"Why can't we just murder the creep once we lift off? We can dump his body into the sun and keep going."
Ideena's voice would have etched steel. "Baris, you idiot. If we do that how are we going to find out where this clan is?"
"Who says we need that particular clan?"
"I do. If we get picked up for any reason before we're clear, well, we're just innocent traders accepting a hired collection job. We had no idea what the man was doing. When we found out, we were out over the desert in a copter filled with his men. You get us new IDs in some unlisted name before we lift. If they run us they find nothing. If they run Cregar they get..."
It was clear that a great light was dawning on Baris. "Oh, I see. That's clever of you, Ideena. They'll get his record and then they'll believe us."
"Riiight," Ideena drawled. "So we dump him after we score and get clear. He thinks we're going in without listing him as a passenger, but we do more, we list him as having hired us. If nothing does go wrong Dedran will likely pay well to have these animals back even if Cregar doesn't come with them. Just see to it that Cregar can't steal the ship and we'll make out like pirates."
"What do you mean 'like pirates'? We are pirates." There was a lot of chuckling and Cregar removed the receiver. He took a small flat object from his belt, set several buttons, hooked it back, and strolled into the port crowds again. He'd let the recorder pick up anything else they said for a while, and he'd play it back every few hours. But Baris and Ideena would be busy most of the day. It would be later when they had their errands out of the way that what they said might have some bearing on him again.
He reported back to Dedran. "They're not intending to do anything until we leave Arzor. But I need a clean ID for myself and a set of theirs with their true identities. I'll plant theirs somewhere half smart. If we get picked up by any authorities I'll be clean and it'll be that pair who'll have to be answering questions."
He smirked. "There's times when I can hardly keep track of who's double-crossing who in this game. Hang on a moment." He activated the recorder and listened. "Nothing, just supplier trading. Listen, we'll be using their ship to get to Arzor and do the grab on the animals. One thing Baris and Ideena will do is try to fix their ship so I can't lift off on my own without them. Any ideas how they might be able to do that?"
Dedran considered. "Nothing you shouldn't be able to counter if you drop them at some stage and can pick over them and their gear for any lockchip. They'd probably use one of those to freeze their ship's controls. But if you have to make a run for it and lose them..." He thought. "Take an all-purpose memorychip. If they take a chip out of the navigationcomp the ship won't lift. Or if they run a null program to keep the programming wiped. Put a memorychip in and it bypasses the null program or the lack of a proper chip."
Cregar nodded. "Sounds okay. But keep thinking. I'll see you before I lift. If I don't come back neither do your animals." He didn't have to mention that if the authorities collected him because Baris and Ideena had been able to dump Cregar first, then if Cregar was still alive he'd have no reason not to talk to the Arzoran authorities and save his own skin. If he gave them someone higher up the chain they'd give him immunity and a new ID. He'd talk selectively of course. Enough to have them out looking for Dedran the mastermind.
Not enough to encourage a guild contract. But that would still leave Dedran doing several lifetimes—depending on the planet which caught him and for what. Some had the death penalty for many of Dedran's activities. And Dedran had no one farther up the chain he could talk about. Too many of those were heavy into the guild, who'd forcibly resent it. Not that Cregar had to say any of this, he didn't have to, it was what Dedran would do if he was the one caught first. His smile was bitter—what a life. Turn in your companion before he turned you in. Trust no one, make no friends, never stay long in any place. How had he come to this?
Cregar spent much of the day on the move, but he sat in to watch the afternoon show. It went well and the crowd stood to applaud at the end. Judging by the number of people turned away at the door, Dedran would be able to stay here for weeks without suspicion. He checked out the recorder as he checked back with the circus boss. Neither had any more worth hearing. Cregar headed toward the ramp, then halted.
There was one other thing which bothered him. But there wasn't much he could do about it. He turned away and stood looking indecisively into the animal hold. At the far side he could see the girl grooming a tigerbat. They'd be setting up for the evening show soon. Cregar cursed in a soft, tired voice. He was a fool. But he trusted Laris more than he did any other person, and she'd warned him. He'd understood her earlier comment to him about the natives, they weren't quite as passive as the ship's library made them out to be. With that warning in mind he'd added a precaution or two for his trip into the clan lands.
Dedran had talked recently about his plans for the child. Here on Lereyne they had the arenas as they had on several other worlds. In them, beasts fought for their lives. On Lereyne the sport was frowned upon socially although it was not illegal. However, the nonacceptance meant that it was very difficult to acquire good beast trainers. Dedran would like to sell Laris for that purpose, unless her bond expired before he could do so, or the child found enough credit to escape. And if she thought what he would tell her now was only about money—the child was as honest as she could be with Dedran as bond-master.
He caught her eye and signaled her to come to him in silence. She obeyed, then stood listening as he spoke in the camp slang he'd learned in low ports, using a very soft, carefully blurred voice. None could lip-read that or even pick it up understandably with a wall bug or directional mike.
"If I don't come back, I gotta a stash 'a credits. Want you ter have them. They behind a panel, room next t' mine." He gave swift directions and waited to see she understood.
"Why'n me?"
"If 'n I don't need them 'ny more what matter. Take 'em and get out. Swear oath, no touchin' 'til it's sure I'm gone. Then use 'em to leave. Oke?"
She met his eyes firmly. "Swear oath," the same carefully blurred voice repeated. She put out a shy hand and brushed her fingertip over his arm. "You'm take care 'n thanks." She was gone, back to her tigerbat grooming and Cregar was left shaking a little. He forced calm and left without meeting Dedran. He found himself wondering, if he'd stayed in the service, if he'd married, if he'd had a daughter, would she have been like that one?
He hoped so. Then he scoffed at himself. He was getting soft in his old age. Laris was just another camp brat, but—she was better than most. The girl had warned him, risking the circus boss's anger if he'd heard that, and Cregar had heard her tell Dedran earlier that Cregar was a fine trainer. Something inside of him was warm remembering her words. Let the kid get out if she had the chance; if he went down on this trip his credits would be no use to him anyway.
He turned into the street where the shop should have his requirements, his thoughts returning to the circus. If Laris stayed there Dedran would fake an open bond and sell the child to be a beast trainer for one of the arenas. She would fight that—and her new owners—and be broken, something he didn't wish to happen. He put it all out of his mind as he entered the store and settled to bargain for one of the all-purpose shipchips. They came high and he wasn't wasting credit.
Fortunately he didn't have to. Lereyne was a fishing planet with a number of ports—and all the shops which catered to them. On the huge inland sea there were canneries, fish-drying factories, and a host of fishing boats, along with the people who worked on the boats and in the factories. The volume of foreign cargo ships which ported on Lereyne not only made it an excellent place to stop for a circus, it also made it a good place to buy small, normally high-cost, portable items. Cregar bought an all-purpose secondhand shipchip for a price which made his smile stay in place all the time he searched for Baris.