"My goal for all four of you," said Bean, "is for you to walk out of there uninjured. There's no chance of that if you start shooting, for any reason. That's why none of you is going to carry a loaded weapon."
They looked at him as if he were insane.
"I'm not going in there unarmed," said one of the other men.
"Fine," said Bean. "Then there'll be one less. He didn't say I had to bring five."
"Technically," said Peter to the other sharpshooter, "you won't be unarmed. Just unloaded. So they'll treat you as if did have bullets, because they won't know you don't."
"I'm a soldier, not a sap," said the man, and he walked away.
"Anybody else?" said Bean.
In answer, the other sharpshooter took the full clip out of his weapon, popped out the bullets one by one, and then ejected the first bullet from the chamber.
"I don't carry a weapon anyway," said the doctor.
"Don't need a loaded pistol to carry a bomb," said the hazardist.
With a slim plastic .22-caliber pistol already tucked into the back of his pants, Bean was now the only person in his party with a loaded gun.
"I guess we're ready to go," said Bean.
It was a dazzling tropical morning as they stepped through the gate into the east garden. Birds in all the trees ranted their calls as if they were trying to memorize something and just couldn't get it to stick. There was not a soul in sight.
Bean wasn't going to wander around searching for Achilles. He definitely wasn't going to get far from the gate. So, about ten paces in, he stopped. So did the others.
And they waited.
It didn't take long. A soldier in the Hegemony uniform stepped out into the open. Then another, and another, until the fifth soldier appeared.
Suriyawong.
He gave no sign of recognition. Rather he looked right past both Bean and Peter as if they were nothing to him.
Achilles stepped out behind them--but stayed close to the trees, so he wouldn't be too easy a target for sharpshooters. He was carrying, as promised, a small transport fridge.
"Bean," he said with a smile. "My how you've grown."
Bean said nothing.
"Oh, we aren't in a jesting mood," he said. "I'm not either, really. It's almost a sentimental moment for me, to see you again. To see you as a man. Considering I knew you when you were this high."
He held out the transport fridge. "Here they are, Bean."
"You're just going to give them to me?"
"I don't really have a use for them. There weren't any takers in the auction."
"Volescu went to a lot of trouble to get these for you," said Bean.
"What trouble? He bribed a guard. Using my money."
"How did you get Volescu to help you, anyway?" asked Bean.
"He owed me," said Achilles. "I'm the one who got him out of jail. I got our brilliant Hegemon here to give me authority to authorize the release of prisoners whose crimes had ceased to be crimes. He didn't make the connection that I'd be releasing your creator into the wild." Achilles grinned at Peter.
Peter said nothing.