can only interpret that statement as the plea of a desperate man, Honored Sabor. You may call me any time you wish to discuss my offer.”
The colonel’s image vanished. Purvali’s image leaped into the center of Sabor’s visual field.
“It’s settled,” Sabor said. “I will not give Kenzan some kind of compromise. There will be no end to his demands if I do that.”
He cut Purvali out of his display and started recording a message for Possessor Dobryami. “This is a follow up to the message I left with your welcomer, Possessor Dobryami. If you launch an attack on Possessor Khan’s forces within the next forty minutes, I will reimburse you for the cost of any losses you sustain. The reimbursement will be based on the cost of an accelerated replacement at the fastest possible tempo.”
A blinking light on the edge of his display announced a text message from Purvali. I presume we can at least drape our widemounts in their armored blankets?
The armored blankets had been rolled into telescoping cylinders and attached to the carriers. The cylinders would extend fore and aft on command and the widemount would be sandwiched between two blankets that extended along its sides from head to tail. The blankets would interfere with the widemounts’ side vision and general maneuverability but their smiling adversary had made it clear they had to reorder their priorities.
“We’ll lower the blankets when we make our rest stop,” Sabor said. “Sooner if it looks like they’re attacking the widemounts.”
And how about me? I’m going to have a few problems shooting at our adversaries if you keep me locked inside my boudoir.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
You are being irrational, Sabor. Do you really think you’d be doing me a favor if you kept me alive just so I could spend the rest of my life as one of Possessor Khan’s harem bodies?
“You have a real time call from Counselor Tarakelna.”
“Put her on.”
Counselor Tarakelna was the member of Dobryami’s staff who handled most of her financial negotiations. She greeted him with her usual controlled, carefully measured smile and Sabor responded with his best simulation of his normal business façade.
“Possessor Dobryami examined your last offer, Sabor. She feels you’re offering her a minor return on a major risk. You are asking her to attack before she is certain Possessor Kenzan Khan has lost his extra forces.”
“I can assure you those forces are going to be returned to their owner. It should happen at any minute. If Possessor Dobryami accepts my suggestion, she will have soldiers in position, in Kenzan Khan’s territory, when it happens.”
“Possessor Dobryami believes the risk/reward ratio is higher than it should be. She feels a complete cancellation of twenty percent of her debt load would be more logical.”
“Possessor Dobryami has been granted a major opportunity, Counselor. We both know it would be to her advantage to seize it.”
“Possessor Dobryami fully understands the value of your information. But she feels she can take full advantage of it after she is certain Possessor Khan has lost control of his extra troops.”
Sabor nodded. “I’ve been looking at her account data while we talk. You can tell her I can offer her a nine tenday stretchout—ninety days, starting now, with no payments of interest or principal.”
Counselor Tarakelna frowned. She studied Sabor’s face and he looked back at her blandly.
“I will advise the Possessor of your offer,” Counselor Tarakelna said.
Sabor ordered the blankets dropped as soon as they settled into their next feeding stop. Choy formed the three passenger widemounts into a defensive triangle, with the cargo widemount positioned about thirty meters outside the triangle.
This time, Colonel Jina’s emissaries slipped into a dispersed formation. Three of the hardbodies and two of the cats disappeared from the display. Elongated ovals indicated their estimated positions.
A text message from Choy flickered across the map display. I am releasing all my reconnaissance birds. I gather I should consider this our last stand.
“Pull out all the stops,” Sabor said. “Maximum effort. Do or die.”
Birds whirred out of Choy’s cages. Symbols lit up on the map display. The hardbodies and their cats had formed a wide arc about seventy meters from Choy’s triangle.
“I am being attacked by anti-material molecular missiles,” Sabor’s carrier announced. “My armor is responding.”
“Our carrier’s shells will dissolve in about ten minutes,” Choy said. “We should counter-attack sometime before then. While our personal armor is still at maximum.”
“Can we attack on the widemounts?”
“For a few minutes. They still have some short-term energy reserves.”
“Hold off for as long as you can. Colonel Jina is obviously taking his time. The longer he takes, the better for us.”
The display monitored the effect of the invisible rain falling on the carrier shells. The widemounts munched on whatever nourishment they could scavenge from their immediate surroundings. Choy’s cats formed a tight formation between the widemounts and the snipers in the trees. Sabor shifted his attention between the display and the real world and tried to spot the hardbodies when they broke cover and fired.
“We have to get very physical when we attack,” Choy said. “We have to break bones. We can’t possibly overwhelm their armor before they overwhelm ours.”
“I understand,” Sabor said. “Try to avoid killing and irreversible damage. We’ll leave that possibility in reserve—as a retaliatory threat if Colonel Jina starts thinking you and our female companion are expendable.”
“Get ready to move out. Our carrier shells will dissolve in about one minute.”
Sabor’s widemount shifted out of the triangle. The three passenger widemounts formed a rough line and lurched toward the left end of the hardbody line.
“I’m going to attack the two snipers on the far left,” Choy said. “The widemounts are our primary weapon. Concentrate on keeping low.”
Sabor’s carrier shell disappeared. A fog of fine particles blurred his image of the forest before the remains of the shell dispersed. Dishes and pillows slid off the platform that had formed the foundation of the shell. He stretched out flat on the platform, with a pillow between his head and the hardbodies, and noted that Purvali had acted like a sane human for once and engaged in the same maneuver.
Cats charged out of the trees. The three cats they had left screamed as they received the attack. A cat leaped at the head of Choy’s widemount. Claws ripped bloody gashes in the widemount’s skin. Choy raised his gun and fired into the animal’s mouth.
Purvali yelled. Sabor turned his head and saw another cat pulling itself onto the back of Choy’s mount. His hands reacted while his consciousness was still assimilating the situation. Four shots streamed into the
