Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [57]
“There’s no way at all that any funds will be released before I am,” Marmion agreed. “However, I am prepared to offer—let us call it ‘passage money’ for a safe return, and I’m quite willing to make the ‘fare’ a substantial amount . . .” She gracefully gestured to include everyone in the cabin, including Namid. “But there is no way that my people will liquidate holdings on my signature”—and she drawled the next few phrases in the most resolute of soft voices Yana had ever heard this formidable woman use—“even if I had to hold the stylus with my teeth to sign.”
“Damn that Fiske!” Dinah said in the first unrehearsed and spontaneous utterance Yana had heard from her so far. “He said this was a sure thing.” Somehow Yana was not totally surprised to learn that Torkel was involved in this fiasco.
“And I thought you were cynical enough to realize there’s no such commodity as a sure thing.” Namid regarded her sardonically. “You didn’t do enough homework on this batch of victims, Dinah. Maybe it’s time you gave it up if you’re getting careless.”
“Well, I certainly wish you’d told me all this sooner before I wasted so much time. That’s it, isn’t it?” she asked with a wounded expression, scanning the faces of her captives and her ex-husband. “You were stalling for time! Oh, really! Just because you’re in legitimate business instead of a marginalized one like us, you think our time is not as valuable as yours. I knew I should have stuck with cargo and not branched out into passengers but—but there is gold on that wretched ice world,” she insisted, her fists clenching at her sides. “There are gemstones, there is germaniun, gengesite . . .”
“In small quantities,” Yana said. “Just what sort of deposits were you shown?” she added, wonderingly.
Dinah O’Neill said nothing, but kept eye contact with Yana.
“Have you ever been on the surface of Petaybee?” Yana asked.
A flicker in the privateer’s eyes and a slight smile indicated that she had.
“In the winter, or what passes for summer there?” Yana continued, keeping up the pressure.
“Both.”
“And just what did you report to Captain Louchard that has made him so determined to strip that poor world?”
For just a second O’Neill’s eyes flickered again, doubtfully this time.
“I’m sure you’ve heard this one before,” Yana began, taking a deep breath, “but if you let us go, we will not press charges.” She glanced at Marmion, who nodded. Dinah’s expression was contemptuous, Megenda’s the epitome of cynical amusement. “I really do think you’ve been misled. Something Satok was good at . . .”
“He was Petaybean and he knew . . .”
“He knew doodly,” Bunny said, still nursing her face with one hand while blood from the cut that Megenda’s finger ring had made on her cheek trickled through her fingers. “He hadn’t been on the planet since he signed on to the company, and he got discharged from that right smart. He wasn’t even very useful when he was growing up. He just talked big.”
Dinah smiled as she turned her eyes on Bunny, a sort of half-congratulatory smile at the girl’s spunk.
“You tell that captain of yours that he won’t get anywhere threatening Yana or Sean, or me or Diego here,” Bunny went on in a level voice. “He wants to make a deal involving Petaybee, he comes to Petaybee and talks it over with