Loose Cannon Read Free Page A

all stood my goddess of the
barroom, her hair quiescent, though her eyes were not; and the one
word that echoed clearly from the finger-pointers was "Recant!"
    The word that I woke with among pounding
head was hers, shaping my mouth with Her will: "No."
    * * *
    THE SHIP WAS QUIET. World-clock showed
midnight, straight up. Ship clock showed 0200.
    I made myself a cup of 'toot and slid into
the pilot's chair, worry gnawing at my gut. Cly Nelbern was surely
mad, with more than grounder lunacy. No simple dockside bully, she;
but a dangerous woman, and on more levels than gave me comfort.
    The man? The man was desperate, and that
carried its own brand of danger. But he seemed sane enough, and
perhaps might be turned a card--made a pawn. Sacrificed for ship
and blood.
    It was snatching at starlight, of course,
and madness in its own way, but I had to try something, there in
the dark quiet; had to make some stab at saving my ship, my
sister.
    Curiously, it was Nelbern's money that
bought me a way to make that stab, sorry as it might be. I set
aside my cold drink and cycled the chair forward. I'd never had the
credit to tap into a current planetary data bank before. We'd
always bought old records--last week's cargo movements, yesterday's
closing prices, and left it at that--but not this time.
    I typed in Pirro Velesz' name. I tapped the
dot for full database inspection. I offered up a prayer to whatever
gods might be awake and listening, there in the deep heart of the
night.
    Then I went to sleep.
    * * *
    CLY NELBERN WOKE me by laughing, waving a
hand at the screen where Velesz' information glittered like an
unexplored star system.
    "That's close to the way I found him,
Captain, except that I didn't have a name--I just looked for a
desperate person."
    She laughed again, harder.
    "That's how I found Mona Luki , too. Hard as
you try to hide it, the information's there. I know how to read that spiral. Dreamers
like you and that greengrocer--always thinking you'll find a way to
beat the universe.
    "I've seen it over and over
again. You think you're something special. Think luck'll be with
you. Well, you got lucky, Captain. I found you, thought you'd be
useful and pulled you out of your downspin. I'm your luck, and if you're a smart
girl, you'll ride easy with me, no arguments."
    She waved at the screen again.
    "But you want to know all about Senor Velesz
--go ahead--read it. It's not a secret, is it?" Her words bit, deep
and bitter, but I couldn't think of anything useful to say to a
dirtsider who held mortgage to my ship and my kin, so I spun the
chair back around and I read.
    * * *
    THE SHORT OF IT was that Pirro Velesz got
himself suckered on a contract to supply some upcountry Temple with
vittles for a year. When he couldn't make delivery the Temple took
his business and put him to work at the rate of a standard year for
each month the Temple had to buy its food from someplace else. He
had the option of buying himself out, of course--but he'd rolled
everything on that losing deal--and no one on Sintia would lend
money to a Temple debtor.
    I sagged back into the
pilot's chair, yanked two ways: pity and despair. So much for the
stab to save us. Pirro Velesz was in worse case than Mona Luki or either of her
sorry crew.
    * * *
    MIDDAY AT DIABLO'S. Too far from the city to
hear the Temple chanting. Too close to the port to see anything but
outworlders, half of them drunk and the other half out of luck,
hunched over the bar like their last hope of salvation, eyes
blurred like the middle of Jump.
    Not one of them took note of us at all.
    Lil was jumping terrified--the move to the
hot-pad in the middle of our night and the guilt that came with
knowing she'd sold our ship, however unknowing, had her in a state
already. The bar filled with chancy spacers wired her even
higher.
    Pirro Velesz was nowhere to be seen.
    Cly Nelbern found us a ringside table,
ordered up a round of drinks and leaned back. She sipped from her
glass now and then, and