CHAPTER 6

The temperature dropped until it was just above freezing, the chilling wind nipping harshly at her face. Zoë zipped up her jacket and pulled her gloves tighter, raising the binoculars to survey the ranch again. Serenity was tucked safely in the north field, surrounded by all the herds. The Qian Chung ship, Talisman, landed just beyond the southwest pasture, making no effort to hide their presence. Two barns set in the south and west fields flanked the path to the ship, offering cover and blind spots. She could see the soldiers (were they soldiers?) spilling out of the Talisman and dispersing around the property. A ship that size wouldn’t have the manpower to surround them. For once, Zoë felt they had the advantage, having the best cover on the open range. To enter, they’d have to breach the field in open run.

Mama Reynolds circled the roof, looking to the southeast, talking into the comm. “Keep low, Dekker. Pick ‘em off slowly. We ain’t manned for war.”

Mal trotted up the stairs to the roof and came to her side, his browncoat flapping in the wind. “Zoë, report.”

“They landed in the southwest field. Looks like they’re setting a perimeter.”

“Right near the water pump,” Mal grumbled.

“Son, you ain’t the only one made an enemy of the Qian Chung. You coulda hid anywhere and they’d come here just because it’s in the neighborhood,” Mama Reynolds informed, pulling out a small cross from a chain around her neck and kissing it. Zoë remembered Mal carrying such a cross in their war days.

“They’ll probably take out the pump first, try to dry us out,” Mal reflected.

“This ain’t a war, sir. It’s an extraction. They won’t wait for us to run dry. And they won’t start firing till they’re on the way out.”

“Most like, they’ll try the Southeast passage,” Mama Reynolds spoke up. “That roll on the hill makes a blind spot from here.”

“You got men there?”

“Dekker and about five others.”

“They got a flare in case there’s trouble?”

Mama Reynolds didn’t answer right away. Finally she said, “Son, by t