"Dr. MacIntosh, shoot your two men or this thing is history."
In the immediate few blinks that followed, Mack's mind unreeled some light-speed logic.
He's got to be bluffing. If he wipes out the Gridmaster, there's no way he or anybody else could live on Pandora a year from now. That was when Mack realized that Brood didn't have to live on Pandora — not if he had the Voidship Nietzsche.
But he doesn't have the Nietzsche. Not yet.
"I might add," Brood said, "that if I'm killed, your OMC is also history. We can accommodate everyone, you see."
Mack saw the four techs reflected in a console panel. They ducked behind the next row of machines and were tracked by the muzzle of Four's lasgun. Mack hoped it wouldn't come to that. The men inside the foam cocoons might survive if they were cut free soon, but a lasgun firefight — messy, depressing.
Brood tapped the intercom on Mack's console.
"I left my man Ears back there to look after the OMC. You might've noticed how young he is. Nervous, too. That's been a problem in the past. You can ask your holo star what happens when Ears gets nervous. You OK back there, Ears?"
The voice on the intercom cleared its throat a couple of times before answering.
"Y-y-yeah, Boss, they're talking to me out there. But I ain't listening."
"Making progress on the hookup?"
"Yeah." The voice was young and reedy. "Tech says two more hours, tops."
"You're hooking up the OMC?" Mack's voice sounded as incredulous to him as he felt. "What the hell for?"
"We might want to take this thing out for a little spin, Doctor," Brood said. "Now, about those two lumps of shit, here. I told you to get rid of them."
"I won't do that, Captain," Mack said.
He unsealed his headpiece and set it aside. He sat in Spud's control couch and affected the same casual sprawl as Brood's.
"If you think I'm bluffing. "
"No, you're not bluffing. You'll do something. But the Gridmaster is one of your aces. You're not going to throw it away on something as trivial as my two men."
"They can leave."
Mack nodded to his men, and spoke into his headset.
"It's OK," he said. "Secure the hatch. Take these two and those four with you."
"They stay!"
"Everybody goes but you and me," Mack said. "You knew it would be that way, anyway. Your two guards may have a chance, this way. And the others, they wouldn't get anything done here until this is. settled. Am I right?"
Brood snorted his annoyance and waved them away. They backed out, pulling the wounded behind them, and Brood never wasted a glance. His attention remained on the Gridmaster's many screens that charted the world. A faint glow leaked out from behind the viewscreens, and Mack noticed a fine mist spreading from his holo stage near the turret.
The mysterious spill of a distinct white glow leaked under the console and licked at the heels of Brood's canvas boots. A similar glow lighted the base of their holo stage like a small moon on the deck. A reflection of light on the plasteel bulkhead meant that the turret, too, was suffused with this glow.
The kelp, he thought. What could it be up to?
Brood's lasgun still pointed at the Gridmaster, and by its displays Mack saw that the grids had reformed, but into neat rows of convoluted waves. Either Brood didn't notice the glow, or he didn't know it was unusual.
Something's overriding the whole system!
That, whatever it was, meant that the Gridmaster didn't matter. It was merely a recording instrument, no longer a tool of manipulation.
"Did Flattery send you?" Mack asked.
Brood's face, not an unhandsome one, turned up a lopsided smirk.
"Yes," he said, "he sent me."
"And are you following his orders, blasting in like this?"
"I am following the. the intent of his orders."
"Why wasn't I.?"
"Because you're part of the problem, Doctor."
Brood swung around to face him fully and Mack saw an age in his eyes that was much older than the boyish face that held them. Now Brood's lasgun pointed at his chest. The light continued its ooze from all of the kelp linkups. A similar glow shimmered on each viewscreen behind the pale-faced captain.
The whole planet's lighting up, Mack thought. It must be the kelp, but what could it be up to?
"My orders were to secure Current Control and keep the lid on the Tatoosh woman," Brood told him.
The man's voice was quiet, almost wistful. "We were to keep Ozette out of the news, replace any of her crew as needed, accompany her up here. The Director thought she might try to — influence you, thereby endangering the security of Current Control as well as the Voidship project."
"So, you terrorized her, executed her crew, murdered my security squad and are now prepared to destroy Current Control and steal the Voidship — even Flattery won't buy this one, Captain."
Brood smiled, showing his fine, sharpened teeth, but his eyes remained hard as plasteel.
