Chewing Rocks (34 page)

Sno shot a startled look at
Hunter. “I didn’t, I mean, I wasn’t…thank you, Mister Hunter.” She looked back at Cleasemount, “I guess thank you isn’t going to do it, is it?”

Cleasemount laughed. “No
dear, not this time.”

Sno said, “Okay, if Mister
Hunter wants to stay, then I want him to stay. Not as a slave, I will accept him as an employee and yes, as my friend.”

Hunter
grinned, “Yes please, I’ll go with Miss Whyte.”

Sno said with a grin, “Oh, heavens. I guess that means I have to start wearing clothes on Sedona if you
’re going to be around.”

Hunter
grinned back. “Yes, please.”

Cleasemount shook her head, “Miss Whyte, please control those comments. That is a mind picture my nephew Jimmy doesn’t need right now.
We have judgments to hear and I have a stack of math papers to grade for a bunch of second graders. Those second graders have been on extended recess while we conduct this hearing so they are the only ones not anxious to finish this.

“Most of the rest of these warrants are just plain B
.S. and everyone knows it even those of you who signed them. It is paper fodder just to cloud the issue at hand. Plus with so many dead, they are moot, and I am in no mood for mooting.

Cleasemount took a deep breath, “Miss Queene may stay seated, given she is trussed up like a landing day piglet.
I have two judgments, Miss Queene.

“First, you have made an obvious attempt to subvert and take over
the Whyte Mining Company using murder. I am not familiar with Earth business practices, but that is not the way we do business in Arizona City. For that action, your entire business holdings on or based out of Ceres are confiscated, as of now. I am awarding all holdings and assets including but not limited to offices, ships, warehouses, and their contents to the Whyte Mining Corporation.”

The room was silent. It was obvious no one expected such a
massive levee against Queene Mines.

Cleasemount shook her head, “I realize
some of the Queene ships will hear of this judgment against Queene Mines and not return here, but rather turn toward Earth or IO, in hopes of garnering a reward from their former employer. But, I urge everyone here, especially those of you who are former Queene Mine employees, to consider what you say in messages to those ships. Unless you are ready to leave for Earth, I suggest you do not attempt to stab me or Whyte Mines in the back during this transition.

“I know this will
not universally be a happily accepted position. I further know I am letting my political views color this judgment. Frankly, let this be a warning to all Earth based businesses. Do not continue operating on our planet, from our city, taking our resources, and stealing the profits to send them back to Earth, leaving us with the scraps.”

When the applause died down she continued, “Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not calling for the nationalization of privately owned industries. Earth based
companies have a right to a reasonable profit on their investments. But, reasonable doesn’t mean they can take all of the profits and leave us with nothing. This is our planet, such as it is.

“I apologize to everyone here for the political
rant, but from what I know of the current management and ownership of Queene Mines, my decision to strip their assets away will by no means be taken quietly. You can see by the look in Miss Queene’s eyes this is so.

“
Secondly, Miss Queene, the evidence supports the warrant that you personally acted in concert with your employees in an attempt to kill Miss Whyte. Testimony was given that you hand selected the software causing the Sedona’s system to crash. It was just a coincidence someone was close enough to save her before her air ran out. It goes against my personal feelings because enough people have been killed lately, but as arbiter I don’t have a choice. I find you personally culpable for trying to kill Miss Whyte. I am upholding her warrant and while I will refuse to watch, I am allowing a duel as Miss Whyte has specified in her warrant. Two hours from now, inside the fenced jail compound, the two of you will meet face-to-face. Miss Queene has the choice of weapons.”

Chapter 30.0

Sno shouted over the roar of the crowd, “No
, wait! That is not what I want.”

Cleasemount smiled sadly, “Then you shouldn’t have put that option in your warrant. Believe me when I say that I would rather not have either of you killed. If you kill Evelyn Queene, no matter how legal in Arizona City, her family will not
just let it pass. There will be retribution. Wallace almost killed a lot of us and he said Miss Queene’s father employs many men better at killing than him. And if she kills you, well frankly, Miss Whyte, I don’t see how I will live with myself. However, I don’t see where I have an option.”

Sno replied, “I was really angry when I signed th
e warrant. I don’t mean it now. Look, that was before I had actually ever killed anyone. I killed Franklin and I don’t like the way it made me feel. I don’t want to do it again.”

Cleasemount said, “I have never killed anyone, Sno. I can
only imagine how bad it made you feel, but the law-“

Sno interrupted, “You don’t understand. Killing Franklin didn’t make me feel bad. It didn’t make
me feel good. It was just nothing, empty, kind of hollow inside. I don’t want to feel that way again.”

Cleasemount shook her head. “
You cannot change the warrant against Miss Queene just because you don’t like the outcome.”

Cleasemount looked over at Sheriff Bob. “Our bylaws require Miss Queene be given time to speak. As much as I regret this, please remove the gag.”

As soon as the gag was free, Queene spat and snarled. “Thieves and killers is all you are, the lot of you.” Her eyes shot daggers at Sno. “You wanted a fight, I’ll give you one. You couldn’t have taken Wallace in a fair fight and I guarantee you can’t take me. My family spent a small fortune on enhancements to my neuromuscular system. I am probably twice as fast as your young reflexes and I was collegiate handgun champion. I can put a bullet where I want and when I want. You are a walking dead woman, Whyte.”

Sonnie Abramsohn stood up. “I will stand in as Miss Whyte’s
champion; my company currently has the contract as her bodyguards.”

Queene screeched. “No! I get the little bi
-“

Sheriff Bob jammed the gag back in the woman’s mouth.

Sno shook her head, “Thanks for the offer Sonnie but this is my mess. I will clean it up.”

Cleasemount shook her head sadly, “I am sorry to hear that
, Miss Whyte. It is a very mature attitude. I am sorry to see it finally coming from you. But it has nothing to do with this hearing. I consider all matters at hand to be closed. Everybody go home. And stack the chairs up in the back when you leave so Carl doesn’t have to put in any more overtime than he already has.”

Chapter 30.1

Sno looked at the group of men and women gathered in the Whyte Mining warehouse. It was the largest space they had that could hold this many people. She was surprised so many had shown up to give her their support. She only half listened as her dad asked Abramsohn to sort out everyone and only let in family and employees, keeping everyone else out because there was just not room to hold everyone who showed up.

Of course, she had expected all of their ship
’s crews to be there. This was the first time in her memory all of their ships were in dock at the same time. Willem had called them all in to double check the software once he had found out about the infected apps n’ core on the Sedona. She knew her dad had kept everyone in port just in case they needed help against Queene Mines.

F
ive of the six men from the Wooden Shoe Consortium were there as well, since they were under contract. Sno looked and realized Daryl and Joey Graham that were not in the group of Earth miners. She nodded to herself. It was probably best Joey not be exposed to what was coming.

Sno was surprised to see Ernie from United Mechanical slide into the room. She wondered how he got past Abramsohn’s guards. She nodded at
him. She saw Ernie grin at Sonnie Abramsohn as he came up to Sno. She knew Sonnie had been at her back since Wallace had been killed but the woman was so quiet Sno had forgotten she was there.

Sno said to the advancing man, “Hi, Ernie
. Everything go okay with those pipe bombs?”

Ernie replied, “Easy to dismantle. It would have made a mess but wouldn’t have cracked the dome. The man had them set to blast horizontal. Not to worry,
boss.”

Sno said, “What?”

Ernie answered, “Which ‘what’?”

Sno said, “Ernie, you have called me everything under the sun at one time or an
other but you never called me boss before.”

Ernie smiled, “Well, if you prefer Miss Whyte that’s what I’ll say. You have never been my boss before so you have to tell me how you want me to handle it.”

Sno snorted, “Ernie, I’m not your boss. Where did you get that idea?”

Imitating Sno,
Sonnie snorted. When Sno looked at the woman she was looking everywhere but at Sno.

Sno said, “Okay, Ernie
, what gives?”

Ernie shook his head
in surprise, “Sorry. I thought you knew, but I guess with your working on the Sedona out in the belt so much you didn’t know. Queene Mines bought United Mechanical about two years ago and now it seems that I work for you.”

Sno looked surprised
. She noticed there were half a dozen ex-Queene Mine employees standing around. “Huh, what do you know? Well, maybe I’ll get some decent service from now on, at least for the next ninety minutes or so anyway.”

Her dad was close enough to hear. He shouted, “You stop that talk, Princess. There are enough of us here to figure a way out of this mess. Abramsohn, where are you? There! Was Queene bragging about her marksmanship
or is she really that good?”

Abramsohn shook his head. “I don’t know. Sonnie was handling gathering data on Queene. What about it, Sis?”

Sonnie shook her head, “She was not bragging. It was plain fact. I have seen some vids on the data-nets. The woman is fast. Sorry, Sno. Queene is spooky fast and more accurate than all of us in this room put together.”

Willem snapped, “That does it. Sno is not going out there. I’ll go.”

Sonnie replied, “No. It is my job. I’ll do it.”

Sno was
very shocked to hear half a dozen people offer to take her place as her champion. She held up her hand to stop the offers. “Sonnie, is anyone fast enough to take Queene? No. Then this is my job, no one else’s.”

Vittie said, “What about if we give all of her stuff back and let her go
back to Earth?”

Sno said, “Come on Vittie, you should know I can’t allow that. She tried to kill me.
And because of her and what she did there are three, no, four men dead. They may have all deserved what they got, they were even her willing accomplices, but they are dead because of her.”

Vittie spat back, “She tried once
to kill you and failed so are you just going to walk up to her and let her kill you now? That doesn’t make sense.”

Ernie
said, “I think taking the Queene Mines assets hurt her worse than anything anyone else could do. Maybe she will just quit and go away.”

Abramsohn shook his head. “Sorry, but Willem already had us make that offer in
Sno’s name. She turned us down flat. She was all alone in the women’s tent at the compound. She told us that if we didn’t get out we would be next in line. She was writing a list of everyone she believes has crossed her.”

Sno said, “Well, I don’t know what else to do
, but do it. However, if anyone comes up with a good way for me to get out of this mess, don’t be shy, just speak right up.”

Vittie said, “Just don’t go.”

Sno said, “Someone has to go. Our system of bylaws is based on it. If I cut and run the whole thing falls apart. And I can’t let that happen.”

Willem said, “No. You are more important to me than this whole planet. Let’s just get in
to the Sedona and go.”

Sno said, “Thanks for the offer Dad, but go where? Earth? Queene Mines is there. IO? Queene Mines is there
, too. No, this is my home. These people are my friends and family. I have to stick this out, just as we all have to stick together. Queene Mines may get me but they can’t get us all.”

Hunter
slowly raised his hand. “Um, what about if someone shoots her in the back? I mean, not me, but couldn’t we hire someone to do that?”

Sonnie said, “By all accounts, old man Queene is mean. He will definitely be angry about his business losses here today. But
if his daughter dies by an assassin he is going to be so furious that he might bring this whole city down around our ears.”

“I want to
thank everyone here for coming by.” Sno said. “I have a few things I want to get said while I’ve got a little time. As some of you may know, Dad and I share our business fifty-fifty with the right of survivorship. So I ask that everyone who is coming over from Queene, please work with my dad as we dismantle Queene’s operation.”