"I appreciate the offer, sir," Jirik replied, "But I think that the other crewmen have arranged some sort of reunion celebration for our Astrogator. And then, of course, we do want to lift as soon as possible."
Cony's expression remained casual, but his eyes were furious as he tried frantically to maneuver the crew into leaving the ship, or remaining on Boondock. Jirik, however, was adamant, and Cony finally permitted himself to be ushered out the lock. Jirik breathed a gusty sigh of relief, but he knew that he hadn't heard the last of Cony, or his attempts to recover Via's nonexistent reports and the spy-eyes
As soon as Cony had left, Jirik and Kontar went to the Spacers Guild office to complete his sign-off. When Jirik returned, he found that he had received several vidphone messages from Fanlin. Sighing resignedly, Jirik called the man back Fanlin was visibly agitated, and began speaking before Jirik could even get in a "Good morning"
"Captain!" Fanlin almost shouted, "Thank heaven. I'm so glad you called! Albet tells me that you're planning to lift, or shove off, or whatever it is you spacers do. You can't leave! Not so soon!"
Jirik smiled politely. "'I'm afraid that I must, sir. Our offloading is complete, as is our reprovisioning. Besides, there are eight of your compatriots waiting as anxiously as you were for their shipments."
Fanlin's expression was stricken. "But, Captain! Albet tells me that you won't be back here again. You must permit us to show our gratitude for completing a very hazardous voyage for our benefit!" He looked shrewdly from the vidphone screen. "Yes, I know, you tried to pass it off as routine. I may be a bit naive but I'm not naive enough not to guess that you were in great danger, and that completing your mission required great bravery and skill. You deserve a large bonus and a hero's welcome."
His expression turned rueful. "I'm afraid that I'm unable to offer the bonus, but I have every intention of providing the warmest welcome that you've ever experienced. You know," he added, "You and your crew are planetary heroes. Once Albet assured me that it would not compromise your safety, I released the information on your mission, planet-wide. The entire population of Boondock City wants to welcome you and thank you. Surely you can't disappoint them!"
Jirik shrugged. "I'm afraid that I must. We do have time commitments. Besides, neither my crew nor myself are the heroes of this incident. You are. You're the one that should receive the credit. We merely tried to ask some preliminary questions. It was you who pursued the deal, despite our own reluctance, if you'll remember. It was you who proposed the deal to the authorities on Wayoff, and it was you who overcame our reluctance and got us to contract the shipment. No, sir; you are the hero of this episode, not me."
Fanlin flushed with embarrassed pleasure. "That's as may be, Captain; but the fact remains that the people of Boondock want to show you their appreciation for your exploit. You really can't disappoint them!"
The hell I can't, Jirik thought, but he said, "I'm sorry, sir, but we really must lift off as soon as possible. I'll tell you what, though, If you can get a Trivid camera crew over here within the next couple of hours, I'll give them an interview that you can broadcast, thanking them for their kindness, and telling them whom they can really thank"
Fanlin continued to protest, but he finally signed off gracelessly, after promising the Trivid crew. Fanlin was obviously not a happy man.
Jirik was little happier as he walked down to the mess deck to join the others. Due to his own close supervision, he was reasonably sure that none of the longshoremen who offloaded the cargo had managed to check for spy-eyes, or for Via's report. But, if they didn't get off-world quickly, he was sure that Cony would find a way.
The group on the mess deck were engaged in earnest conversation when Jirik arrived. Valt was red-faced and obviously furious.
"Captain!" he cried loudly as Jirik entered, "Bran and Tor have just been telling me what's been going on! Why didn't you warn us? Those bastards almost killed me just to get me out of the way."
Jirik pulled up a chair before he replied. "I'm really very sorry, Valt. That damned Alley agent was running things, not me. Believe me, I hated lying to you and Tor, but I felt that I had to. I didn't know that there was any danger until it was too late." He held up his hand to forestall Valt's angry retort before he continued, turning to Bran, "How much have you told him so far?"
Bran looked slightly embarrassed. "Well, Captain, I'm afraid that we haven't told a very coherent story." He shrugged. "Just bits and pieces, really. We've been jumping around a lot."
"I still want to know why we weren't briefed from the first!" Valt interrupted angrily, "We're all shareholders in the Lass, and we had a right to know!"
Jirik nodded soberly. "You're right, Valt. All right, if you want the truth, I didn't feel that I could trust you to keep your mouth shut. Think about it, Valt. Remember how you were spending your off-duty time? Drinking. Getting flashed every night. If I'd told you about Tomys, the terrorists would have known about it within hours. Be honest with yourself. Could you have kept the secret? For instance, can you swear that you told absolutely no one anything about the book deal?"
Valt's anger began to fade. Valt wasn't overly smart, but he was almost brutally honest, both with himself and with others.
"I guess you're right, Captain," Valt admitted thoughtfully. "I was drinking a lot, I suppose. To tell you the truth, I guess that maybe I did mention the book deal. But, Captain," he continued in a plaintive tone, "I've spent over nine months on this damned heavy-planet hell of a mudball, three of them flat on my back!"
Jirik nodded. "I know, Valt, and I'm sorry. But we're not out of trouble just yet. Bran, have you told him about Via and the spying that she didn't do?"
"Just did, Captain," Bran replied.
"All right," Jirik resumed, "Then you'll understand when I tell you that we have to get off Boondock quickly! If Cony manages to get someone aboard, and they don't find Via's report, or the spy-eyes that she was supposed to place, he could become very suspicious. We don't need that." He shrugged, "Oh, sooner or later I imagine that he'll get someone on board, and we'll have to deal with it. But Boondock is Cony's home territory, and I'd rather that it didn't happen here. I'm sorry to break up the reunion, Valt, but how soon can you plot us a course for the rest of the rim worlds, and calculate our first jump?"
Valt's anger had evaporated, and his expression conveyed only concern. "Oh, three, four hours, I guess. I'm about nine months out of practice, remember?"
Jirik stood. "All right, we'll plan to lift off in five hours. In the meantime, be careful. Cony's sure to try to sneak someone aboard!"
"Don't worry, Captain," Bran replied, "The Cargo hatches are battened, and the intruder alarm in the passenger airlock is armed. No one's going to get aboard without us knowing it!"
Jirik shrugged. "Let's hope not. But, just as a precaution, I'd like one of us near the airlock at all times. Cony might have someone who knows how to jimmy an intruder alarm!"
Tor jumped to his feet, clumsily in the 1.4G. "I'll do it Captain!" he reddened as all the others turned to him. "I-I mean, I'll take the first watch. I want to tap into the commercial Trivid channels anyway, just to see what's happening."
Jirik grinned. "If you tap into the commercial Trivid, what you may see is me!" He told the others of his offer to do a Trivid interview for the planetwide net, giving Fanlin the credit for the 1.66 million new additions to the Boondock Library. Bran nodded, and Valt snickered.
"Yeah," Valt said, "You should've seen the crap that they've been dishing out. This Fanlin guy told everybody that you were noble spacemen running a gauntlet of space pirates to bring the people of the rim millions of volumes of Empire knowledge. Hell, I had to fight my way through a crowd to get to the port. If it weren't for the Spaceport Police, you'd all be up to your eyeballs in hero-worshippers and rubberneckers."