Free Fall of the White Ship Avatar by Brian Daley Page B

lot, even though he didn't look like he had to watch his weight.
    "Have you thought about what you're going to do with that share?" he asked, still apparently intent on his meal.
    Alacrity looked up at him. "Haven't thought about much else, Lord M. I'm taking back the White Ship."
    Perlez's chopsticks opened and a bit of beansprout dropped onto his chin.
    "Taking her back," Alacrity vowed, "and I'm using her the way my family meant her to be used. And when I find out the secrets of the Precursors, I'll use them the way my family wanted, not the way the Board of Interested Parties or the Betterment League or the Progress Cartel or the Spican government thinks it ought to be done. The White Ship isn't for easy money or quick power. There's got to be something higher than that, something more worthy, or what's the point of it all?"
    Perlez had cleaned up the spillage. "Well, that's a virtuous idea, boyo. But how?"
    "I'm not sure yet, but I know I will. I didn't, until a little while ago, after I fell in with Hobart, here,"
    Alacrity explained. Floyt cringed inwardly, knowing Alacrity was thinking of the causality harp.
    "I'm not trying to be mysterious," Alacrity went on. "I'll explain the whole thing to you later."
    Floyt was watching Perlez's face. The old man said, "Ever run into a man named Dincrist?"
    Floyt looked back to his food and Alacrity showed no response.
    "It is my conclusion that you have," Perlez continued, "because the word is that he'd very much like to get his hands on you. There's also mention of a gentleman named Baron Mason, an extremely influential and formidable man who's become an Interested Party of late. What's this all about, Jo—Alacrity?"
    Alacrity thought for a moment. If he couldn't trust Lord Marcus Perlez, things were about as bad as they could get anyway.
    "Dincrist has his own plan to take control of the Ship board. But all the details of that fell into the hands of … somebody I know." He held up his fist, showing his proteus. "I managed to get a copy and I've studied it all the way here from Luna. I think that same takeover idea can be used by somebody else. Me.
    Or us, if you want. It all involves leverage on the board."
    Floyt watched, speculating on how far Alacrity would go in not mentioning Heart by name if the talk came down to cases. Perlez napkinned his mouth and mustache and stuck out his hand. Alacrity gripped his wrist and Lord Marcus reciprocated.
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    [Fitzhugh 3]-FALL OF THE WHITE SHIP AVATAR
    "As for Baron Mason," Alacrity thought it fair to add, "Ho and me had a kind of run-in with him, on a place called Blackguard. As a matter of fact—"
    Alacrity dug another proteus out of his pocket, an ordinary-looking but powerful model. "I took this from Mason in the Grand Guignol Compound there."
    Floyt recalled that vividly, surprised it had slipped his mind. Evidently Alacrity had simply been carrying it around in his warbag all that time since.
    "This one is full of encrypted stuff I haven't been able to crack," he said. "But maybe if we could borrow some of your equipment, Ho and I could pump it dry."
    Perlez was nodding thoughtfully, looking the thing over. "That sounds splendid. But the first thing we'll have to do is get your name on that share. And I want you in on a council of war with Vinzix. He's a minor shareholder, even though he's got a lot more of them than you. He and I rather see things the same way. He's from Darwin's Star."
    Alacrity's frowned. "A Dar, huh? I'm not real fond of 'em. Bunch of snotty, high-handed liars."
    Perlez stopped eating again. "So? I've heard a bit about what you've been doing and where you've been seen from time to time. I'd have thought you'd learned by now that you can't always be choosy about your allies, or judge them beforehand."
    Alacrity toyed with his food for a second, then slumped his shoulders.