Marching with obvious determination, the leader of this company was another twin to the man with whom I was negotiating.

  “Uh…” I said. “Are they coming to talk or to kill us?”

  “Might be both. Just wait here.”

  Bravely, Claver-X marched downslope to meet his brother. For a good ninety seconds, the two gestured and spoke heated words. I was too far away to catch the details.

  Finally, a gun cracked and blazed bright in the night. One of the two men fell in the snow, as dead as yesterday.

  Around me, the Claver-Threes snarled and stomped their feet. They didn’t like seeing one of their masters die. Not even when another boss-Claver was responsible.

  In frustration, they became kind of ornery. Three of them grabbed onto my limbs. I wasn’t expecting this, but I put one man down on his face before the other two held me tight. Four more reached out, and I was pinned.

  My body burned with a dozen injuries. I hissed and squirmed—but the Claver-Threes held me firmly.

  The man who’d won the argument came walking upslope in my direction. He took his time. He gave a hand-signal, and I saw how the troops around me all squeezed a notch tighter with their hair-knuckled fingers.

  Hand signals. That’s how he was controlling them. He’d made some kind of sign, and they’d all grabbed me. I should have expected it.

  “Well, well, well… is it really James McGill? To what do I owe this intense honor?”

  It wasn’t Claver-X, it was the other guy. A real Claver-Prime. Don’t get me wrong, I could deal with this type, but they were nowhere near as friendly as X.

  “Hello Claver. What can I do for you?”

  “You can start by explaining how you managed to pollute the mind of my brother over there with your particular brand of deviltry.”

  “No can do. He did that all by himself.”

  “Huh…” Claver came near, and he put his hands on his hips. “He told me you came here to deal, is that right?”

  “That’s right,” I said. “The Tau are in-system. When they get here, we’re all going to lose out.”

  Claver snorted. “I’ve died before. It’s no big deal. Only yesterday, in fact—”

  I interrupted quickly with a rude laugh. “I’m not talking about life and death, fool,” I told him. “I’m talking about money. Real money. Galactic money.”

  Claver squinted at me. I knew I’d just pushed a stack of buttons in this man’s twisted brain. For one thing, no Claver liked to be called stupid. It was the thing they hated above all else.

  All else, that was, except losing money on a deal.

  “Why should we negotiate, you big dipshit?”

  “Because you’re trapped. Your walls are falling, and we’re winning this fight. The only reason we’re willing to negotiate at all is because the Tau have arrived to steal everything. Really, you guys should bend down and kiss their hard, skinny butts and thank them for your salvation.”

  Claver snorted. “McGill pulls a move… now I’ve seen everything. How do you plan to get this deal approved on your side of the fence, boy?”

  I blinked a few times. He hadn’t bought my implicit point that Legion Varus was behind this offer—Clavers weren’t known for their gullibility after all.

  “I’ll tell you,” I said. “If you tell me first why you bushwhacked your brother over there.”

  Claver glanced downslope toward the crumpled form in the snow. A Claver-Three was poking at the remains curiously.

  “Because that wasn’t me. I mean, he wasn’t one of us—not exactly. Any deal you had with him is null and void as of this moment.”

  “Too bad. The terms were sweet.”

  “Out with it. What are your terms?”

  “First off we have to stop the shooting.” Even as I said this, the pop and crackle of gunfire increased out at the wall. Varus troops were pushing hard. It looked like the Clavers in the breach were holding, but they were taking losses. It was no longer a one-sided turkey-shoot for the defenders.

  “I get that,” Claver said. “What else?”

  “Then we fight together to destroy the Tau. Afterward, we split the coins evenly and go our separate ways.”

  “What? Half my coins? You’re out of your mind. We’d sooner melt them down.”

  “Okay—then do it. You can start melting them right now. What’s stopping you?”

  He looked at me with hate in his eyes. “McGill, you don’t know what you’re dealing with here today.”

  “Oh no? I think I do. You’re the genius who managed to let me take down one of your three walls solo. Soon, legion Varus and her support-legion of Blood Worlders is going to come swarming in here and destroy you all. Your options are few, and they’ll soon tip toward none.”

  He showed his teeth in anger. “All right… I agree.”

  I blinked once. Then twice.

  “Uh…” I said. “Don’t you have to, like, confer with your brothers on this? I mean… how do you Clavers agree on these things?”

  He grinned, but his grin wasn’t a healthy one. He turned and pointed at the dead man in the snow. “Like that. That’s how we do it—sometimes. I’m the only Claver-Prime alive on this outpost right now. When you make a decision alone, see, it’s pretty easy to establish a consensus.”

  “Okay… what about Abigail?”

  His face fell. “Don’t worry about her. She’s moved on.”

  “What do you mean? You’ve got no way off this rock.”

  From his expression, I could tell I was starting to piss him off. “We don’t have an escape route now, but she left after your last visit. Forget about her—you want to do this deal or not?”

  “Yeah, sure. I’m good with it.”

  “Good.”

  I was actually a bit worried about Abigail. I’d told her about that missing part of her mind, and about Claver-X… and now she was missing herself. Claver-X was dead, too.

  Part of my impulsive brain wanted to demand answers. But if I did that, I might compromise her delicate situation. I didn’t want to get her in anymore trouble than she already was. Accordingly, I faked a smile.

  “Okay,” I said. “Just tell your dumber selves to back off.”

  He gave another hand-signal, and the Claver-Threes released me. I rubbed some feeling back into my sore arms. They’d let go of me, but they still stood around very closely as I was escorted down into the village.

  We walked by the dead Claver-X, who was just a motionless body in the snow. Claver paused to spit on him.

  “Hey…” I said. “That fellow… he wasn’t right in the head, is that what you’re saying?”

  “That’s true, I had to fix him. Make sure I don’t have to fix you, too.”

  “You’ve got my personal James McGill guarantee.”

  We entered the central fortifications, and I explained the details of my plan. As I walked with the Claver-Prime, I became concerned. There were lots of dead men around. They were mostly Claver-Primes and Claver-Twos, as far as I could tell.

  “Uh…” I said, surveying the carnage. “I think I’ve seen about seven of your close relatives. Did you kill them all?”

  Claver shrugged. “No—but I killed most of them. A few died stopping your assaults on our walls. When the south wall went down… I decided it was time to clean house. I found fault with my brothers and their plans. Ruling as a committee has always been dogshit—but I fixed that, like I said.”

  I nodded as if this was the most normal statement I’d heard all day. “How do I contact my ship?”

  Once we were down in their underground bunkers, Claver handed me a wire. He plugged the other end into a console. I plugged my end into my tapper’s external port. The wire led outside the dome using a landline under the deep bedrock of the mountains that surrounded us.

  “Hello? This is Centurion McGill, calling Dominus.”

  I called three times like that before a buzzing reply came back to my ears. “Get off this frequency, McGill—if you are McGill. This isn’t approved for Legion communications.”

  “Uh… yeah, I know that. Could you put me touch with the imperator?”

  “No. Disconnect. Repeat, disconnect.”

  Claver grabbed the wire from my tapper and rammed it into his. A tiny squirt of blood shot out of his arm. These organic ports could be messy.

  “Dominus? This is Claver command. I want to talk to your captain.”

  That statement was met with silence for about ten seconds. Finally, Captain Merton came on the line. “Who is this? McGill? Are you playing a prank again? If so, it isn’t amusing.”

  “No, Captain. This is Claver-Prime, the sole commander of this fortification.”

  “Really? Interesting… where’s McGill? I was told that—”

  “McGill is here. He’s my prisoner.”

  “Ah!” Merton said. “Now I understand. Unfortunately, I have to decline any offer to negotiate for his release. You’d best kill him right now, he makes a bad house pet.”

  I leaned into the conversation. “He’s right about that, you know.”

  Claver frowned and leaned away from me. He explained at length what he wanted, and he insisted that Turov was contacted. At last, Merton relented, and Galina came onto the screen.

  “Galina, my old friend!” Claver said.

  “What do you want, Claver? Make it fast, I have a battle to run. I’m planning on making your family extinct.”

  “Really? That’s sad to hear, Imperator. In good faith, I withdrew from the southern wall. Your men can see that, can’t they?”

  She was quiet for a second. Obviously, she was busy checking up on Claver’s words. “Why have you withdrawn? If this is a trick, you should know that it won’t work.”

  “And you should know, Ice-Queen, that your assault can’t work, either.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Claver signaled a Claver-Two. With no words and no expression of interest, the subservient man worked a board covered in controls. Soon, a video feed appeared. It depicted a large stack of crates. They were all open, and they all appeared to contain Imperial coins.

  “You see that? This pile of Galactic coins represents a fortune worth more than every star system in your home province twice over. Now, may I direct your attention to the explosives wired carefully to every crate?”

  “Explosives?” Turov snapped. “What are you doing, Claver?”

  “Hedging my bets. Let’s separate one of those crates and set it off, shall we boys?”

  A Class-Two summoned two of his gorillas and began to work. Soon, they had a chest of coins positioned a dozen meters from the others.

  “You wouldn’t dare, Claver,” Turov said. “That’s all your wealth in one basket, and you love money.”

  Claver shrugged. “I love my money, you cast-iron bitch. If you force your way in here, it won’t be mine any longer. Worse, the Tau are coming. They won’t be stopped by my army—or yours.”

  “We can defeat the Tau.”

  Claver released a long, dirty laugh. “I don’t think so. I think it’s for the best that I annihilate this filthy pile of wealth right now. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll turn away if I do. Have you noticed that I’m broadcasting this in the clear? The Tau are listening.”

  “Claver, you’re talking crazy. You wouldn’t destroy that kind of money—”

  “I don’t think you’re listening to me! I’m the smallest player here, and I’ve got everything to lose. Why wouldn’t I burn my stash just to burn you?”

  Turov was quiet for a moment. I knew she was seething. Possibly, she was abusing her subordinates up aboard Dominus. This conversation wasn’t going the way she wanted it to.

  “Clearly, we need more time to discuss this,” she said. “I’ve ordered my troops to halt their advance. They’ve taken your southern wall, and they’ll wait there until we’ve sorted this out.”

  “I thank you profusely, madam. When can I be expecting you?”

  “Expecting me to do what?”

  “Fly down here and negotiate, that’s what. We want to share our famous Claver hospitality with you.”

  She snorted. “As if. How could I trust you not to try to make me a hostage?”

  Claver shrugged. “I’ve already got McGill, here.”

  She laughed. “No one cares about McGill. He doesn’t even care if he lives or dies.”

  I nodded, unable to deny her words.

  Claver looked annoyed. “I formally offer you my word as a Claver. A trader of wonderful things from across the—”

  “All right, all right. Save the speech. I’m coming down to your frozen turd-hole planet.”

  She broke off the connection, and I looked at Claver with new respect. “You drive a hard bargain, Claver.”

  He smiled. “Thank you.”

  Galina came down from Dominus like a falling angel. I was thunderstruck when Claver dropped the dome long enough for her flitter to pass inside. She flew her small craft right into Claver-town. You would have thought the place was Santa’s village and all the bloodthirsty clones were elves.

  Galina marched up to us with an angry step. Neither one of them seemed interested in small talk.

  “Half?” she demanded. “Seriously? We get half? Do you expect Nox and her Nairbs to be happy with that?”

  Claver shrugged. “I don’t expect anything from your alien overlords. That’s your problem. I will point out, however, that half is a great deal better than nothing. Take it or leave it.”

  She complained and paced around, but in the end, she agreed.

  Over the next few hours, the last living Claver-Prime and Galina hammered out the details of their contract, including how the coins would be delivered. The basic idea was the Clavers would withdraw with their portion after the coming battle with the Tau, and they’d leave Earth’s share behind.

  I was surprised they could come to an agreement so quickly—but then again, the Tau were closing in. Nothing focusses the mind like impending doom.

  Overhead, in the cold black night sky, lights appeared and brightened—then they faded to black again.

  “They’re sliding into orbit,” Claver told us. “They’re still way out there… six hundred thousand kilometers out. What’s your first move, Imperator?”

  Galina peered overhead. The dome was still above us, still shimmering. It distorted our view of the heavens slightly, but not so much that we couldn’t see what was happening.

  “Dominus can’t stop so many ships… but we must destroy some of them before they reach the ground. Here’s my idea.”

  She laid out a simple but devious plan. Claver approved.

  That night, I witnessed a marvel. Earth forces cooperated with the Clavers in battle. It was a strange sight to see, even for eyes like mine which had viewed many marvels, some grim and some wondrous.

  -44-

  Most of the Clavers withdrew from all three of their walls. They moved to the center point—their crappy little snow-dusted village. They were to operate as a reserve and a final line of defense.

  Legion Varus and her support legion entered the dome unimpeded on all three sides once the Clavers had pulled back. Half the cohorts parked themselves outside the walls on open ground. Of the remaining troops who weren’t dead at the moment, half moved to defend the northern two walls, while the rest deployed at the southern wall, which still had a gaping black hole in the bottom of it.

  “Did you have to blow such a huge gap in our defenses, James?” Galina asked me.

  My jaw dropped, as I was astounded. “Sir, if I hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be getting our hands on any of these coins at all.”

  “All right, all right. Stop making excuses. Where will you make your stand?”

  “Uh… what?”

  “Where are you fighting? The southern wall can use you—we’ve got the most men there, but I’m still not sure it can hold.”

  I tugged at my uniform and showed her my wounded arm and side. “I’m not really in any condition, sir. I need to get patched up first.”

  She came close, and she inspected my injuries with concern. She ran her fingers over my arm, and I winced in pain.

  “Hmm…” she said, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “James, I need you here with me. I want you to watch these Clavers and keep my flank safe.”

  “I can certainly help with that.”

  She suddenly pulled out a long, slim pistol. “There will be hard fighting here in the morning—maybe earlier. I’m bringing down half of my revival machines and plenty of bio people and techs. We’ll set up a field hospital right here.”

  “Uh…”

  She shot me then. I fell in the snow, and I cursed at her. “What the hell was that for?”

  “I told you, I need you—I mean I need you healthy and ready to fight. Don’t worry, I’m moving you up to the top of the revival queue. Don’t flirt with the Blue Deck girls when you come back, there’s no time for nonsense.”

  * * *

  I’m not a man who’s terrified of dying, nor am I a man who relishes it. But I do get sour when I feel I’ve been treated in a disrespectful manner. Accordingly, when I awakened again, I came off the table growling.

  That initial bravado soon turned to shivering. There was no heat in the revival tent—none at all.

  “Damnation!” I complained. “Who forgot to pay the gas bill?”

  “Centurion, put on your uniform. You’re needed at the front.”

  Squinting, I was disgusted to realize the revival team was made up entirely of unimaginative Claver-Twos. These dry, buzz-kill specialists had revived me in the past, and they were never much fun to converse with.

  Grunting and shivering, I pulled on some clothes—and that’s when I saw it.

  My jaw sagged low. A familiar locker from Dominus was waiting near the exit. I staggered to it quickly and fell to my knees. While the Class-Twos stared, I unlocked it and reached inside.

  Lifting my hands high, I shook out a large, black suit of rubbery armor. It was a very special suit, made by Vulbites and reputed by all to be damned-near impenetrable.

  Grinning, I donned the armor. All the cursing and red-faced hate I’d been feeling toward Galina for killing me faded away. She’d sent someone down from Dominus with my personal armor. To me, that indicated she cared after all. She really cared.