They walked round harbour seven until they came to the quay where the Coogan was moored. The ageing tramp trader was in a dilapidated state, with holes in its cabin roof and a long gash in the wood up at the prow where it had struck some snag. Len Buchannan had only just managed to get out of the harbour ahead of the rioters, flinging planks from the cabin walls into the furnace hopper in his desperation.
Gail Buchannan was sitting in her usual place outside the galley doorway, coolie hat shading her sweating face, a kitchen knife almost engulfed by her huge hand. She was chopping some long vegetable root, slices falling into a pewter-coloured pan at her feet. Her eyes fastened shrewdly on Darcy and Lori as they stepped onto the decking. You again. Len! Len, get yourself out here, weve got visitors. Now, Len!
Darcy waited impassively. They had used the Buchannans as an information source in the past, occasionally asking them to pick up fleks from assets upriver. But they had proved so unreliable and cranky, Darcy hadnt bothered with them for the last twenty months.
Len Buchannan walked forward from the little engineroom, where hed been patching the cabin walls. He was wearing jeans and his cap, a carpenters suede utility belt hanging loosely round his skinny hips, with only a few tools in its hoops.
Darcy thought he looked hungover, which fitted the talk hed heard around the port. The Coogan had hit hard times of late.
Have you got a cargo to take upriver? Darcy asked.
No, Len said sullenly.
Its been a difficult season for us, Gail said. Things arent like they used to be. Nobody shows any loyalty these days. Why, if it wasnt for us virtually giving our goods away half of the settlements upriver would have starved to death. But do they show any gratitude? Ha!
Is the Coogan fit to be taken out? Darcy asked, cutting through the womans screed. Now? Today?
Len pulled his cap off and scratched his head. Suppose so. Engines are OK. I always service them regular.
Of course its in tiptop shape, Gail told him loudly. Theres nothing wrong with the Coogan s hull. Its only because this drunken buffoon spends all his time pining away over that little bitch-brat that the cabins in the state it is.
Len sighed irksomely, and leant against the galley doorframe. Dont start, he said.
I knew she was trouble, Gail said. I told you not to let her on board. I warned you. And after all we did for her.
Shut up!
She glared at him and resumed slicing up the cream-white vegetable.
What do you want the Coogan for? Len asked.
We have to get upriver, today, Darcy said. Theres no cargo, only us.
Len made a play of putting his cap back on. Theres trouble upriver.
I know. Thats where we want to go, the Quallheim Counties.
No, Len Buchannan said. Sorry, anywhere else in the tributary basin, but not there.
Thats where she came from, Gail hissed venomously. Thats what youre afraid of.
Theres a bloody war going on up there, woman. You saw the boats with the posse leaving.
Ten thousand fuseodollars, Gail said. And dont you two try haggling with me, thats the only offer youll get, Im starving myself as it is. Ill take you up on my own if Lennies too frightened.
If thats starvation, Id like to see gluttony,darcy said.
This is my boat, Len said. Made with my own hands.
Half yours, Gail shouted back, waving the knife at him. Half! I have a say too, and I say Coogan is going back to the Quallheim. If you dont like it, go and cry in her skirts if shell have you. Drunken old fool.
If this is the way they carry on, theyll kill each other before we get out of the harbour,lori said. she watched len staring at the burnt-out sections of the port, his brown weathered face lost with longing.
All right, he said eventually. Ill take you to the mouth of the Quallheim, or as near as we can get. But Im not going anywhere near the trouble.
Fair enough, Darcy said. How long will it take us at full speed?
Going upriver? Len closed his eyes, lips moving around figures. Without stopping to trade, ten or twelve days. Mind, well have to moor in the evenings, and cut logs. Youll have to work your passage.
Forget that, Darcy said. Ill have some firewood delivered this afternoon, enough to get us there in one go; we can store it in the forward hold instead of a cargo. And Ill spell you at night, I dont need much sleep. How long travelling like that?
A week, maybe, Len Buchannan said. He didnt seem terribly happy with the idea.
Thats fine. Well start this afternoon.
Well take half of the money now, as a deposit, Gail said. A Jovian Bank disk appeared from nowhere in her hand.
Youll get a thousand now as a deposit, plus five hundred to buy enough food and water for three weeks, Lori said. Ill pay another two thousand once we leave the harbour this afternoon, two more when we get to Schuster, and the sum when we get back here.
Gail Buchannan made a lot of indignant noise, but the sight of actual cash piling up in her disk silenced her.
Make sure its decent food, Lori told her. Freeze dried, Im sure you know where to get stocks of that from.
They left the Buchannans bickering and went on to a lumber-yard to arrange for the logs to be delivered. It took an hour longer than it should have done to get their order sorted out; the only reason they got it at all was because they were regular customers. The yard was frantically busy with an order for a thousand tonnes of mayope. The laughing foreman told them a lunatic starship captain was planning to carry it to another star.
They were going to make Joshua Calverts deadline. Marie Skibbow couldnt keep the thought out of her mind. It was mid-afternoon, and she was sitting up at the bar in the nearly deserted Crashed Dumper having a celebratory drink. What she really felt like doing was singing and dancing, it was a wonderful experience. All the contacts shed meticulously built up over the last few months had finally paid off. The deals she put together had clicked into place all the way down the line, smoothing the way for the wood to get from the lumber-yard into orbit with minimum fuss and maximum speed. In fact it had turned out they were being limited by how fast Ashly Hanson could load the foam-covered bundles into the Lady Macbeth s cargo holds. The starship only carried one MSV, which imposed a two hundred and fifty tonne per day restriction. The pilot simply couldnt work any faster; and not even Marie could obtain a MSV from Kenyon, which was the only other place they were in use within the Lalonde star system. But even so, they should have the last bundle loaded tomorrow, a day before the deadline.
Her Jovian Bank disk was burning like a small thermal-induction field in her sawn-off jeans pocket. Joshua had paid her on the nose, every McBoeing flight that lifted off the spaceports metal grid runway saw another batch of fuseodollars added to her account. And hed given her a bonus for arranging the lorries. The drivers were taking colonists farmsteading gear from the spaceport down to the harbour and returning half-empty; it didnt take much organization or money to fix it so they brought the mayope with them when they came back. That way Joshua saved money on an official contract with the haulage company that owned them.
Her first major-league deal. She sipped her iced brightlime, enjoying the bitter taste as it went down her throat. Was this how millionaires felt every day? The total satisfaction which came from tangible accomplishment. And all the famous merchant names in history must have started with a first deal like this, even Richard Saldana, who founded Kulu. Now there was a thought.