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"After their last try, the Moondaggers seem content to just nudge us along. They haven't made any real attempt to cut us off or even engage. Maybe they're licking their wounds from the last fight."
"Time is on their side, then."
"Not necessarily," Valentine said. "They're used to getting their way, and they're used to shoving around civilians when they don't. The legworm clans, they're not poor Kansas farm collective workers who don't know a rifle from a hoe. These boys can ride and shoot and they don't back down."
"They backed down easily enough back at the union," a Guard captain said.
"Now they're on their own land, though. I remember how startled I was, seeing Quisling uniforms walking around in Little Rock. Made me kind of mad. Felt more like a violation. I'm hoping the legworm ranchers will feel the same way," Valentine said.
"So what of it? They get jacked and take out a few Moondaggers in return. Does that help us?" Bloom asked.
"It gives the Moondaggers a new set of worries," Brother Mark said.
"The Moondaggers will respond the only way they know how. It could grow into a full-scale revolt. There could be advantages to that. Like better supply for us," Valentine said.
Moytana shook his head. "And disadvantages. There's a big garrison in Lexington and another in Frankfort. Right now they seem content to sit and not make waves."
"And the Ordnance, just over the Ohio," someone else added. "They've got a professional army. A lot of Solon's best troops came from there. If the Kurians there think Kentucky is up for grabs, they might make a move."
"We came across the Mississippi to establish a new Freehold," Valentine said, giving the table a rap. "I'd still like to do it. But I want it to be the ranchers' idea, not ours."
"Too risky, Valentine," Bloom said. Javelin's low on everything."
"We win a battle and we might get more local support," Valentine said. "Right now they're just obeying the Moondaggers because they've seen that we aren't doing anything about them."
Bloom glowered. "Pipe down, Valentine. You're dancing toward a line marked
'insubordination.'"
"Sorry, sir," Valentine said, using the soothing tone that always worked with his old Quisling captain on the Thunderbolt.
The rest of the meeting passed with Valentine deep in thought.
He buttonholed Brother Mark as they left to get some dinner and look over the nighttime pickets.
"Is it possible that-that a Kurian agent is manipulating her? Sowing doubt, fear?"
Brother Mark's gaze looked even more droopy. He nibbled at a turnip. "The Kurians and their agents may play with your senses, just as the Lifeweavers do. I suppose you've . . . ahem . .
. experienced ..."
"The night I got this," Valentine said, rubbing the side of his face where his jaw hadn't healed right. "Speaking of night, it always seems like she's at her most timid then. Dawn comes up and she's almost her old self."
"Sunlight interferes with their abilities. If it is someone manipulat-ing her, it would be like no agent I've ever heard of, that would put him-or her-on par with a Kurian."
"Then a Kurian-"
"No, they have to see, hear, smell-feel your aura, even, to be the devil whispering in your ear. Though I suppose they could work it through a proxy. Relay their mind through another, just as a Reaper becomes the Kurian when the Kurian is manipulating it."
"I haven't seen anyone touching her. She likes to pat you and slap you, locker room stuff, but that's never when she's making decisions. It's an 'at ease' thing with her to let you know you can relax."
"She's never slapped me," Brother Mark said in a tone that sug-gested he might enjoy the experience.
Churchmen. You never know.
"Anyway, I can't remember anyone going out of their way to make contact with her,"
Valentine said.
