"Maybe same-want you to have."
"You knew gods-be well we'd have to go to mahen authority to read it? You by the gods knew we'd have to run to your side when it got hot-we'd be held to being your courier again, that's what you knew, that's what you set us up for, rot your conniving, doublecrossing hide?"
He lay there and blinked at her.
"Was it because you thought something might happen to you, Jik? Or did you already plan to do what Goldtooth did for you here at Kefk? Blow the docks and run and leave me to get anywhere I gods-blessed could, with your confounded message? Was it you who gave Goldtooth the orders to break dock?"
"Hani, you got damn nasty mind."
"I'm dead serious, Jik."
"You crazy." He gave a wrench at the restraints. "Damn, Pyanfar?! walk fine."
"Answer me."
"What you think, I run out on you, leave you talk to kif? / on that damn dock myself!''
"You weren't in the zone that blew! That's by the gods close timing, Jik!"
"I not do!"
"Didn't you? I think you knew with Chur sick I wasn't free to run for it. That it'd kill her and I wouldn't move if I had a chance in your coldest hell. Goldtooth gave us that med unit-fine, so I could run. You gave me that gods-be packet back at Mkks before we knew we'd find him here-you gave it in case something happened to you, a packet we'd have to take to mahen authorities. And what does it talk about? People reneging on agreements, that's what; it talks about contingencies, talks about supporting some candidacy-whose? Sikkukkut's? What agreements?"
"Sikkukkut. Same. You know agreement."
"You're lying, Jik. By the gods, you show up at Kshshti and help me out of one mess, then you help me all the way here, deeper and deeper you helped me, you and your godsforsaken partner, you and your gods-be deals-"
''I come out on that dock save you damn neck!''
"Where were you planning to ditch us? Where, huh? Here? Or later, at Meetpoint? Where was it I was supposed to find this gods-be packet was the only currency I had, where was I supposed to go? Kshshti? Back through kif territory, get my ship and my crew shot up one more time, end up on mahen-charity because there's no gods-be help else when you've got through using me and mine for every gods-be gods-rotted piece of mahen politics you've got going? Or maybe I get to Meetpoint and find you'll drop me to politic with the stsho to save them from the kif-some mahen squeeze play, throw one kif at them from Kefk, another from Kita and Kshshti, catch them between your ships and the humans and haul the whole gods-be Compact into your lap, with me and the han left the way you left us the last time, out in the cold with our ships shot up, our station in ruins, and nothing this time to do but come crawling to your gods-be charity! Is that the way your favors go? Am I what you think you're buying with this little packet that tells your authorities how to deal with me?"
''I not do!'' Jik fell back from a convulsive shout, breathing hard, and they stared at each other for a moment.
"Then who's this Ghost? What's the rest of it?"
Silence. Jik only stared and breathed.
"It's another doublecross. Isn't it? They've threatened my world, you hear me?''
He blinked. That was all.
"Gods rot you-" She snatched the paper from her pocket and waved it in his face. "What's this thing mean? What's this gods-be message worth if the humans doublecross you?" And when his mouth only clamped the tighter: "Jik-"
"My nose itch, Pyanfar." Quietly. With full self-possession. And when she lost the breath to shout with: "Damn miserable, Pyanfar, damn ridic'lous situation, you and me. You come get me. Now what we do? What you think do?"
She took the paper and folded it, absorbed in that meticulous task.
"You got too good heart deal with kif," Jik said.
"What's our choice? What gods-be choice have we got? Your whole plan's blown up, we've got the Compact coming apart around our ears-"
"Same you, me, a?" He made a grimace, blinked sweat and strained to see her. "What we do, a? How far we want go, you, me?"
"I don't know." She shoved the message into her pocket and leaned into his view, close, ears flat and a shaking in her knees. "How far do I go, huh, Jik? How far'd you go? This
mess you put in motion is threatening to take my world out. We talk about friendship now? We talk about what you'd do in mahendo'sat interests? About two mahen bastards who'd doublecross every friend they got, all for the Personage?"
"You want try drug next?"
"Don't push me."
"What we got, huh? Damn Anuurn hani sit and wait, good friend? You longtime got mind like rock, Pyanfar, whole damn han got own interest, let mahendo'sat fight kif pirate, let mane do, hani too damn busy make politic-"
"Why blame us? You created the han, take the poor hani bastards, teach 'em spaceflight, shove 'em into your own gods-rotted politics with the stsho, and to a mahen hell with the clans-"
"What you want? Sit on world, be sit there when politic in the Compact roll over you heads like wave in the sea? Be sit there when kif eat our heart and come find hani? Maybe all time you like sit on world, Pyanfar, maybe you get old, want go sit in damn dirt and wait for kif?"
"So what d'we get? The kif or you?"
"You got choice."
"Gods blast you!"
"If we want you damn world, Pyanfar, we one time got, first time we land on Anuurn you got nothing but point' sticks. You forget? You ask us leave, we go."
"Sure, you went. You never turned loose of us. Manipulate our trade, shape our government, let us here and let us there and don't let us get beyond ourselves-"
"Fine. You make fine deal. Maybe you like kif lot better. Wish you luck, Pyanfar. Or you got trust me-"
"Trust you!"
"Damn, you come, I crazy drunk, talk kif, you say; I do, I do, Pyanfar, I got so much trust in you, I do. All diff rent, you say; got human louse things up, got bad trouble-'Talk, Jik: tell the kif what he want, I get you out-' God! what kind fool I be with trust?"
"I should let you loose on my ship? Let you loose with my crew? Jik, I got you out of there. I did that for you. If you trusted me you'd tell me what's in this paper, but you won't do that. You can't do that, and I know why, like you know why I don't dare let you go. I've got to survive. I have to stay alive in this gods-rotted mess you handed me. I've got to hold a position where I can still do something. You understand me? I'm going to do something."
"I tell you paper." Jik's voice came faintly, almost inaudible. "You know mahendo'sat-know I got power to make agreement for my Personage. I make now-with you. With hani."
"Same as you make with Sikkukkut, huh? Same as you make with Akkhtimakt and set them at each other's throats."
"Same I keep. Same I give him Kefk, same I fight with. You same know mahendo'sat. I keep agreement. I don't say Personage keep. But-" Jik blinked again and licked his lips, eyes lively as if he had already won his point. "-if. you get this kif, we got deal with you fair, a?"
"Tell me the paper."
"Let go first."
"Oh, no, friend. You listen to me. You listen good. We're going out of here, going to come kiting blind into whatever you set up over at Meetpoint, and Kesurinan's going in there on my directions. It's your ship. Your crew. I'd think you'd be a little concerned."