Read Online Freedom’s Choice by Anne McCaffrey - Free Book Online

message through?” Mitford asked.
    â€œThey come. Kris spoke like good Emassi.” Zainal was grinning with obvious pride as he held the door open for her.
    â€œI had to say it often enough to get it right,” she said gruffly, and, with instant solicitude, Mitford offered her a cup of the herbal tea that everyone had come to enjoy.
    Bert and Raisha came in and took seats, but so tentatively that Kris knew they had no idea why they had been summoned.
    â€œHave you spoken to your team yet, Zainal?” Mitford asked.
    â€œNot yet. They will do what needs to be done with no problems.”
    Mitford grunted and scratched the back of his head. He still did not look Kris in the eye. Which somewhat appeased her.
    â€œMay I have paper?” Zainal asked, and Mitford quickly supplied him with sheets and a pencil. With his usual quick sure strokes, Zainal sketched what had to be the interior of the scout. Bert’s eyes grew rounder and wider while Raisha watched with avid fascination.
    â€œThe interior of a Catteni scout?” Bert asked, incredulous eyes on Zainal’s face. “How?” he demanded, and Raisha sat right on the edge of her stool.
    â€œYou said nothing to them about Phase One, sergeant?” Zainal asked as he continued to detail the layout.
    Kris covered her grin with her hand because Zainal had suddenly turned pure Emassi and Mitford reacted by sitting straight up, exactly as a subordinate should. He did spare one droll but respectful look in Zainal’s direction before he spoke.
    â€œBert, Raisha, we mean to catch us a scout ship tonight,” he said, and both gawked in disbelief. “A few nights ago a Catteni ship landed four commando types on a field at night.”
    â€œOho!” Raisha said, and turned pale.
    â€œThat would have been their first mistake,” Bert said with a smug grin.
    â€œTheir second was in thinking it would be easy to find Zainal,” Mitford said. “Fortunately night crawlers left boots and some other inedible pieces of equipment. So we can lure the scout back down.”
    â€œYou mean, like tonight?” Raisha shifted forward on her chair, inhaling with deep delight.
    Kris couldn’t resist jumping in then. “I told them toland silently, with no lights, to meet me and an unconscious Zainal. That I needed help moving him as he’d killed two others trying to escape before I could zap him.” Raisha looked slightly confused. “One pair of boots was a lot smaller. Cherchez la femme.”
    â€œOh, gotcha!” Raisha said. “Only how do we avoid the night crawlers?”
    Mitford went through the rest of Phase One and the two gave a small round of applause when he finished.
    â€œLook, I did a lot of training but only one short shuttle flight,” Raisha began anxiously.
    â€œI only had two but one as navigator,” Bert said, though both were clearly dying to go on despite their inexperience.
    â€œYou’ll do good,” Zainal said, so convincingly that both demurred. “A scout can carry six at most. Four were set down. I think only two remain. Both can be told to come help Arvonk, the contact,” and he pointed at Kris. “Maybe not. So, if we have to get in fast and kill, inside is like this.”
    He walked them through the tight passageways of the scout ship and then using the drawings he had also made of the control panels, talked them through the short preflight sequences. He mentioned the colors of the relevant toggles and drew diagrams of the icons above other controls. They concentrated so hard Kris could almost see them absorb words and drawings into their heads.
    â€œWe take Leon, who speaks Catten, to give last warning of trick by Zainal and then…” Once again he used his finger across his throat and grinned. “I will show you how to circle moon and glide to land.” He turned to Mitford. “We hide scout and then I work you hard to learn how to