It was all out in the open now. "What are we going to do, then?" Nestor asked.
"Be more direct, I hope," Oomalo said. "I'd like both of you to accompany us in the lander. It's silly wasting your time. You're such a powerful and intelligent woman—silly wasting all that here. Neither of you wants to give it all up—your lives, everything, for this stupid world."
"What'll happen in the lander?"
"My wife and your husband will be there. We're all partners in this venture. You've tried to hide something, but we know now, and we'll just take our fair share."
Anna looked for some sign of insanity in the man but couldn't find any. He was calm, rational, and seemed to be following a plan.
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about."
"We have good evidence you've found artifacts here. We intend to get our share of the sale of any such finds. That's legal. We're prepared to use slightly illegal means, however, to convince you."
"Legal or illegal, I don't know what you're talking about. We haven't found anything here since the first landings. Who's been telling you these lies?"
"That doesn't matter now. Alae—"
"What's she doing to Yoshio? Have you got something planned?"
"Things are working out fine as they are. Your husband is strange."
Anna laughed.
"We're serious. We lost just about everything we valued when this place turned into a bust. We have nothing more to lose, and a lot more to gain. We're taking you back to our ship." He reached into his collar and drew out a tiny sliver of silvery metal.
"What's that?"
"It's Crocerian. Our employers—our original employers—provided them in case we should get in trouble at our post. The Aighor ship wasn't allowed to have registered weapons. We weren't rich enough to have a few rulings reversed. These will do, however. Alae has one."
"Yoshio isn't well—he took a fall several days ago."
"We have med units on the ship."
Anna shook her head. "I don't believe this," she said. "You're everything I thought, you'd be. Everything! I shouldn't have even let you land."
"We were prepared for that, too."
"What will you do when my ship finds we're gone? Hold us for ransom?"
"No. They won't know where you are, and we won't tell them. We'll just keep you until you tell us what you've found, and make a recorded confession."
"We haven't found anything!" Anna shouted. "Oomalo brought up the sliver.
"Be calm," he said. "I'm calm. Nothing will go wrong." He pointed to the peristyle and the air lock. "We'll put on environment packs and walk to the lander. Let go."