Free Book 3 - Star's End by Glen Cook Page A

those
weapons . . . ”
    “And sharks, darling. Don’t forget the sharks. Oh,
it’s bound to be a gay party. How do I get transferred to a
ground job?”
    “You don’t.” She laughed. “I just heard
a couple hours ago. You’re going to be transferred to
Security for the auction project.”
    She did not tell him that the auction project would be a pilot
for a more ambitious program. If he and Storm performed well and
faithfully they would be given joint chieftainship of their own
espionage outfit. She did not think her own boss, Jarl Kindervoort,
knew yet. The Ship’s Commander seemed reluctant to discuss it
with the man.
    “Auction? That’s Mouse’s special haunt.
How’d he get stuck with it, anyway?”
    “It’s going to be yours, too. Our new mindtechs will
start coming aboard in a couple of days. And you’ll move over
to the project.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you know The Broken Wings.”
    “Yeah. And I want to forget it.” His previous
mission, as a Bureau agent, had taken him to The Broken Wings. It
had been a nasty affair.
    “That’s where the auction’s going to be held.
They already sent the permission request. It’s just form from
here on.”
    “Form? What you want to bet the place is crawling with
Confies and Sangaree? You people stirred up some bad
feelings . . . ”
    “She hit you pretty hard, eh?”
    “What?”
    “The woman. The Sangaree woman. That Marya
Strehltsweiter.”
    “What? How did you? . . . Mouse.
Shooting off his mouth.”
    “He didn’t exactly volunteer it. And he told Jarl,
not me. I found out when I was looking through the files for
something else.”
    “All right.” His heart hammered for no reason he
could justify to himself. So he had gotten involved with the woman.
He had not known she was Sangaree then. “It’s
over.”
    “I know. I knew that a long time ago. Mouse wrote that
report after you shot her. I guess he thought it was important for
Jarl to understand what you were going through.”
    That did not sound like Mouse. “She would’ve killed
all of us. Sooner or later. I had to do it. I never shot anybody
before.”
    “Especially somebody you still halfway cared about,
eh?”
    “Yeah. Can we drop it?”
    “Did Mouse really do that? Inject her children with
stardust?”
    “Yes. Mouse plays for keeps. He doesn’t have trouble
with his conscience. Not the way I do.”
    “You really think the Sangaree will be at the
auction?”
    “They’ll be there. They hold a grudge the way Mouse
does. Amy, I don’t want to get involved in that. I’m
happy where I’m at. I like linking. Chub is a good friend. I
was just scared there at first. I’ve been getting to know the
other members of the herd . . . Hell, sometimes
I go in just to bullshit with Chub.”
    BenRabi could relax with the starfish as he could with no human.
He did not feel naked when he let the starfish see what he really
felt and thought. Chub made no value judgments. His values were not
human. He had, in fact, helped Moyshe make some small peace within
himself.
    Parts of his mind remained inaccessible to the starfish. Whole
sections were hidden behind rigid walls. Moyshe could not guess
what might lie there. He could sense nothing missing from his
past.
    Seiner life was changing Mouse, too, he reflected. Storm was
becoming even more sure of himself, more bigger-than-life than he
had always been. BenRabi could not pin it down. One or two nights a
week playing chess together was not the same as sharing a minute to
minute life under fire.
    Mouse was an operative born. He had changed allegiance, but not
professions. He had become part of Jarl Kindervoort’s
staff.
    Flying easy. That was what benRabi had been doing since his
release from the hospital. The only pressure he faced was
Amy’s near-militance in hinting about their getting married.
Under Chub’s ministrations his neuroses were scaling away. He
had come to the Seiners with a great many.
    “Not much more to see,” Amy