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expect I’ll be getting visitors besides you.”

4
    Six hours later, Kris was in undress whites and strapped into a longboat, shuttle to non-Navy types, as it dropped away from the Wasp . Jack was beside her, in khaki and blues, and studying his battle board. Kris paid attention as he moved a stylus over the map it now showed.
    “Last pass we dropped the four LACs, sixteen Marines total. We’ve got an observation post with a sniper on this hill on the far side of the lake. I’ve got a second one covering the south side of the lake near the dam and its road. The third one covers the approach road from town. Nobody comes to visit Mr. Jendon without us getting a good look.”
    “It’s Mr. Annam,” Kris said. “son Jendon actually does mean he’s the son of his father, Jendon.”
    “I see your getting more information about this place.”
    “The fourth LAC dropped Penny and Chief Beni right in Annam’s lap.”
    “They giving you much information besides what order the name goes in?”
    “Not really,” Kris said, cinching in her belt tighter. “Just that it is bad down there. Worse than Penny has ever seen.”
    “She wasn’t with you during the Olympia Humanitarian Mission?”
    “No, she ran into Tommy after that.” There, Kris could say his name now without a shiver.
    Jack turned back to his board. “I’ve split first and second platoons between the four longboats. Famine biscuits fill up the rest of the boat’s cargo.”
    “Hello, fellow pilgrim,” Kris muttered, “we come bearing stale bread and loaded M-6s. We’re here to help you.”
    “Cause we’re the only help you’re going to get,” Jack finished.
    The longboat dropped free of the Wasp , and Kris found herself occupied with the unheard-of priority of keeping her stomach from embarrassing her.
    Kris had survived a lot of botched assassination attempts. She had considered herself a survivor of the last one when she checked out of the hospital. Recovery, however, this time, was turning into a process with no end in sight.
    Annam’s lake gave plenty of room to land, but the actual landing was at a T-shaped wharf. That only left room for two longboats to unload at a time.
    Jack ordered the two shuttles with first platoon to dock first and unload their Marines. The other two shuttles held in the air as long as they could before settling onto the lake and staying out in its middle. Lieutenant Stubben, the lone surviving officer of the original company, deployed first platoon and checked in with Penny. Only then did Jack let the last two shuttles, with him and Kris, come alongside the pier, swapping places with the first two.
    And second platoon was well into its deployment before Jack got out of Kris’s way so she could exit the craft.
    “Didn’t I read somewhere that the senior exits a vehicle first,” Kris snarled through a smile . . . just in case there was a local watching.
    “I seem to remember reading that somewhere, too,” Jack admitted easily, without appearing to draw any conclusion from it that might apply to their situation.
    Kris led her never-subordinate security chief out of the longboat. Marines were still trotting off the wharf from both shuttles. Coming out to meet Kris was Penny in whites and a thin man with salt-and-pepper hair. His clothes were worn shorts and a plaid shirt, his feet sported woven sandals. His hand was out to shake, but his smile was thin, and his eyes were clearly skeptical.
    “Why are you here?” were the first words out of his mouth.
    “We bring food,” Kris said, shaking his hand. That wasn’t really an answer to the question. Still, Kris hoped it was a welcome opener.
    Behind Kris, a work detail of Marines removed bags of biscuits from the longboats and stacked them on the wharf. Kris waved at the gifts. The freeholder nodded, then turned, and, as the last of the Marines trotted from the pier, a stream of civilians broke from the dozen outbuildings in sight.
    Penny’s eyes said “I warned