Rissa and Tregare Read Free Page B

other areas; he'll be glad to sell."
    "But I know nothing of agriculture."
    "You don't have to; there's not enough to notice. Or log-ging-someday the upland timber wil be worth considerable, 12
    but not until the area's more settled. For now, North Point's mostly good for grazing; the herds prosper. But where you can make profit is in offshore fishing rights, out to the edge of the Shelf. Lease them out; sit back and collect. Fennerabilis hasn't done wel because he's too cheap to commission a patrol boat against poachers, so very few bother to pay him."
    "Al right-as you explain it, it sounds manageable." Rissa leaned back and stretched. "It is hardly mid-morning but I feel we have done a day's work. Yet there is one more thing."
    "Yes?"
    "I have noted the sums we propose to spend, adding on the normal operating expenses, and I think we have reached my limit."
    "Why, we've hardly gone past half!"
    "I have not yet mentioned the moneys I wish to send to Earth-and in lesser degree, to Far Corner." She named the amounts.
    Liesel whistled. "On top of what's already tied up off-planet, that's a lot to risk at such distances, over so many years. Why stretch yourself so thin and so far?"
    Rissa shrugged. "A feeling-that I have not seen the last of Earth. Far Corner, of course, is my liaison. But on Earth I would not like to be short of assets-particularly, of holdings in UET. In writing Erika-her Establishment-I have stressed that point. This time I will devote the entire sum to that one purpose."
    "Whatever you say. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if I -not that it'll do me any good, personally-but in the long view ..."
    "The long view, yes-I am only beginning to appreciate its power." She smiled and stood. "I will take coffee up, and wake Tregare if he stil sleeps."
    In the kitchen, after an enthusiastic greeting ("Hey! It's our champion!"), she obtained a pot of coffee and two cups. She needed no tray; the pot had hooks on the side for cups and ac-cessories. Upstairs, as she entered the room, the door banged against a chair. From the bathroom Tregare called, "Set it down in there! It sure took long enough!''
    Rissa pitched her voice to the high tones of Lysse Harnain. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir-I was busy kissing one of the stewards."
    "You what?" Scowling, holding a towel around him, Tregare emerged. He stared, then shook his head and laughed. "That's one on me. How long you been up?"
    "For hours." She poured the coffee and set the additives handy to their reach. "Liesel and I have been dividing Number One between us and deciding which is to be my half."
    "Yeah, I can imagine-just as well I slept in, for once." Haphazard, he slung the towel into the bathroom, then sat naked across from her and sampled his cup.
    Again she noted the scars and welts that marred his skin. "Bran-I have never asked before and, if you wish, I wil not again. But I am curious-how is it that you are so scarred? In battles, or-"
    His face tensed almost to snarling. Then he shook his head and made visible effort to relax. "Mostly not. This, and this-at Escape, when we first took the ship. This, and a few others, in various hassles since then. But most of it-" He shuddered. "-most of it at UET's Academy, before I ever got into space."
    "They-"
    "Some of it they caled 'discipline,' but the worst was caled 'training.' They'd send a group of us-officer candidates-into the arena to fight free-for-all, every hand against every other. Usually unarmed, sometimes with clubs or knives. The fight went on until someone was kiled."
    "What if all refused? "
    "Al died. One example taught us that. Then a group tried to be smart-ganged up on the smallest and kiled him fast. It didn't work; the rest had to do it ail over again." He put his hands to his face, then looked up. "I hadn't known it was possible to live in such constant fear. Any day they could-"
    Her hand was to her mouth; she had drawn blood from a knuckle, unheeding the pain of her loosened teeth. "Tregare! That first day on