Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [99]
“That should keep them safe,” Muktuk said, flipping the rug over the trapdoor.
“And undoubtedly change their attitudes,” Sinead said with great satisfaction. “With so many types coming down to see what Petaybee has to offer, maybe the first thing we ought to offer them is communion time.”
“I’m hoping,” Marmion said to Namid as the table was replaced, “this will do Dinah a world of good. She’s not all bad. She certainly tried to make things easier for us with Captain Louchard.”
Namid gave a rueful smile. “She has her points.”
Then Marmion hefted the object she had taken from Dinah. “A little too heavy for a comm unit, wouldn’t you say, Namid?”
He got one good look at it and pushed her hands to return the device to her pocket. “Later, Marmion. Later,” he murmured urgently, and then smiled broadly at the other folks in the crowded room.
It took time to sort out who would bunk where in the small village of Tanana Bay. Ultimately, after a cup of soup “to warm bodies for a cold night,” Bunny and Diego went with one family, and Liam and Sinead with another, while Marmion and Namid were given the Sirgituks’ cabin to themselves, as everyone was of the opinion that at least the good Dama Algemeine deserved what privacy Tanana had to offer.
When they had been installed, new furs supplied for the beds, and the fire freshened for the rest of the cold night, Marmion and Namid were left on their own. Namid sprang to the window and watched to be sure their hosts were all dispersed to their separate accommodations. Then with a sigh of relief, he nodded to Marmion, who gingerly deposited the heavy unit on the table.
“What is it that had you in such a panic, Namid?”
“I think it’s a portable holo unit,” he said. He hovered, looking at it from all angles and touching the control plate with a careful fingertip. “I can’t imagine why . . .”
His fingertip was not quite careful enough and inadvertently he activated the display. Suddenly the image of Captain Onidi Louchard solidified in and around the table. The creature just stood there, inanimate, while Marmion and Namid looked at each other, open-mouthed.
“It was on Dinah?” Namid recovered enough to ask.
“Dinah!”
Tentatively, Namid picked up the broadcaster and suddenly he was enveloped in the image of Captain Louchard.
“Well, what about that!” Marmion exclaimed, delighted and appalled at the same time. “Why, that woman had us all hoodwinked. When I think of the games she played with us as Dinah, when all the time she was also Louchard . . .” Words failed Marmion.
“Not to mention how she manipulated her crew,” Namid-Louchard said in a deep bass voice, with an odd inflection to both tone and words. “No wonder no one ever caught sight of the infamous Captain Louchard.”
Marmion laughed—giggled, actually—and sat down to enjoy her mirth. “Really, Namid. I never would have suspected. She’s a consummate actress.”
“Among other things,” Namid said in a sterner tone as he switched back to his own self and replaced the device on the table. “She never wore it in my presence, but then, she wouldn’t have needed to be Louchard to her husband.”
“Not unless you turned into a wife-beater.”
“Oh, that had happened to her, too. I saw the scars,” Namid replied gravely. He sighed, prodding the device with a finger, then waved his hand to dismiss it all. “So what do we do about this discovery?”
Marmion had obviously been pondering the same question. She tapped her cheek with one finger. “It will take some heavy thinking, and I’m suddenly much too tired to do any more tonight.” She glanced wistfully at the bed. “And don’t suggest