“Agreed. If you give me the flake and your cordak, I’ll transfer the funds.”
It took Ruxalin three hours to pry Mirik loose, another hour to clear with Admin while Shadith took a side jaunt to OverSec to inform them she was leaving, her favor completed.
Once the Contract was voiced, she took Mirik to the Tangul Cafe to introduce her to the jaje waitress, then to the Tav to meet Bisa, Chali and the others.
An hour later, Shadith eased away from the tie-up and headed for the Limit.
After she set the delouser to checking the ship, she swung around. “Quite a change, I imagine.”
“Yes.” Mirik’s eyes went dark. “How I’m ever going to repay you… or the Patron…”
Shadith glanced at the readouts, then smiled at Mirik. “Me, it’s easy. Just tell me everything you can scrape up about the brain-wiped man. Rumors, gossip. Everything. Plus anything about the Kliu Berej, even the smallest most insignificant details.”
8. Lessons in Why I Left Home the First Time
A short scowling boy crouched before a screen and an extrawide sensor board, the exo straps gleaming dully in the greenish light. His hands were like his father’s, broad in the palm with long fingers, but they were paler and softer, the nails ragged, bruise blotches stippling them, red and yellow or black and purple depending on the degree of healing. He was watching inventory flow, marking the items he meant to reroute without otherwise disturbing the file.
Lylunda pulled up a chair and watched quietly. At dinner last night Herred had had his company mask firmly in place, though he was still child enough to keep glancing at his father to make sure the game was going the right way. She didn’t want that kind of cooperation; if he continued hostile, there were too many ways he could sabotage her. Which was why she’d told Grinder to keep out of this and let her deal with the boy in her own way.
As she watched the list scroll past, she was at first surprised by the amount and variety of goods that passed through the Star Street warehouses; it didn’t take long, though, before she understood what was happening. And was angry with herself for not realizing long ago that the Behilarr had made Hutsartл a port of convenience for any shippers who had reasons to conceal the origins of their cargos. Ba da, when I took up smuggling, looks like I was just going into the family business as it were. On the retail side. Puny operation compared to what Daddy Dear and his cohorts are running. She took a wry satisfaction in knowing she was going to be used to siphon off some highborn Jaz’s profit.
The boy was trying to ignore her. He liked this work. That was obvious. Hm. Maybe that’s his problem. He thinks I’m going to take it away from him. Grinder said he’s fourteen. A hard age to be. He looks older. Grinder’s Second. Herred. Bug. The Crip. The Gimp. The weird one who likes book stuff She could hear the taunts, like the ones thrown at her. Bastard. Mongrel. Whore’s Git. High Nose. Because she was smart. Because she wouldn’t put out like other girls her age. Except for Grinder, but then, he didn’t bother asking. Because she was determined to get away from this swamp.
Zaintze said Bug’s mum died before he was a year old, so he wouldn’t remember her. This would probably be the first time he was valued for anything but being Grinder’s son and that only because Grinder never let loose of anything he thought belonged to him. Except me and that was because he didn’t have the power he does now Warning, Luna. You don’t watch it, he’s going to start thinking you’re his property again.
She waited until the final entries trailed off the screen. “Herred, did Grinder tell you why I’m here. Not here in this room, but here on Hutsarte?”
“No. Look, I got to pull and wipe before keph gets nervous.” His high tenor was deliberately roughened; he was trying for strength and maleness-or what he thought they were.
“No, you don’t. What you did was passive and local. Keph won’t feel it till you begin the pulls. Couple of things you need to know before we get started on this business. First, I’m not going to put up with any kakazhar from you. Either you listen and learn, or I get Grinder to pull your access because you just might be crazy enough to rojo the tap and kick the whole mess down round our ears. Shut your mouth. I don’t want to hear from you yet. Second, if you’ve got the brains Jaink gave a cockroach, you’d see I’m back here because I need a place to cool off and once the flying weather’s right again, I’ll be gone so fast I’ll leave scorch marks in the air. Unless you plan to be real stupid, your job is safe. Now you can talk.”
“Why should I believe you? And don’t call me Herred. My name’s Bug.”
“All right, Bug. I’m a smuggler and a jojing good one with a nice rep. Good enough to buy a ship and fly it on my own. Why in Jaink’s Seven Hells would I want to hang round here? Think I’m after your father? Not hardly. I’m not going to say more about that because it’s none of your business.”
“Bo da, so what’d you do you had to run back to tit?” His voice was easier now; he’d let it go high, light, and what his peers would no doubt consider girlish. She didn’t smile. Very carefully she didn’t smile. This was his way of showing capitulation without actually admitting he’d accepted what she’d said.
“Some people want to know where my last cargo went and they’re the types to ask the hard way. I’d rather not, thank you very much.”
He brushed his hand across the board, tapped a sensor, and the chair hummed around. “Would you tell me about some of the things you’ve seen?”
“I don’t think Grinder would like that.” She grinned at him. “Sure, Bug.”
“I can’t leave here, can’t take the pressure shifts. He doesn’t want me to even think about it.”
“Bo da, I know. And you’d better shut down the shield. It’ll make him real nervous if he doesn’t know what’s happening.”
“You didn’t see me. You couldn’t ’ve.”
“You were really smooth, Bug, but we both know he’s watching. And we both know you wouldn’t talk like this if he could hear it. So put us back on show and let’s get started going over Lerdo’s lines.”
2
When Lylunda left the warehouse’s cellar, the sun was down and the sky a sullen black with clouds blocking light from the moon and stars, though there was no smell of rain in the air, as if those clouds were waiting for the month to turn before they let down the water they carried. She was tired, but pleased at the way things had worked out. Once his resistance was gone Bug had turned heartbreakingly eager for her approval and ravenous for the things she could teach him, as if he wanted to swallow them all in one day.
Krink walked beside her, escorting her to the apartment house on Saltoki Street, his presence setting Grinder’s mark on her. She glanced at him and swallowed a smile. He hated this. He’d loathed her since the time he’d tried to corner her down by Milk Alley and she got him a good one in the family jewels. It was an accident, she was flailing all over the place trying to fight him off, but he always thought she’d done it deliberately. She knew better, but she was smart enough to stay out of his way until she got off Hutsarte. She wondered why it was Krink that Grinder had chosen for this escort; surely there were others. Hm. Things under the surface between those two men. And she was being shoved in the middle. She didn’t like that. People in the middle got tromped by both sides.
When they turned the corner into Saltoki Street, Krink swore, grabbed her shoulder, and stopped her. “I don’t like this.”
The street was empty, none of the usual shoppers out; even Halfinan Ike was gone from in front of Lester’s cutlery. A short distance beyond Okin the Baker’s shop a line of dark figures in robes that swept the ground walked in silence, unlit torches in their hands. Aptzers. Temple enforcers.
“I think you should go to Grinder’s,” he said and started to turn her around. “This isn’t the first Sermoi they’ve held along here, they’ll start emptying the houses soon for the Confessio, maybe this time, maybe next.”