TriPoint, a Union Alliance novel by Caroline J. Cherryh

Two walking bombs. Side by side. With signs on them, saying, Here they are, do something, Austin Bowe.

He sat there looking at Mischa, shaking his head.

“If she goes out there and she does something,” Mischa said, “the law will deal with her. And do you want Marie to end up in the legal system, Tom, do you want them to take her into some psych facility and remove whatever hate she’s got for him? Do you want that to happen to Marie?”

He couldn’t imagine permanent station-side. Never moving. Dropping out of the universe. Foreign as an airless moon to him. And as scary. Mind-wipe was what they did to violent criminals. And they’d do that to Marie if she went for justice. “No, sir,” he said. “But you’re trusting me?”

Mischa said, “Who have I got? Who will she deal with? There’ll be somebody tagging you. You won’t be alone. You just keep with her. If you can’t do it any other way, knock her cold and bring her back on a Medical, I’m completely serious, Tom. Don’t risk losing her.”

Nobody trusted Tom Bowe-Hawkins. Saja hadn’t trusted him when he’d passed his boards, as if he was going to blow up someday and do something illicit and destructive to the ship’s computers.

“You know,” Mischa said, “if you did anything to Corinthian crew, you’d fare no better in the legal system. Station law doesn’t know you. Station doesn’t give a damn for ship-law. It’s not a system you’d ever want to be part of.”

“Yes, sir,” he said. Mischa’d had to say that last, just when he’d thought Mischa might have trusted him after all. “I hear you. Does this make me one of you?”

Silence after that impertinence. Long silence.

“Where does that come from?” Mischa asked.

Didn’t the man know? Didn’t the man hear? Was the man blind and deaf to what he was doing when he pulled his psych games?

When the kids in the loft painted Korinthian on his jacket?

When the com called him to the bridge an hour ago as Thomas Bowe—the way Marie had enrolled him on the ship’s list, three days after he was born?

“You’re not the most popular young man aboard,” Mischa said slowly. “I think you know it. I know you’ve had special problems. I know they’re not all your fault. But some things are. You’ve got try-me written all over you. You’re far too ready with your fists, even in nursery you were like that.”

“Other kids—”—went home with their mothers, he started to say, and cut that off. Mischa would only disparage that excuse.

“Other kids, what?”

“I fought too much. My father’s temper. I’ve heard it all.”

“You got a bad deal. I’m sorry, but, being a kid, you didn’t make it better. Do you know that?”

“I gave back what I got. Sir.”

“You listen to me. You made some mistakes. I’m saying if you get through this situation clean, it could help Marie. And it could change some minds, give you a position in this Family you can’t buy at any other price. For God’s sake, use your head with Marie. She’s smart, she’s manipulative as hell, she’ll tell you things and sound like she means them. Above all else, get that temper of yours well in hand. I can’t control what everybody on this ship is going to say or do in the next few days. That’s not important. Getting this cargo offloaded and ourselves out of this port with all hands aboard—is. Don’t embarrass Marie. Let’s get her out of here with a little vindication, if we can do that, and hope to hell we don’t cross Bowe’s path for another twenty of our years.”

Mischa Hawkins gave good advice when he gave it. Didn’t do much for him, the son of a bitch, but what did Mischa Hawkins actually owe him?

“I’ll do my best,” he said. “I’ll do everything I humanly can.”

Mischa stared at him a moment, estimating the quality of the promise, or him, maybe. Finally Mischa nodded.

“Good,” Mischa said, pushed the desk button that opened the door, and let him out.

Do something to clean up his reputation. What in hell had he done?

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162

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