It's illegal for me to work for foreign government, understand? Against the conventions!"
"You carry cargo government give."
"That's legal. Gods rot it, you know the distinction. You trade, what time you're not up to no good-"
"So you carry cargo." He lifted the packet. "Same legal."
"Look, look, Jik — old friend. They're looking for an excuse. They want find trouble, understand? You'll get us skinned, all of us."
"What choice got? Pyanfar, good friend, goes h choice. Packet got go."
"Send it with the tc'a!"
Ears flicked. "No." Short and sharp, a small flicker in the eyes that rang alarms. "Not number one good idea, Pyanfar."
More alarms. Methane-breathers, with their own interests. Tt'om'm'mu rearing up behind his glass, violet and murky phosphorescences.
"You come," Jik said. "Maybe better you be there, huh, stop stupid mahe say wrong thing these honest hani?"
"No! Absolutely no!" She got up, flung off across the bridge, waving her arms and dislodging Khym from her path. She looked back again. Jik still stood there with the packet in his hands and that Tully-look on his too-narrow mahen face.
"Pyanfar." He held up the envelope.
"No," she said.
"Chanur," the Ehrran said, Rhif, rising from a much-scarred and grimy chair.
KSHSHTI PORT AUTHORITY the office said on the outer door, in four different alphabets with letters missing.
CONFERENCE in three: the hani line had fallen off altogether and left only brighter paint behind, misspelled.
"Ehrran," Pyanfar said. And with a glance at the other hani captain in the narrow room:
"Ayhar." Jik closed the door behind them both and they were all alone with each other.
"You?" Ehrran asked of Jik. "The Personage send you here?"
"No," Jik said quietly, with unflappable good nature. "I ask Personage send you."
It shot straight through Ehrran's guard and Pyanfar got a quick furtive breath and swallowed it quick, straight-faced, watching the Ehrran's face.
Quick re-thinking, by the gods. Rhif Ehrran drew herself up, mouth not quite closed, and then it did close, and the Ehrran stared closely at this raffish-dressed mahe.
"Sit," Jik said, "captains, I ask you."
Pyanfar pursed her mouth and sat, watched first Banny Ayhar lower her portly self into a grimy seat and then fastidious Ehrran, who looked as if she had a mouthful of salt and no idea where to spit.
"What I got ask," Jik said, taking his own seat at the battered table, in this despicable little office, "what I got ask-" He laid the rumpled envelope on the table. "Need courier."
"Who needs?" The question got out past Ehrran's well-groomed mustaches. "I'd like to see some Signature, if you don't mind."
"A." Jik bent a lank wrist toward his kilt belt, deftly whipped up a small folder, spun it across the table. "That good?"
The Ehrran picked it up as if it had been charged, extruded claws to pull the two leaves apart, and read something there that brought her head up and her ears to level. She mutely flipped the holder closed and spun it back again. Jik replaced it.
"Know you," he said. "Rhif Ehrran. Where you course?"
"Han business."
"A. Maybe got same business lot trouble kif. Maybe got invoke treaty."
"Maybe you can get Chanur to do your work."
"Maybe invoke treaty. Need you, Ehrran."
Ehrran's eyes smoldered. One claw came out, traced a pattern on the tabletop, a clean green line amid the grime. "I've got business, mahe."
"So. Maybe got. I got. Got hani citizen with kif. Got hani shot up, a? No, I tell you, ker Ehrran. You in mahen space, inside mahen agreement-" Jik held up one blunt-clawed finger, forestalling a word from the Ehrran. "You here, a? I call other side treaty, got number-one emergency, got need ship run courier-"
"You want to buy other hani?"
"Gods rot-!" Pyanfar straightened and a dark-furred mahen arm landed slam! on the table between her and the Ehrran.
"I make request," Jik said. "Of-fi-cial, a? Treaty stuff. Now, we got cooperative agreement, agreement like I tell you, Ehrran. You got say yes, say no. You honor treaty?"
The ears were flat already, the fine fair nose rumpled, the eyes ruddy amber. "What do you want?"
"You on hunt. Tell you this hunt go Mkks."
"Mkks!"
"Mkks, hani. Got other thing Ayhar do." He shoved the packet skidding at Ayhar's startled grasp. "You got priority undock, captain. You got. You run damn fast. Know you. Know you, Banny Ayhar. You got lot year, lot smart. I know, huh?"
Ayhar's ears sank. Her eyes showed white rims. "Where?" Ayhar asked.
"Maing Tol."
Banny Ayhar drew the packet up in her hands, drew her mouth down taut, not without a shift of her eyes Ehrran's way. But Ehrran never looked. "No trouble," Ayhar said, all quiet.
"Good," Jik said. "You go. Go fast, ker Ayhar. You not talk, you not wait. Got six rny crew see you get car, see you car get ship. Dock crew already work get you out."
Ayhar stood up, the envelope still in her hands.
"You not open," Jik said.
"Gods be feathered if I want to," Ayhar muttered, and looked this way and that. . delayed then, with a look back. "Ker Pyanfar. You want that crewwoman ferried out?"
"No," said Jik ahead of anything. "You run. Run hard. Not ask why. You not got safety.
Not got choice."
"See here-" But it faded. Whatever Ayhar had meant to say faded out. She looked a moment at Jik and turned then, the envelope in her hands, and vanished out the door.
Ehrran had gained her feet, ears flat. "Chanur," she said, "out."
Pyanfar leaned back and fixed Ehrran with a cold stare. "I'll stay, thanks. I can sit proxy to Chanur's interests. Or is the mahen captain more privy to han business than a member is? I'm here to witness. Formally."
Ehrran drew a long, long breath, and her eyes were dark-centered. Perhaps she considered the recorders. "Kshshti's already had one security breach. . "
"My crew, my niece, my passenger, Ehrran. You want to talk to me about security breach-"
"We'll settle that. Elsewhere. This action of yours-" Ehrran looked at Jik, with no more pleasant face. "My course is Kefk."
Jik waved a loose, limp hand. "Now Mkks." The hand returned to his hip above the gun and rested there. "Ten, maybe twelve hour. You think got business Kefk. No. Lousy place, Kefk. You no go."
"To do what? To do what at Mkks?"
"You stay my tail, a? You dock left. Dock right, Chanur. Three number one bastard go take walk Mkks docks, a?"
There was a long, long silence. Ehrran stood staring, hunter-fix. "Right," Ehrran said. "Ten hours. I'll trust this gets authorized higher up, na Jik."
She walked out, flat. The door whisked shut. "Pyanfar," Jik said, and gestured that way, in Ehrran's wake.
"Huh." Pyanfar got up with a grimace, collected herself and followed Jik outside, where three of his crew waited, all of them gaudy as Jik himself, even toward raffish; guns carried openly. An abundance of gold chains and armlets, and one had a knife.
"All done," Jik said, laying a hand on her shoulder, "got fix good, a?"
"Sure. Sure, fix." She looked round at him with her ears back. "Expensive fix, friend. She won't forget."
"Got soul like kif, that hani."
"Number one right. What business? What's she after?"
The hand squeezed, a pressure of blunt claws. The mahe's dark eyes wrinkled round their edges and looked only tired. "This Ehrran hunt hani ship. Not you, no, she got rumor got hani work many side this thing. han lot upset. This Rhif Ehrran, she want this renegade real bad. Think maybe you, a?