“What can you tell us, Vin?” Hilo asked.
“Some of those GSI mercenaries are definitely wearing jade, but I’d need to get closer to tell you more, Hilo-jen.” The First Fist’s longrange Perception was legendary by now, but even Vin the Sniper couldn’t be precise at this distance.
“Let’s get closer, then,” Hilo suggested.
They began to walk down the other side of the slope toward the fence. Before they could get far, half a dozen Green Bones pushed through the crowd, running up to the Pillar and dropping to their knees in the dirt before him. Not one of them appeared to be over the age of twenty-five. “Kaul-jen,” gasped a young woman with dyed orange hair and a jade nose ring, “we’re all fairly worthless members of the clan—my friend and I are junior Fingers who used our vacation days to join the protest, my other friend here is a Luckbringer, and I don’t know about these other two—but we’re all ready to obey you.”
“No Green Bone of No Peak is worthless,” Hilo said, smiling at their youthful enthusiasm.
Four additional strangers stepped forward together out of the crowd and saluted warily. “Kaul-jen,” said one of the men. “We’re Green Bones of the Mountain, but we’re all Kekonese first and foremost. We’ll stand with you against the foreigners, if you’ll allow us. Our Pillar hasn’t ordered us to do otherwise.”
Hilo nodded. He wasn’t surprised that Ayt Mada remained silent on the Euman Standoff, since she was secretly in the process of buying Anorco outright. “Bring any weapons you have,” he commanded the gathered Green Bones. “Your most important task is to protect the people here from harm. Otherwise, obey whatever my Horn and Fists tell you to do. Understand?” They all saluted Hilo and assured him that they did.
Hilo and his warriors approached the fence surrounding the Anorco facility, trailed by the additional Green Bones and an enormous crowd of excited people, including many driving slowly in vehicles, waving signs and flags. Summer rain began to fall. The warm, heavy drops struck uncovered heads and splattered the hoods of the cars.
Vin’s stride slowed, his gaze unfocused. “There are at least thirtytwo people in that facility, Kaul-jen,” he said. “I can’t Perceive all the way to the other side of the property, so I might have missed a few. I think most of them are security personnel, but not all of them are wearing jade. I’ve picked out eighteen jade auras in total.”
“Eighteen’s not too bad,” Hilo said. “But not too good either, when they all have rifles and body armor and are already upset.”
Although his own Perception was not as superb as Vin’s from this distance, he could sense the crackling apprehension emanating from the GSI soldiers guarding the fence, and he could see them with their R5 rifles held at the ready as the wave of vehicles and bodies flowed toward them.
One of the guards shouted at them through a bullhorn, first in Espenian, then in barely understandable Kekonese. “Stop! You’re approaching private property. Stay where you are or we will open fire. You’ve been warned!”
Lott said to the Pillar, with a hint of apprehension, “We don’t have enough Green Bones with us to take out all those guards, much less capture the facility.”
“We don’t need to do either of those things.” Hilo stopped at the point where he could Perceive the anxiety of the guards starting to crest, their fingers sliding toward the triggers of their raised rifles as he came near two hundred meters of the fence. The Pillar turned to face the line of protestors who’d followed him like an army. He spread his arms, throwing a slow, shallow Deflection that rippled outward, nudging those in the front row with a firm but gentle pressure. They came to a halt.
“What do we do now, Kaul-jen?” asked Hami Yasu.
“We wait. Shouldn’t be long.” Hilo lifted his gaze to the sky. The wind was picking up. It lashed his face with rain, forcing him to squint as he stared into the clouds. The gathered mass of protestors milled about impatiently, talking among themselves, but they didn’t venture past the point where the Pillar stood.
The sound of a helicopter rose in the distance, then grew louder as it approached. Right on time. The clan’s White Rats embedded inside GSI had been earning their keep.
Hilo motioned Lott and his Fists over and explained what he wanted them to do. They nodded, none of them showing any surprise or uncertainty. When Hilo said, “Hami-jen, your father tells me that your Lightness is excellent,” the Fist looked abashed and humbly promised he would do his best.