“That isn’t it, either.”
“What then?”
“It’s this whole business. When I agreed to go along with this pirate-hunter bit, I didn’t figure it would mean skulking around like a common criminal.”
“It’s only a temporary situation,” Tambu assured her. “Just until we get the ship outfitted. Until then we don’t have much choice.”
“Sure we do. We could buy our weaponry through normal channels, like other ships do.”
“No we can’t, Whitey. The kind of weapons we want can’t be picked up through normal channels.”
“But other ships-” Whitey began.
“Other ships buy antiquated weapons which haven’t helped them at all in stopping a pirate attack.” Tambu broke in pointedly. “We aren’t cruising around hoping the pirates won’t spot us, we’re going to actively hunt them. For that, we’ll need weapons as good or better than the ones the pirates use.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“I know I’m right. We’ve tried a dozen weapons dealers and gotten the same answer everywhere. ‘Weapons of that nature are not available.’ Then they try to sell us some popgun or other with toothy reassurances that it will be enough to protect us in most situations. Twice we’ve been told about the black market in arms here on Trepec, so here we are. If we can’t find what we’re looking for here, we’ll just have to look somewhere else. We can’t risk going into battle with inferior weapons.”
“We could opt against going into battle.”
“Not a chance,” Tambu insisted. “The first time we try to move in on a pirate, they’re going to fight–particularly if they think we’re overmatched in the weapons department. I wish it wasn’t the case, but that’s the hard facts of the matter.”