thousand I can lay my hands on. I can maybe keep you clean here, if you take
that and pay your dock charge and clear out of Pell. Understand me, it’s all I
can get. I’ll be another year working off the last thousand of it But I want you
off Dublin’s record. I don’t want you in trouble again until somewhere a long,
long way off our trail.”
He shook his head, his mouth gone dry. He hurt inside.
“Blast you, there’s nothing more you can get.”
“I don’t want your money. I don’t want your help. I’ll take out of here. I can
pay the dock charges, and I’ll take out.”
“With what?”
“That three thousand. Maybe I can get a little cargo on the side. I’ve got,
well, maybe a little more than that.”
“How much worth of cargo?”
That’s my business. You answer questions to strangers about Dublin’s holds? I’d
think not.”
She set her jaw. “I want you out of here.”
“Tell your Old Man I’m going.”
“I’ll tell you you’re taking the ten thousand. You’re going out of Pell with
some kind of a load, mine and yours together, that at least looks honest And you
forget the debt. Don’t try to pay it. Don’t talk about it. Or me. Or I go to
station authorities.”
“I understand you,” he said very quietly. “I’d take your ten. And I’d promise to
get it back to you, but I don’t think you’d believe it. And it wouldn’t be the
truth. You’re throwing it away, Reilly. I very much doubt I’m going to clear
this dock at all.”
“Someone here you know?”
“More than likely someone here that knows me. It’s the publicity, Reilly. I’m
usually a lot quieter.”
“What,” she asked in a lowered voice, “can they get you for? What’s the worst?”
“Bad debts.”
“Less than likely any merchanter would go to the police on that score. But
something else—”
“I’m not one of the Names. They don’t know what I might be. A pirate. They could
think that. But I’ll tell you the whole truth this time. I’ve got two thousand
cash I’m not declaring. For dock-side deals.—And fourteen thousand worth of WSC
money in gold under the plates. That’s why I ran out of Viking like my tail was
afire.—Look, this stationer there, this clerk—I had to deal; he could have blown
it all. It wasn’t my idea. So I have the money. I can pay dock charges and I can
deal for cargo.”
“With sixteen lousy contraband thousand?”
“You think ten more is going to help? No. And if they catch me, you can believe
they’re going to inventory everything I’ve got; and they’d find me with more
scrip than I’m supposed to have; and ten thousand in Pell currency, right? One
question to comp and they’d have those serial numbers and a ten thousand
transaction in your name. Take it from me. I know the routines.”
“I’ll bet you do.”
“So you keep it. Against my problems, it’s nothing, that ten. I’ll get out of it
my way.” He picked up his jacket and put it on, checked his papers in his
pocket. “I’ll go take care of the finance, go to station offices. You just call
it quits and go hang out with your cousins and say it’s all nothing. Find
somebody else to sleep-over with and publicize it, fast. That’ll kill it I know
how to cover a trail. That, too.”
“I wish you luck,” she said, sounding earnest. “You’ll need it”
He opened the door for her. Grinned, recovering himself. Thanks,” he said, and
walked out, ahead of her in the hall, hands in pockets, a deliberate spring in
his step.
Time to visit Lucy. Time to go under the eyes of the powers that be on Pell and
try to pull it out of the fire. Or at least get some of the heat off. Station
offices would unseal her for him if he could eel his way past a customs agent
who might want to do a thorough check in his presence.
Then to get out of Pell with as much cash as he could save. Maybe check the