Homefall by Chris Bunch

Author:Chris Bunch [Bunch, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781841496290
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2001-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

12

“Thank you enormously for inviting me out,” Kekri Katun said.

“Thank you for coming with me,” Ben Dill said. “It’s nice, taking the prettiest woman in the ship out to help you buy maybe a painting or something with my ill-gotten wages.”

Kekri smiled wryly.

“I don’t seem to get asked anywhere much. I feel like some kind of pariah, sometimes. Maybe because I’m from another world than the rest of you.”

“Aw balls,” Dill said rudely. “Nobody’s pariahing you,” he lied. “We’re from as many worlds as you can think of, so that doesn’t matter. More likely, it’s ‘cause you’re so pretty. Notice that a lot of the showgirls don’t get taken anywhere? Don’t think you’re anything special in the way of a martyr.”

Kekri grinned, squeezed Dill’s arm.

“Careful, lady,” he said. “Don’t go messin’ with the pilot, even if he is the best in six systems and it is only a stinkin’ lifter.”

“What’re those weird-looking ships you usually fly?”

“The aksai,” Dill said. “Built by the Musth … like Alikhan. They flew in combat …” and Ben suddenly remembered Njangu’s warning, and his cover story, “… against some Confederation ships, just before the collapse.

“We know some people who know some people, and bought some of them.”

“You get along with the Musth?”

“Circus people get along with everyone,” Ben said.

Kekri seemed to feel a warning, for she found another topic.

“So what, exactly, am I supposed to do?”

“I prob’ly have the taste of a water buffalo as far as art goes,” Dill said. “But my compartment looks pretty damn’ bare. They told me about this art thing they do every weeks-end, along the river that runs through Pendu, and I thought maybe you could help me find something that isn’t too atrocious.”

“A pilot,” Kekri mused. “You want something with flying, or space in it?”

“Not a chance,” Ben said. “I do it, and don’t much want to look at it. Something abstract’s more my line.”

Kekri looked at him with a bit of respect.

“So you have advanced taste in art, can lift a ton of weights, can fly aksai — ”

“And just about anything else,” Ben said. “No boasting.”

“And anything else,” Kekri said. “What other talents do you have?”

“I’m a balding secret sex maniac, and modest as a sumbitch to boot.”

Kekri laughed, reached over, and patted him on the upper thigh.

“ ‘Kay, Mr. Modest. Isn’t that a landing field down there?”

“Surely is, lady. Now watch this, and hang on to your stomach.”

Dill flipped the lifter on its side and dived straight down for the small field. He flared at the last minute and set it down, with never a scrape from its skids.

“And here we be,” he said. “The river’s right over there, so let’s go see if there’s anything worth buying.”

They climbed out, and an attendant approached, a bit wide-eyed at the woman and the monster of a man.

“Here,” Dill said, spinning a credit through the air. “Don’t let anybody put their initials on the pig, and keep it easy for me to get out!”

“Sir,” the attendant said, bowing repeatedly.

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