Society of Humanity 02 - The Price of Peace by Mike Moscoe

Author:Mike Moscoe [Moscoe, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Sounds like a good bet to me. We'll move Patton into dock tomorrow morning." She turned to the toy man. "When do you want the files?"

"Tonight, if possible," he said. "And the prisoners, too. They may give us a unique insight into the workings of the encryption."

Izzy paused; the rim was not known for its compliance with the fine points of Society's human rights legislation. Then again, she wasn't sure slavers were human, and they didn't have a lot of rights in her book. "If your Mr. Howdon is available, I believe he can move them out now."

"He has been waiting."

"Why am I not surprised?" Izzy stood. "Elie, you've got THE PRICE OP PEACE • 169

some really interesting friends. Chow sure beats the old 97th, but I've got some things to do.

How about lunch in a few days?"

"I'd love it."

"Anybody know the way back?"

"The elevator outside will take you back to the promenade just outside the Wharf Rat." The toy man broke a smile.

"You're a damn good spy," Izzy told him.

"And you're a damn good ship driver," the spy paid her back.

"We'd all better be damn good at what we do if we're going to pull this off."

Izzy was no fool. The second she stepped aboard, she ordered copies made of the encrypted files. Her prisoners were quickly rousted out, but Special Agent Howdon had to wait until her copies were done before taking prisoners and data files off her hands.

Next morning, Izzy had a few quick words with Stan and her division heads, telling them to keep their eyes open and stay alert for surprises during this overhaul. Still, by 0900, the Patton was stripped of her ice armor and docked. By noon Izzy was up to her eyeballs in setting the scope, priorities, order, and timing of more task orders than she had ever hoped for. The yard personnel were not only enthusiastic, but knew what they were doing. They'd just done a refit on a County class cruiser; Izzy heard regular references to the Sheffield.

They knew almost as much about what she wanted as she did. In a few cases, more.

"We've got a Westinghouse SG-180 central fire control system in the warehouse. Would you like it?"

"I'll take it," Izzy and Guns shouted in the same breath.

"It's yours. Hardly any wear on it. Took it off the Sheffield when we put in a SG-195. Now then, the trash compactor and disposer. If we don't rework the latch on that sucker, half your crew are gonna be breathing vacuum."

Stan grinned. "What have you got?"

170 • Mike Moscoe

A week later, Izzy was just coming up for air after a long and productive meeting with the shipyard supervisor when her comm link buzzed. It was Elie, offering lunch dirtside.

"Sure you can't come up here?"

"I can, but my boss wants to sit in on this one, and she's four months pregnant. Definitely down-checked for space, and a bitch on that point, so don't mention it in her presence, okay?"

"If you say so. What do we need to talk about with her?"

"Our mutual friend has information of mutual interest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.