Revolution's Shore Read Free

counterpoint. Figures came up on screen and shifted to new figures as he paged through his memory.
    â€œMaster Heredes is dead, Jenny.” Lily’s voice came out flat, suppressing her grief. “Murdered, by Central. That’s why we’re going to join Jehane.”
    â€œJehane! I never took you for a revolutionary.”
    Lily hesitated. “I’m not sure I am one. But Central will pay, Jenny. They’re the ones who murdered Heredes. And my friend Robbie—you might know him as Pero—made me. Understand that Central is corrupt. They won’t give up their power voluntarily. I think Jehane’s revolution is the best chance, maybe the only one, that Reft space has to have a fair government.”
    Kyosti, unmoving on the floor, regarded Lily with no obvious expression.
    â€œI can accept that.” Jenny ran a finger over the tight nap of her hair. “But why Harsh?”
    â€œBecause according to information Heredes sent to me—to Robbie, really—” Lily shook her head. “It’s a long story. But Jehane is moving on Harsh. I fully expect that when we reach there, Jehane’s troops will be in control.”
    â€œWhy would Jehane want Harsh? One blazing inferno of a moon orbiting a methane hell of a planet, producing ore and fuel and tell-chips with what amounts to slave labor working under killing conditions. Or at least that’s what you hear over the nets.”
    â€œWhat do you think he wants? He wants those prisoners. They have every reason to hate Central. They’ll join Jehane without a second glance.”
    â€œFine army,” muttered Jenny. “I’ll remember not to turn my back on any of them.”
    â€œDoes that mean you’ll come with us?”
    Jenny laughed. “I’m no revolutionary. But why do you want me, Lily-hae? Aliasing and Gregori are more burden than asset, much as I love them.”
    â€œThere must be something Lia can do.”
    Jenny considered this seriously. “She can cook.”
    â€œThere you are. Two reasons, Jenny. First, I have a debt to pay—a girl who got indentured to Harsh because of me. I intend to find her. And second, I’ll join Jehane. You know that I met him once. It’s not so much that I didn’t trust him, but that he—scared me.”
    â€œ Scared you?”
    Lily could only shake her head. “I’m not sure what I mean. Maybe I don’t trust my own reaction to him. He’s very—powerful. In any case, when I join him, I want some negotiating power to set my own assignment. And the more people I have with me who have skills he can use, the more leverage I’ll have. You’re a mercenary—and trained as an Immortal, no less. Pinto’s a pilot—and one of the best, tattoo or not. Kyosti’s a doctor. Lia can cook. And Bach—”
    Bach sang three notes and a three-dimensional star grid, interlocked by a complex interweaving of lines, came up on the screen.
    â€œThe most recent information out of Central’s military intelligence computers. Jehane’s movements. Interpreted by Heredes and by Bach, they suggest that he is moving to take Harsh. And I have barely scratched the surface of what Bach has accessed from Central’s computer-net. I have Bach, Jenny. Therefore, Jehane wants me. That’s what I’ll negotiate with.”
    Kyosti’s eyes had not wavered from Lily’s face. His lips arced into the barest of smiles.
    Jenny grinned and stood up. She examined Kyosti a moment, taking in the studied nonchalance of his posture that revealed instead the complete focus of his attention. Lily waited, expectant, but not tense with it—in control, rather, as if the precise situation of her body illuminated the relationship between these three people and one robot in the room.
    â€œLily-hae Ransome.” Jenny shook her head, started again. “You’ve changed.”
    â€œIt’s Heredes