Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (20 page)

Vannie’s fist rose alongside Moe’s this
time. “You gave her location to the admiral?”

How had Vannie deduced that from what
he’d told them? Maybe he wasn’t very high on the intelligence
quotient. “No.”

“
You’re just going to wait
here forever until he finds her?” Vannie asked.

“
I have nowhere else to
be. I can wait as long as it takes, but he’ll find her soon in the
same way I did by eliminating places she could be.”

The two men relaxed though Vannie still
looked angry. “Why do you want to find the admiral? We heard the
rumors he was hiding, something about his involvement in the
military trials of those infamous Recon….”

“
Holy bastard in hell,”
Moe cursed. “And you’re one of those Recon Marines.”

“
You must not tell
anyone,” Emma ordered. “Vin is supposed to be dead. Someone might
come for him if word gets out.”

Warmth spread through Vin again, larger
this time. He wanted the men gone so he could be alone with
Emma.

“
Emma, he’s dangerous.”
Vannie looked at his fists and dropped them to his side. “One of
the most dangerous men in the universe.”

“
To his enemies but not to
me. Not to us and not to Hovel Port.” Emma threaded her arm through
Vin’s. “Vin’s home is with us now. The three of us have been like
family and now Vin is part of it.”

Something tickled the back of Vin’s
throat, and he couldn’t have spoken if he’d had something to say.
There was nothing to be added to Emma’s declaration. Family and
home.

“
And when the admiral
shows up?” Moe asked.

Before anyone could answer, Vin’s AI
trilled an alert. He untangled his arm from Emma’s and walked to
the table. “I have it. We’re in their memory cells and linked to
their modar waves.”

“
Modar waves?” Moe
asked.

“
All interstellar
communications move in modar bundles,” Vin explained. “The military
has been using them for about three years and now they’re being
used by civilian corporations rich enough to afford them. They’re
more difficult to intercept.”

“
But you intercepted
them?” Emma joined him at the table, with Vannie and Moe following
along.

Vin touched the screens to get into the
personal files of Underboss Lee Caoca. Schematics of the mine and
its shafts filled one file, showing the deep bores made into the
surface, one nearly a mile long. He slid that file aside and pulled
up a geological bundle. The first survey pictured the veins of
silver with the mine overlaying and following the nearly vertical
lines of ore.

“
Looks like they’ve about
dug out all their ore,” Vannie muttered. “Not good for us or
them.”

Vin nodded. “Most of the men weren’t
even working when I was at their camp.”

“
Why try to run us out
then, if they’re going dry anyway?” Moe asked. “We’ll be gone soon
after them. Once they stop using the river as sluice water, we
won’t be finding any silver nuggets in it.”

“
Maybe it’s plain
meanness,” Vannie suggested.

Vin navigated a few more
files, planning on returning to them later. He’d probably find
evidence of the attacks on the village and maybe the name of the
virus cooking up on his roof. One file carried the name
Iris.
Something about
the title caught and held his attention, like it should mean
something to him.

The
Iris
file contained another
geological survey. It covered the area of Hovel Port and miles of
the jungle around it. Two half circles of mineral deposit were
highlighted in silver beneath the town. The half circles looked
like they’d once been a ball but had split nearly evenly so one
edged the north gate and the other the south gate. Only a small gap
separated them. Vin judged the deposits lay less than one hundred
feet beneath the surface.

“
What is that?” Emma
asked. “Is that our land?”

Vin pointed at the name on the file
where it hovered in the upper corner of the screen. “Iris, name of
an ancient goddess. The man who discovered this mineral named it
after her. This deposit is why they’re trying to chase you off.” He
traced his finger around the half circles. “There’s a fortune in
iridium beneath our feet.”

Chapter Twelve

“
Iridium?” Emma asked at
the same time as Moe and Vannie. “It’s more valuable than
silver?”

“
Silver is integral to the
working of most communications from planet wide units to
interplanetary waves.” Vin tapped the AI unit. “There’s silver in
here and in the guidance systems of all flying crafts. Silver is
valuable, but iridium is rarer and just as crucial for space
travel. Iridium is one of the densest metals ever discovered. On
old Earth, it was believed that any iridium found there came from
the impact of comets or meteors. It takes special equipment to mine
it and shape it into something useful. But once constructed, things
made of iridium can withstand high temperatures and pressure.
Almost nothing will corrode it so things made of it last a long
time. The thermo-generators powering most space stations have parts
made of iridium. In all the exploration done in the known universe,
there’s still no known source of this rare element except deposits
like this one. Probably a meteor or a piece of a comet impacted
here thousands of years ago and is slowly sinking toward the center
of the planet. Iridium is very heavy.”

Vannie pulled up a chair and sat beside
Vin. “Is the entire deposit within the town walls?”

Vin tapped the screen, designing the
outline of the town and matching its coordinates with the mineral
deposits. “Looks like the iridium is nearly even with the north and
south gates but extends a couple of hundred feet beyond the east
and west walls. How does one come to own portions of an outlying
world like this one?”

Emma leaned against Vin’s arm. “I sent
in the proper forms when I settled here. Then I sold each resident
their own plot. I hold the deeds for all the land between here and
the property line of Hadrason’s mining town.”

“
She sold each one for
less than an ounce of silver,” Moe muttered.

“
That’s all many of them
could afford and still feed their families.” Emma would have gladly
given them the plots for free but an exchange of coin made it
official with the Intergalactic Ministry. One owned land on
unclaimed planets only by filing with the proper government office.
“It does make sense. The only way to lose your land is to desert
it. If the Underboss frightens us off they can take the
land.”

“
The bastard might even be
planning to take it without the knowledge of his superiors,” Vannie
said. “He would be rich beyond what one man could use in a
lifetime.”

“
He still needs to get rid
of us,” Emma said.

“
This man has already
resorted to lethal force.” Vin navigated through the screen to
another file. “Maybe we can find what they’re planning
next.”

“
Will they know you’re
snooping on them?” Moe asked.

“
No. Their basic programs
are older than the one I’m using. I can find anything.” Vin smiled.
“Here’s a recent order for some new elevator equipment. Some of
theirs needs replaced.”

Emma wondered about the satisfied smile
on Vin’s face. “It’s late. Now that you’ve cracked their code you
can get back into their system tomorrow. I’m still short some
sleep.”

Vin looked at her and comprehension
softened his intense stare. He slid his hand across the AI screen,
and it went dark. He stood up, forcing Moe and Vannie to step back.
“Do I need to ask these men if I can take you to bed, Doctor
Emma.”

Moe slapped his hand to his forehead
and started for the door. “We have a lot to talk about
tomorrow.”

Vannie lingered a moment longer,
shaking his finger in front of Vin’s face. “Don’t you hurt our
girl.”

“
I would
never.”

Emma believed Vin meant it though he
only thought of physical harm. Only her heart was in jeopardy from
this dangerous man. But tonight she wasn’t going to worry about
it.

She took Vin’s arm and led him toward
the stairs. When she reached the first step he bent down and put
his arm behind her knees. He lifted her and smiled when she
squealed. What she wouldn’t give to keep that smile on his face. He
carried her up the stairs as if she were made of paper.

The only light in the loft room came
from the distant glow of the lamp near the front door. Vin set Emma
down on his military perfect bed.

They took time undressing each other,
touching and kissing throughout the drawn out process. When they
could wait no longer to join their bodies, Emma pushed Vin to his
back and straddled his hips. His gasped surprise nearly sent her
over the edge. He quickly caught onto all the wonderful things he
could do with his hands in the new position. His strength surprised
her as he guided her hips so they both found completion.

Emma wilted across Vin’s chest, both
their skins damp. He rolled her to his side and guided her head to
his shoulder. She rubbed her hand across his smooth chest, enjoying
the sharp definition of his muscles even though he sprawled in
complete relaxation.

Though her physician mind wandered
toward the epigenetics experiments that went into his making, she
pushed aside any scientific curiosity and instead reveled in the
heat and strength beneath her head. For this night she would enjoy
her man and not worry that he wasn’t hers to keep. Tomorrow they
would figure out what to do with their new wealth and the problems
likely already coming their way.

* * * *

Vin stood near his shop door as Vannie
and Moe addressed the entire town. The moods of the people ranged
widely, few of which Vin could interpret. He’d found nothing new in
the Underboss’s files but he used the early morning hours to delve
deeper into the information he had found. The Hadrason’s mine’s
output had declined steadily over the last year. Most mines would
have closed by now with the sluggish amounts of ore they’d been
pulling from the ground. Even with the low cost of using human
miners instead of robotic units, their accounting showed a loss
over the last two months in the silver market. The lumber shipments
kept them viable but before long there would be no silver dug from
the ground at all. The Underboss would turn desperate
soon.

“
You mean we’re all rich?”
someone from the gathering said.

Vannie grinned. “We are, but our
fortune is what has caused these accidents. The Underboss knows
about the iridium. It’s the reason they’ve been trying to drive us
off.”

“
Can’t we send for help?”
another man asked. “We have legal claim. Won’t the Galactic Law
Enforcement send peacekeepers to protect us?”

Vannie looked to Vin. “Will they send
someone if we ask?”

Vin thought of the villages just like
this one that the Recon Marines had been ordered to cleanse before
they’d committed treason by refusing to attack citizens. Had any of
that changed since Geoff Hadrason and his compatriots in the
military lost their standing? “Don’t expect help. At best it would
take an Earth month of days to get someone here. And the Underboss
is likely to learn of your call for assistance. It might propel him
to take immediate action against you.”

The people standing in the street went
oddly silent, even the energetic children pausing in their
play.

“
What we’re going to do is
prepare,” Vannie said. “The rain will be here the day after
tomorrow. We’re not going to the river to skim for nuggets. Moe and
I are going to organize a list for guard duty. So far they’ve
attacked us in every different way possible so we have to prepare
for anything.”

Moe stepped forward. “Vin says we’ll
need to bring in a robotic mining suit to dig out the iridium. Only
a few pounds per year will make all of us wealthy, but we have to
guard it until we can hire our own security people.”

The people raised more questions about
sharing profits and the financial side of the work, but Vannie
halted it. “We’ll meet during the rainy day in the café and make
sure we all understand our bounty. There’s a lot of work to be done
like moving our homes off the top of the deposit. But first and
foremost is about our protection. All you men step up so we can
assign groups. And those with children, keep them close. The last
two attacks proved they don’t care who they hurt.”

Vin slipped into the café while Moe and
Vannie went about their planning. He went through the curtain,
finding Emma chopping some yellow vegetable and tossing it into a
pan filled with creamy sauce. The dinner would be delicious even if
he didn’t know the exact ingredients. Anything she cooked for him
would taste wonderful, willfully ignoring the idea that she cooked
for most of the town and not just him. Vin walked up behind her and
wrapped his arms around her waist.

She twisted her head and kissed his
cheek but went right back to her knife work. “How’s it going out
there?”

Vin savored the scent of her skin and
the tickle of her hair against his face. “Nothing has gone
anywhere.”