“So you get your information from the shippers themselves?” Tambu asked.
“Some of it,” Ramona corrected. “Sometimes it comes from corporations out to sabotage a rival’s shipments. People working at the spaceports themselves are good sources. We even get tips from receiving merchants and corporations who don’t want to pay the full price of a shipment.”
“I see,” Tambu said, pursing his lips. “It sounds as if you have a lot more information than I imagined.”
“And you aren’t about to let us go until you’ve pumped it all out of me. Right?” Ramona scowled.
“Actually, I was thinking along different lines. How would you like to come to work for me?”
She held his gaze for a moment, then turned away.
“If you insist,” she said flatly. “But you drive a hard bargain. It’s extortion, but I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?”
“Of course you have a choice!” Tambu thundered, slapping his hand down on the desk hard enough to make it jump with the impact.
Ramona started, taken aback at this sudden display of temper, but Tambu recovered his composure quickly. He rose and began to pace about the room.
“Forgive me,” he muttered. “I suppose you have every right to think the way you are. It serves me right for trying to be so cagey instead of laying my cards on the table from the first.”
He stopped pacing and perched on the edge of his desk facing her.
“Look,” he said carefully, “it’s been my intent all along to offer you and your crew positions in my force. I need experienced people-particularly people with experience in space combat-to man my ships. What I don’t need are a bunch of sullen animals who think they were blackmailed into serving and who will jump ship or turn on me at the first opportunity. That’s why I was saying I’d let you go instead of turning you over to the authorities. If you or any of your crew want to sign on, fine. If not, we’ll let them go. Now do we understand each other?”