moving again, however tired and sore he was. He was remarkably placid in
contemplating his ruin, which he figured he could at least postpone until
Allison Reilly had put out of Pell Station aboard Dublin some few days hence.
And there was the gold: he had that. If by some miracle no one had known his
face, he might get himself papers, get himself cargo—go back to Voyager without
routing through Viking, a chancy set of jumps, then come in with appropriate
stamps on his papers to satisfy Viking—if Dublin had not reported that message
about his change of destination…
He could find out. Allison might know. Would tell him. And maybe, the
irrepressible thought occurred to him, he could claim some tie to Dublin for the
benefit of Pell authorities, use that supposed connection for a reference, at
least enough for dock charges. She might do it for him. He thought of that,
lying there with her arms about him, in a bed she had paid for, that he might
work one remarkable scam and get himself a stake charged to Dublin’s account,
which would solve all his problems but Viking and, with the gold, get him a real
set of papers.
He turned his head and looked at her, into eyes which suddenly opened, dark and
deep and warm at the moment; and his gut knotted up at what he was thinking to
do, which was to beg; or to cheat her; and neither was palatable. She hugged him
close and he fell to kissing her, which was another pleasure he had discovered
different with Allison Reilly.
It was hardly fair, he thought, that he himself had fallen into such hands as
Allison’s, who could con him in ways he had never visited on his most deserving
victims. She was having herself a good time, not even maliciously, while he was
paying all he had for it.
And it was finished if she knew, in all senses. She might not, even then, turn
him in; but she would know… and hate him; and that was, at the moment, as bad as
station police.
“Actually,” he said during a lull, “actually I’ll tell you the truth. I’m not in
trouble. It’s all covered, my shifting to Pell.”
“Oh?” She stiffened, leaned back and looked at him. “How?”
“Because I’ve got an account to shift here. I’m a small enough operator the
combine gives me quite a bit of leeway. All they ask is that I make a profit for
them. They let me come and go where I can do that. Wyatt’s can’t be figuring
down to the last degree where to have me break off an operation: that’s my
decision to make. You made Pell sound good. I heard the rumors. And you just
tipped the balance.”
“Huh.” There was a sober look on her face. “Not me at all, was it?”
“I could have taken my time getting here. I wanted to see you. That part’s so.”
The sober look became a thinking look, a different, colder one. “Well, then, I
guess you will get out of it all, won’t you?”
“I will. No question.”
“Huh,” she said again. She rolled for the edge of the bed and he caught her
wrist, stopping her.
“Where are you going?”
“Can’t stay any longer. I have duty.”
“What did I say?”
“You didn’t say anything. I just have my watch coming up.”
“It was something. What was it?”
Her face grew distressed. She jerked at his hand without success. “Let go.”
“Not until you tell me what I said.”
“If you put a mark on me, Stevens, you’ll regret it You want to think that
through?”
“I’m trying to talk to you. I told you the truth.”
“I don’t think you know the truth from your backside. You didn’t tell me the
truth and I’ll bet you didn’t tell it to customs out there.”
His heart slammed against his ribs, harder and harder. “So does Dublin tell the
whole truth to customs? Don’t ask me to believe that”
“Sure. I figure there are all kinds of reasons someone would give me one story
and customs another; but maybe only one reason a ship would dog us the way you