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"We sail under no colors but our own. A phrase the ancient sea pirates used to use," Doc added when Cho turned toward him.
"Exactly." Cho might be seeing other ships move out through known space under his colors, under his command, but command wasn't like control. "You two need a drink."
Nat gri
"I know what I said!" He wiped the grin off her face with his tone. "Now I'm saying get out there and find out what the fuk Big Bill is up to. Something this big, there has to be someone who can't keep their mouth shut."
"Someone who knows what's going on." Nat nodded. "Loose lips in our favor. So, we won't be actually drinking then?"
"You'll keep your fukking mouths shut." Huirre had hit his bunk and couldn't keep his mouth shut besides, Krisk was a brilliant engineer and a useless shit if dragged from the engine room, but the di'Taykan… "Find Dysun and Almon, make sure they know they're to be listening during sex, not talking. I'm sending the code to get back in the docks to your slates, don't fukking lose it. And you all stay away from ex-Gu
"Once," Doc murmured, closing the equipment drawer and activating the lock. "That's a fight I'd like to see. "You're very quiet," Big Bill said as they crossed the Hub.
Mapping alternative routes from the docking arm to the Second Star, Torin unclenched her teeth. He'd said nothing after she'd caught up to him at the hatch; it wasn't like she'd been ignoring his conversation.
They skirted a mixed group yelling profanity at a large vid screen showing the Dar peed finals on the Taykan home world. Torin had watched the finals on Paradise. With her family. And Craig.
"You must have questions, Gu
The distinctive sound of half a dozen or so di'Taykan working out logistics drifted down from an upper level. Torin pitched her voice under the argument. "Neither the time nor the place."
"You think this lot…" Big Bill's gesture included both the seen and the unseen. Those behind bulkheads in the pubs and the shops and the pleasure palaces as well as those actually out in the Hub, drinking, dealing, and fighting. "… hangs on our every word?"
It took every moment of every year of experience to plant a gu
Big Bill laughed as he stepped over a Krai lying in a puddle of mixed blood and vomit. The sound sent a ripple of imitation laughter through the Hub. "All right, then. We've covered that we're both smarter than we look." He paused and raised his voice only little. "Can we get this mess cleaned up before the stink adds to the load on the ventilators? Remember you pay extra for repairs."
The vertical smelled of unwashed bodies. Torin hung onto a rising strap and listened to Big Bill greet everyone who passed. No one seemed too thrilled by the attention although everyone did a reasonable job of faking it. About half of them recognized her, which made a station full of thieves and murderers more observant than the general public.
When they got back to the outer office, the Grr brothers were still watching news vids. This time, only one screen had anything to do with her. Both Krai looked up as she entered, stood as Big Bill came in, and headed out into the station as soon as the hatch was clear.
Torin saw no hand signals. Big Bill and the Grr brothers had implants, then. But Big Bill wouldn't want his conversations recorded by the station-too much risk-so there had to be a way of opting out. A way for her to be in contact with Craig. Ressk would know.
"So." Big Bill settled in behind his desk and smiled up at her. He didn't look like a man heading into his second 28-hour day. Maybe he didn't sleep on the station's day/night schedule. "Your best guess as to the armory's contents."
No reason not to tell him, Torin acknowledged silently. He'd never get a chance to use the weapons. The way Craig saw it, he now had a few options.
He had somewhere to go if he made a run for it. He'd made it from medical out of the ship to the storage pod; he could make it to Torin. Now he knew she was on the station, now they weren't watching him so closely-or at all-he could get to her.
Except there was a chance that Nadayki could crack the seal in the eleven hours he'd claimed-the kid was almost as good as he thought he was. Once the armory was open, Craig didn't trust Cho not to siphon off guns immediately regardless of what Big Bill's plans were.
If that happened, Torin had to know.
The farther the guns got from the armory, the harder they'd be to destroy or remove or whatever Torin pla
As much as he wanted to be anywhere else, anywhere Torin was, he had to stay here with the Heart to keep an eye on things.
Torin's eyes inside. Undercover work.
"What are you smiling about?" Nadayki demanded petulantly.
"Grown-up stuff." He hadn't realized he'd been smiling.
"Fuk you."
"Missed our chance, kid."
Problem: if Cho started moving the weapons, how did he let Torin know?
The only thing Torin had been able to tell him in that first instant of contact was that the implants were tapped. He didn't know how the fuk that was even possible, although Nadayki might, but he had to respect the importance of information given top billing over everything else she'd wanted to say. Over everything he'd seen on her face.
No matter how frustrating it might be. Torin attracted more overt attention crossing the Hub back to the Star than she had crossing the other way with Big Bill. No surprise. He was a known factor. She had yet to define her place. If she were staying, if she were pla
The pair of di'Taykan watching her from over by the verticals, the Krai and Human on the bench by the kiosk selling cumot'd-on-a-bun, and the Human crossing diagonally from her, laden down with boxes-even a cursory sweep identified them as having spent at least one contract in the Corps. The ex-Navy were a little harder to spot, but the three Krai who'd paused to stare before going through the hatch into one of the bars, definitely.
Ex-military had specific responses to senior NCOs conditioned in, but the ex-military on this station had you're not the boss of me shoved so far up their collective asses it had impacted on their thinking. Yet another parallel between the pirates and the CSOs.
Because the ex-military thought they knew what she was, they'd see to it that the first challenger wouldn't be a loser with more balls than brains but would be handpicked to beat her.
Wouldn't happen.
The first fight would also be the last fight. Fear would give her the control she needed; respect could come later.
If she were staying. If she were she pla
If Big Bill hadn't decided to wait until the armory was open to a
In a just universe, she'd be accosted by another drunk declaring she didn't look like such hot shit, but although they were staring, the scum in the Hub were giving her a wide berth.
Recent events, she decided, reaching the decompression door un-accosted and digging her thumbnail into the gray plastic trim, had proved that the universe was anything but just.
"An armory? Intact?" Mashona swung her legs out over the edge of the bunk and sat up, her gaze never leaving Torin. "Fuk."