“Ideas?” the blonde parroted, and Honor nodded again.

“Let’s just say that one of my chiefs has a way with computers. He got access to the ship’s net and took the entire system down, and in the confusion, the rest of my people broke me out of solitary confinement, seized control of a boat bay, stole us some transport, and blew the ship up as they left.” She felt a fresh, wrenching stab of loss and grief for the people who had died making that possible, but she let none of it show in her face. Not now. Not until she had convinced these people that she was telling them the truth.

“And just how the hell did they do that?” the other woman asked in obvious skepticism, and Honor smiled crookedly at her.

“They demonstrated what happens when you bring up a pinnace’s impeller wedge inside a boat bay,” she said very softly. The other woman showed no reaction at all for two or three seconds, and then she flinched as if someone had just punched her in the belly.

“My God!” she whispered. “But that—”

“Killed everyone on board,” Honor finished for her grimly. “That’s right. We took out the entire ship… and no one dirtside knows we got out—and down—alive. With, as I said, somewhat better equipment than you seem to have.”

“How do you know?” the man demanded, speaking for the first time. His speech was similar to his companion’s, but even more slurred and hard to follow, and he made an impatient gesture when Honor cocked her head at him. “How do you know they don’t know?” he amplified in his almost incomprehensible accent, speaking very slowly and with an obvious effort at clarity.

“Let’s just say we’ve been checking their mail,” Honor replied.

“But that means—” The woman was staring at her, and then she wheeled back to her companion. “Henri, they’ve got a pinnace!” she hissed. “Sweet Jesus, they’ve got a pinnace!”

“But—” Henri began, and then stopped dead. The two of them stared at one another, expressions utterly stunned, and then turned back as one to Honor, and this time suspicion and fear had been replaced by raw, blazing excitement.

“You do, don’t you?” the woman demanded. “You’ve got a pinnace, and— My God, you must have the com equipment to go with it!”

“Something like that,” Honor replied, watching her carefully and privately astonished by how quickly the other woman had put things together. Of course, it must be obvious that if they’d gotten down without the Peeps knowing about it they had to at least have a lifeboat, but this woman had gotten past her disbelief and shock to put all the clues together far more rapidly than Honor would have believed was possible. Was that because her odd accent made her sound like some sort of untutored bumpkin from a hick planet whose schools couldn’t even teach their people to speak proper Standard English?

“But why are you—?” the blonde began, speaking almost absently, as if to herself. Then she stopped again. “Of course,” she said very softly. “Of course. You’re looking for manpower, aren’t you, Commodore? And you figured Camp Inferno was the best place to recruit it?”