“You’ve given us a problem. You’ve given Austin one.”
“What was I to do? He’d been looking at the cans. And pardonnez-moi, maman, I didn’t pick this particular problem. He’s Austin’s.”
“He won’t thank you.”
“Pity.”
He started to leave. Beatrice didn’t let go her fistful of hair. “Christian. Keep your mouth shut. It will die down. We can leave this fool at Pell… send him to Earth, for that matter, and he won’t find his way back.”
“It won’t die down. There’s too broad a trail, and there’s that woman…”
“Shit on that woman!”
“Shit on the whole situation, I—”
The door of Austin’s office whisked aside. Austin loomed in the doorway. “Get in here!”
“Who, me?” He honestly wasn’t sure, and mimed it. Austin grabbed him by the arm, jerked him through the door, and backhanded him hard into the wall, which left him nursing a sore ear and a personal indignation.
“It’s not my damn fault!”
“Why could somebody just walk into the warehouse? Where in hell was the guard?”
“Millers’ had people on duty, but they had to have somebody sign the damn repair order, I didn’t know they were going to leave the office unlocked…”
Austin took a glancing swipe at him, total disgust. “All you had to do was have a guard on that door.”
“I know that.”
“You know that, sir, damn your impudence! You look to inherit Corinthian? You’re a long way from it, at the rate you’re going! We’ll be lucky not to lose this port, and Miller, and all they do for us, you understand that? Does that remotely affect your social interests?”
“I was busting my ass, sir, getting Miller moving. I got us turned around, we just can’t use any damn deckhand that comes along. We’re loading, we’re going as fast as the loader can roll, I’ve sent out the board-call. The only thing I didn’t predict was Miller’s man deciding to take a walk and leave the damn door unlocked—”
“Try predicting what we’re going to do when the cops show up wanting Thomas Hawkins! Does that fit in your crystal ball? Sprite crew is all over the damn dock out there!”
“Looking for Marie, by my sources. Not interested in calling the cops, no more than we are. They’re asking up and down the row, every bar, showing her picture. They probably think he’s with her.”
“Damn lucky they didn’t arrest half the crew.”
“I hear luck had nothing to do with it.”
“Expensive luck. I’m not in a damned good mood, boy. Nobody’s coming through those access doors or near our lock. Damned elusive woman. Damned persistent—and you snatch her kid? Thanks. Thanks a whole lot. It’s just the luck we needed.”
“Dump him in space. It’s no different than leaving him lie in a warehouse full of cold cans. He was taking a tour of Miller’s premises, for God’s sake, it wasn’t my doing, I don’t know what more I could do than I did… if I’d left a body behind, you wouldn’t be happy with me either, especially seeing he’s your own offspring,—sir. I wouldn’t want you to get the idea I wanted him dead.”
“You’re real close to annoying me, Christian.”
“I did what seemed to me to be less liability.”
“After you finally deigned to return a com call. After you gave that ship that much extra time to let Marie Hawkins loose on the dock.”
“It’s not my fault the transport broke down. It’s not my fault everything on this God-forsaken station depends on some separate labor union—I could have fixed that damn transport with a screwdriver, Miller could have fixed the transport, we didn’t know we had an emergency, and I wasn’t that hard to track down, sir, I’d told Miller where I was and what general direction I was going. You could have called Miller.”
“Miller isn’t an officer on this ship. Damned right I called Miller, once Bianco saw fit to tell me the offloading was stalled.”
“You tell Bianco what you thought about it?”
“Bianco’d told you. You were the officer of the watch, boy, and if you have any desire to stay an officer on this ship, I suggest you establish clear understandings with the duty officer of each watch, that you take threats against this ship damned seriously, that you don’t screw with the guard I’ve put on our accesses, because I don’t take for granted that woman won’t try to slip us a bomb in one of the cans or walk onto this ship armed, do you hear me?”
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