Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [17]
“I can see where holding her would give you a certain—leverage. But I fail to see where there’s any profit in that for us,” said Dinah O’Neill.
“I really should have spoken to your leader then,” Torkel said. “He would have understood at once. Petaybean mineral wealth is still waiting to be mined. Captain Louchard has seen this . . .”
She shrugged. “That is true, but it’s also true, Captain, that there are many other worlds to mine. Petaybean ore and gems are top quality, but are proving costly . . . to extract. In addition to losing four men and the supplies invested in their operation, you now want us to kidnap some settlers? That planet doesn’t yield its largesse to them either, and they’re all poor as dirt. Sounds to me like you’ve got a personal problem with these people, Captain. We’re not terrorists, we’re businesspeople.”
“So is the woman who is hosting Yana Maddock and the children. I’m sure as a ‘businessperson’ you’ll be familiar with the name Marmion de Revers Algemeine?”
“Naturally, though regrettably she has never shown an inclination to avail herself of our services. If the parties you’re interested in detaining are in her care, however, I must tell you that such an operation would be so difficult it would be no more cost-effective than your other proposal.”
“Even if detaining Algemeine as well as Maddock is possible? I would think that the lady would command an extremely high ransom.”
The woman shook her head and looked at him pityingly. “So would the board of directors of Intergal, but we do know our limits, Captain.”
He leaned over and boldly took her hand. “So do I—on my own. You don’t think I’d suggest this unless I knew I could expedite access to the targets, do you? Just say yes and we can make this happen.”
She smiled and covered his hand with her other one. The rings bit into the back of his knuckles. “I never could resist a smooth-talking man who wears more jewelry than I do. Expedite away, Captain, and have your people get in touch with our people. You know how.”
5
Outside Kilcoole
After asking to be taken to ’Cita’s leader, whoever that was, the white-robed Sister Igneous Rock continued to look at ’Cita expectantly while the others chimed in.
“A very good idea, oddly enough, considering the source,” one of the women in very short skirts said. “Do take us to your leader. I’d like to speak to whoever is in charge. I represent BIEX, the galaxy’s leading pharmaceutical concern, and—”
“Come off it, Portia,” said one of the men in shiny pants. “She’s just a kid. Doesn’t even look like she speaks English.”
“Petaybeans don’t need to speak English,” Sister Igneous Rock told the man sternly. “They communicate instinctively with the Beneficent Source. Please take us there, dear. Can you give us a name, perhaps?”
“This unworthy one has been called Goat-dung,” ’Cita began timorously, awed by the presence of such strange, if apparently ignorant, ones.
“Not by me,” Sister Igneous Rock said indignantly, wrinkling her nose as if ’Cita smelled like her namesake. “Really, dear, while natural names are pleasing to the Beneficence, I would not dream of calling the first actual denizen of Petaybee I meet by such a demeaning name as ‘Goat-dung.’ ”
“Mostly I answer to ’Cita.”
Sister Igneous Rock nodded and seemed gratified, but the rest once more began talking as if ’Cita was not there.
“Coaxtl, what shall I do?” the girl asked softly, hoping the big cat could hear her, for she could no longer see her friend. “Who is it they wish to see? It is too far to take them back to Uncle Sean before nightfall, and the ones in the short clothes will freeze after dark . . .”
“I don’t want to see any damned leader,” one of the men with the metal sticks was saying. “They had plenty of time to answer our applications for hunting permits. That fella I talked to said they had cats here big as horses with pelts that would fetch thousands, and unicorns that if you cut off their horns