Torch of Freedom

'Yes?' Laukkonen encouraged so pleasantly that an undeniable shiver ran down Bottereau's spine.

'I know I still owe you for that last load of supplies.' The ex-Peep had decided going in that frankness and honesty were the only way to go. 'And I'm pretty sure you've figured out that the reason I haven't come calling on you sooner is that I don't have the cash to pay for it.'

'The suspicion had crossed my mind,' Laukkonen allowed. His lips smiled. 'I'm sure you wouldn't be thinking about stiffing an old friend, though.'

'Of course not,' Bottereau said, with total honesty.

Attempting to cheat Santeri Laukkonen was not what one might consider a career enhancing move. It was a big galaxy, and it was entirely possible a man could run fast enough and far enough to get away with something like that, but Arsène Bottereau wasn't about to risk finding out that it wasn't. Big as the galaxy was, people like Laukkonen tended to have contacts in the least likely of places . . . and people in his line of work tended to do one another favors. Even if they hardly knew one another. Letting someone get away with cheating any of them was bad business, and if word got around that someone had done that to someone else, the offender had a distressing tendency to end up dead. Professional courtesy (after all, one day they might need a favor in Laukkonen's area), combined with the need to make it clear deadbeats did not prosper in their neck of the woods, saw to that.

'I'm relieved to hear it,' Laukkonen said, still pleasantly. 'On the other hand, I have to wonder exactly why you wanted to see me if it wasn't to pay me?'

'Mostly because I want to avoid . . . misunderstandings,' Bottereau replied.

'What sort of 'misunderstandings'?'

'The thing is, I can't pay you right now, and to be honest, the way both the Manties and Theisman—and Erewhon, for that matter—are escorting their convoys in the area, things are getting too hot for Jacinthe. She's only a light cruiser, and we're beginning to see heavy cruiser escorts—even a couple of battlecruisers, out of Theisman.' Bottereau shook his head. 'I'm not going to get your money by ramming my head into that kind of opposition, and the stuff sailing independently around here right now is strictly low-end. It's not going to pay the bills, either.'

'And this matters to me because . . . ?' Laukkonen's expression was not encouraging.

'Because I've got an . . . opportunity elsewhere. It's for a big paycheck, Santeri. Enough to let me finally retire, actually, as well as paying you everything I owe you.'

'Of course it is.'

Laukkonen smiled thinly, but Bottereau shook his head.

'I know. Everybody in my line of work is always looking for the big score.'

It was his turn to smile, and there was absolutely no humor in it. He hadn't seen a lot of options when the People's Republic went down with Oscar Saint-Just, yet if he'd realized then what he was getting into . . .

'I won't lie to you,' he went on, looking Laukkonen straight in the eye. 'There's nothing I'd like better than to be able to get the hell out, and this may be my chance to do just that.'

'Unless, of course, something . . . unfortunate happens before you get to that retirement check,' Laukkonen pointed out.

'Which is one reason I'm having this conversation with you,' Bottereau said. 'I know these people are good for the money. I've worked with them before, although I have to admit this time they're talking about a lot bigger paycheck than before.' He grimaced. 'On the other hand, what they're talking about sounds like a straightforward merc operation, not commerce raiding.' It was interesting, a corner of his own mind noted, that even now he couldn't bring himself to use the word 'piracy' in conjunction with his own actions. On the other and, it never even occurred to him to mention anything about the People's Navy in Exile to Laukkonen. Mostly because he was certain it would absolutely convince the arms dealer he was shooting him a line of pure shit. 'It's a single in-and-out op, and the amount they're talking about, completely in addition to anything we might . . . pick up along the way, would clear everything I owe you—and everyone else—and still leave me enough to set up somewhere else in something legitimate.'

'And?'

'And I want you to understand that in order for me to get from where I am now to that paycheck—the one I'm planning to pay you out of—I'm going to need some time.'

'How much time?' Laukkonen asked frostily.

'I'm not absolutely positive,' Bottereau conceded. 'Probably at least three or four months . . . maybe even a little longer.'

'And just exactly what are you planning to operate on in the meantime?' Laukkonen's skepticism was plain.

'We're not going to be operating 'in the meantime,' ' Bottereau replied. 'This is something big, Santeri. To be honest, I'm not sure how big, but big. I do know they're going to be pulling in a lot more than just Jacinthe for this one, though, and it's going to take a while to get everything assembled. That's why I can't tell you exactly how long it's going to be. But they'll be picking up our regular maintenance and operating costs while we wait for the entire strike force to assemble.'

Laukkonen leaned back on the other side of the table, regarding him thoughtfully, and Bottereau looked back as levelly as he could. For a change, just about everything he'd just told the other man was true. Obviously he hadn't explained every single thing that was involved, but everything he had said was the stark, absolute truth. He hoped that unusual state of affairs was apparent to Laukkonen.

'You're not just trying to get a head start, are you, Arsène?' the fence/arms-dealer inquired finally.

'The thought had occurred to me, before this came along,' Bottereau admitted. 'On the other hand, I know all about your contacts. I figure there's no more than an even chance—if that—that I could stiff you and then disappear so completely nobody ever caught up with me. Frankly, I don't much like those odds, and even if I could pull it off, I imagine spending the next several decades wondering if I really had wouldn't he especially pleasant, either.' He shrugged. 'So, instead, I'm telling you ahead of time why you aren't going to see me for a while. I don't want you putting out the word so I get myself killed when I'm actually on my way back to Ajax to settle up with you.'

Laukkonen still looked skeptical, but he folded his arms across his chest, frowning ever so slightly as he considered what Bottereau had said. Then he shrugged.

'All right,' he said. 'All right, I'll give you your three or four months—hell, I'll give you six! But the interest rate's going up. You do understand that, don't you?'

'Yes,' Bottereau sighed. 'How much did you have in mind?'

'Double,' Laukkonen said flatly, and Bottereau winced. Still, it wasn't as bad as he'd been afraid it might be, and what Manpower was promising him would still be enough.

'Agreed,' he said.

'Good.' Laukkonen stood. 'And remember, Arsène—six months. Not seven, and sure as hell not eight. You need longer than that, you damned well better get me a message—and a down payment—in the meantime. Are we clear on that?'

'Clear,' Bottereau replied.

Laukkonen didn't say anything more. He simply nodded curtly, once, and walked out of the bar, picking up his bodyguards on the way.

* * *

'Have a seat, Herlander,' McBryde invited as the sandy-haired man with the haunted hazel eyes stepped into his office.

Herlander Simões sat in the indicated chair silently. His face was like a shuttered window, except for the pain in those eyes, and his body language was stiff, wary. Not surprisingly, McBryde supposed. An 'invitation' to an interview with the man in charge of the Gamma Center's entire security force wasn't exactly calculated to put someone at ease even at the best of times. Which these most definitely were not for Simões.

'I don't imagine it made you feel especially happy to hear I wanted to see you,' he said out loud, meeting the situation head on, and snorted gently. 'I know it wouldn't have made me happy, in your place.'

Still, Simões said nothing, and McBryde leaned forward behind his desk.