Free Starfishers Volume 3: Stars End by Glen Cook Page A

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 told