"It badly needs a cleaning," she said. "I wonder that with so much attention to the technical end, you had not seen to that by now."
"Detailing," Leiysin said and shrugged, "usually comes last." He gave Enda a thoughtful look. "Well," Enda said after a look of her own at Gabriel, "your decision."
He stood there with his mouth hanging open. Marines were not used to being given decisions of such stature, at least not marines of his rank.
Then Gabriel realized that he was not a marine any more, of any rank, and that other people, normal people, did get to make such decisions ... and maybe it was time he started. Both Enda and Leiysin were standing there staring at him, awaiting his decision. "What the drik," he said. "Let's do it."
They turned together to Leiysin, who nodded, looking satisfied. "Then let's go into the office and start the process. Sir, honored madam, will that be cash, or shall we investigate other payment options?" "That depends," Enda said mildly. "How much of a discount do you offer for cash?" Cash? Gabriel was thinking while concentrating on not allowing his eyes to bug out. Leiysin shook his head regretfully.
"Unfortunately the traffic in the system is light enough that it is not cost-effective to give cash discounts. No business here could-"
"Spare me your tales of woe," said Enda. "May the time come soon when you find yourself enough closer to civilization that you are dealing a little less close to the edge." Gabriel blinked, wondering what that meant. "Are you offering contract work for mortgagees?"
This time it was the dealer's turn to blink. "Phorcyn law forbids that kind of transaction-" Gabriel's ears perked up at that. The man had not quite said that he didn't offer contract work. But he finally said, "No, I don't want anything to do with that at this stage." Enda nodded to him. "Then we will examine the competing interest rates."
"Competing?" The dealer looked at her in surprise. "Honored, unfortunately the only bank offering ship escrow on Phorcys is-"
"You must think I was born only a hundred years ago," Enda said, and Gabriel grinned. "Flattery. Of course there are more banks available than just the one. I can arrange finance clear back in the Solar Union if I so please, and perhaps we should. Gabriel?" He nodded to her and turned to go.
"No! No, honored, wait, I'm sure we can come to some agreement-"
Gabriel paused, and after a moment nodded again. The remainder of the financial discussion went by with merciful speed; apparently Leiysin was so terrified of the possibility that this particular transaction might walk away from him that his spirit was nearly broken, and he sat there nodding and agreeing to everything Enda said. It was an interesting development, but as with so many others lately, Gabriel found himself wondering what it meant.
Other details took rather longer to sort out. Verifying the ship's condition came first. One of the independent examination companies had to come out and certify the ship's spaceworthiness-that could be done tonight. Then there was the matter of fittings. A mining ship, even the smallest, required better than usual shielding (since ores are likely to be radioactive), specialized assay equipment, and a fair amount of weaponry-since the work was lonely and the space in which it took place were not much frequented by others except asteroid miners, there are plenty of people willing to take advantage of you. There was also the matter of the installation of the new Speramundi drive. Also, the kind of modular shielding that the ship had once borne and that had been removed for data haulage would now need to be reinstalled. Enda also seemed unusually concerned about the type and quality of the weaponry Leiysin had to offer them. Gabriel supported his end of things by making it a point to be unusually picky and difficult about the mining equipment. What poor Leiysin was making of the whole transaction, Gabriel had no idea.
They signed the initial "commitment" chip after about an hour of detail work. Enda put down the deposit, five percent of the vehicle's full price with the rest scheduled to follow according to the loan repayment schedule that would be arranged with one of several banks tonight or tomorrow. They walked out of there well into the beginning stages of ownership of a Delgakis D-80 "Orindren" driveship, with only a few hundred things like system registration and victualling and drive fueling to handle. For Gabriel it was an exhilarating feeling, the only one he could remember having in some time: the beginning of a new life or rather, the beginning of the long process of finding out what had gone wrong with the last one and fixing it.
Later he started having second thoughts. "Do you ever have first ones?" Enda asked, teasing somewhat. They were back in the Dive for this discussion, the noise level there at this time of night so horrific that no one not standing directly between them could have managed to overhear them. As for the mere fact of the sale, probably everyone here knew about it already, but anyone wanting to get close enough to hear the details would have to come to grief first. Gabriel ate his soup, which was only marginally better than it had been the other night, and shook his head. "I'm not sure I like it," he said. "Well, would you rather go out without weapons?"
"Hardly! But the level of stuff we bought. Look at the numbers! Whoever installs those is going to talk. Word is going to get out. It always does. And someone's going to come after us, wondering why we need such big guns and thinking that we must have something really worth stealing-" "On the contrary, we will have better weapons yet," Enda said, "but we will not install them here, nor anywhere without posting the customary bribes. Even here, it is possible to make various arrangements in the documentation associated with the weaponry."
"You mean you're going to try to get them to forge the end-use certificates? Do you know what the penalty for-"
"Yes," said Enda, "probably better than you do. It's done all the time, Gabriel, as you know. Or you should know. I sometimes wonder whether the great concentration on producing spotless young entities for the Service does not shelter you too much from the ..." she trailed off. "Well, let that pass for the moment. In any case, our gunnery will seem ordinary enough by the time we are through fitting the ship, and there are ways to buy off the actual installers as well, ways to ensure that they stay bought. Other matters .. ."
" 'Other matters'?" Gabriel said. "I noticed something about the final bill."
"Yes?"
"It was larger than what the total should have been by about five percent."
Enda blinked. Gabriel gave her a look and said, "Just because I'm a marine doesn't mean I can't count." "Well, you are certainly right to notice. It is after all your money too, some of it. Quite a bit of it, in fact." She reached around her back and for a moment toyed with that silken fall of pearly hair that normally she kept bound out of the way. "It occurred to me that some slight extra speed might be desired." "Speed?"
"In departing."
Gabriel put the spoon down in the soup bowl again. "Are you telling me that the delivery date on the manifest is-"
"Inaccurate?" she said. "By some days." "When will it be-" Then he stopped himself.
"There are those who can read the lips of even fraal," Enda said and smiled that slight smile. "Perhaps we will let that wait."