Deluge
- Автор: Маккефри Энн, Скарборо Элизабет
- Серия: The Twins of Petaybee #3
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Deluge». Краткое содержание книги:
Meanwhile, the powerful and avaricious Company is making another attempt to take over the world of Petaybee for its resources, and the twins parents, Yana and Sean, along with the entire planet, must fight for the independence of their sentient world once and for all...
Marmie’s protests that she did not wish to be disloyal were dismissed by her father. “You and I know who your mother was,” he told her.
“But when they took me, it broke her heart,” Marmie said. “She did not survive long afterward.”
“Perhaps, but your mother would have seen your adoption as your only hope to grow up in freedom and with some privilege. We both hated for you to be taken by strangers who were our enemies, but you have not fared badly. From all that you’ve told me, Madame LeClerc saw that you were cared for and when the time came, protected you in such a way that it led to your marriage to Gabriel. For this she deserves our thanks and respect.” When Marmion still looked doubtful, her father smiled a wry broken-toothed smile. “Also, ma cherie, one must consider that although your good fiance has freed me, I am still not a popular man with our leaders, and must depend upon the goodwill of my adversaries to remain alive and free to see my grandchildren.”
And so Dominique LeClerc and Marmion’s beloved father presided at her wedding. Madelaine Algemeine was the maid of honor; other classmates were bridesmaids. And the LeClerc servants and employees were all invited to the wedding feast. Also present, though less conspicuously, were the contacts, go-betweens, and messengers, including two prison guards, whom Marmie and Gabriel had used to free her father.
Oddly enough, her father and Gabriel’s passed away within weeks of each other, leaving Gabriel as the head of his family and its business concerns. Madelaine married his closest friend, who entered into the Algemeine family business as well.
With her respectability assured, Marmion often returned with baskets of food, toiletries, and books for the prisoners in both the men’s and women’s sections of the Bastille. She was careful to always bring similar dainties for the guards and prison employees, and asked after their health and their families. This was not because, as she let the prisoners old enough to remember her know, she was grateful for the care given her as a child, but so they would permit the prisoners to keep and use her gifts. Many of these people were no more criminal than her parents, and had in fact been friends and comrades of her parents, but were not fortunate enough to have someone to see to their release.
Oh, yes, she was familiar with prisons, with guards and matrons and inmates alike, but once her own business acumen and the enterprises she had inherited from her husband made her wealthier than anyone had ever imagined possible, those who spoke of her origins mentioned only the original luster of the de Revers name. She thought it unnecessary to disillusion them about the less-than-glamorous aspects of her past.
So, although Marmion dreaded going back into captivity, she did not experience the fear or the humiliation Colonel Zachariah Cally no doubt hoped she would. Her main concern was for her crew and passengers.
When they arrived at what was euphemistically referred to as the reception area of the prison, they were separated by gender, but the initial order was the same. “Shave ’em, strip ’em, hose ’em down, and suit ’em up.”
The Kanaka women accepted this mistreatment stoically, their misery showing only in their eyes, but some of Marmion’s women crew members tried to fight. “Tell them to cooperate,” Marmion whispered to Adrienne. “Accept it as the local style. The shave seems brutal now, but it’s that or involuntary dreadlocks and lice later. Don’t fight, no matter what. You cannot win, and they will do you real damage if you resist.”
“Shut up, you,” the nearest guard said, yanking Marmion’s head back by her flowing curls. “You’re no different than the rest of these sluts to us and you don’t give orders here.” She shoved her toward one of the chairs surrounded by piles of hair. “Take a load off, queenie.”
But a stern voice contradicted her. “Not her, not yet. Put her in uniform and give her one of our VIP suites. Make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.”
They led her down claustrophobic corridors between cold cell blocks to a tiny bare room with a hard slab for a bed and bench and a stinking hole in the floor to drain waste. The door had no bars, just a slot for food at the bottom. She was sure there would be cameras hidden somewhere in the ceiling or the door and that the door would have a one-way panel through which they could observe her without her being able to see them.
As the door closed and locked behind her, she heard other cell doors clanging shut.
CHAPTER 4
RONAN, MUREL, AND Sky cleared the bay and burst into the port master’s office. The port master, a whippetlike woman with a silver buzz cut, stood staring out into the bay and spun around to face the interlopers.
“What are you kids doing here?”
They didn’t know her, but her name tag said, CHIEF C. BROWN.
“We came to warn you,” Murel told her. “Marmie-Madame-has been arrested and taken to Gwinnet Incarceration Colony by some corrupt Company Corpsmen. We need help getting word to her friends and allies so they can get her released.”
“Why did they send kids to tell us? The Piaf -”
“They confiscated the Piaf and all of the crew and passengers,” Ronan told her. “They may be headed here-”
The woman returned her attention to the docking bay, shaking her head. “Nope. You’re a little late. They just arrived.”
The twins followed her gaze. The big ship’s hatch had opened and triple files of Company Corpsmen marched double-time over the gangplank down the bay, heading straight for them.
Come on, Mur, we gotta get out of here, Ronan said, pushing through the office’s interior hatch.
Where to? Murel asked as they raced down the long corridor.
Marmie’s house.
That’s the first place they’ll go! she protested.
I don’t think so. Not with her in custody already. They’ll be too busy taking over everything else.
Meanwhile maybe we can use her com system to get word out about her arrest.
But they’ll take over the com systems first, she argued.
They found the first lift that scaled all levels of the station and took it up to Marmie’s penthouse. The weather was set on fine-a nice spring day. The house was open, being run by Marmie’s housekeepers in her absence.
“Slainte, Mrs. Fogarty,” Ronan called as they raced for the com room.
“You’re back!” the housekeeper said. “No one told me you were coming. And me without dinner for herself!” She followed them to the com room, where Murel sat at the keyboard composing a message to send to Marmie’s entire list of contacts. There was no time now to sort out who was who. “You’re tracking water all over my floors again, and what is that animal with you, a big rat?”
Ronan said, “No, Mrs. Fogarty. He’s an otter.”
“First seals, now an otter. This place is turning into an aquarium.”
“Never mind about that, Mrs. Fogarty. Soldiers are on their way, probably to impound the station and arrest us all.”
“Why? I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“They’ve taken Marmie and are confiscating all of her stuff, arresting her staff as accomplices,” Ronan told her.
Bollocks! Murel swore, and turned around with tears of frustration in her eyes.
No luck? Ronan asked her.
I don’t think so. Just as I hit Send, the system shut down.
The com screen came on and a uniformed man said in a deep gruff voice, “Attention all personnel of the space station designated as Versailles. This property is under an impound and seizure order according to statute 68795-Zed and all personnel are subject to questioning regarding the alleged criminal activities of the owner.”