“So, do the people on Purity avoid all medical care?”

“No, but they’re strict about its limits. No genetic modifications, and no modifications that enhance normal human ability beyond a half sig above the mean. Of course that means their mean intelligence is well below that of most of us, but they get along reasonably well on their own world.”

“Are they Miznarii?”

“No, no. They’re evangelical Hurists, whatever that is. Doesn’t help them any in business dealings, I can tell you that.” He laughed again, with a wink that invited Ky into his scam, whatever it was. She wanted to wipe the screen, but knew better. “It’s the weirdest combination of paranoia and gullibility you’ve ever seen. They’re terrified of some outsider cheating them, but they make it so obvious what they’re afraid of that it’s easy to make whatever profit you want by just doing something else and pretending fear of their suspicion.”

So the rogue hadn’t reformed. “So you prefer humod planets?”

“Well, not the extremes. It’s like some of them make themselves ugly on purpose, y’know? But a lot of ’em are just like real people, only with extra. Pretty much think like us.” He peered at the screen. “You do have an implant, right?”

“Of course,” Ky said, as if offended. “Got it at seven, like everyone else.”

“So you have a current Vatta update? Because I haven’t updated in a while, been out of touch y’see.”

“Not really current,” Ky said. “I was on my way back, actually.” He couldn’t know anything different, unless he was as bent as she suspected, and then it didn’t matter. “As you probably guessed, this was my first trip, so I’m just a probationary captain, as it were. Only the most basic dataset. When I got home, I was going to get the full one, but—things happened.”

“I see.” He looked down a moment then suddenly back up, with a sharp glance that seemed intended to startle. Then his face softened again. “Well, we shall do well enough, I guess. Youth and enthusiasm, age and experience… we’ll be partners, shall we?”

“But we are already family,” Ky said, as if puzzled. She had been half expecting this offer, or demand. “Isn’t it forbidden to make private contracts of partnership within Vatta?”

His brows went up. “What, you think I want to cheat you?”

“No, not that.” Worse than that, but she had had four years—almost four years—in which to learn that earnest and tedious explanation of well-known rules had its uses. “But Dad said nobody should make private contracts because we should all be working for the benefit of Vatta as a whole. Private deals, he said, were like stealing from the company. And I want to save Vatta.”

Now his expression shifted to benign amusement. “I forgot,” he said. “You are Gerry’s daughter; of course you would be a stickler for all the rules. But my dear, this is an extraordinary situation. We may be the only surviving Vattas—or do you know of others?”

Ky felt a chill roll down her back. She was not about to reveal the existence of Stella or Toby. “You’re the first Vatta ship I’ve met since this happened,” she said.

“And I suppose, for your first voyage, they stuffed the ship with faithful old retainers rather than family members, eh?” he asked.

“Pretty much,” Ky said. “I hired a couple myself along the way.”

“So, under the circumstances, we should cooperate and be partners—fine, if you don’t want to enter a formal partnership, I understand that, given your father—but we can do better together than either of us alone.”

That was true, if partners were true to their defined mutual goal. Otherwise, one could gut the other even more neatly than a stranger. Ky was tempted to refuse and depart, trusting her new defensive suite to handle anything he was likely to have aboard, but what if he knew more about the conspiracy and the attacks on Vatta than he’d yet revealed?

“Where are you going next?” Ky asked, deliberately furrowing her brow. “I don’t know if we can—”

“Look,” he said, exuding a fatherly concern that bordered on sickening. “I’ll go with you, wherever you go; I can help keep you safe.” He paused for her reaction; apparently she had not hidden it well enough. “I’m sure you’re brave and resourceful; Vatta doesn’t breed idiots or cowards. But you need someone to watch your back. I won’t even pull seniority.” Onscreen he shrugged, spreading his hands. “You’re Gerry’s daughter; he was our CFO. You can take over, if you want. I just don’t want to see us die out because we couldn’t work together for mutual profit.”

He wanted her more than she wanted him. Why? And how had he known that her father was Vatta Ltd.’s CFO, if he’d been gone so many years? Unless he was legitimate in some covert way, as Rafe claimed to be with ISC.

“I suppose,” Ky said. “Look—why don’t you send me your cargo info, and I’ll compare it with what we’ve got and decide where to go next.”

“We share,” he said. “You send me yours, too.”

“Fine,” Ky said. “I’ll get my cargomaster to port it over for you.” He would learn nothing from their cargo list except that they’d bought low and hoped to sell high. He would certainly not learn about the mines she had aboard, either kind.

Chapter Eighteen

He thinks I’ve got a probationary captain’s implant, with incomplete data—nothing he needs to upload to his implant, for instance.” Ky sipped a mug of nutrient-boosted tea while she waited for Osman to send her his cargo list.

“I’d be a lot happier if you had an implant at all,” Martin said. “And the Vatta command set would give you everything you need.”

“Certainly would make my head an attractive target, wouldn’t it?” Ky said. “If he thinks I’m ignorant, inexperienced, idealistic, and rule-bound, I’m the perfect front person for him. A dupe he can enjoy duping for a long time before he finds it convenient to kill me.”

“You do realize he’ll try.” It was not a question in tone, only in Martin’s expression.

“Of course,” Ky said. “I don’t expect anything less. But he will find me tougher to kill once he’s thoroughly convinced how simple it will be.”

“You continue to surprise me,” Rafe murmured.

“Good,” Ky said. “Since you’re the best model I have for how Osman Vatta thinks—he’s supposedly got a history rather like yours.”

He blinked at her. “You really think I’m that bad? I swear, I never put pressure on the unwilling to have sex.”

Stella shifted in her seat. He looked sideways at her.

“I haven’t forgotten that lime,” Ky said. The others looked at her oddly; Rafe ducked his head.

“That was only… an invitation. Not pressure.”

“Quite true,” Ky said. “And if I thought you were that bad you would not be alive on this ship.”

“I shall watch my step,” he said, with a demureness that lay uneasily, like thin silk over a steel blade.

“Nonetheless,” Ky said. “Rafe is my only current contact with the kind of life we think Osman’s been leading. So when I try out ideas on him, his reaction may help me predict Osman’s.”

“As long as you don’t get us confused,” Rafe said.

“I assure you,” Ky said, “I can keep you separate in my mind, even without an implant.”

Suddenly Rafe’s eyes opened wide. “Ky—Captain—call the mercs. Now.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it,” he said. No longer languid, he sat upright, alert.

“Our whole plan is to let him think we’re alone, harmless, helpless, in this system. If I call—”

“If you don’t call,” Rafe said, “you won’t have the chance. He has an ansible on that ship. He’s one of them.”

“How do you know? And why now?”

“I know,” Rafe said through clenched teeth. “Don’t ask more—I know. He’s not just Vatta’s rotten egg; he’s deeply involved, and he’s using his shipboard ansible to call in your enemies.”

“I think he wants to toy with me longer,” Ky said. “And I still want to know how—”