“You let folk go,” Jik said. He opened a pouch one-handed, took out a smoke and fished up a small lighter. It flared briefly. Jik drew on the stick and let out a gray breath of smoke. “Old friend.”
“Do you propose a trade?” Sikkukkut said.
“I not merchant.”
“No,” the kif said. “Neither am I.” He made a negligent move of his hand, and Pyanfar caught a whiff of something else, something strange and hers and scared, half a breath before another white thing was shoved into view through the wall of kif. Tully crashed down with arms on the table-edge between her and Sikkukkut. “There. Take him as a gift.”
Pyanfar did not stir. Hunter-vision was centered only on the kif, the trigger under her finger, with the rifle against her knee. If Tully raised up too far, Tully would be in the line of fire. It was intended. She knew it was. She adjusted the knee and the rifle into a higher line. Sikkukkut’s face, this time. “You want your hostage back?”
“Skkukuk? No. That one is for your entertainment. Let’s talk about things of consequence.”
Rhif Ehrran’s ears had pricked. Jik let out a great cloud of smoke that drifted up and mingled with kifish incense. “We got time.”
“Excellent. Hokki.” Sikkukkut picked up his cup from the table and filled it with something that reeked like petroleum and looked rotten green. He drank and set the cup down, looking toward Pyanfar. “You?”
“I’ve got plenty of time.”
“Even before Kshshti,” Sikkukkut said, “even before that, at Meetpoint, I had converse with Ismehanan-min. Goldtooth, hunter Pyanfar calls him. I advised him to avoid certain points and certain contacts. You’ll have noticed that the stsho vessel has deserted us now.”
“Same notice,” Jik said dryly.
“You’ll have noticed a certain distress on the part of this stsho who remains with us-kkkt, perhaps you would care to question this one. A negotiator, gtst claims to be-”
“You tell,” Jik said, puffing a cloud of smoke. “You got something drink, friend kif?”
“Indeed. Koskkit. Hikekkti ktotok kkok.-” A wave of his hand. A kif departed. “Were you always at Chanur’s back?”
“No, not. Crazy accident I come Kshshti. Friend Pyanfar say she got trouble. So I come. Bring this fine hani.” A nod Ehrran’s way. “You remember, a?”
“Meetpoint,” Sikkukkut said. The long-jawed face lifted. There was no readable expression. “Yes. This hani was dealing with the grass-eaters.”
Rhif Ehrran coughed. “By treaty, let me remind you-”
Sikkukkut waved his hand. “I have no desire for treaties. Operations interest me. Chanur interests me.”
“Hunter Sikkukkut, there’s been a persistent misunderstanding of hani channels of authority.”
O gods, Pyanfar thought, and felt sick at the stomach. Hunter, indeed. Rhif Ehrran demoted the kif in a word, in front of his subordinates.
“It seems mutual,” Sikkukkut said, with equanimity and heavy irony, and pointedly turned his attention from Ehrran. “Hunter Pyanfar, I will speak with you. And my old friend Keia. When did we last trade shots? Kita, was it?”
“You at Mirkti?” Jik asked.
“Not I.”
“Kita, then.” Another puff at the stick. Jik flicked ash onto the floor. “We got shoot here?”
“Mahen bluntness.-That thing is a foul habit, Keia.”
Jik laughed, replaced the smokestick in his mouth. “True.” He glanced aside as a kif approached him with a glass. He sniffed it and drank. “Mahen. Nice stuff.”
“Ssskkt. I appreciate it now and again.”
“What got?”
“My business? Very serious business. Mahen interference. Stsho connivance with hani. This humanity-” Sikkukkut reached down and lifted Tully’s chin. “How are you faring’.’ Are you well, kkkt? Understanding this?” He let go and Tully kept his head up, white-faced and sweating and incidentally in the line of fire till he slumped and rested his arms on the table. “This humanity is a problem. Not alone has their presence disrupted trade: we do not, ourselves, depend so much on trade. . . . kkkt? But stsho do. Stsho fear any thing that comes near them. So the balance of the Compact is upset. And when that balance tilts, so agreements fall; and when agreements fall, so authorities give way – so there is disarrangement. This is our perspective. And our opportunity. Akkukkak first brought this creature into Compact space. Had it been my doing, of course, I would have fared better, kkkt?”