sleepover out of it; maybe— Hang it, Stevens, you’re strung out on no sleep and
you’re risking our lives on it. Not just mine. Theirs; and I got them into it
You don’t trust them. Maybe not me. But I figured if you and Curran could sort
it out—maybe it would all work. That maybe if you got it straight with them, if
all the heat blew out of it—”
“Misfigured, did you?”
“Don’t be light with me. Say what you think.”
“All I want—” His throat spasmed. He thrust his hands into his pockets and
disguised a second breath with that. “I don’t give you the time of day, Reilly.
Let alone the comp keys. Now we can go on like this. And maybe you’ll think of
other clever ways to get at it. But you loaned me money; you didn’t buy me out
You figure —what? To trump up something to get me between you and the police at
Venture? And then to offer me another deal? Sorry. I’ve got that figured out.
Because if they get me, Reilly, you’re stuck on a ship you can’t even get out of
dock. Embarrassing. Might raise questions about your title to her. Might cost
you a long time to get that straightened out, long-distance to Pell and wherever
Dublin might be. Not to mention—if they send me in for restruct —I’ll spill what
happened here, all in the little pieces of my mind. And there goes the Reilly
Name. So refigure, Reilly. Nothing you do that way’s going to work.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?”
“You know, I really took precautions. I signed on drunks and docksiders and
insystemers, and I got through with all of them. I figured a big ship like
Dublin might try to doubledeal me, but you’re pirates, Reilly—I never figured
that. Mallory’s out there hunting Mazianni and here’s a ship full of them.”
Her face flushed. He had that satisfaction. “You don’t take that seriously, do
you?”
“I don’t see a difference.”
“Stevens-”
“Sandor. The name’s Sandor.”
“I’m sorry for what happened. I told you why; I told you— Look, Curran thought
you’d bluff. That was his thinking. Now he knows better. So do all of us. You
want to come back to the bridge and sort this out?”
He ran that through his mind several ways, and none of it eased the ache. Stood
there, obstinate, only to make it harder.
“Stevens—what’s it take?”
“Worried, are you? We’re not even near the Jump point. And what when we’re
across it? A replay? I only go for this once,
Reilly. The next time you lay a hand on me if it’s war. You’ll get me. Sure you
will. I’ve got to sleep, after all. But let’s just lay it on the table. You may
not be able to haul it out of me. And then what? Then what, Reilly?”
“It’s crazy to talk like that.”
“How much do you want this ship?”
“A lot. But not that way. I want us working with each other. I want our hands
clean and all of us in one piece, not killed because you’re still running a
loaded ship like a margin cargo—you’re blind crazy, Stevens. Sandor. You’ve got
too many enemies in your own head.”
“It doesn’t work. You take it on my terms. That’s all you’ve got. Up the ante,
and that’s still all you’ve got.”
“All right,” she said after a moment, stood there with a look in her eyes that
seemed halfway earnest She nodded toward the section seal. “Let’s go.”
He nodded, walked along with her. “They’re listening,” he said in a low voice.
“Aren’t they?”
She looked at him, a sudden, disturbed glance. They reached the section seal and
she stopped and reached for the button. He was quicker, his hand covering it. He
looked her in the eyes, that close, and the closeness murdered reason for the
instant. The scent of her and the warmth and the remembrance of Viking and Pell.
“You could have had it all,” he said. “You know that.”
“You never trusted us. Not from the start”
“I was right, wasn’t I?”
She was silent a moment. “Maybe not.”