(eng) Pam Uphoff by In The Rift

Author:In The Rift [Rift, In The]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Thirty-two and Counting

Jenny slept late, then hustled into the kitchen, but Mrs. Brown was already at work. "I guess with only, only, umm, how many of us are left?"

"Nineteen, dear. I can get breakfast this morning, why don't you see if the men have found anything out?" It was hard to tell if she was genuinely at ease, or putting up an iron front on sheer will power. Jenny would have bet on the will power, she'd seen her own mother acting entirely normal the morning after being beaten by her drunkard husband.

Georges was still away, fixing breakfast for the hijackers. So there wouldn't be any fresh news yet. Zimmer wandered over to talk to her, Paris trailing after.

"I've been thinking about what must have happened," Jenny started.

"Dear child," the doctor said wearily, "what's the point of talking it to death?"

"We're still in this, and maybe this will help us." Jenny glared at him. "Buck up, will you? If they've had a falling out, and it sure sounds to me like some of them took off with the prime loot, that means there are fewer of them here."

"Prime loot!" Paris started snickering. "What a description!"

"Well, look at what's left." Jenny retorted. "A bunch of kids, the oldest of the women except Opal, Paula and the fat chick. And you guys. You've got to know that ransoming is higher risk than selling women. They say half of the men out here are here because they're wanted criminals elsewhere."

"Well," sniffed Paris. "You know my fans would cough up the dough even if I weren't already rich."

"And maybe have the police or the Space Marines or the Joint Fleet tracing it." Jenny took a deep breath. "Look, just tell Georges to count pirates today, see how many have split. Okay? Ask him to check especially if their boss is still here. If there really is a Cinnab running around loose, Descartes would be the ideal person for it to have taken."

Pity he wasn't one of the ones Cap killed yesterday.

"Crumb! You really do think there's a falling out among thieves, don't you?" Paris studied her, and she reminded herself that he was actually quite bright, somewhere under the pop music idol exterior, which was getting a bit thin, since the fight. "Do you have any information?"

"Just an overactive imagination, probably." Keeping the pirates' microphones in mind, she spoke clearly. "But they're gone, and only the pirates had pilots. They didn't even need to take Barry or Carl. This lot may have been left holding the bag."

"I can't take this. You carry on like there's something you can do!" Doctor Zimmer threw up his hands and walked away.

Jenny bit her lip, then decided to take a chance. Gesturing Paris nearer, she pointed at the door, and put her finger to her lips. Put a hand to her ear as if to listen, then pointed to the door. He nodded. Paris definitely got the message.

She turned to the wall and started to write 'your royal majesty' in the thin film of black dust.

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