She trotted through the station with Lúta and Crow following close. Weirdly, Allie found station folk yielding. They moved to the sides of corridors and stepped aside to let the three of them use lifts. It definitely wasn’t her. Allie could command attention in a room well enough, but it generally required her to start making demands and yelling at people. She wasn’t all that intimidating to look at.
After everyone else had gotten off for them, they rode an open lift down to a lower level. “It seems like people are avoiding you two,” Allie commented.
Lúta grinned at her. “It might be that the last time Crow, Cetan, and I were on-station, we had a small altercation with a crew.”
“How small?”
“Only four people died,” Lúta told her. Then his smile vanished. “The rest were arrested when the station guards found children in the hold.”
“Oh God.” Allie hated people—she really did. “Why are people so damn disgusting?”
“Most aren’t,” Lúta said, “and those who are, we take care of them.” This time his smile was absolutely predatory. Shank had some scary relatives.
The lift deposited them on the level where theMonitorwas docked, and Allie took off without discussing strategy with the two men. Both followed, thank heavens. If they had resorted to the “men are fighters; women need to stay behind us” mentality, Allie might have shot them with her borrowed gun. That would have been bad on any number of levels. For one, Allie wasn’t entirely sure that shooting these two would stop them. When Shank had come back from their SC mission from hell, he’d talked about going up against traitorous Nicve marines in the dark, and Allie had thought he was either exaggerating or suffering from a little shock. After meeting his family, she understood that he’d been perfectly honest, and all his relatives were scarier than he was.
Fewer people yielded now, and Allie had to push through the crowds haggling over old equipment and ship parts. A few times, groups blocked her way, and once, a scrawny girl tried to steal her weapon right off her hip. Each time Lúta stepped forward and delivered a few good shoves. Allie didn’t need the protection, but she did appreciate it. It helped them move toward their goal much faster.
She could hear Shank long before she could see him. She really hated being too short to see over the crowd.
“I’m not looking for trouble.”
“No, you never want trouble. You want something far simpler, don’t you, Chankoowashtay?”
Allie pushed a gawker aside to see that the conflict had attracted quite the crowd. Ben stood off to the side, his hand on his weapon. Shank was front and center going toe-to-toe with Claire, and Copta had retreated to a spot halfway between the men. Claire’s goons had taken up strategic positions behind her, and Shank’s hand rested on the butt of his gun, which was never a good sign.
“Shank! There you are,” Allie said loudly. She turned to the others and greeted them with a simple, “Copta, Ben.”
Claire studied them. “This is a rather large group for a simple trade.” The statement definitely sounded like an accusation.
“Allie.” Copta stepped forward and considered her carefully before saying in a terse tone, “I told you I could handle these trades.”
Allie stared for a second because that was how long it took her to realize Copta was giving her an excuse to show up with more men. “Excuse me if I worried about your ability to stand up against a more aggressive trader,” Allie said, waving a hand in Copta’s direction as though dismissing her comments.
“We were doing fine.” Copta was officially terrifying in how fast she could make shit up on the fly. It was also pretty clear she was lying. From her tone, they’d been doing pretty much the opposite of fine.
“Paya mentioned Shank’s ex was on the station, and that he hadn’t told me.” Allie gave Shank a disgusted look, and he suddenly found the floor very interesting. Allie studied Claire. She was several years older than Shank with tiny lines at the corners of her eyes, but she was a handsome woman. Allie could definitely see why Shank would have fallen for her, especially years ago when she would have been younger, and he would have been more hormonally challenged. “I thought I might back you up,” Allie said calmly.
Claire watched the interaction, her expression carefully neutral. “I wasn’t aware Chankoowashtay needed backing up. He always insisted he was independent.” Claire made that sound amusing. Allie really hated the way Shank’s full name sounded coming out of Claire’s mouth.
“Most times, I don’t think he does. However, dealing with an ex is never fun. Well, not unless you get to shoot them.” Allie smiled and moved toward Claire. The men around her shifted. Claire’s three gunmen looked intensely uncomfortable as Lúta, Crow, Ben, and Shank shifted to better cover Allie. Copta faded to the back.
“I often feel that way myself.” Claire smiled widely and held out her hand. “Claire Lankan. I’m the trading master for theMonitor.”
Allie deliberately didn’t take the woman’s hand. “Allie Grah, Copta’s second on our new ship as soon as we steal it.”
Claire raised an eyebrow in a deliberate, practiced move. “Oh? And here I thought Chankoowashtay had been pulled into the horribly legal world of Command.”
“We both were, for a while,” Allie said. “But fighting the bats is one thing, and getting ordered to guard supplies at a refugee camp is another. I don’t take those kinds of orders.”
“And I suppose Chankoowashtay takes your orders now.” Claire pursed her lips and looked back and forth from Allie to Shank. Allie stood still under her gaze, waiting for Claire to get tired of her games. Instead the woman smiled brighter. “Yes, he definitely does. So, where is this new ship of yours?”
While Claire tried to be casual, Allie could read the woman’s stress through the line of her back and the way she carefully didn’t glance over toward the next berth. That was fine. It made it easier for Ben to get the security taps in place. Allie started circling around to Claire’s right to give Ben and Lúta a good excuse to move closer to the dark berth. Shank shifted toward Allie, and Claire’s gun hands moved to follow her, creating one large and awkward dance.
A number of their watchers took the opportunity to fall back. Watching ex-lovers fight might be entertaining, but none of them wanted to get caught in the crossfire if two crews started firing on each other.
“Command is decommissioning a number of listening-class ships. We”—Allie nodded toward Shank—”served on theCandiru. She’s a sweet little ship in good working order, and there may be a few extra treats bolted under one of the floorboards, courtesy of Copta.”
“Premeditated thievery. I approve,” Claire said, tilting her head in Copta’s direction.
