Part 31 (2/2)

”I'm sure,” Dana said. Rose shrugged and stalked off. ”So,” he said, ”Family Yago has an interest in this man.”

He was pleased with the choice of words. An interest. That was something Rhani might choose to say. ”In fact,” he said, ”Rhani Yago would like to meet him.”

”So?” Lamonica said.

”Have you met him?”

”I might have.”

”Could you reach him again?”

”I might.”

”Family Yago would be grateful if you could pa.s.s that message on to him.”

Lamonica smiled. ”How grateful?” she asked dryly.

”Fifty credits,” Dana said.

”One hundred.”

”Seventy-five.” He did not have one hundred credits left on the credit disc.

”Ninety.”

”Eighty-five,” he said.

”Done.” She grinned. ”A good night's work.” She raised her gla.s.s, drank.

”How do I tell U-Ellen to respond?”

Dana scowled. Rhani had not told him that.... She would not want U-Ellen to use the com-lines, that was certain. He remembered the responses to the party invitations lying strewn about the room, piles and piles of them. ”Tell him to write her a letter,” he said.

Lamonica nodded. ”They do that a lot in Sardonyx Sector.” She stretched; the gold hoops glinted in her ears. ”Pay me, man.”

Dana fished his credit disc from his pocket. The transaction unit, he guessed, was at the bar. He started to stand -- ”No need,” Lamonica said. She put two fingers in her mouth and gave a piercing whistle. Amber and Rose looked around. No one else moved. Lamonica made a signal, two-handed this time, and Rose picked up her tray. She halted at the gaming table to take drink orders, and then moved on to them. On the tray was a squat gray metal box: a PCTU, a portable credit transaction unit.

He was surprised to see it; most bars did not trouble to provide them, unless in addition to selling liquor and drugs they sold other things -- stronger drugs, or s.e.x. But then he remembered the gamesters. Rose set the box on the table. ”I didn't know you were playing,” she said.

”We weren't,” said Lamonica. ”I won a bet.” Her green brow lifted. ”And you've got my disc.”

”Oh! Sorry.” The girl brought it from the pouch around her waist. She laid the black plastic token in Lamonica's palm. Their fingers touched just a little longer than necessary. Lamonica smiled. She pressed a b.u.t.ton on the unit and thumbed her disc into the alpha slot. Dana found the beta slot and inserted his.

Swiftly, Lamonica instructed the PCTU to transfer eighty-five credits from the disc in the beta to the disc in the alpha slot. The machine burped.

TRANSACTION COMPLETE, it printed on its display line. The green letters burned in the shadows and then winked out. The discs fell from the slots. ”Is that really all?” said Rose.

Lamonica picked up the unit and laid it on the girl's tray. ”For now,”

she said. The back of her hand stroked Rose's glitter-streaked thigh. ”For now.”

Rose made a musical noise in the back of her throat, held the tray up, and glided softly away.

Dana began to sweat. His throat felt tight. He told himself it was the effect of the dope, no more. Lamonica was watching the girl at the bar. He coughed. She flicked a glance at him. He lowered his voice. ”I have a second deal to propose to you.”

”Hmm.” The Starcaptain sipped her drink. ”That's the fourth proposition I've had tonight.” She gazed at him across the rim of the gla.s.s. ”Go on.”

”It's private, it has nothing to do with the Yagos, and you can name your own price, within limits.”

”I like it already,” she said, and yawned.

Someone tapped Dana's left shoulder. His muscles spasmed, and his throat soured. For an instant, he was sure, _sure_ that the person who had tapped him - - who had moved so silently up to him that he had not even heard the footsteps - - was a cop, or worse, was someone wearing a Net uniform....”Hey,” said the man at the table to his left, ”want more?” He leaned forward, brandis.h.i.+ng a smoking dopestick. He wore a s.h.i.+rt with a landingport insignia on it, and his narrow head had been shaved bald. ”You know, you're cute. How come I haven't seen you before in here?”

Dana sighed. ”Not now, friend. I'm busy,” he said.

”Oh.” The man jerked his hand back. ”Oh, sorry.” He sounded wistful.

Lamonica chuckled. ”You were saying?”

Dana wiped his hands on his knees. ”You'd have to pick up a cargo on Chabad and deliver it out of sector undetected.”

From her nod, he knew that she had caught the minute stress he had put on the final word. ”A legitimate cargo?” she murmured.

”No.”

”We're talking smuggling. What size and type of cargo -- drugs, furs, gold, jewelry?”

Dana swallowed. ”Me,” he said. Locking his fingers around each other, he watched them shake.

He had practically memorized the relevant pa.s.sages in Nakamura's _History_. Softly he explained to Lamonica, ”By Federation law, a slave's credit is frozen until his time of servitude is up. He can't touch it, but neither can anyone else. That means I can't pay you until we get out of Sardonyx Sector. But I can pay you.”

”Don't you still own _Zipper_?”

He shook his head. ”'_The offended state has the right to confiscate any real property_,'” he quoted.

”What does that mean?”

”It means that Chabad -- in fact, Family Yago -- owns _Zipper_.” He sipped his drink. He was still shaking. He remembered another sentence from the _History_: ”_In the last two hundred years, there have been eight hundred forty- two known attempts at escape_; _of these, twenty-three succeeded_.”

”How could it be done?” she said.

”I can't get into Main Landingport,” he said. ”You'd have to come and get me.”

”Where?” ”The Yago estate. It's about one hundred kilometers east of here.”

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