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.Not until now.There was a big wild universe out thereand she didn t know how she felt about linking up with it.Maybe a touch ofpanic.I pulled my mind back to what was happening on the screen in front of me.Itwas looking good.Total complement was around two hundred and more than halfof those were support and services, whores, cooks, valets, you name it,everything you needed to keep three score techs, sech snoops and guards happyin their isolation.No wonder they didn t notice us, they wouldn t havenoticed a grenade in their laps, to quote one of Pels favorite expressions.Why favorite I haven t a notion, some kink in his psyche I suppose.Most ofthe ship was mothballed.My palms were starting to itch.Cumpla doomp, Iwanted that ship.There was no way I could afford her, the fuel bills alonewould be enough to bankrupt a small empire, but taking it would be so easy.For a minute I indulged in fantasies of charging across the universe with thepower of a god under my hands, then I shook myself back to reality.Probablywasn t enough fuel in her tanks to get her across the system, let alone to thenearest fuel dump.I still didn t like the thought of trying to nose up to that whale without itnoticing me.Hmm.The guards were rotated every half-year local, that meant wecould probably pick up someone who d been up there re-cently and knew thedrill.The screen blanked.I looked around. That s it, Adelaar said. How long have I got? Shift change ninety-five minutes.Pels got a guard, but he says there s noPage 99 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlfuss yet.Don t dawdle over anything you can double-clik. Even doubling, it s going to take the better part of an hour to finish andthat s saying I don t screw up somewhere and have to start over. I hear. I slid out of the chair. Don t push it, I ll see what I can doabout arranging a meet with our client so we can get paid for this. You do that. She bent over the eviscerated termi-nal, forgetting me andeverything else but what she was doing.I went to pump the Hanifa and her women for everything I could get about thelocal setup.9 Ondar. A hissing whisper.The Hanifa sprang to her feet as the tall oneleaned in the door. The fuzzy says he hears lots of men coming toward us andhe s going to see about slowing them up, but you should be ready to move. I sat where I was, wondering what the Hanifa would do about this.I thoughtit d likely be something with flair, she was that kind of leader.She moved quickly to Adelaar. Where are you? Covering my tracks. How much longer? Five minutes before I can leave the Brain on its own to finish the job. How much of it can we destroy without negating what you ve done? Worried about them wondering what you ve been doing? Don t.I ve laid inclues that will tell them you pulled the suspect files; that gives you areason enough for being here so they won t look all that hard in otherdirections.They won t find the loops, not without some rather esoteric, well,call it logic.Even I d have trouble undoing what I ve done. The Hanifa examined Adelaar, then me, her jawline hard through the silky knitof the cowl. Do you need backup to get you out of here? No.Do you? No. She hesitated. In case I m not able to meet you, someone else will bethere.Hordar for sure, could be a man or a woman.He or she ll say. Shelooked around, remembering suddenly that there might be ears tuned to thisplace that hadn t been there before. Don t bother yourself about snoops.Can t happen.Del has blocked access tothe interface. I hear.Still, um.he or she will show you this. She jerked up theshoulder drape on her cowl, pulled a medallion on a chain from under her blackshirt.She let me look at both sides, then tucked it away again.It was anoval of dark bronze, with an odd bumpy pod on one side and a complicateddouble glyph on the other.Nice piece. We re going to leave, she said. Before we re trapped in here. She swung back to Adelaar. What about thescanners? They re down again, I sent an oversurge through.When they try to fix them,the techs will find I ve cut them off completely from the mainBrain.The Sechwon t be able to get them functioning again until he regains control of theinterface. Adelaar was looking smugly pleased with herself and so she should,but there was a condescension in her voice which the Hanifa wasn tappreciating. If your transport can t reach you before they get organized uptop, you might head for the lakeside wall, either go over it or cut throughone of the gates there.Don t worry about alarms.The melters? The west.wallis off the firing circuits for the next two hours.I ve set up some snares thetechs will find, um, interesting.Avoiding them will cost time.If you canreach your pilot, let her know that. She paused and the Hanifa started toturn away. One moment more.After you get loose from here, you ve got a freerun for a while.I ve fiddled some-thing else, blocked all contact with theWarmaster.I can t shut her out permanently, there are too many possibilitiesfor reinstating the link.As soon as the Sech reaches her, he ll have herscanners looking for you.Be careful they don t get a focus on you, they llfry you.Once they get a lock, they can track a flea on a dog s back even ifthe man operating them has less brain than that flea.It s not quite as bad asit sounds, when the power is ratcheted that high, the field is very narrow, soPage 100 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlif you can get under cover before they do the first coarse scan, you should besafe enough.Ques-tions? No? That s it, then.Luck kiss you sweet, eh? God s blessings, Akilla yabass. I ll give our Hanifa this, she wasn t stingy with her gratitude; she didn teven seem to be swallowing hard when she called our Adelaar a welcome strangerand wisewoman. Nada. Adelaar went back to work.With a small army about to land on us, shewasn t wasting more time on chat
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