"Clear," she said at last, near choking on her humiliation. She tried to remind herself that the whole point of this exercise had been to get Ciery to use her like this.
"It's a fairly difficult mission. If you'd been more cooperative, I'd have given it to someone else. As it is, do this and we're quits. I don't think we'd work well together."
Joat nodded jerkily.
"Good. Now get your crew on board and get out of here. Oh," he leaned forward, one finger raised. "If you don't show up to meet my clients-say you decide to go plead your case on New Destinies-I won't kill you, but you'll wish I had." As Ciery leaned back, the screen cleared.
After a moment, Rand spoke. "It's safe to talk now."
"I regret getting you into this," Bros said with genuine sympathy. "I can see that it's hard on you."
She turned to him, one eyebrow raised, lips pursed, and studied him a moment. Then she turned back to her station and moved her hands rapidly over the controls.
"Damn!" she said after a moment, her voice sharp with disbelief. "I'm locked out. I can't access the orders he just transmitted."
"It's time encrypted, Joat. Right now, all it has released to the navigation terminal is a point in space," Rand said. "I believe we can assume that when we reach that point we'll receive more information."
"This is incredible. That scumsucker expects me to fly out of here blind!" She turned to face the others.
"Ready to leave?"
They nodded. So did Bros and Seg.
"Why are you really here?" Joseph asked Sperin, after a moment.
Bros drew himself up to his full height and put his hands on his hips.
"I came to call Joat off of this mission," he said wearily. "It wasn't until long after you'd gone that I discovered an important piece of information."
Joseph looked sidelong at Joat.
"You are referring to Nomik Ciety's relationship to my young friend?" he asked wryly.
"Uh huh."
Joat felt a flash of temper.
"I don't especially like being discussed on my own bridge as though I were a runaway child," she said sharply. "I didn't know about Ciety myself until I saw what was on that datahedron. And by then I had to go through with this thing. So okay, I didn't cover myself with glory. I could have done better. I admit it. Now can we discuss how we're going to handle this situation without casting knowing glances back and forth?"
"Your behavior endangered my mission," Joseph snapped. "And my mission is the safety of the Benisur Amos. If you suffer a raised eyebrow or a knowing smile as punishment for the offense, Joat, I think that you are getting off very lightly."
"Joat," Rand said.
"What?"
"Rohan Control has informed me that we have a window in twelve minutes."
Joat stared at Rand's blinking face.
"What are they talking about, twelve minutes?"
The Wyal trembled as it was released from the docking mechanism and a station tug began pulling them into launch position.
"Apparently Ciety has enough influence to clear our departure before schedule," Rand said.
"Outta my way," Joat barked at Seg as she took the Captain's chair, nearly knocking him off his feet. She keyed up Rohan Control.
"This is Joat Simeon-Hap of the Wyal," she said crisply. "We haven't asked for clearance and we are not prepared for take-off."
The controller frowned, and consulted another screen.
"We were told to give you clearance on an emergency basis," he said. "You're fully fueled and have loaded consumables. I'm afraid you're committed to a launch in ten minutes."
"We cannot be ready in ten minutes. I repeat we can not be ready for departure in that time. No such request came from the Wyal."
The controller stared at her for a moment.
"The request came from Nomik Ciety, Captain. And your options are to lift-off in," he consulted the time, "nine minutes, thirty-nine seconds, or to stay and explain exactly why you didn't." He offered her a superior little smile. "I know which I'd choose." Then he was gone.
"Damn the man!" Joat said and began to work frantically at prelaunch tasks that hadn't been attended to.
Alvec stepped to his station and began working.
Bros and Seg watched their concentrated activity for a few moments.
"Is there anything I can do?" Bros asked.
"No," Joat said shortly. "Joe, could you find these guys a berth, please?"
"Yes, Captain."
Damn, Joat thought. He usually doesn't call me that.
Joseph was really angry.
Chapter Fourteen
Dana Sherman frowned at the message she'd just been sent by CenSec's contact on New Destinies.
What the hell is Sal trying to pull? she'd thought at first. And had sent for confirmation. A quick check through some eyes-only files had revealed that the Clal va Riguez Sal was referring to was, in fact, one of the old cover names for Bros Sperin. And a return message from New Destinies confirmed that he really had ordered Sal to pay this exorbitant fine for a ship named Wyal.
Bros Sperin is retired from field work, she thought, puzzled and annoyed. So what's he doing on New Destinies playing Lord Bountiful with his department's budget? This didn't seem right. In fact I think it stinks to high heaven.
If Sperin was in the field, then he should have a controller, someone who was overseeing his endeavors. And who else would that be but Bros's superior? she asked herself cheerfully. With the click of a few keys she rid herself of a potentially loaded situation.
Joat groaned and began to beat her head against the edge of her console. Then she leaned back and covered her face. When she took her hands away she was smiling dazedly.
"This is unbelievable," she said.
"Are you all right, Joat?" Rand's voice tones indicated concern; its lights flickered yellow.
"Yes," she said, shaking her head. "Get the spy master up here, would you, Rand. I've got some questions for him."
Rand hesitated. "Do you mean Joseph, Bros, or Seg?" it asked.
"Seg?" Her voice deepened with amazement.
"He's very knowledgeable on the subject."
"I meant Sperin," she said. "He's the one who got us into this."
"To be fair, Joat, I'm sure that your commitment to Joseph and the Benisur Amos is what motivated our participation in Mr. Sperin's scheme."
She shrugged. "Who wants to be fair?" She keyed up Ciety's instructions and read them again. Then sighed, again. She didn't want to be fair to Sperin; he made her uneasy. And that irritated her. It also irritated her that she was taking pains to avoid him, not an easy thing to do on a ship this size.
She'd finally banned him from the bridge to give herself some space. Which I needed. There was a limit to the number of times you could watch a face with that "I know something you don't know" look. At least, without rearranging the face with a multitool set to "weld."
"Captain?"
Sperin was leaning both hands against the hatch, his head thrust through the hatchway.
"Permission to enter the bridge?" he said.
"Oh don't be an ass! I sent for you didn't I?"
He smiled and came to where she sat.
"Not that it isn't nice to be asked, for a change," she snapped.
This man has the patent on smug, she decided, watching his cool half-bow.
"What did you want?" he asked, leaning against the console.
"Ciety's orders just became available, and surprise! You remember the marker buoy we were discussing just before liftoff? The one Ciety's mysterious contact kept passing?"