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.Don’t try to pay it.Don’t talk about it.Or me.Or I go to station authorities.”“I understand you,” he said very quietly.“I’d take your ten.And I’d promise to get it back to you, but I don’t think you’d believe it.And it wouldn’t be the truth.You’re throwing it away, Reilly.I very much doubt I’m going to clear this dock at all.”“Someone here you know?”“More than likely someone here that knows me.It’s the publicity, Reilly.I’m usually a lot quieter.”“What,” she asked in a lowered voice, “can they get you for? What’s the worst?”“Bad debts.”“Less than likely any merchanter would go to the police on that score.But something else—”“I’m not one of the Names.They don’t know what I might be.A pirate.They could think that.But I’ll tell you the whole truth this time.I’ve got two thousand cash I’m not declaring.For dock-side deals.—And fourteen thousand worth of WSC money in gold under the plates.That’s why I ran out of Viking like my tail was afire.—Look, this stationer there, this clerk—I had to deal; he could have blown it all.It wasn’t my idea.So I have the money.I can pay dock charges and I can deal for cargo.”“With sixteen lousy contraband thousand?”“You think ten more is going to help? No.And if they catch me, you can believe they’re going to inventory everything I’ve got; and they’d find me with more scrip than I’m supposed to have; and ten thousand in Pell currency, right? One question to comp and they’d have those serial numbers and a ten thousand transaction in your name.Take it from me.I know the routines.”“I’ll bet you do.”“So you keep it.Against my problems, it’s nothing, that ten.I’ll get out of it my way.” He picked up his jacket and put it on, checked his papers in his pocket.“I’ll go take care of the finance, go to station offices.You just call it quits and go hang out with your cousins and say it’s all nothing.Find somebody else to sleep-over with and publicize it, fast.That’ll kill it I know how to cover a trail.That, too.”“I wish you luck,” she said, sounding earnest.“You’ll need it”He opened the door for her.Grinned, recovering himself.Thanks,” he said, and walked out, ahead of her in the hall, hands in pockets, a deliberate spring in his step.Time to visit Lucy.Time to go under the eyes of the powers that be on Pell and try to pull it out of the fire.Or at least get some of the heat off.Station offices would unseal her for him if he could eel his way past a customs agent who might want to do a thorough check in his presence.Then to get out of Pell with as much cash as he could save.Maybe check the black market—there was always that.Change the name and number out at Tripoint, trade black market at the nullpoints and hope no one cut his throat.Buy another set of forged papers.If he could get out with money; and if… a thousand things.His mind began to work again more clearly, with Allison Reilly set behind him.With bleak realities plain on the table.He looked back.She was there, at the door of the sleepover, just watching.A craziness had come on him for a time.Self-destructive: she was right.On the one hand he wanted to survive; and on the other he was tired of trying, and it was harder and harder to think his way through the maze… even to recall what lies he had told and how they meshed.There were troops here too.He saw them… a jolt.Not the green or the black of Union forces, but blue.Alliance militia.He recalled the buildup at Viking and the rumors of pirate-hunting and had a presentiment of times changing, of loopholes within which it had been possible for marginers to survive—being tightened, suddenly, and with finality.He had a record at every station in Union now; and soon a record with the Alliance; and he was almost out of places.“What happened?” Curran asked, joining her in the shadow of the sleepover doorway, and Allison frowned at the intrusion.“Been there,” Curran said with a nod toward the bar next door.“Some of us had a little concern for it… hung around.In case.What’s he up to? You know the Old Man’s going to ask.”“He’s going back to his ship.I’m afraid it’s a case of misplaced assumptions.We’re quits.”“Allie, they’ve got a guard out there.”She straightened, dropped her arms from their fold.“What guard?”“On his ship.That’s what’s had us upset.We weren’t about to break in on you, but we’ve sure been thinking.That’s military, that.”She hissed between her teeth, “More than customs seal?”“More than customs.They say one of Mallory’s officers is on station.”“I heard that.”“Allie, if they haul him in, is there anything he can say he shouldn’t?”“No.” She turned a scowl on her cousin, sharp and quick.“Are you making assumptions, Currie me lad? Don’t Allie me.”“When our watch senior sleeps over with a man the militia’s got their name on… we come asking questions.Third Helm has a stake here.”“You don’t oversee me.”“That’s thanks.—We’ve backed you.Get back to the ship.We’re asking.Now.”She said nothing.Followed the distant figure with her eyes.There was not so much traffic now as mainday [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]