What the hell was I thinking of? Just walking away from it. Who the hell have I become?

The old Kalico Aguila—the one who’d schemed, scratched, plotted, and fought her way to the top of the heap back in Solar System—would have pulled out her pistol, shot that Gabarron woman dead on the spot, faced down the shocked scientists, and ordered, “Get your damned asses to work. This is not a democracy. And I’ll shoot the next sorry pus-sucker who crosses me.”

Now that was Kalico Aguila.

When, along the way, had that woman morphed into the one who had said, “Fine. Have it your way” and simply washed her hands of the matter?

Even if I’d shot them all, that’s a huge Corporate investment. The equipment alone would refurbish half of PA’s labs. She could trade for all the timbers and spare parts she needed to keep Corporate Mine running for another twenty years.

Mulling on that, she cocked an eyebrow and rubbed the scar running along the line of her jaw. Maybe that was the solution. She could fly out with Abu Sassi, Michegan, and Muldare. While they stood around in their armor, fingered their rifles, and looked mean, she could have Bogarten, Stryski, and their technicians strip the place of anything of value like the microscopes, PCRs, chromatographs, FTIRs, and other equipment.

Wasn’t anything Michaela Hailwood or her people could do about it.

“I’ve been on this damned planet too long,” Kalico grumbled.

“Ma’am?” Makarov asked.

“Juri, how did the shuttles from Ashanti place that Pod out on the reef?”

“Took four heavy-lift birds to lower the pieces from orbit. Pretty precise flying, ma’am. They had to settle the parts just so onto the pilings. A fancy bit of work with the lasers and all to measure distance as the four birds hovered, maneuvered, and put each piece into position.”

“So, it would take four birds to lift it?”

“No, ma’am. They needed four to get it down from orbit. Lowering that much mass into a gravity well, that’s a whole different story than just picking pieces up off the pilings. Once you had the landing pad removed, the UB disconnected. and the inside cleaned out, we could lift the main tube using the Corporate bird and PA’s A-7. That is, if we’re just picking the thing up and moving it somewhere where putting it down isn’t tricky.”

She narrowed an eye. That changed her entire calculus. She could pull the plug, blow the top off a mountain somewhere to expose bedrock, and use the Pod for a base of operations. Maybe on that mountain of palladium down south? And she had more shuttles mothballed up on Freelander.