Endangered Species by Charles E. Gannon

Author:Charles E. Gannon [Gannon, Charles E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure, Space Opera, Military
ISBN: 9781982192716
Google: 9hyjEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1982192712
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2023-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

The wind was fresh atop one of the crenellated towers that guarded the northern approaches to the Legate’s fortress. Had he closed his eyes, Caine might have been able to imagine himself on the edge of some desert back home: the Mojave or Sahara, maybe.

But then roars of a praakht turf war erupted from the adobe heaps clustered within twenty meters of the walls . . . and he was back in the squalid reality of Forkus. “So,” he said with a final look to ensure that the nearby parapets were empty, “do we take Tasvar’s deal or not?” He saw the uncertain glances bouncing around the gathered faces of the Crewe. “There is no rank in this meeting.”

The Crewe sat staring at each other, as each of them was daring someone—anyone—else to become the devil’s advocate for what had roundly been accepted as a good deal. Tasvar’s aid had already been substantial; not only had he provided them with a great deal of excellent local equipment but had brokered the exchanges with Ulchakh and Kosvak. However, that was secondary compared to the deal he had put before them yesterday: to provide all transport and sales for whatever salvage they might find at the flat tops north of Achgabab. His price: a third of the goods and proceeds realized therefrom.

A few of the group had expressed some dismay at such a high percentage . . . until Dora pointed out what black marketeers usually charged. “And here,” she concluded, “everything is a black-market deal.”

And while no one doubted the value of surveying the recently exposed “dunes that do not move,” Caine had pointed out a benefit beyond any immediate salvage—and almost certainly what Tasvar was actually investing in. If these structures were indeed sealed, then anything inside them was likely to be extremely well preserved. That did not just mean fragmentary clues about the apocalypse that had ended Bactradgaria’s industrial era, but documents and maps that might reveal undiscovered salvage sites that would have remained indecipherable to prospectors that didn’t happen to have a Dornaani translator.

After a long silence, it was Newton who sighed and said, “I have no reservations regarding the arrangement with Tasvar.”

“But . . . ?” prompted Peter.

Newton’s smile said what he did not: You know me too well. “But I do not how much we may trust the man himself.” There were a few nods at that.

Riordan looked around the group; he didn’t want to become Tasvar’s sole defender. He leaned back when Bannor cocked his head meditatively.

“Let’s go back to basics,” suggested the Green Beret. “Tasvar could have killed us any time over the last seven days. Either by assassinating us inside his own walls or by abandoning us on the streets. Different approaches but the same outcome.”

Duncan frowned. “He could be setting us up as pawns in some scheme of his own.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t feel like that to me, but as the commodore said, this is the time to put all the possibilities on the table.

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