“What the fuck do you want, Qualt?”
“Ah, it is Miss Agrada. I recognize that voice anywhere, and you know I always have a soft spot in my trousers for you, darling.”
“Charming. I’ll ask one more time. What do you want?”
“What do I want? I think the better question is what do you want?”
“I don’t have time for your games, Qualt.”
“Exactly my point, Ana-Zhi. Exactly my point. We are both running out of time. According to my handy-dandy chronograph here, we’ve got just a little more than forty-eight hours before those wrigglies shut the door on us. That ain’t a lot of time. Not a lot of time, at all.”
Ana-Zhi didn’t say anything, but that didn’t stop Qualt. He kept blabbering on.
“What I have for you, darling, is a proposition.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“What say you pay me a visit at the Vostok here and the two of us have a little confab?”
“Are you high, Qualt?”
“Maybe high on you, sweet cheeks.”
“Okay, I’m signing off. Have a good life.”
“C’mon, A.Z., just hear me out.”
“There is no way I would ever set foot on your garbage scow of a ship.”
“No need to get personal, A.Z. We’re all friends here.”
“We are not friends, Qualt. Goodbye.”
“Hey! Hey! Hey! Okay, you want to get down to brass tacks. I respect that. I really do. What I am proposing is that we join forces. Split the commission fifty-fifty.”
I watched as Ana-Zhi seemed to consider the proposition.
“How could that work?” she asked. “Only one party can leave with the Kryrk.”
“That’s true enough, darling. But what I’m offering is a way we can both win. We work together, find the Kryrk, and share the commission. The alternative is that the clock runs out and neither of us got what we came for, ergo we will only leave with the minimum compensation. If your deal was anything like ours, that’s like an order of magnitude less than we could get by working together. Just the thought of that makes my left nutsack all warm and tingly. So what do you say, A.Z.?”
“I say that you’re one lazy son of a bitch, Qualt. Do your own work, don’t be trying to piggy-back on my shit. We’re out of here, and if I catch you following us, I’m likely to lay an ion lance right between your own sweet cheeks. Got it?”
“Promises, promises. Suit yourself, darling. I just wanted to give you a chance.”
Ana-Zhi didn’t respond. She just cut the transmission instead.
“Asshole,” she muttered.
“You’re telling me,” Galish said.
“Who is that guy?” I asked.
“Agon Qualt. Mercenary salvage captain. Doesn’t care much who he works for. That’s why he got hooked up with the Mayir.”
“And he really thought we’d join forces?”
“No, he’s not that dumb. I don’t know what he’s playing at, but something’s brewing. Hap, let’s get the hell out of here.”
“And go where? The kid suggested we return to Yueld’s orbit.”
“I don’t give a shit where we go. Just put half a moon between us and them. You got it?”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
She paused in thought. “On second thought, belay that.”
“What?”
“Head back to that airstrip in Maridu,” she said.
“Why?” I asked.
“We’re going to drop off Murroux.”
“I don’t understand—”
“We have enough to worry about. Let the Batalarians deal with him.”
“But he’s in bad shape,” I said. “We can’t just drop him off.”
“I checked on him. He’s going to be okay. If we have time, we’ll come back for him on our way home.” Ana-Zhi turned to Galish. “Get going.”
I tried to sway her again, but Ana-Zhi had made up her mind.
“Junior, how about you check to see how the princess is doing.”
Again, I bristled at being an errand boy, but I was curious about Chiraine’s progress, so I left the bridge and walked down to the engineering bay.
Chiraine was awake and locked in concentration, studying her workstation’s display. I didn’t want to say anything to distract her.
Finally, she said, “Can I help you?”
The tone of voice wasn’t exactly respectful.
“I don’t know if you saw, but the Mayir ship made contact with us.”
“Is that what the commotion was about?”
I nodded. “They wanted to team up. Split the commission.”
“I hope Ana-Zhi told them to screw themselves.” She kept her eyes locked on her datapad.
A weird feeling hit me like a shiver. “Ana-Zhi?” I asked nonchalantly. “What makes you think that she was doing the negotiating?”
Chiraine froze, not looking at me. She didn’t say anything for several moments. Then she did something on her datapad that took about thirty seconds. When she was done, she slowly turned her chair around to face me.
“I just disabled the ship’s recording.”
“What? Why? That was part of our contract with the Shima.”
“I had to,” she said. “Because I know the truth.”
“Know what truth?” My stomach was queasy.
“I know you’re not Sean Beck.”
10
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.
“You look just like him, you sound just like him, but you’re not him. What are you, some advanced sim?”
“No.”
“A clone?”
“Kind of.” I couldn’t lie any more. Not to her. “I’m his son.”
“Jannigan Beck?”
“Yeah, guilty as charged.”
“Then it’s true,” she said.
“What’s true?”
“The rumors…about your father.” She trailed off, hesitant.
“What rumors?”
“Your father’s dead, isn’t he?”
I was dumbstruck.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so cold.”
“How did you know?”
“There’s been a lot of talk over the years. Speculation. Gossip. I didn’t know what to believe. Then seeing you, here on the ship…”
“You knew I couldn’t be him. Is that what you’re saying?”
Chiraine glanced down, too uncomfortable to meet my gaze.
“I get it. I guess I’m not as good an actor as I thought.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” she said quickly. “I swear. I know you were probably in a tough position with the Shima.”
“Yeah, they demanded that Sean Beck run this mission personally.”
“Does the crew know?”
“Yes, of course. They all work together a lot. This is actually my first mission.”
“Is that why you don’t leave the ship?”
“Yeah, it was part of my deal. I never wanted to come on this thing. My uncle kind of
