studying to please others.'
Gabriel wanted to ask what he meant by that, but the glare that Ondway turned on him silenced him for the moment. 'We have been trading with them for a good while, and we have been very much the 'junior partner.' That particular trade wind has blown hot and cold without warning before. They are very fearful,' he said, more softly, 'having occupied, until the Verge began to open up again, a position that is not very well protected. For a long while the two Thalaassan worlds were willing enough for support from whatever quarter it came, even from sesheyans that they counted not much better than either barbarian savages or company creatures. But this time . . .' Ondway shook his head. 'The signs are that our trade with them is now done permanently. With the treaty signed, they have new strong friends, the Concord who will protect them from the dark stories, from the things the tales say have been moving out in the dark of the far reaches of the system, things that even we would not feel comfortable with.' The image of that large ship flashed before Gabriel's mind's eye again. He half thought he would mention it, then closed his mouth. Being too willing to discuss things or taking things too readily at face value has gotten me into trouble before, he thought. Better not.
'And the influence of the governments on Phorcys and Ino has reached a long way,' Ondway said after a moment. 'Even the smugglers seem to have stopped running the usual route.'
Enda opened her eyes at that. 'What would one smuggle to Grith?' she asked, as casually as if she were asking directions in the street. 'Not to,' Ondway replied, 'from.' 'It's still a good question,' Gabriel said.
Ondway looked a little reluctant. 'The Wanderer would rarely speak-'
'Ah, come now, Ondway,' Enda said. 'You have been dropping your hints boldly enough. This is a poor time to shy away, when you so obviously want us to ask the question, and have doubtless made sure the surveillance is presently shut off.'
He still sat silent for a moment. Then Ondway said, 'There have been those who have been carrying supplies to and from Thalaassa.'
'To Phorcys and Ino? But you said trade had stopped with them.' 'I did.'
'Then where else? To Eraklion?' Gabriel shook his head. 'There's nothing there but a package mining firm. Why would they need-' He stopped.
'Not to Eraklion,' Enda said softly. 'Somewhere else. Farther out in the system, I think.' 'And even the smugglers have stopped going,' Gabriel said.
Ondway shifted in his seat, rustling his wings about him. 'There have been stories coming back from those spaces,' he said, very quietly, 'of those who go and do not return ... or who return . . . changed.' He had about him the air of someone who has sworn not to speak of something, but who at the same time desperately wants to and is hoping that someone will lead him around to the subject by subterfuge. 'Changed how?' Gabriel said.
Ondway was silent a while more, then he said, 'You do know that you are endangering yourselves merely by being here and speaking with me. Outside these doors and with very few exceptions elsewhere the planet is under constant surveillance by Void-Corp.'
Gabriel ran one hand through his hair in annoyance. It was beginning to get rather long for his tastes. 'We've had people trying to kill us for days now,' he said. 'Weeks,' Enda corrected primly.
'Thank you. A long time,' Gabriel said. 'Too damned long. I never had so many people trying to kill me when I was a marine as I have now, and then I was attending wars on a regular basis. I don't know that a little more endangerment would even register on my personal scale at this point.' 'VoidCorp,' Ondway said, 'has started its own wars in its time. The war with its parent company, both nonphysical and physical, nearly killed the Terran Empire in its cradle. To them what matters is market share. A life lost-or ten thousand here or there-make little odds so long as the bottom line improves. Slavery and death mean little to them in the long term. The Company will live longer than any of its component parts, and therefore Corporate immortality-the Corporation's growth right across all known space and its domination of it-is what matters. They will let nothing stand in the way of that. Even the Concord is cautious about how it moves against VoidCorp openly.' He looked down at the table, bitter. 'We had great hopes that the solution they engineered on Grith might lead to other similar situations elsewhere.'
He stopped very abruptly and would not look at them again.
The hint being, Gabriel thought, that it has led to a similar solution elsewhere. Somewhere in the Thalaassa system.
He glanced over at Enda. 'We've wandered a bit off our original topic,' Gabriel said. 'Here's our own bottom line. For our health and that of others, I think it would be smart if we took ourselves down to Grith for a little while. A few days-a week perhaps.' 'I would agree,' Enda said.
They looked at Ondway. 'Certainly we could find you a place to stay there,' Ondway said. 'Down by Redknife, you would attract little attention. Many tourists pass through that part of our world looking for an experience of the unspoiled sesheyan way of life.' He grinned. The expression was humorous, but not entirely kind. 'Mostly they pay well enough for it and get what they have come for. They do not, of course, pay for the experience of being hunted wherever one goes by a great and inimical force. Some inadvertently get that for free by trying to save on the 'tour guide fee' and going into the jungles themselves.' That smile got a little more amused, now. 'Mostly they find out about insects, mud, sablesnakes, and gandercats, but that is their business. In any case, the Redknife Tourist Bureau will easily enough manage your needs for a ten days or so. Ask for Maikaf.' 'Very well. And as for the Devli'yan-' Enda said suddenly. Ondway looked at her. 'You have been there before?'
'Some years ago,' Enda said, 'as a tourist. I did not hazard myself among the gandercats, however interesting their calls and what they mean, but I sat with the shamans under the trees and heard wisdom and told what passed for mine. Some months I spent there.'
Ondway nodded. 'I thought you might have,' he said. 'The fraal who come tend to remain a while. Who knows? There may be some there who will remember you yet. One at least, though there is no telling whether he will have time or inclination to see you. He spends much time in the forest these days. He too has those whose attention he prefers to forego.'
He breathed out, a long weary sound. 'Tomorrow, then,' Ondway said, 'I will depart for Redknife and will escort you. Eight hours, local time. Will that be satisfactory?' 'Entirely so,' said Enda, 'and we thank you very much.'
Ondway got up and slipped away into the shadows again. Gabriel, fingering his luckstone, looked after him and wondered. Ondway had impressed him, but he was less than eager to trust him entirely. He seemed to have meant a lot more than he actually said in his conversation.
'Shall we call for our bill?' asked.
'I have a feeling it will be here shortly,' Enda replied.
Sure enough, the sesheyan who had greeted them first and had brought their drinks now materialized out of the darkness, holding a payment chit. Gabriel reached out for it, checked the total glowing on it in the darkness, slipped a thumbnail into the slot to add the tip, and touched his own chip to it. The sesheyan bowed and took himself away.
The two of them headed out into the station hallway and there had to stop and blink; it was blinding even with the dimmer lights of station 'evening' now on show.
'In the morning,' Enda said with a sigh as they made their way back toward the main dome and the docking rings, 'we will see about the metal reweave you were discussing. Perhaps I am mistrustful of a new technology, especially when it seems too inexpensive to be effective.'
Gabriel chuckled, then stopped. A shadow had been just visible out of the corner of his eye as they passed an intersecting hallway. It had been moving toward them with some speed and had stopped. It was out of sight now.
'What?' Enda said as Gabriel slowed somewhat.
'Nothing,' he said, walking along as casually as he could without trying to look as if he had slowed his gait too much.
His peripheral vision had always been good-a little too good, according to his weapons instructor. 'Don't let it make you too confident of what you think you're seeing. Half the time you're wrong anyway.' But with just a very slight turn of his head, Gabriel could see a lot more than people normally thought he could. And once or twice, in fights or in battle, that had served him well. As they came around the curve of the corridor toward the main dome, he turned his head just a little toward Enda as if speaking to her and saw that shape suddenly materialize out of the side corridor again, slipping down toward them. 'We have company,' he said, very softly, as they continued on around the curve and toward the dome. 'Who?'
