A wave of heat boiled out like the breath of a blast furnace. A soft orange explosion followed, as enough oxygen rushed into the steering compartment to re-ignite any flammables that were left. The trooper fastened his emergency oxygen mask, grabbed a chemical fire-extinguisher from a clamp on the wall, and aimed it into the flight deck. After a moment they followed in his wake.

Everything was slagged and burned. The controls were melted, communications equipment charred. The compartment stank, chokingly, of toxic oxidation products from all the synthetic materials. And one organic odor. Carbonized meat. What was left of the pilot—he turned his head, and swallowed. “Bharaputra doesn’t have—isn’t supposed to have heavy weapons on-site!”

Thorne hissed, beyond swearing. It pointed. “They threw a couple of our own thermal mines in here, closed the door, and ran. Pilot had to have been stunned first. One smart goddamn Bharaputran son-of-a-bitch … didn’t have heavy weapons, so they just used ours. Drew off or ganged up on my guards, got in, and grounded us. Didn’t even stick around to ambush us … they can do that at their leisure, now. This beast won’t fly again.” Thorne’s face looked like a chiseled skull-mask in the white light from their helmets.

Panic clogged his throat. “What do we do now, Bel?”

“Fall back to the building. Set a perimeter. Use our hostages to negotiate some kind of surrender.”

“No!”

“You got a better idea— Miles?” Thorne’s teeth gritted. “I thought not.”

The shocked trooper stared at Thorne. “Captain—” he glanced back and forth between them, “the Admiral will pull us through. We’ve been in tighter spots than this.”

“Not this time.” Thorne straightened, voice drawn with agony. “My fault—take full responsibility… . That’s not the Admiral. That’s his clone-brother, Mark. He set us up, but I’ve known for days. Tumbled to him before we dropped, before we ever made Jacksonian locals pace. I thought I could bring this off, and not get caught.”

“Eh?” The trooper’s brows wavered, disbelieving. A clone, going under anesthetic, might have that same stunned look on his face.

“We can’t—we can’t betray those children back into Bharaputra’s hands,” Mark grated. Begged.

Thorne dug its bare hand into the carbonized blob glued to what used to be the pilot’s station chair. “Who is betrayed?” It lifted its hand, rubbed a black crumbling smear across his face from cheek to chin. “Who is betrayed?” Thorne whispered. “Do you have. A better. Idea.”

He was shaking, his mind a white-out blank. The hot carbon on his face felt like a scar.

“Fall back to the building,” said Thorne. “On my command.”

“No subordinates,” said Miles firmly. “I want to talk to the head an, once and done. And then get out of here.” “I’ll keep trying,” said Quinn. She turned back to her comconsole the Peregrine’s tac room, which was presently transmitting the face of a high-ranking Bharaputran security officer, and began the argument again.

Miles sat back in his station chair, his boots flat to the deck, his hands held deliberately still along the control-studded armrests. Calm and control. That was the strategy. That was, at this point, the only strategy left to him. If only he’d been nine hours sooner … he’d methodically cursed every delay of the past five days, in four languages, till he’d run out of invective. They’d wasted fuel, profligately, pushing the Peregrine at max accelerations, and had nearly made up the Ariel’s lead. Nearly. The delays had given Mark just enough time to take a bad idea, and turn it into a disaster. But not Mark alone. Miles was no longer a proponent of the hero-theory of disaster. A mess this complete required the full cooperation of a cast of dozens. He very much wanted to talk privately with Bel Thorne, and very, very soon. He had not counted on Bel proving as much of a loose cannon as Mark himself.

He glanced around the tac room, taking in the latest information from the vid displays. The Ariel was out of it, fled under fire to dock at Fell Station under Thorne’s second-in-command, Lieutenant Hart, ’hey were now blockaded by half a dozen Bharaputran security vessels, lurking outside Fell’s zone. Two more Bharaputran ships presently escorted the Peregrine in orbit. A token force, so far; the Peregrine outgunned them. That balance of power would shift when all their Bharaputran brethren arrived topside. Unless he could convince Baron Bharaputra it wasn’t necessary.

He called up a view of the downside situation on his vid display, insofar as it was presently understood by the Peregrine’s battle computers. The exterior layout of the Bharaputran medical complex was plain even from orbit, but he lacked the details of the interiors he’d have liked if he were planning a clever attack. No clever attack. Negotiation, and bribery … he winced in anticipation of the upcoming costs. Bel Thorne, Mark, Green Squad, and fifty or so Bharaputran hostages were presently pinned down in a single building, separated from their damaged shuttle, and had been for the last eight hours. The shuttle pilot dead, three troopers injured. That would cost Bel its command, Miles swore to himself.

It would be dawn down there soon. The Bharaputrans had evacuated all the civilians from the rest of the complex, thank God, but had also brought in heavy security forces and equipment. Only the threat of harm to their valuable clones held back an overwhelming Bharaputran onslaught. He would not be negotiating from a position of strength, alas. Cool.

Quinn, without turning around, raised her hand and flashed him a high sign, Get ready. He glanced down, checking his own appearance. His officer’s undress grays were borrowed from the next smallest person aboard the Peregrine, a five-foot-tall female from Engineering, and fit him sloppily. He only had half his proper insignia. Aggressively messy was a possible command style, but he really needed more props to bring it off. Adrenalin and suppressed rage would have to power his appearance. If not for the biochip on his vagus nerve, his old ulcers would be perforating his stomach about now. He opened his comconsole to Quinn’s communications shunt, and waited.

With a sparkle, the image of a frowning man appeared over the vid plate. His dark hair was drawn back in a tight knot held by a gold ring, emphasizing the strong bones of his face. He wore a bronze-brown silk tunic, and no other jewelry. Olive-brown skin; he looked a healthy forty or so. Appearances were deceiving. It took more than one lifetime to scheme and fight one’s way to the undisputed leadership of a Jacksonian House. Vasa Luigi, Baron Bharaputra, had been wearing the body of a clone for at least twenty years. He certainly took good care of it. The vulnerable period of another brain transplant would be doubly dangerous for a man whose power so many ruthless subordinates coveted. This man is not for playing games with, Miles decided.

“Bharaputra here,” the man in brown stated, and waited. Indeed, the man and the House were one, for practical purposes.

Naismith here,” said Miles. “Commanding, Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet.”

“Apparently not completely,” said Vasa Luigi blandly.

Miles peeled back his lips on set teeth, and managed not to flush. “Just so. You do understand, this raid was not authorized by me?”

“I understand you claim so. Personally, I should not be so anxious announce my failure of control over my subordinates.”

He’s baiting you. Cool. “We need to have our facts straight. I have not yet established if Captain Thorne was actually suborned, or merely taken in by my fellow-clone. In any case, it is your own product, for whatever sentimental reasons, who has returned to attempt to extract some personal revenge upon you. I’m just an innocent bystander, trying to straighten things out.”