Audacious (49 page)

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Authors: Mike Shepherd

Tags: #Science Fiction, #Fiction, #Adventure, #General

BOOK: Audacious
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58 “The President wants you and your Marines out of here,” Inspector Johnson started without preamble. “Off this planet. Out of the reach of these newsies and their cameras.” “Your president is dead,” Princess Kristine, daughter to Wardhaven’s Prime Minister, reminded the inspector. It had been a rough night. Was the obvious slipping out of focus? “The third vice president is not dead, and he is taking charge.” Kris knew that such transfers were often automatically assumed by the uninformed. But there were procedures to be followed. “Has he taken the oath? You know, being third in line is still third in line until you raise your right hand and swear the words.” Politics turned on such fine distinctions. That seemed to give Johnson pause. He blinked several times. Kris gave him a moment to absorb that, then went on. “Besides, if the blond bimbo I saw him with right after the shooting stopped wasn’t his wife, I suspect your man is as politically dead as your president is physically.” Kri

59 The killing wasn’t over. Or at least it was a close run thing for the next couple of hours. An admiral from Eden’s fleet met Kris at the door to the shuttle when it docked at High Eden. He demanded she immediately board an outgoing liner. Kris didn’t much care for the way he was rushing her out… or separating her from her Marines. And she had at least one major deal breaker. “Is a certain Victoria Peterwald booked on that ship?” The admiral was nonplus toward the question. But he did check. “Why yes, she will be.” “Then I won’t. Haven’t you heard? Longknifes and Peterwalds don’t play well together in the sandbox. People tend to get suddenly dead around us.” The admiral failed to understand that. Gunny Brown was wise enough to have four hulking Marines, stinking from sweat and battle, edge the Navy puke out of Kris’s sight before Eden lost more of its ruling elite. Then it turned out the Navy base was unprepared to offer hospitality to a hundred tired, hungry, and war-weary Marines.

60 Captain Drago avoided asking Kris the obvious question until they were boosting for Jump Point Delta at 1.5 g’s. “Where do I set a course for?” Kris had been considering that quite a lot. She turned to Abby, Jack, Penny, and Gramma Ruth. Penny, along with thirty-six bandaged, walking wounded had come aboard the day before the Wasp sealed locks and got under way. There were other wounded that did not make it aboard. Captain DeVar’s legs were a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. The docs were still debating whether to fix him up or amputate and install metal. The wounded that did come arrived in twos and threes, anything not to draw attention. Kris was none too sure that mattered. The newsies dirtside had a lot to report… and they were reporting it all. The opposition party had used a rarely applied option for them to actually put a law on the table. Now, after the slaughter, they had the votes to see that their proposal to give the voting franchise to every man or woman in American Eden w

61 The Wasp made a comfortable 1 g as it covered the distance between Jump Point Beta and High Wardhaven. The entire time, the awaited message scheduling a meeting between Kris et al and General McMorrison and whoever showed up sober never came. So Kris started planning how she wanted the meeting to go. “Abby, we’ve got to get you in uniform,” Kris said at breakfast. “Why forever should we?” Abby said. “Oh, Auntie, I think you’d look great in uniform,” Cara said. “Can I have one, too? Everyone else has one.” “The captain doesn’t,” Abby pointed out. “Yes, but he’s special.” Having a twelve-year-old girl at the breakfast table… or dinner table… or just on board was a whole new experience for Kris. Course, at twelve, Kris had spent most of her time drunk. Thank heavens Cara did not have any vices like that. Still, the girl was twelve. “Now about that uniform,” Kris said, trying to wrestle the conversation back where she wanted it… and feeling very much like one of those bull riders she’d

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