B002D48NTG EBOK Read online

  "And you're feeling okay?"

  "Yes, sir. They gave me two new eardrums, and fixed some laser burns on my rib cage while they were at it."

  "Well, we're all glad to have you back. Has anyone filled you in on what's happened since you've been hospitalized?"

  "Commander Forrice did, sir."

  "I wish I had something positive to add," said Cole. "Carry on, and if you feel you need some bed rest, just tell whoever's in charge of the shift and we'll get you replaced."

  "Thank you, sir, but I feel fine," insisted Chadwick. "Really I do."

  "Okay. Have you met Crewman Esteban Morales yet?"

  "No, sir. I'm not acquainted with the name."

  "He choose to join us after we took the Achilles."

  "Is there some reason why you asked me that, sir?" asked Chadwick.

  "Only you and he would know for sure," said Cole, "but there's a possibility that he's the guy who caught you with the screecher. What's your reaction to that?"

  "We were on opposite sides then. If we're on the same side now, it's forgotten, sir. And I assume he'll forget that I killed two of his shipmates."

  "He assures me that he carries no grudge, that he understands that the situation has changed."

  "Then there will be no problem, sir."

  "Good. I just wanted to make certain." Cole looked around the bridge, couldn't see any need to remain there, and headed for the mess hall. He wasn't hungry, but he didn't want to go to his room, and the cramped interior of the Teddy R didn't offer him that many choices.

  When he arrived, he sat down and was joined a moment later by Sharon Blacksmith.

  "Welcome back," she said. "You made some interesting new friends."

  "What is that supposed to mean?" asked Cole.

  "Just that I've been doing my job, part of which is finding out exactly what you've saddled us with," replied Sharon. "Daniel Moyer arrived on the Inner Frontier eleven years ago, just ahead of the Republic's police. There are two outstanding warrants for murder against him, dating back twelve and fourteen years. Do you want to know who he murdered?"

  "Not unless it was a starship captain."

  "James Nichols is even more interesting," she continued. "He was a bounty hunter. He had to find a new profession when the Republic found that they'd paid him for five ringers, innocent men he'd passed off as wanted killers."

  "They're pirates," said Cole. "And we're not heading toward any church socials."

  "Damn it, Wilson! They're just this side of being psychopaths. We may have chosen to be pirates, but we're a military ship with military discipline. They could be incredibly disruptive, and that's even without the likelihood of their killing someone."

  "Have either of them served in the Navy?"

  "They came from the Republic," answered Sharon. "Every ablebodied man and woman served in the Navy as soon as they reached their majority. These two are no different."

  "Were either of them cashiered out?"

  "No."

  "Then they can accept discipline and exercise self-control," said Cole. "If we find they can't, we'll set them off at the next oxygen world we come to. But they want the Shark badly enough to behave until we catch him."

  "At which point everybody's favorite pirate queen will lop their heads off before she'll let anyone else kill the Shark," said Sharon.

  "We'll worry about that when we come to it," said Cole. "These guys worked for Muscatel. They know his communication codes. They know his hideouts. They know how his mind works. They could prove very useful to us. Val knows the Shark, but no one except these guys knows Donovan Muscatel." He paused. "You haven't mentioned the Pepon yet."

  "You don't want to know."

  "No, I really don't," said Cole. "They start today with a clean slate. If they dirty it, they'll suffer the consequences, but a pirate ship operating with half the crew it needs can't be too fussy about who it recruits."

  "They're killers, Wilson."

  "So is the young man on the bridge, the one with two new eardrums," responded Cole. "So is Forrice. So are half the men and aliens on this ship."

  "The men and aliens on this ship killed the enemy during wartime," said Sharon. "This is different."

  "It certainly is," said Cole. "They were drafted. These three volunteered."

  "But-"

  "The subject is closed. When they start misbehaving, it'll be open again."

  "Misbehaving is a hell of a euphemism for murder."

  "The only person they want to murder is the Hammerhead Shark," said Cole. "Now let it drop."

  "You can't just order me to shut up."

  "Of course I can. I'm the Captain."

  "Well, you're going to be a lonely Captain tonight."

  "I read somewhere that loneliness goes with command," replied Cole.

  "It goes with insensitivity."

  He smiled. "That too."

  Suddenly Val's image appeared next to him.

  "What's up?" asked Cole.

  "I just remembered something," she said. "The Pegasus picked up some Meladotian crystals just before the Shark showed up."

  "Okay, I give up. What are Meladotian crystals?"

  "They a very rare, very delicate crystal that's found only in the Meladotian system. They use it in jewelry on the Canphor Twins."

  "Fine. They use it in jewelry on Canphor VI and VII. So what?"

  "Meladotia II is a very inhospitable world," said Val. "A couple of hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and an ammonia atmosphere. Humans almost never go there, even to mine it."

  A look of dawning comprehension crossed Cole's face. "You took it from an alien miner."

  "A Balimond," she said.

  "Let me take a wild guess: for whatever reason, Balimonds don't believe in insurance."

  "It's a human institution, and they don't have much use for humans."

  "So what you're saying is that the Shark can't sell it to an insurance company."

  "Right."

  "And he can't dump it on the Twins, because the Canphor system is off-limits to human ships, even though they're sitting out the current war."

  She grinned. "You got it."

  "So whether he likes it or not, he's got to palm the crystals off on a fence-and the biggest fence in this sector just happens to be David Copperfield."

  "They tell me you hit it off with him," said Val.

  "Well, he let me live, anyway," said Cole. "All right, so sooner or later the Shark is going to try to sell the crystals to a fence, and the likelihood is that he'll choose Copperfield. Biggest fence, most money, best contacts for unloading it in the Canphor system." He paused, lost in thought for a moment. "There's no sense staking the place out. It could be months before he shows up, maybe even longer if he's being chased by Muscatel's three ships-or if he's chasing them. But that doesn't mean we can't make a private arrangement with Copperfield to let us know when the Shark contacts him and when he expects the crystals to be delivered."

  "You'd better do it in person," interjected Sharon. "A fence operating just outside the Republic has got to be very careful. He's got to know that the offer's legit, that the cops aren't standing ten feet beyond holo range with some burners aimed at you."

  "I agree," said Cole. "Val, have you ever met David Copperfield?"

  "Twice."

  He fell silent, chin on fist, eyes half-closed.

  "What's the problem?" asked Val at last.

  "I'm trying to decide whether to bring you with me," said Cole. "I don't know if seeing two pirates he knows will reassure him or set off alarms in his head. He likes me, or at least he seems to, and he's had dealings with you; that's on one side. But when the hell did two pirates ever team up and ask a fence to screw another pirate?"

  "Probably more often than you'd guess," said Val.

  "I agree," said Sharon. "There are business mergers all the time. This is just another business."

  "That's the problem. It's not just another business. This is the kind of business that when you run in the
red, the red isn't ink. If he helps us, he knows we'll have something we can hold over him forever."

  "But he also knows we almost never deal with him," said Val. "He might not see us again for five or ten years."

  "We almost never deal with him at five percent," said Cole. "But what if we say: You pay us forty percent or we tell every crew member of the Pegasus who informed on them? Or we tell every pirate on the Frontier that David Copperfield sold out one of his clients because another client paid him to."

  "You've been to Riverwind," said Val. "You've seen his protection. No one can get to him."

  "Bullshit. All I have to do is say I'm Steerforth and I can walk right into his office. Who's to say one of the Shark's men won't announce himself as Pickwick?"

  "You can do this either-or shit all day," said Sharon. "I say you take the Valkyrie. If nothing else, she can protect your back better than anyone else."

  "All right," agreed Cole. "Maybe I'll take Morales, too. If we have to leave in a hurry, he knows the routes to the spaceport better than anyone else." He paused, then shook his head. "No, bad idea."

  "Why, if he knows his way around Riverwind?"

  "If Val can't come into Copperfield's study with me, I'm not going to worry about her; she can take care of herself. But if she can come to the study, that means Morales will be alone. He's just a kid, and despite what he did to Chadwick in a confused firefight in close quarters, I don't think he can take care of himself under those circumstances. We'll find our way to and from Copperfield's house without him."

  "You're too soft, Cole," said Val. "Everyone's expendable."

  "Under certain rare and rigidly defined conditions," agreed Cole, "but not every minute of every day. We can accomplish our mission without endangering him, and that means we should accomplish it without endangering him."

  "You're the Captain," she said. "Just get me back my ship."

  She cut the connection, and her image disappeared.

  "You know," said Sharon, "we're going to try to track the Pegasus, and we're going to quiz Moyer and Nichols and Bujandi until they're dizzy, and we're going to try to find Muscatel's ships, but your redheaded friend just came up with the best idea anyone's had for locating the Shark."

  "I told you she was going to prove useful," said Cole.

  "Of course, that presupposes that we need to find the Pegasus," added Sharon. "If it weren't for her, we wouldn't have to."

  "If it weren't for her, I'd still be going into the Republic trying to sell the tiara and the other jewels," said Cole. "She's giving us a postgraduate course in piracy."

  "Then why are you trying to help her get her ship back? It's in our best interest not to find it for a few years."

  "Because she's not stupid, Sharon. She'll know if we're trying to draw it out, and the day that happens she's gone-possibly leaving a dead Captain behind her."

  "What the hell," said Sharon. "Since she's either going to kill you or get you killed, maybe you don't have to be lonely tonight after all."

  Cole and Val cleared Customs on Riverwind with a minimum of red tape, and were soon making their way to David Copperfield's mansion.

  "When we get there, let me introduce you," said Cole as they sped above a local thoroughfare.

  "Screw the niceties," said Val. "We're going to make him a proposition, and he's going to say yes or no."

  "He's more likely to say yes if you let me do the talking," said Cole. He looked over at her. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to stop long enough to buy a period costume, assuming we can find one?"

  She growled an obscenity.

  "I didn't think so. Besides, they probably don't make nineteenthcentury A.D. dresses for redheaded giants." He paused. "Do you at least know how to curtsy?"

  "What the hell are you talking about?" she demanded. "We're two pirates on our way to see a fence!"

  "You're not much at adapting to situations, are you?" said Cole.

  "I make situations adapt to me."

  "That's probably why we're trying to get your ship back," he said wryly.

  They rode in silence for the last mile.

  "We're here," she announced.

  "I meant what I said," Cole told her. "You let me introduce you, and let me do the talking. I want you to only answer direct questions." She seemed about to explode with anger, and he held up a hand. "We're not doing this for my ship. If you won't do it my way, you can go in there alone and good luck to you."

  She glared at him for a moment longer. "All right," she said at last. "We'll play it your way."

  They walked up to the front door. It opened, and Mr. Jones let them in.

  "Welcome back, Mr. Smith," he said. "Will you and Mrs. Smith please follow me?"

  Val looked annoyed, but said nothing, and she and Cole fell into step behind Mr. Jones, who led them to Copperfield's study. The door allowed them to pass through, then snapped shut.

  "My dear Steerforth!" said the alien that called itself David Copperfield. "How delightful to see you again!" He turned to Val. "And this enchanting creature is ... ?"

  "Olivia Twist," said Cole, as Val looked confused.

  "What a perfect name!" enthused Copperfield. Suddenly he bowed low. "My house is your house, dear Miss Twist."

  "Thank you," mumbled Val, frowning.

  "And how may I help you today, Steerforth?" asked Copperfield. "Have you decided to part with your diamonds after all?"

  "They're long gone," replied Cole.

  "The jewelry, then?"

  "Otherwise disposed of."

  "Then you've made a new haul," said Copperfield.

  "Actually, we're not here to sell you anything," replied Cole.

  "Oh?" Copperfield suddenly looked suspicious. "I hope you are not here to steal from me, because if you are, you should know that four weapons are trained on you at this very second."

  "Rob a friend I went to school with?" said Cole as Val looked at him as if he was crazy. "Unthinkable."

  "I knew you were a kindred spirit!" said Copperfield. "May I ask why you are here?"

  "As I said, I'm not here to sell you anything, but rather to buy something from you."

  "Everything I have is for sale, except for the clothes on my back," answered Copperfield. "And if you made the right offer for them ..."

  "The only thing we want to buy is information."

  "Ah!" said Copperfield with a smile. "The most valuable commodity of all, and hence the most expensive."

  "We don't think you possess the information we need yet, but rather that you will be obtaining it in the relatively near future."

  "This sounds intriguing."

  "Poor Olivia's carriage was stolen by highwaymen," said Cole.

  "Had this carriage a name?"

  "The Pegasus," said Val.

  "A well-known carriage indeed," said Copperfield. "And of course my sources have already informed me of the devastation it caused on Cyrano." He smiled at Val. "You are known by many false names, my deal Olivia, and each of them is said to be more than formidable. How is it that you managed to lose your carriage?"

  "I got stinking-"

  "She was indisposed," said Cole, speaking over her.

  "A sweet young innocent like her?" said Copperfield.

  "You left out `trusting,' and that's what cost her the carriage."

  "And you think they'll be contacting me to sell it for them?" asked Copperfield.

  "No, but they've got some things they won't be able to unload anywhere else," said Cole.

  "Such as?"

  "Meladotian crystals," said Val.

  Copperfield's eyes widened. "Meladotian crystals?" he repeated.

  "Right," said Cole.

  "Beloved Steerforth, I am going to ask you a question," said Copperfield. "We are like brothers, you and I. Closer. In all the Inner Frontier, only you are truly family."

  "Thank you, David," replied Cole. "I feel exactly the same way."

  "But family is one thing, and business is quite another," continued Copp
erfield. "Why should I help you when your avowed enemy is coming to me with Meladotian crystals?"

  "He's going to want five percent for the crystals, possibly more," said Cole. "Help Olivia get her carriage back and we'll sell them to you for three percent of market."

  "Hey!" said Val.

  "Be quiet, Miss Twist," said Cole sharply. "Our friend is considering his options."

  "Three percent, you say?" asked Copperfield.

  "That's right."

  "And exactly what do I have to do in exchange for this beneficence?"

  "I'm going to give you a scramble code before I leave," said Cole. "The moment you know that they're coming here, I want you to send me a subspace message to that effect, and use the code to hide the contents. It's the latest military technology, and I doubt that the Pegasus will be able to do a thing with it."

  "They'll know it came from here."

  "Send Mr. Jones to the spaceport and have him send it from there," suggested Cole. "It'll just be one more signal among hundreds."

  "You were always the brightest boy in school, Steerforth," said Copperfield.

  "We'll be waiting for them when they arrive," continued Cole. "They'll be out of the pirating business long before they can reach your house."

  "Three percent?" repeated Copperfield.

  "Three percent."

  "Then it only remains for you to tell me who will be contacting me, so that I will know to alert you."

  "He calls himself the Hammerhead Shark."

  Copperfield's eyes widened again. "The Hammerhead Shark?"

  "That's right."

  "I'm sorry, but all deals are off! I had no idea who you were after!" He turned to Val. "And you, Miss Twist, should consider yourself fortunate in the extreme that you are still alive."

  "All right," said Cole. "Two percent."

  "My dear Steerforth, you could offer them to me for free and it would make no difference. I value my life too much to do anything to offend the Hammerhead Shark."

  "He'll never make it this far," said Cole. "I told you: We'll meet him right at the spaceport."

  "Because we went to school together, and thus have a bond between us, I will forget you ever came here or mentioned the Hammerhead Shark. Now I must ask you to go."

  "That's your final word?"

  "No creation of the immortal Charles ever speaks a final word," replied Copperfield. "But that is my decision."