Part 12 (1/2)

Ornina raised her eyebrows and lifted the torch, just a little. ”Well, I threaten to kill them, anyway,”

Chandris muttered.

”So call it a career change,” Hanan suggested. ”The one you're in hasn't got much of a future, you

know.”Chandris felt herself teetering. It was almost too good to be true...No. It was too good to be true. ”Maybe there's not much future in scoring,” she growled. ”But at least I don't have to work with crazy people all day.”

Hanan's face collapsed into a look of hurt innocence. ”Crazy? Me?”

”Quiet, Hanan,” Ornina told him. ”What makes you think we're crazy?”

Chandris snorted. ”Offering a job to someone who's just threatened to kill you springs to mind.”

Hanan shook his head. ”Ah, the egocentricity of youth.” He fixed Chandris with a steady gaze. ”You don't really think you're the first one to try this, do you?”

”What do you mean?”

”He means,” Ornina said evenly, ”that you're the sixth person to come aboard the Gazelle in the past four years hoping to steal an angel from us.”

An hour earlier, Chandris would have laughed out loud at the very idea of these pa.s.sive, bloated soft touches fending off five hungry thieves. Now, somehow, it didn't even occur to her to question the statement. ”What happened to them?”

”Two accepted our offer,” Ornina said. ”They stayed a few months each before getting better jobs and moving on. The other three disappeared as soon as we returned them to Seraph.”

”One of them did eventually get an honest job, though,” Hanan offered. ”We got a letter from him just two weeks ago.”

”You see, that's the basic flaw in the whole idea of stealing angels,” Ornina said. ”Angels change you. I know there are people who don't believe that, people who think the angel program is some sort of ma.s.sive con game Gabriel and the High Senate are running on the Empyrean. But they really do work.” She indicated the torch in her hand. ”You're living proof of that.”

Chandris looked at the ma.s.sive box behind her, a cold s.h.i.+ver running up her back. She'd been near the angel for barely ten minutes now...

Hanan might have been reading her mind. ”No, no-they're fast, but not that fast,” he a.s.sured her. ”Takes several hours of close contact, we've found, before these ingrained criminal tendencies even start to fade away.”

Chandris stared at him... and, suddenly, it clicked. ”You have another angel aboard.”

”I told you you were smart,” Hanan said, nodding. ”Yes, it's one we found about six years ago. The second in that particular trip, which almost never happens.”

”Why didn't you turn it in?”

Hanan shrugged. ”We almost did. We talked about taking a nice vacation somewhere, or upgrading some of our equipment. But then we thought about the trips where you spend two weeks at Angelma.s.s and come home empty anyway, so we decided to hang onto it. As it happened-” He looked at Ornina, shrugged again. ”We just sort of never needed to use it.”

Chandris eyed him. ”Besides which, if you sold it you couldn't afford to let drifters like me anywhere near your s.h.i.+p?”

Ornina smiled. ”Anyone ever tell you you have a cynical streak, Chandris?” she asked.

”Anyone ever tell you that you're a pair of open-faced soft touches?” Chandris countered.

”Many times,” Hanan nodded. ”The other angel hunters, mostly. But, then, they thought I was crazy before, so it wasn't that much of a change.”

”If you'd like,” Ornina said, ”you can wait until we get back to Seraph to make up your mind.”

Chandris shook her head. ”No,” she said, taking a deep breath. ”No, I'm ready now. If you'll really have me... I guess I'll stay. For a while, at least.”

”Wonderful,” Ornina smiled. A genuine smile, Chandris noted, without any of that smug charity-type condescension she hated so much.

”Wonderful, indeed,” Hanan agreed. ”So. Can I have my dinner now?”

”Yes, you can have your dinner,” Ornina said with that exaggerated-patience look she did so well. ”Just as soon as you confirm the autocourse and Chandris and I get the kitchen cleaned up.” She looked at Chandris, c.o.c.ked her head to the side. ”Or would you prefer us to call you something else now?”

Chandris shook her head. ” 'Chandris' is fine. It's as close to a real name as I have anymore.”

”Well, then, Chandris,” Ornina said. ”Like I said before, there's a lot of work involved in running a hunters.h.i.+p. Let's get to it.”

After all, Chandris told herself as she followed Ornina down the corridor toward the kitchen, it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go at the moment. She might just as well hide out here as to try and find something better.

And besides, if she left now she would never know just exactly what the hidden catch to this deal was. She really ought to hang around until the Daviees tried to spring it on her. Just for curiosity's sake.

CHAPTER 13.

Across the darkened room, a door opened. ”Commodore?” an all-too-familiar voice called.

Commodore Lles.h.i.+ sighed. ”Come in, Mr. Telthorst,” he said.

”Thank you.” The door slid shut, and the Adjutor's shadowy figure started across the floor, just visible against the stars turning slowly beneath them. ”Quite a view,” Telthorst commented. ”What is this place, anyway?”

”Visual Command Operations Center,” Lles.h.i.+ told him, giving the room's official designation. Not that anyone aboard s.h.i.+p actually called it that, of course. Pompous official t.i.tles were reserved for use with equally pompous visiting dignitaries.

”Ah,” Telthorst said, sliding a chair over next to Lles.h.i.+'s and sitting down. ”The military equivalent of an observation deck, I suppose. That spinning must be hard to get used to.”

”Not really,” Lles.h.i.+ said, taking a sip of his tea. ”Was there anything in particular you wanted?”

”As a matter of fact, there was,” Telthorst said. ”I understand a drop pod from Scintara came in this afternoon.”

”It came into the system, yes,” Lles.h.i.+ told him. ”It arrived on the far side, though, so all we've got is a remote data dump.”

”Why haven't I received a copy?”

”The signal was rather messy,” Lles.h.i.+ said. ”We got it decompressed, but then had to run it through a scrubber to clean out the extraneous noise. Too hard to read otherwise.”

”How thoughtful of you to take such good care of my eyes,” the Adjutor said dryly. ”Dare I predict that this wonderfully clean copy won't be available until after you send the wiring crews out?”

Lles.h.i.+ braced himself. Here it came. ”I've already seen the unscrubbed version,” he told Telthorst. ”There are no orders concerning your request.”

”No actual orders, no,” Telthorst agreed. ”But they did authorize you to accept my recommendation.”

Lles.h.i.+ glared at him, a waste of effort in the dark. ”Who told you that?”