Julia nodded and stepped forward enfolding Rene in a hug. Rene returned it awkwardly until she released him and hugged Solae in turn. Damaris repeated her mother's action, gripping so hard that it would have been painful if she were full grown. The upper orders eschewed physical contact on most occasions and despite circumstances the peasants forthright physicality was still a little uncomfortable. 

Damaris wiped the tears from her eyes and smile, trying to put on brave face on the departure. It must seem to the girl like something from a holodrama. Being swept out to sea in a great storm, marooned on an island, meeting a beautiful princess from the stars. Rene supposed that when you thought of it in those terms it did sound exciting. Damaris had a child's view of it, she hadn’t been on the starship when it hurtled into the storm, or woken up in a cage stinking of fluorine worried that the person that she loved was in mortal peril. Rene found that he envied her.

The night was still black when Tychon, Solae and Rene set out. The streets weren’t as deserted as might be imagined. The throbbing wings of the jumpers had roused others from their sleep. To the people of San Roayo, the aircraft represented help, the knowledge that they weren't alone on a world which had savaged them. To Rene the knowledge that they weren’t alone was less than comforting. Men from the capital meant men which might be hunting for them, certainly it meant people who would recognise Solae’s hair, and the oddity would be enough to make them stop and look closer.

The warehouse was in darkness when they arrived. Tychon had shut off all the light before they left the previous afternoon, to ensure that there was no reason for any curious passersby to stop in an potentially discover Vitger. This district was almost completely dark, there were few residences and no one to stir by the arrival of the jumpers. Rene thanked the stars for small mercies. They carried small hand torches which illuminated the street with cones of light. Rene’s skin prickled unpleasantly, his instincts told him that they were making targets of themselves, that gunmen need only fire on the points of light, but that was the training talking and it wasn’t a useful response here.

“I’ll get the boat ready,” Tychon offered as they stepped into the office, his feet clinking on the fallen needles that had gone wide in Vitger’s attempt to take them captive. Rene nodded his head, the fisherman was far better qualified for the task, and he had one of his own to perform.

“I’ll speak to Vitger,” Rene declared. Solae looked at him, though he wasn’t exactly sure what the expression on her face meant. They had made the decision to let him live, but they had responsibilities to Damaris and her family too. It wasn’t going to be pleasant, but it had to be done.

The door of the shipping container was still locked and bolted. Rene had been afraid that Vitger might have somehow escaped or been rescued even though he knew that was vanishingly unlikely. It swung open easily and the acrid scent flowed out, mixed with the rank stink of human waste. The beam of Rene’s light illuminate Vitger who huddled in the corner to the extend his bonds allowed. The man had soiled himself and tried to shield his face from the sudden, and doubtlessly painful, light. He had soiled himself and he looked half mad with fear. It must have been terrible to wake up in the dark unable to move and with no way of knowing if anyone would ever come back for you. Rene wasn’t a cruel man and he had to remind himself that both Solae and Damaris’ family were depending on him.

Vitger moaned as Rene climbed into the container armed only with a spray can of adhesive removal agent. The merchant shrunk back from him but Rene seized him by the shirt and sprayed his taped mouth with the dispenser. There was an oddly sweet scent as the bonding agent decayed and then Rene ripped the cargo tape from his mouth.

“Please… please don’t kill me,” Vitger blubbered. Rene shoved him back against the container wall, hard enough to smack his head against the insulated plastic.

“Shut up,” he commanded, his voice cold, haughty and commanding. The stink made his stomach churn and bile rose to the back of his throat.

“Look I’ll give you anything… just…” Vitger whined.

“Shut. Up.” Rene repeated and Vitger quailed before him though he couldn’t physically shrink away. 

“If you do exactly as we say you will survive,” Rene told him flatly.

“Yes! Any…” Vitger cut off as Rene shoved him hard against the wall again.

“Close your mouth and listen,” Rene growled.

“In a few hours Tychon is going to release you,” Rene told him in a flat matter of fact tone. Vitger sobbed with what might have been relief.

“If you ever tell anyone what happened here, the authorities are going to find somethings in your files that won't go well for you. Maybe they eventually believe you, but not until after the interrogators are done with you,” Rene explained. Imperial interrogation techniques were harsh though they weren’t needlessly cruel. What a rebel duke desperate for answers might do Rene didn’t want to think about.

“You can’t do that! You are just a rebel!” Vitger sputtered desperately. For the first time in the conversation Rene felt his anger rise. Vitger wasn’t an evil man, perhaps not even a disloyal one, he genuinely believed that Rene and Solae were rebels, but he was a worm and Rene felt the injustice of the situation attach to the whimpering merchant like a lamprey. 

“Not that it matters,” Rene responded, his voice as chill and clipped as asteroid ice.

“But I am the highest ranking military official on this world. The woman you were fantasizing about is an Imperial Ambassador. As far as you are concerned Vitger, she is the Empress Mercedez Viatrente herself!” Rene snapped his fingers digging into Vitger’s shoulder like pincers.

“And if I were you Vitger, I’d pray for the good health of Tychon and his family, because we will be back here, and if any when we come back, if anything has happened to them, if so much as one hair on anyone of their heads has been harmed, I swear by all the Stars I will find you and you will wish that the Duke’s Interrogators had gotten to you first!”

Rene ripped a strip of tape from his belt and slapped it back over the mans mouth, quieting his sobs. He stood and walked stiffly from the container, dropped from the end, and closed and locked the door. Adrenaline and bile churned in his stomach and he let his head rest against it for a moment. He wasn’t a cruel man, but he needed to be hard, hard enough to protect Solae.