Cobra Slave by Timothy Zahn

Author:Timothy Zahn [Zahn, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781451638998
Amazon: 145163899X
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2013-06-04T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

In Jin’s opinion, the crowd that had gathered outside Yates Fabrications hardly qualified as a mob, which was how Badger Werle had described it during their hurried comm conversation. True, there were about a hundred people clustered together twenty meters back from the building’s main entrance, and there was a low rumble of tense and ominous conversation rippling through them. But no one was shouting or brandishing weapons, and no one was loudly demanding freedom or death. For all she could tell, they might have been attending an open-air meeting sponsored by some political hopeful.

But then, Jin and Paul were seeing the crowd from the rear. Werle and the other twenty Cobras standing a sentry line between the townspeople and the plant’s entrance were seeing the group’s other side. From that vantage point, it was entirely possible that the crowd looked more like a mob.

And whatever it was, it was growing bigger by the minute as more vehicles pulled up at the edges or people strode in on foot. If it wasn’t a mob yet, she realized soberly, it could easily turn into one.

“Not good,” Paul murmured as they headed across a parking lot already packed with cars toward the milling crowd. “Maybe Lorne’s Marines weren’t exaggerating as much as he thought.”

“I don’t understand,” Jin murmured back. “What in the Worlds is going on?”

“They’re trying to repurpose the plant,” a voice said.

Jin turned. The man coming up beside them from somewhere in the mass of parked cars was middle-aged, maybe a year or two younger than she was, with the wrinkled skin of someone who’d spent much of his life outdoors. “Excuse me?” she asked.

“The Dominion’s trying to repurpose the plant,” he repeated. “You’re Lorne Moreau’s folks, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Paul confirmed. “Paul and Jasmine Broom.”

“Good—glad I caught you,” the man said. “I’m Lester Kalhandra. Badj Werle asked me to try and intercept before you got close enough for the Marines to spot you.”

“You’ve got Marines here?” Paul asked, frowning as he looked around. “Where?”

“They’re mostly inside,” Kalhandra said. “But I don’t doubt Reivaro’s got a few out here keeping an eye on things. That man’s a class-A weasel.”

“What did you mean, they’re repurposing the plant?” Jin asked.

“They want to make armor plate for the Dewdrop and our other ships instead of farm machinery like it’s supposed to,” Kalhandra said. “Though what the hell use they think four armored freighters are going to be I haven’t a clue. But some brain-wizard seems to think it’s a clever idea, and they’re hell-bent on carrying it out. They’re in there right now reprogramming all the design modules.”

“Can they even make armor plate with the machinery they’ve got in there?” Jin asked, frowning. “I’d think you’d need specialized equipment.”

“And you’d be right,” Kalhandra said grimly. “Odds are they’ll wreck every fabricator in the place within a week. And once they do—” He gestured at the ever-growing mass of people in front of them. “Every last one of these people will be out of work.

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