that was boiling in him. “I’ll tell you,” he said, jabbing a serving knife in
Curran’s direction as the waiter passed finally out of earshot, “Mr. Reilly, I
think you and I have a problem. I’m not sure why. Or what. But it started up
there in blue section this morning and I’m not going to have it go on.”
“Stevens,” Allison said.
“I think we’d better settle it.”
“All right,” Curran said softly. “The number one says you’re all right, that
goes with me. Let’s start from zero.”
“My rules, mister.”
“Absolutely,” Curran said. “Chain of command. As soon as we get that lock off.”
“Ought to be soon,” Allison said. “How about that routing application?”
“Got it,” Curran said. His sullen face lighted instantly. “Clear. We’re routed
to Venture and Bryant’s, Konstantin Company commodities, on Dublin’s guarantee.”
Sandor had ducked his head to eat and stay out of it. He looked up again.
“You’re talking about our route and cargo.”
“Right.”
“You take it on yourself—”
“Part of the package.”
“No. Not part of the package. You don’t set up routes or make agreements.”
“Come down, man. We’ve got you a deal better than you could get. A deal that’s
guaranteed profit. With a station commerce load that doesn’t cost you, and
guaranteed rate for the delivery. How do you do better than that?”
“I don’t care what you’ve got. No. I decide where Lucy goes and if she goes.”
“Slow,” Allison said, patted his arm, once, twice. “Hold it. Listen: it is part
of the package. I was going to tell you. It’s a good deal. The best. The Hinder
Stars opening up again, the stations being set up to operate—you know what a
chance it is, to get in on the setup of a station? Dublin herself is taking on
cargo and looping back to Mariner. But we go out to the Hinder Stars. Toward
Sol. You see how it works? That’s Sol trade: luxuries, exotics. We take a
station load out and do small runs; and as the Sol trade starts coming in, we
start picking up Sol cargo. We run small cargo at first, then see about doing
that conversion that’ll boost her up to speed…”
“You’ve got that planned too.”
“Because I know this kind of economics, if you don’t. We’re not talking about
dockside trading. We’re talking about running full and being where trade can
build.”
“We get backing that way,” Deirdre said. “Eventually we schedule to catch
Dublin’s Pell loop and funnel Sol goods into Union territory; and that’s big
profit. Dublin’s not doing a total act of charity.”
“They’ll cut our throats. Alliance traders. Locals won’t stand for that.”
“Stop thinking like a marginer,” Allison said. “You’re linked to the Dublin
operation. They won’t touch us the way they won’t touch Dublin herself. And
after one run, we’ll be local. We’ll have Alliance paper.”
“And I take what deals Dublin offers.”
“Fair deals.”
He thought about it a moment, avoiding the sight of Curran Reilly, took a drink
of wine. “Hinder Stars,” he said, thinking that if there was a place least
likely for his record to catch up to him it had to be that, the forgotten
Earthward stations. Sol goods, expensive for their mass. Rarities and luxuries.
“So Dublin wants a trade link.”
“Believe it,” Allison said. “Both sides of the Line are interested… Pell,
absolutely; Union, in keeping the flow of trade across the Line. You think Union
wants Pell and Sol in bed together alone? No. Union’s supporting Unionside
merchanters that want to trade across the Line; and there’s nothing that says we
can’t set up an operation on this side.”
“We.”
“Any way you like it. You needed the bailout. And we saw the advantage. You. We.
You and the lot of us on Lucy can develop a new loop that’s going to pay.”
He thought about it again, excited in spite of himself. “You plan to stay on—how
long?”
“We don’t necessarily plan to go back. It’s like I said… too far to the posted
ranks. We’re coming to stay.”
He nodded slowly. “All right,” he said, even including Curran in that “All
right, I’ll take your deal. And the lot of you.—What about charts?”
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