Free John Maddox Roberts - Space Angel by John Maddox Roberts Page A

business.
    "Who's selling arms today?"
    "Well, now, let's see." He scanned the room. "Ames, over there, the one with the blue braids, sells light infantry weapons, and Yussoupov, back at the corner table, just got a load of heavy artillery. Chung has bombs up to the Devastator class—"
    "I just need some medium ship artillery, maybe some light rocket torpedoes."
    "Then, you want to see Sturges. He's not in just now, but he usually opens up shop about this time. Have a seat and I'll send him over when he comes in."
    "Fine. By the way, would you know if Ortega's still in his old place across the street from the Dead Spacer?"
    "Last I heard, he was." The barkeep began eyeing Torwald with a different expression. "But that's no part of town for an honest man." Torwald gave the man a sizable tip and carried the bottle and glasses back to the table. He poured four glasses full of a deadly looking purple liquid.
    "Genuine Old Rocket Wash, aged twenty years, or so it says on the label," Torwald proclaimed. Kelly took a hesitant swallow, then tried to keep his eyes from watering as the fluid burned a path down his esophagus and cleared his sinuses.
    "Smooth," Ham commented. Kelly tried another swallow, and sure enough, it was beginning to taste smooth. They were halfway through the bottle when a tall, portly man stepped up to the table. He was heavily jeweled, and his clothes were of gaudy Sirian crab-silk: a tight-fitting shirt with balloon sleeves, wide trousers stuffed into heavy reptile-hide boots, a vesi that didn't quite conceal a laser under the left arm and a dagger or forceblade beneath the right. He bowed slightly, touching his chest with the spread fingers of his right hand, a wide smile separating his mustache from his curly, yellow beard.
    "My name is Omar Sturges, and I understand you gentlefolk have business to discuss with me?"
    "Captain HaLevy of the Space Angel." The skipper stuck out her hand. "This is my mate, Hamilton Sylvester, Quartermaster Torwald Raffen, and Ship's Boy Kelly." They shook hands all around. Torwald noticed that Sturges's palm was hard and calloused, and he could feel metal caps implanted beneath the skin over his knuckles. It would not pay to underestimate this man. The skipper poured him a drink and he took a chair.
    "I understand that you deal in ship's arms, Mr. Sturges."
    "That is true, Captain. I have singlebeams suitable for small scouts, pulse-lasers from scrapped cruisers, and so on—up to heavy armament for battlewagons. Price includes installation. What are you interested in?"
    "We just need some explorer-ship defensive gear," Ham replied. "Can you sell us a six-beam long range cutter on a hex mount? We can mount the hex around the Angel's nose."
    "Yes, I have several of those. Anything else?"
    "How about a turret-mounted twin depolarizer?"
    "No problem."
    "And four subnuclear torpedoes, Class M?"
    "I have some Class Ks. The Cernunnans bought up all my Class Ms for their little war with Ganpati."
    While Ham and the skipper haggled with Sturges over price, Torwald excused himself and beckoned Kelly to follow. They went out and blinked for a few moments in the brilliant light, then set off with Torwald in the lead.
    "Stick close by me, Kelly. We're heading for a rough part of town, and the man we're going to see is uncommonly suspicious. If you think somebody's following us, let me know."
    Kelly looked about in alarm. The part of town they were in seemed sufficiently rough. He was no stranger to tough neighborhoods; the slums of Earthport were notoriously unruly, but the boy felt a bit out of his depth in a city where almost the whole population was engaged in one criminal undertaking or other. Kelly was reassured by the laser pistol on Torwald's hip, and he knew that the slug pistol was somewhere beneath his friend's vest.
    As they walked the surroundings became shabbier and more dilapidated. The people in the streets, instead of swarming indiscriminately, congregated in small clusters