Mainline (31 page)

Lish colored. Devin's words put an uncomfortable spotlight on the intimacy that now lay between them.

"Thanks," was all she replied. She withdrew her fingers and busied herself with the pretense of ordering breakfast from the prep unit. "Say," she changed the subject, "when are you lifting to go on this run?"

Devin took the conversation turn gracefully. "As soon as the 'Jammers get here and preflight is done. I want to take it easy heading out, since this will be first shakedown after all these repairs." Worry tinged his voice. "We're cutting it kind of close. Four days out, four back, that leaves three days leeway. Will they have the nanotech ready for us to ship?"

Lish paused for a heartbeat, then nodded. "The Camisq designed the borgbeasts, so they already had the replication scheme calculated for the nanotech. The goods will be ready by time you get there."

She put spicy reis cakes, broth-noodles, and tea on the table, then sat beside Devin—not quite as closely as before. She fell quiet as she ate breakfast, but the real reason for her silence was enough to kill her appetite.

When she had insisted on a two-week delivery deadline, the Camisq had called it a rush order and doubled the price. Her money counted only as half-price deposit, not full payment. The rest was due before they would release the goods to Devin.

She forced the food down, involuntarily worrying at the problem that had occupied her secretly for the last week and a half, and was now, thanks to the spacer's questions, in the forefront of her mind once again.

I'm getting that nanotech, she promised herself grimly, even if FlashMan has to raid someone's net account so I can afford it.

Sergeant Eklun and another Skiffjammer named Zay came on hoard within the hour. As Lish stood to leave, her clanmate beckoned her into his cabin where he moved to kiss her good-bye. She hesitated, then went along with the gesture, unwilling to rebuff the man about to undertake potential risk on her behalf.

"See you in less than a week," he promised.

"Less than a week," she agreed, and departed the ship.

Devin watched her go with mixed emotions. It would be nice if she would crew the
Fortune,
too, but too much else demanded her time and attention. Struggling to keep afloat. Dealing with the terrorists.

Sinking surface shipping.

No, that's not fair, the Captain corrected the involuntary thought. She's not responsible for how those beasts are used. We've been over that ground before. But I sure have a problem with it.

He didn't like being a part of something that would help terrorists kill innocent sailors in Selmun waters. It didn't matter how roundabout his contribution might be. Obligation to Lish came first, without question. The borgbeasts, though, enabled to live in the sea and continue their rampage ... Maybe later, somehow, he could help authorities locate the terrorists. Lish didn't care what happened to the Gambru League, not after she was paid.

It was a quandary he could not resolve yet, and so he walked away from it as he turned his back on Lish's departing figure. One thing at a time, that was the way to take care of business. First, get the
Fortune
back upstairs, where she belonged, and after that, warp to Tion.

It's easy, he told himself. Just one thing at a time.

Vask couldn't watch
Reva psionically all the time. That would take a superhuman effort, not called for in her days of fitful inactivity. He had to pick and choose his times for blindspotting, and relied more and more on ordinary surveillance.

When Lish returned from Akatnu Field and Reva followed her behind closed doors, he left the pair to another unmonitored
con
versation, as he increasingly had, and merely loitered in view
of
hallway and door.

Lish retreated to the solarium alcove in the study, where lush exotic ferns and a small burbling waterfall made a soothing place to relax and think. Reva followed her into the room and stood inside the door that had closed behind her.

The assassin was in her traveling clothes, dress-clad, in heels ready to blend into any starport crowd and vanish amid throngs of like-clothed passengers. The electric blue of the Lyndir-cut fashion and platinum blond hair she affected this day made her look like a stranger, not like the dark-haired, shadow-eyed woman who had been haunting the hallways for most of the last week.

Reva's garb meant nothing special to Lish, who noted her presence with mixed feelings. Not wishing to be rude, she nevertheless wanted to be alone.

"Guess what?" she said to the assassin. "Islanders are off our backs. Would you like to come back later, when Captain Levay fills me in on the details?"

Reva regarded the smuggler impassively. "No," she replied. "I only came by to give you this."

A triangular blue chit flipped through the air, bounced atop a water-splashed paving stone at the lip of the solarium pond. It was the pass to Tyree Longhouse on Des'lin.

Recognition flashed across the smuggler's face, and she left the chit where it landed. "Why?" She sounded a little hurt. "What's this about?"

"I won't be using it again, and I don't want to have it on me."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm leaving, that's all."

Her tone of finality gave Lish to understand her meaning. "Leaving?" the Holdout echoed. "You mean gone? For good?"

Reva nodded, and walked toward the door. She didn't trust herself to prolong this conversation, or to finish it with words like
good-bye
.
It was easier, just out the door and gone.

"Wait!" Lish said. "You can't go like this."

It taxed Reva's self-control to hear that. "Watch me," she mumbled through her teeth, and reached to palm the door open.

The Holdout came to her feet. "Lords of Ice, what's wrong? Talk to me."

The assassin halted with her hand on the doorplate, not yet pressing it open. She hung her head, took a shuddering breath. Sea Father, she prayed, help me walk out of this room.

"Reva."

The smuggler's tone was pleading, and Reva couldn't ignore her. There were no words sufficient, and too much to say, and she couldn't stand it any longer.

"Nothing's wrong," she denied, turning slowly about, and started moving toward Lish. Her clenched fists were silent witness to the tension she held inside. The Holdout noticed, and felt a twinge of concern.

The hesitation on her face provoked Reva. ' 'How plain do you want to hear this?"

"Hear what?"

The assassin jutted her chin towards the blue house pass. "That's yours. I don't want it. I'm not your houseguest, I'm not your friend, and I don't want to have anything to do with you. Is that, clear enough? Can I go, now?"

Lish gaped, astounded, then shook her head in disbelief. "I don't know what's bothering you, but I don't think that's it. At least be honest with me."

Honesty? Reva choked back a laugh. "Here's honesty for you. What in the Deep are you thinking about, sleeping with Devin? You go off like a nervous schoolgirl and come back like a well-laid whore when your business, your derevin, your
friends
all depend on you to—'' She heard her voice escalating in pitch, felt her resentment of Devin, her unreasoning anger. She stopped herself before she could say something she'd regret. "You've got to keep your mind on your business," she spat instead, "and fucking your pilot isn't going to get you anywhere. You're in so deep you're close to drowning, and all you can think about is getting laid."

Lish bridled at the personal attack. "You don't know anything about it," she retorted. "You have no business criticizing my personal life."

"Right. Guess it doesn't really matter anymore." The assassin spun and headed for the door.

"Reva, damn you, don't you walk out on me again!"

That brought her up short, and she rounded on Lish immediately. "I'm not trying to walk out on you, you infuriating bitch, I'm trying to save your life!"

It came out as a shout, a secret confession that left her red-faced and shaking.

Lish took in her friend's body language with consternation, and softened her voice when she spoke. "What do you mean by that? What's really going on, here?"

Why? Reva screamed in her head. Why is she asking me, of all people?

The assassin felt rooted to the spot and forced herself to stir. Her hands were trembling and she clasped them before her in a white-knuckled grip. What to say?

"There's a contract out on you." She forced the words past the constriction in her throat. "Your life's in danger.'.'

Lish paled, and sat abruptly. She couldn't take her eyes off Reva's face. "How do you know this?"

"You need to shut down your operations. Get off of R'debh and don't come back."

"Shut down—"

"Better yet, disappear. Change your identity. I can help you with that, if you want."

The Holdout saw moisture glisten in Reva's eyes. She repeated her question in a tremulous voice. "How do you know about this?"

The answer came in a rasping whisper. "Because I've been hired to kill you."

Reva never knew that time could freeze like that. The moment stretched on, and on, each woman unmoving, unable to wrench her gaze from the other, both too shocked by the admission to marshal a response.

Finally Lish needed to breathe, and drew in a ragged breath. The words came, unthinking. "So are you going to kill me?"

Reva blinked then, and a single tear flowed free down the plane of her cheek.

"No."

Lish forced herself to breathe again.

The assassin felt an unaccustomed weakness in her knees, and sat gingerly in a nearby chair. She looked to the door, and back to her erstwhile target, framed by ferns and falling water.

"Do you want me to leave?" she asked, dreading the answer she might receive.

"If you're not going to kill me, I suppose you ought to stay," Lish replied. She stifled the hysterical chuckle that wanted to follow the words.

Reva sat like a statue, in emotional shock at her own confession. What have you done? a panicked voice chittered in the back of her mind. And what are you going to do now?

She struggled to concentrate on the moment, Lish pale and worried-looking across from her, her own hands aching where they gripped the armrests too hard.

"So tell me about it," her friend prompted her. "Who hired you?"

It was a straightforward recitation. Concentrating on facts took Reva's mind off the feeling that she had just leapt a terrible prec
ipice, taken a step she could never recall. She told Lish of Adahn Harric, of his ties to Karuu. She didn't know the full extent of his activities on Selmun III, but she knew the crime boss' tentacles reached further into the R'debh underworld than the simple surface levels reflected by Karuu's smuggling.

His decision to eliminate Lish was a purposeful action, a spiteful quashing of the Holdout who had unwittingly hurt his operations on Selmun III. He was in a hurry to have it done quickly— a demonstration to others, Reva thought, and a warning not to cross Karuu, or the man behind him.

"How quick is quickly?" Lish asked with morbid interest.

"Time's up for this job right about now, on his clock."
 

"Oh." Her stomach gave a nervous twist. Reva had been with her for most of the week, and she found that profoundly unnerv-
j
ing. The assassin was beyond or beneath such codes as
roi'tas,
and had stayed her hand only because of her friendly regard for the Holdout.

It was a fragile sentiment upon which to hang a life. Lish collected herself with an effort.

"What should I do now?" she asked.

The assassin wondered that herself. She felt hollow in the aftermath of her unexpected confession; distraught, it was hard to concentrate, hard to perceive the best course of action. Should she leave R'debh? Should Lish? Lie to Adahn, fake the smuggler's death to buy time? Hire extra security?

No, Lish's best hope was in dropping from sight completely, thoroughly. Reva's first impulse had been the right one. "Do what I said," she told her. "Leave. Shut down, move elsewhere. I'll help you change your identity."

"I can't do that."

"Don't you get it?" Reva tapped her forehead in irritation. "If you stay, you'll be dead. If I don't get you, someone else will."

Lish chewed her lip. "I'm not leaving until I collect my money. And 10 mil buys a lot of protection."

"Don't count on it being enough."

"Maybe you're right. But I can't get started again without it." The Holdout buried her head in her hands. "I'll think about what you say, Reva, but I can't go anywhere until this matter with Edesz is done."

The assassin understood her point; it was hard to run far when you were broke. She had to have one more week, then, and Reva

saw what she needed to do. She made her decision abruptly: a snap judgment, like most of her decisions under stress, one based on the infallible instinct that had seen her through so many hits. Or, in this case, the sparing of a life....