Mallon used some profanity. “You’ll leave your liver and lights on the palace altar, Jackson. I promise you that!”

“Tell him what he wants to know, Toby,” Renada said. Mallon narrowed his eyes at her. “You’ll live to regret this, Renada.”

“Maybe I will, Toby. But you taught me how to handle a gun—and to play cards for keeps.”

The flush faded out of his face and left it pale. “All right, Jackson,” he said, almost in a whisper. “It’s not only the equipment. It’s… the men.”

I heard a clock ticking somewhere.

“What men, Toby?” I said softly.

“The crew. Day, Macy, the others. They’re still in there, Jackson—aboard the ship, in stasis. We were trying to get the ship off when the attack came. There was forty minutes’ warning. Everything was ready to go. You were on a test run; there wasn’t time to cycle you out…”

“Keep talking,” I rapped.

“You know how the system was set up; it was to be a ten-year run out, with an automatic turnaround at the end of that time if Alpha Centauri wasn’t within a milliparsec.” He snorted. “It wasn’t. After twenty years, the instruments checked. They were satisfied. There was a planetary mass within the acceptable range. So they brought me out.” He snorted again. “The longest dry run in history. I unstrapped and came out to see what was going on. It took me a little while to realize what had happened. I went back in and cycled Banner and Mackenzie out. We went into the town; you know what we found. I saw what we had to do, but Banner and Mac argued. The fools wanted to reseal Prometheus and proceed with the launch. For what? So we could spend the rest of our lives squatting in the ruins, when by stripping the ship we could make ourselves kings?”

“So there was an argument?” I prompted.

“I had a gun. I hit Mackenzie in the leg, I think—but they got clear, found a car and beat me to the Site. There were two Bolos. What chance did I have against them?” Mallon grinned craftily. “But Banner was a fool. He died for it.” The grin dropped like a stripper’s bra. “But when I went to claim my spoils, I discovered how the jackals had set the trap for me.”

“That was downright unfriendly of them, Mallon. Oddly enough, it doesn’t make me want to stay and hold your hand.”

“Don’t you understand yet!” Mallon’s voice was a dry screech. “Even if you got clear of the palace, used the Bolo to set yourself up as Baron—you’d never be safe! Not as long as one man was still alive aboard the ship. You’d never have a night’s rest, wondering when one of them would walk out to challenge your rule…”