Her face burned. "I ain't stupid, Moghi."
"Now you and me ain't talked since you was a kid.
Lord, first time I saw you, you went round in them baggy pants with that cap down round your ears—your ma lately dead; and I set you up with old Hafiz, didn't I? He didn't want to deal with no kid, had this feller all set up to do that job—some fellow going to do things a bit on old Hafiz' side, huh? And I told you then—what'd I tell you, Jones?"
"Said if I wasn't smarter that man'd send me to the bottom."
Moghi chuckled, a heave of massive shoulders. "I tell you, Jones, long as I had you or your ma running my barrels, ain't never worried 'bout the count on 'em. You got good sense. You still got it?"
"I hope I do."
"Pays your debts?"
"You know I do."
"Anything comes under this roof is business, Jones. I got a rule. You know what I say about my men and manners under this roof? If Ali out there ever laid a hand to you I'd kill him. Flat. I'd kill him. He knows that. Now I got to tell you: if you laid one to him, I'd kill you. You know why? 'Cause you work for me. You ain't on salary, but it's all the same. I don't want no team-ups with my employees unless they come to me and ask proper. Mad lovers get spiteful. And a man hi my business don't need nobody spiteful going talking outside. You understand me? I ain't talking to no kid anymore."
"I understand you."
"When I want a woman, I go over to eastside. I never bring no woman here. I never make no move at a woman who works for me. So I'm talking to you like you was my daughter. I tell you if you been stupid and brought somebody here because he's got you thinking all skewed, what you got to do is tell me, and I forget anything you owe me, so don't think about the money. You just let me have him. You got to think, Jones, you got to go on living here, and by living I mean if we get trouble I'll find you."
Her hands wanted to tremble. She shoved her right into her pocket and came up with one of the gold sols. Laid it on the desk in front of him.
Moghi picked it up, rubbed it in his fingers. Looked at her with no expression at all.
"He's business," Altair said. "Man upstairs is business."
"What kind of business?*'
"Not the kind you're thinking, dammit, Moghi! You know me." She tossed off a gesture toward his hands and the sol. "You tell me what the rate is, eastside. You hand out that kind of money for a night?"
Moghi's heavy brows lifted. "For what, then?"
"Gratitude. Keeping the gangs off him. Getting him here alive. This is money, Moghi. This is more damn money than I ever saw, and maybe connections."
"Maybe a throat cut." Moghi hammered the coin edge into the desktop. "You think on that, girl?"
"Jones. Jones, Moghi; and I'm damn tired of scraping by. You think I'd risk my boat for some man wanted to pay me for a night? Damn, I'd gut him. I got this to spend. I got better prospects 'n I ever had. So I come to a man I trust like kin, a man who might as well have good of this money I got to spend—"
"—and uptown trouble."
"Uptown trouble and uptown friends, Moghi, one goes with the other."
Moghi's eyes half-lidded in their fleshy pits. "You think you're up to that?"
"First time you saw me, you give me two silvers and told me you were betting I'd get back alive with those barrels off Hafiz' dock. That's a sol come out of my pocket to yours this morning. You tell me, Moghi."
Moghi sat and turned that big gold coin round and round and round against the desktop; and Altair's heart thumped away with every turn and every blink of his dark eyes.
"I tell you," said Moghi finally, "that two silvers I lent? I was betting another way. I was getting that man Hafiz hired'd kill you; and I was going to put the word out he'd robbed a courier of mine and he'd turn up dead. Be rid of old Hafiz' hire-on, I would, I was surprised as hell when you turned up with them barrels at the porch."
She grinned Moghi's grin back at him. Never you back up with that bastard, her mother used to say about Moghi. And added: Never you cross 'im either.
"Now, Moghi, you bet on sure things, don't you? One way he'd kill me; or I'd kill him or I'd dodge him and you'd put old Hafiz one down. One or the other. Now you got that sol there says here's an old employee come into money, and if the thing goes right there's all kinds of money to be had; and if it goes wrong, there ain't any stink on you or this place."
"Sure I don't smell smoke?"
Her heart near stopped. Lie to Moghi? Same as drinking Det water. She was quiet a long moment and then leaned forward, arms folded on his desk edge.
"They got the smoke-stink," she said. "Him and me—we didn't come anywhere near there."
"Word's out someone's asking after a blond man."
"Who?"
"Dunno. They got money. They ain't the regular gangs. Strangers. I might find out. Who saw you here?"
"Nobody saw us go to your door."
"How'd he get to the Ventani?"
"Mintaka Fahd. In the hidey."
Moghi's brows went up. Dangerously.
"Wasn't what I'd like either," Altair said. "But who'd get a straight story out of her? I told her a dozen. Told her we was going eastside."
"If there's rumors," Moghi said.
"Moghi, I got to tell you something. You know what they did, those enemies of his, they flung him right off Fishmarket Stair, slunk right along the Grand and up that stair and off they flung him, right by your porch out there. Now you didn't do that. I knew that right off. You'd have 'im to the harbor… if you was ever to do such a thing. So here's somebody who don't know you so well, to be flinging bodies off the Ventani, right under your windows, I'd think you'd take real bad to that kind of thing."
"My porch."
"I was right out there-" She pointed canalward. "Missed that barrel pickup. Well, that was the night. You c'n ask your potboy. Tommy never opened that door. And I haul this poor wet soul out of the river. Mind, I don't bring him here, no. Not then. I'd save a drowning man and set him on the bank. But I wouldn't bring just anybody in here. Wouldn't have 'im to that room. He's got friends."
"Like who?"
"Gallandrys."
Another lifting of the eyebrows and a settling of the face. "Gallandrys've been arrested."
Her stomach wrenched over.
"Little matter of a fire," Moghi said. "Little matter of a barge done took out Mars Bridge and sunk in the Port, that's all. Was you there?"
"You know we were. I want my boat, Moghi. I want everything you know might be stirring uptown."
"Dammit, they arrested the Gallandrys and somebody broke into Boregy and Malvino while the fire was going on. Killed three people in Boregy and one in Malvino. My porch. My porch. Now this can get expensive, Jones."
"Took me a while to think what to do. Man can take care of himself, Moghi, man ain't no fool. Neither am I."
"Going to be expensive."
"I figured."
"You got a down-payment here." The sol made another turn in his thick fingers. "And, Jones, I'm a sentimental man. I'd really hate for you to make a mistake."
"Hey, if I'm wrong you tell me and we'll talk about it."
"If you're wrong," Moghi said, "just one way you'll find it out. You ain't running brandy barrels now, Jones. You ain't my employee anymore, you're talking a whole different kind of business. You're talking big fees. Gang business. You're in it, now, Jones, Me, I just sell beer and rent rooms. People make me trouble they don't come back here." He leaned back and slipped the coin into his pocket. "I hear a lot of things. I might find that boat of yours."