Free By Honor Betray'd: Mageworlds #3 by Debra Doyle, James D. MacDonald Page A

Mages are probably jamming them wherever they can. With lightspeed, if the wrong people use the message to get a directional fix on us, we’ll already be long gone.”
    Yevil shrugged. “On this vessel you’re the captain.”
    “In the Domina’s absence,” LeSoit said. “Don’t forget that part. If you’ve got your message ready, go ahead and transmit.”
    “Sending,” Yevil said. She began to speak code groups over the lightspeed link. “All vessels in Suivi Space Force Detachment, this is Suivi SF Det, I transmit in the blind, immediate execute, Link, Alfa Echo, Two Mike, Echo Five, Delta Sierra, Niner Six … .”
    A few moments later she finished, saying, “Unlink, standby, execute,” and keying off the link. “That’s it, then,” she said to LeSoit. “They aren’t going anywhere without orders from either me or the Domina. And the Steering Committee of Suivi Point can go straight to hell.”
    “Sounds like a good idea to me,” said LeSoit. He fed power to the ‘ Hammer’ s realspace engines and put the freighter onto a straight-line course. “Commencing run-to-jump.”
    Warhammer made her run-up without setting off any more alarms. The stars blazed beyond the cockpit windows, then gave way to the swirling iridescence of hyperspace. LeSoit set the autopilot, unbuckled his safety webbing, and stood. He stretched, feeling his shoulder joints cracking from the tension of the past hour. “Well, we’re in. All we have to do now is stay on course.”
    “Without probing too deeply into embarrassing specifics,” Yevil said, “‘stay on course’ to where?”
    “A place I know of. If it still exists.”
     
    “Beka Rosselin-Metadi,” said Jessan patiently. “Domina of Lost Entibor, of Entibor-in-Exile, and of the Colonies Beyond. Also master of record for the armed merchantman Warhammer , Suivi registry.”
    He waited on the other side of the armor-glass barrier while the clerk on the fifth level of Suivi Main Detention checked his request against the records of the desk comp. Getting this far had exhausted a good part of the petty cash supply in his day-robe pocket, and had gone a long way toward explaining why no motion in Council to throw Suivi Point out of the Republic had ever failed to find a seconding voice. Most worlds in the civilized galaxy at least theoretically offered equal justice under the law; here on Suivi, nobody even bothered pretending. Jessan hoped he hadn’t been working under a false assumption in coming here first. Real Contract Security officers would have turned Beka over to Detention Services, but if those four thugs back on the glidewalk hadn’t been the genuine articles she could be almost anywhere in the Belt by now. On the other hand, Mages or Mageworlds agents would have taken him as well, instead of leaving him free and essentially unharmed.
    Finally the clerk looked up from her comp screen and once again recognized his presence. “Gentlesir Jessan—we do indeed have an indefinite holding contract on your associate.”
    Jessan tried to remember what the Academy’s crash course in galactic law for medics had said about contract justice, Suivan style. I think the “indefinite” means they’ll hold on to someone forever if the contractor keeps on paying their fees .
    He laid a ten-credit chit on the counter top, next to the hatch in the armor-glass barrier. “What are the charges?”
    At least on Suivi Point nobody had to slip bribe money under the table—the “suggested gratuities” list was posted in the first-level lobby. The clerk pulled the ten-chit through the barrier without blinking, and punched up another screen on the desk comp.
    Her eyes widened. “Picked up on—my goodness, it’s a murder complaint, ten-year-old warrant.”
    Ten years . Jessan did some quick arithmetic in his head. The captain’s first port call after leaving Galcen—the one where she almost didn’t make it back to the ship … someday I’ll have to ask her what she