Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [79]
“Maybe we should go to Kilcoole?” Dinah suggested.
Adak eyed her shipsuit and her neat jacket critically. “Wal, you ain’t dressed proper for anything but the snocle, Dama, and one of our drivers is unfortunately being held by pirates offa the planet. Sorry for the inconvenience. You can sit over there.” He pointed to the rough benches lining the wall. “Won’t be too long. A coupla hours till those guys bring us whatever pile o’ junk’s going to Sean this time.”
Dinah and Megenda exchanged glances but obediently sat themselves down. The cube might appear windowless from outside, but there was a strip of one-way plasgas all around, affording them a good view of the activity around the spacer through the light snowfall.
“Captain Louchard’s not going to like us waiting about,” Megenda murmured to Dinah.
“I know, but it can’t be helped,” she replied, and crossed her slim legs. She had much to think over while she waited. At least the building was warmish. And the snow would hide the little shuttle craft she and Megenda had arrived in. She fingered the finder in her pocket, which would allow them to locate the craft no matter how much snow covered it.
Adak O’Connor had turned away from them to his comm unit. “. . . that Muktuk wrote,” he was saying. “That’s a rog, Una.”
Dinah had been a pirate long enough that she didn’t care for it when someone was communicating long-distance while she was in the room and without an escape route. She sauntered back up to O’Connor’s desk as if bored and sat on the edge of the desk.
“So tell me, Adak. I’m awfully curious about this Tanana Bay. Where is it anyway? Actually, I was wondering if there was a map of this planet or something. I can’t imagine the whole place being arctic.”
“Well, it is, Dama. Dr. Fiske says that’s ’cause we only got continents on the poles with nothin’ in the middle—well, not so far. Governor says the planet’s workin’ on makin’ middle bits, but it’ll take a spell. Now then, as for a map . . .” He reached into the middle drawer of a desk and drew forth a much-creased sheet of paper with a monochrome photo on it. “There’s not a lot, but Dr. Fiske gave us this serial map and showed us where Kilcoole is. I can show you where other places are, if you got a bit of time.”
She smiled sweetly. “From what you say, I’ve quite a bit of that. So, then, where is it?”
“Right about—well, first you have to find Savoy and Harrison’s Fjord, which are—”
“Why, when I want to go to Tanana Bay?”
“ ‘Snot that simple, Dama. You have to get your reference points like, and—”
The desk was suddenly thrown into shadow as Megenda loomed as only he could. “Stop stalling. Give us the coordinates.”
Sean streaked from the Kilcoole cube in a stream of papers when Una gave him Adak’s message.
“He said the lady Muktuk and Chumia wrote to was here looking for her relatives, Sean,” Una told him. “Said she was an O’Neill if ever he saw one. He’ll try to keep them there.”
“Are Muktuk and Chumia still in town?”
“No, sir. They went home right after leaving the message.”
“Send a team after them, and if you can’t locate one, send Sinead on skis. She’s the fastest in the village. Damn, without the company here, we’re going to have to organize some kind of police force.”
“How about Madame Algemeine’s organization?”
“Good idea. Ask Whit to get a message to Gal Three. But no one is to move in until we can safeguard Yana and the others.”
“Where are you going, sir?”
“For a swim,” he said.
Una shook her head as she watched him tear off his fur vest and shirt as he ran toward the river. Other people bundled up to go outdoors in this weather. Sean stripped down. She liked these people, she really did, but she doubted she’d ever understand them.
Even in seal form, swimming as fast as his flippers could take him, Sean arrived at SpaceBase too late. Adak was on the floor of the cube, a large bump purpling on his head. “Big sucker hit me,” he said. “The lady was nice enough, though. They wanted a map to