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Sure-his shares and experience wouldn't buy him a Hat on another ship. "So
it's good you don't need to. Just the same, thanks." He'd eaten fast; now he
shook hands and left. Zelde turned to Turk. "Thank the rest for me, will you?
Hey-if I'm nosy, say so. But who all else was there?"
Some of the names Zelde hardly knew. Henty Monteil, sure-and, yeah-then it hit
her. Not Lera Tzane or Torra Defose, on the list. Well, 'course not. They'd be
stupid; too much to lose. Still she felt-no, not angry, not with \ithem,\i but
a little sad. Then she told herself \ishe\i was being stupid, and said only,
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"So many? I wouldn't of thought it."
They got up to leave; just outside the galley they met Dopples. "Zelde! Turk,
can I borrow this one for a few minutes? A little talk?" Turk nodded; Zelde
followed Dopples to his quarters.
Inside, there, she realized something. "How come you're not in captain's digs?
I mean-"
He smiled. "No hurry. And I wasn't sure you were done, there. You took hardly
any of the booze-and you know I don't drink much bourbon."
Well. She hadn't wanted to be greedy, even if she'd been able to carry much
more when she left. But when he offered to send a load to River House, she
took him up on it. Bourbon, and some jash and trair, too. "And I thank you."
Serious now, he leaned forward. "And I want to thank \iyou-\ifor heading off
Turk Kestler's plan."
"What?"
A wry grin. "Torra spotted it-so Turk's intercom sends whether she knows it or
not, lately. I was pleased to hear you-"
"Wait a minute!" Zelde stood. "You was spying-right? Just like UET! I ought
to-"
His arms came up. "Zelde! I had to know what those people intended to do to
this ship. So that I could-"
"So's you could \iwhat?\i Shoot somebody?"
He looked surprised. "You know me better than that! No-so that if Turk's group
left, I'd be ready to start recruiting in town, and training people to replace
them. And
\r 295
\rone reason I'm glad it won't happen is that \iTurk's\i very valuable to this
ship."
When Zelde couldn't find an answer, he said, "About Torra-she couldn't join
the plan, of course, or even let on that she knew about it. But she's torn,
Zelde-she's unhappy. I think if you asked her to go
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He sighed. "I think she'd probably do it."
Why was he saying this? She cleared her throat. "And how about you? How do
\iyou\i feel?"
Dopples shrugged. "How do you suppose? I want to keep Torra-of course I do!
But only by her own choice." He clasped his hands together, fingers working,
and looked down at them.
After a time, Zelde said, "I won't be asking her, Dopps. Not handing out any
free gifts, me. It's just-she wouldn't get half the chance for herself off
this ship, as on it," His head was still down; she said, "What if I did want
to take her off here? What thing would you say then? And do?"
Showing no expression, he looked up. "I'd get on with running this ship-as I
must, anyway. If you mean my personal life-well, Hilde and Helga don't care
much for ratings' quarters. They keep whining about coming back." He stretched
his arms wide, and yawned. "The trouble is, whining bores me-makes me wonder
why I ever put up with those two in the first place."
No answer to that, so she said, "Just lucky, I guess." She turned, and Dopples
stood and showed her out.
She looked around, here and there, and talked with a few people-Henty,
Rooster, a quick chat with
Turk: "Dopples was onto you all the time. There's no kickback, though-he's
glad to keep you, is all." She didn't locate Lera Tzane, and left word for
Torra that she'd be back to pick her up, late in the afternoon.
She went down the ramp, exchanged jokes with the new guard, and walked to
Admin. Getting more exercise now, she was, than the brief routines she'd done
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aboard ship. It felt good.
This time she didn't bother Cannes or Hanen; all she needed was the use of a
readout-only computer terminal. No problem; she got it, and began punching for
everything she could find out about Fair Ball, other Hidden Worlds-
296
she knew better than to expect coordinates for those-and Escaped ships. She
got a sheetpad out of her bag, and what she didn't already know, she made
notes on-places like Franklin's Jump and Target Place.
She did find coordinates for Stronghold, UET's fortress setup where they sent
so many armed ships-
farside of Earth from any UET colony \ior\i any Hidden World. Somebody'd added
a comment: "Rumor is, UET didn't invent stardrive at all. Stole it from
aliens, and killed them. That's what Stronghold's all about." So Turk wasn't
the only one who had that idea.
Escaped ships, then. Sten Norden and \iValkyrie,\i she'd heard of. Quinlan's
\iRed Dog\i was still here-
would she go out on it? Likely not, she thought. Now, then-
She wanted to know about Tregare and his \iarmed\i ship- the only one ever to
Escape-but didn't find much. Just that he'd done things that sounded bad, and
nobody trusted him much. Except, Ilse Krueger had-or talked like it, anyway.
Tregare either had or hadn't taken another Escaped ship by main force,
groundside someplace. The report said, "It's thought that the ship is now
\iLejthand Thread,\i commanded by Derek Limmer." And then, just when Zelde
expected to learn something, the item ended.
The only other solid thing was that Raoul Vanois in \iCar-charadon\i had
raided UET on Iron Hat.
Zelde closed her notepad. She still didn't know much-but she wasn't done
looking.
She'd used a lot of time; afternoon was into late hours. She called Jady
Trevaile; when he got off work he picked Zelde up at Admin and Torra Defose at
\iStrike Three.\i On the way to town, not much talk.
Getting out at River House, Zelde thanked Jady. Then she and Torra went inside
the inn.
Before dinner-not talking at all-they made love. Then in the dining room,
during the meal and after-
coffee and a liqueur-nobody said much. Zelde asked if Torra wanted to go see
the town; Torra didn't, so
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Torra reached to embrace; Zelde pulled back. "Not just yet. Don't you want to
talk any?"
"I'd rather pretend-that there's nothing that needs saying."
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\r"There is, though." She sat in a chair; after a moment Torra went to the
couch. Seated, she looked only at Zelde, eyes wide.
Zelde shook her head. "Then \iI'll\i say it. You need to stay on the ship.
With Dopples." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]