Ana-Zhi had seen it too. The shuttle’s comm squawked and I heard her hailing the Mayir ship.
“Yates, you there?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Well, well, well, if it ain’t miss sweet cheeks. You, darling, are harder to kill than a blessed cucaracha.”
I recognized the voice. It was Agon Qualt, captain of the Vostok.
“Listen, Qualt, I got no beef with you,” Ana-Zhi said.
“Really? I find that hard to believe. I blew up your goddamn ship—and your goddamn crew, come to think of it.”
“Yeah, well actually, you only blew up one of my crew—and I wasn’t particularly attached to her, given she was a Shima spy.”
I looked over at Chiraine, but didn’t say anything.
Ana-Zhi continued. “Bandala’s security bots got the other one. But the fact is, I’m willing to forgive all that and make a trade.”
“A trade? If I recall you were rather negativo on the whole ‘working together’ proposal I kindly offered.”
“Yeah, that’s because you didn’t have anything I was interested in. And now you do.”
“And what might that be, A.Z.?”
“Yates and Obarral.”
“Ah, Misters Yates and Obarral. Two men with a keen sense of cooperation—unlike you—if we’re going to get real with each other.”
“I want them, Qualt. Right here, right now. And safe passage back to the Fountain. It’s not a lot to ask for.”
Qualt exploded in laughter. “Not a lot to ask for? A.Z., I’m afraid you don’t know me very well.”
“I know you plenty well, Qualt.”
“Respectfully, I don’t think you do, Ana-Zhi. Because if you knew me—if you really knew me—you’d know that I am a man of honor. A man whose word is his bond. A man who values loyalty above everything else in this whole mud-pucking universe.”
“Uh huh.”
“Don’t ‘uh huh’ me, A.Z. You’re the one who called me, remember?”
“Qualt, you are harboring a pair of scum-sucking murderers and thieves—”
“Matter of opinion, darling. It’s a matter of opinion.”
“No, it’s a fact, Qualt.”
“I can see we’re going nowhere quickly, honey tail, so it’s probably best if you sign off. Permanently. Don’t worry, darling, I’ll make it quick.”
We were sitting ducks, with no proximity plates. My heart thudded in my chest as I braced for the blast of an ion lance or a kinetic torpedo. But Ana-Zhi kept Qualt talking.
“I’ve got the Kryrk,” she said quickly. “It’s right here. Check it out for yourself.”
“Bullshit. Yates found the Kryrk and now we’ve got it.”
“You’ve got a piece of junk, Qualt. A decoy. I didn’t trust Yates and Obarral from the start, so I got my girl to give them the wrong coordinates. Only I knew the real location of the Kryrk, and now I’ve got it.”
“That story’s laughable. Even for you, A.Z.”
“I’ll tell you who’s not going to be laughing. The Mayir. When they see that shit you brought them—that is obviously not the Kryrk—you can kiss any bonus goodbye. And any more jobs between now and, say, the end of time.”
“You’re blowing smoke, girlfriend.”
“Really? Have you done any material testing on that hunk of junk you think is the Kryrk? When you do, I’m betting you’ll see the manufacturer tag on the carbon nanotubes.”
“Hang on a second.”
The channel filled with dead air. Chiraine gave me the thumbs up, but I wasn’t sure. Was Qualt really buying Ana-Zhi’s story?
20
Twenty minutes later, Qualt made contact. And he was pissed.
“Goddamn incompetents,” he fumed.
“I take it you examined that piece of junk Yates told you was the Kryrk,” Ana-Zhi said.
“It’s an engine part.”
“I told you.”
“Yes you did. But let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we, darling?”
“My pleasure. You drop Yates and Obarral off at Bandala where they stay indefinitely.”
“Uh huh, a little poetic justice?”
“Call it what you will.”
“Then what?”
“Then the two of us hail the Rhya. I tell them that the Faiurae destroyed my ship and I destroyed the Faiurae’s—in self-defense, of course—and you back me up. When they pick me up, I leave the Kryrk on the shuttle and you are free to collect it.”
“That’s your plan?”
“That’s my plan.”
“Okay.”
What? I couldn’t believe Qualt would agree so easily. And, apparently, Ana-Zhi had the same reservations.
“Okay?” she stuttered.
“Okay,” Qualt said. “I have no use for those incompetent sons of bitches. I’ll tranq them and drop them on the landing deck where your ship was—unless you want me to toss them out of an airlock.”
“No,” Ana-Zhi said, still a little flustered. “I want them to go through what they had in store for me. What’s fair is fair.”
“Good,” Qualt said. “But first I’ll come aboard and see this Kryrk for myself. I’ll run a ring scan on it and verify its age.”
“You don’t need to verify it. This is the real deal.”
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I’ve got a crux scanner with a geochron unit. We’ll see how authentic your Kryrk is.”
“Okay, Qualt, but I want you to take a good look at what’s attached to the Kryrk. Can you see that?”
“Yeah. It’s a skiphammer. I know you don’t fuck around, A.Z. There’s no need for explosives.”
“You come alone,” Ana-Zhi said. “Unarmed and alone. Or I will have no problem detonating this and blowing us all to the ether. You got it?”
“Always a hard ass, darling. That’s what I love about you. See you in a few. Qualt out.”
The channel went dead.
Chiraine and I looked at each other, but didn’t dare speak until Ana-Zhi gave us the ‘all-clear.’ I had no idea if we’d be able to pull this thing off.
Finally, Ana-Zhi said, “What did you guys think?”
“Hard to know,” I said.
Chiraine said, “He’s going to try to screw us.”
“Of course he’s going to try to screw us,” Ana-Zhi said. “But how?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Couldn’t he just punch a hole in our hull with a kinetic torpedo, wait for us to die, and then come take the Kryrk?”
Ana-Zhi tilted the shuttle’s bow down, making sure Qualt didn’t have a view of our undercarriage. “Naw, it would be too risky with the skiphammer.”
We kicked around a bunch of different scenarios, but they all concluded with us
