Redoubtable

25

“Listen,” Dave said, looking anxiously at Jack, then Gunny, then Abby. Then, unsure who he should fear more, he did the rounds again. “You have to believe me. I don’t know anything about sailors disappearing up on the station.”

Kris leaned farther forward to stare deep into his eyes . . . from the distance of half a nose length. “You say lots of things, big man, but the problem is, you say lots of things that contradict themselves.”

“I think I could get him to say something he really means,” Abby said. She flipped her knife from her right hand to her left hand, then back again. All the time, its sharp point stayed aimed at Dave’s eyes.

“If you want money,” Dave whimpered.

“Sorry, Dave,” Kris said, shaking her head. “We aren’t black shirts. Your money’s no good where we come from. Abby here, the woman with the knife that she knows very well how to use. She’s got a twelve-year-old niece, and she really wants to know what happened to her when she went shopping on the station. What do you think happens to people that wander around the station, looking for a little fun?”

“Honest, I don’t know. I’ve never been up to the station. I just get paid to make lasers and ship them up to the station. I also get orders for workers. Doctors, machinists, computer techs, farmers. They give me a list of people they need. They don’t tell me why, just give me money when I fill their orders. I see that they’re recruited and that they get on a shuttle just before it leaves.”

“What happens to the people?” Kris demanded.

“I don’t know. It’s not like I have to work very hard to get them to sign up. People all around the Middlesea want to get out of here.”

“Not from Sevastopol,” Mannie said.

“No. Not a lot from here, but lots from St. Pete and Kiev. Lots of them. I ship them in here, make sure they don’t register with your job placement, Mannie, and ship them off the next time a shuttle goes up. It’s no skin off anyone’s nose.”

Abby hauled back and smashed him in the nose. “Now it’s skin off your nose,” she growled. “Let’s see how you like that.

Dave yelled and clamped both hands on his face to stop the bleeding. It didn’t.

Gunny produced a bandage and showed Dave how to apply it.

“He asks no questions, so of course he gets told no lies,” Abby spat. She hurled her knife at the wall; it buried itself up to its hilt in the plaster.

“Admiral, have you searched any of the freighters tied up at the station?” Kris asked.

“I hadn’t before. I’ll have it done immediately.”

“Kris, Abby, this is Amanda. I just got a call from Teresa de Alva. You remember, she’s one of the boffins.”

“How could I forget her?” Kris said, remembering the scene the information manager had made when Kris had involved the boffins in arranging some semblance of a court reception for a suddenly visiting Iteeche.

“She’s with a team of Greenfeld sailors searching a small jewelry store. She says they just found Cara’s credit chit half-hidden under a display case.”