Science Fiction: The Year's Best (2006 Edition). Аластер Рейнольдс

welcomer frowned again. Sabor could visualize the turmoil in his mind. This was not, obviously, a routine call from a routine caller.

      The welcomer decided a terse nod would be the appropriate physical response. “I will advise her at once.”

      “I suggest you give the message your highest priority.”

      “I will include your request with my transmission, Financier.”

      Purvali had removed a scarf from her luggage and wrapped it around her head. Her hidden face and her straight body communicated the same message kilometer after kilometer, without a single change in her position, every time Sabor popped her image onto his display.

      “You have a realtime call from Colonel Jina,” Sabor’s system announced.

      Sabor glanced at his time strip. It had been forty-one minutes since Avaming had announced he was deploying his troops. “That could be interesting. Put the good colonel on. Copy to Choy and Purvali.”

      Colonel Jina flashed his unforgettable smile. “Good afternoon, Sabor. We’re having a busy day, aren’t we?”

      “It’s always good to stay active, colonel. What can I do for you?”

      “I’ve been keeping track of the time you’ve devoted to rest stops. We will be resolving this situation the next time you’re forced to stop for a feeding session—in about twenty minutes, by my calculation. You don’t have enough cats to counter another assault and your widemounts don’t have enough energy to outrun us.”

      “My assistant Choytang is in charge of our logistics. But I believe twenty minutes is a reasonable estimate.”

      “Kenzan Khan is determined to take you prisoner and acquire total control of your assets. It seems to me there should be some room for compromise. If you were to forgive all his current debts, for example, he would be in a position to borrow more capital from you and maintain the forces he needs to pursue his conflict with Possessor Dobryami. I would be happy to convey such an offer to him.”

      “Doesn’t that create some conflict with your professional ethics, colonel?”

      “I have several assets at risk. I would rather not lose them in an avoidable assault.”

      “They are all replaceable.”

      “But replacement takes time. And time has a financial value. As you, of all people, should know. The proposal I am making would be in everyone’s interest, Honored Sabor.”

      “I have to think about time, too—the long term consequences. I would still be surrendering to extortion. I would be encouraging all the other ruffians who would find such actions appealing.”

      “It seems to me this wouldn’t be the first time you have yielded to the threat of violence. You and your colleagues have consistently bestowed large loans and special rates on the more powerful possessors.”

      “No possessor has ever attempted anything this blatant. If we’re going to discuss our mutual interests, it seems to me it would be in your interest to advise Kenzan Khan you aren’t going to fulfill his contract. Your business, colonel—like all businesses—depends on a system for an orderly transfer of payments. In most societies, that infrastructure normally rests on the rule of law. We have not established such a rule here and we are therefore dependent on other means. But that doesn’t mean you can live without the infrastructure.”

      “You are going to be taken. You will be captured. Your concubine and your assistant will be captured. You will be taken to Possessor Khan. Your minds and all your assets will fall under his control.”

      Sabor’s fingers tapped out a silent message to Choy. What’s the maximum time you can keep the widemounts moving?

      Thirty-three minutes.

      Do it. Postpone the next stop for as long as you can.

      “Kenzan Khan is endangering a key social structure, colonel. Do you really want to live on a planet in which the banking system can be corrupted by anyone who controls enough soldiers?”

      “I 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