Musketeers, I can rig a camera and radio," Julian said. "I've got the gear packed."
"I can coach him through the rigging, and Denat is fairly good with knots," Kosutic added rubbing her ear.