“Uh,” Alice replied, looking at Juliet, then away, down at her beer. Before Juliet could rephrase her question or take it back, Alice looked up and continued, “I mean, yeah, we’ll need a pilot, but there’s a lot to do between now and then. A lot to consider, you know?” She glanced at Shiro as though she wanted some backup, and he nodded and shrugged at Juliet but didn’t speak.

“Look,” Juliet said, trying to ease the tension, “I’m not saying that I won’t agree with your plan unless you say I can be your pilot. I’m just saying it sounds exciting to me, and I want to plant the idea in the backs of your minds. Here’s my counterproposal, okay?”

“Yeah, sure, go on.” Alice offered her a crooked smile, and Juliet sipped her beer, gathering her thoughts.

“I’m good with how you guys want to handle the Bumble and the bounties. I think it’s perfectly fair. With regard to the gunship, I’m curious how you plan to structure things if you guys decide to use it for your salvage business. Will you take ownership with the same business structure as the Kowashi? I mean, are you just going to roll it into your current business with the same ownership percentages? Aya’s got a piece of things, right? Bennet’s just an employee, though; are you going to keep it that way?”

“We’ll create a new corporate structure for the gunship. Bennet wants in, and he’s going to use some of his earnings to help pay for the refit, doing some work for free, too. Aya’s in a similar position.”

“Okay, well, I’d like to buy in, too. What kind of percentages are we looking at?”

“Well,” again, Alice paused, thinking, glancing at Shiro, then she shrugged and said, “Shiro and I own seventy percent of the Kowashi. Aya owns five percent; Shiro’s father gifted it to her when he died. First Bank of Luna owns the other twenty-five; we had to take out a loan a couple of years back.

“The way we were thinking, on the gunship, was we’d structure ownership the same way we were going to pay out percentages for the salvage. Ten percent for Aya, ten for Bennet, and eighty for Shiro and me. We figured we’d pay you out for your four percent after we got it fixed up, settled on a value, and registered the company.”

Juliet smiled and nodded, then winked at Alice. “Sounds like you’ve thought about this a bit more than you let on earlier. You’re not going to sell it, are you?”

“Hey,” Alice said, “Nothing’s settled yet!”

“We don’t know anything for sure,” Shiro added, grunting and sliding up to the table, resting one elbow on the top.

Alice continued, “The ship might be unfixable—a lot of this is wishful thinking. We have to find a drive core that will fit, we need to fix a hundred different systems that got fried in the reactor overflow, and, yeah, we need to fix that reactor, and the parts for Takamoto reactors are hard to come by.”

“And the guns,” Shiro said, covering his mouth to stifle a burp.

“Right. The guns, the armor, the shielding panels, the nanite batteries, the viewscreens, the acceleration couches—I’m not going to list every component, but tons need fixing.”

“Relax, Alice.” Juliet held up her hand and tried to offer a genuine smile. “I’m not attacking you guys. I’m just saying I want a piece of the business. We can start with my four percent, but I want to buy in for more. I mean, like, now before you value the ship at something like twenty million bits, and I can’t afford it anymore.”

“You want to put some money into the refit?” Shiro asked, nudging Alice in the ribs. It wasn’t surreptitious like he was trying to signal her without Juliet noticing; it was more of a “Hey, listen to her” type of nudge.

“Yeah. Sure. So, how much do I have coming to me from the bounties?”

“Sec,” Alice said, her eyes going glassy while she looked at her AUI. “Well, for the three you,” she glanced at Juliet and obviously changed the verb she was going to use, “secured on Dione, you’re looking at 107k. The Port Authority paid us out 380k for the crew of the gunship. You get a fifth of that which is seventy-six. So, altogether, you’ve got 184k coming your way.”

“Sounds good. And the Bumble?”

“Well, like I said, it depends on the buyer and the market. I’d say two-fifty, minimum.”

“So, I’ve got a four percent interest in the gunship right now; how much will a couple hundred k investment get me at this early stage of your venture?” Juliet grinned and drank the rest of her beer.

As she set the pint glass down, Angel said, “I think you’re being very clever, Juliet. They need money right now, and they may be willing to offer you a great deal more ownership than they would for such an investment when the ship is fully refitted. Would you like another beer?”

“Yes,” Juliet subvocalized.

“Seriously? You’ll pitch in that much? We can’t guarantee a return, you know. It would sure help us get moving on the refit, though.”

“I understand the risks. You can put disclaimers in the contract if it makes you feel better, but yeah.” She nodded, looked first into Alice’s chrome-irised optics, then into Shiro’s dark, brooding eyes, and said, “I like you guys, I like the idea of the gunship, and I’m excited to see it made whole. Do I have other things I should maybe spend the money on? Yeah, but shit, this is exciting! Come on, you two! Let’s start a company together.” As Juliet finished speaking, the waitress delivered her beer, and she grinned, holding it up. “What do you say?”

Alice looked at Shiro, saw his smile and slight nod, then lifted her beer and clinked it against Juliet’s. Shiro joined in, clinking his glass against theirs, and they all drank. “We still need to talk percentages, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be our pilot, right?” Alice asked as she set her glass down.

“Right. I get it,” Juliet nodded. “We should talk about the scope of the gunship company’s operations, too. I mean, it might be more profitable, from time to time, to hire it out as an escort or for hunting bounties than to follow the Kowashi all over the place.”

“Yeah, we thought about that,” Alice agreed. She smiled, set her glass down, and scooted back into the booth, giving Juliet a long, penetrating look. “We like you too, Lucky. I think it’ll be good to be in business with you.”

“Hai.” Shiro nodded, draining his pint of beer.

“Are you going to rent hangar space here?”

“No. We’ll have a much easier time finding parts near Earth and Mars. We’ll rent something on Luna when we get back.”

“So, you’re still planning a return trip?”

“Right. We’ll take a week or two to deal with the Bumble, and as that gets solidified, we can draw up business plans for the gunship. It’s going to need a name. Any thoughts?”

“Um,” Juliet frowned, wishing she were better at coming up with names. She’d struggled with an operator handle, let alone a spaceship. “Not at the moment. Let’s leave it open for now. Maybe I’ll get inspired. Or, I mean, if you have an idea, I’d like to hear it . . .”

“Nothing yet. Let’s all stew on it a bit. We still need to run this all by Bennet and Aya, but I don’t see any arguments. They like you.”

“Cool. If I’m not the pilot, I might end up being kind of a silent partner anyway. I just ask that you guys consider me when the time comes. Give me a chance to prove myself or interview, whatever. Is that good with you?”

“Yeah. We’ll put a clause in the contract. For the record, I don’t have a problem with you, but we don’t want to lose that bird on its first engagement, and you don’t exactly have a proven track record in that regard. I mean, do you? Your SOA card doesn’t list anything about piloting. I was a little surprised at how you handled the Bumble. I have some old friends looking for that kind of work, so, yeah, you’ll need to show us what you’ve got.”

“Yeah, my SOA card doesn’t list everything about me. Anyway, I understand. I’ll show you what I can do before I get mad that you don’t hire me. Honestly, I don’t know how long this will take, and I don’t know if I’ll still want the job by then. We can play it a bit by ear as far as I’m concerned.” Juliet sat back, smiling. She was pleased, pleased to be investing in something bigger than herself, something that might pay off or might not but would give her the option to keep working with the crew of the Kowashi. She’d grown to like them over the last few weeks.

“So, when you get the numbers on the Bumble, let me know, and we can talk percentages, depending on how much I kick in. Am I good to handle some personal business here for a few days?”

“Yeah. Bennet mentioned something about maybe giving you a hand with something here. You wanna talk about it? He was uncharacteristically tight-lipped.” Alice smirked and looked at Shiro, “I might have mistaken him for Shiro; he got so quiet.”

“Um, there’s not a lot I can say yet. I need to do some investigating.” She saw Alice frown, and Shiro, always frowning, seemed to withdraw a little, so Juliet decided to open up a bit more. “It’s a friend of mine. She’s in some trouble here. She, well, for lack of a better word, she was kidnapped. I have to find out what happened to her and the little girl she was watching.” Juliet’s voice was soft, and her eyes turned down when she spoke. For the first time in quite a few days, she allowed herself to really think about Honey’s fate—could she possibly still be okay? Was Juliet in time to do anything? Could she?

Alice must have seen the emotion on her face because she reached over the table and grasped the top of Juliet’s hand. “Hey, that’s some serious stuff. If there’s anything we can do . . .”

“Yeah,” Juliet nodded and sniffed, trying to offer up a smile. “For sure. I’ll let you guys know.” She thought about it briefly, then said, “Well, there might be at least one thing.”

“What?” Shiro asked, surprising both her and Alice.

“If I find her, them, they might need a lift back to Luna. Can they come with us?”

“Hai,” Shiro said for the second time that night.

“Thank you, Shiro!”

“It’s no problem, as long as you don’t bring an angry kidnapper down on our heads,” Alice added.

“Right. I’ll make sure of it.” Juliet smiled at Alice and turned her hand so she could grip her warm palm, returning the pilot’s show of compassion. “Thank you again.” She sniffed, let go, then rubbed at her nose, smiling as though chagrined. “Anyway, I haven’t slept much in the last couple of days. I think I’ll go back to the ship, catch some rack time, and then I have a contact I’m supposed to meet. Will that be all right? Do you need me to escort you back?”

“No.” Shiro shook his head. “Just take a cab like we did.”

“Right,” Juliet chuckled, “Smart.”

“See you later, Lucky,” Alice said as Juliet stood up. “When we get the payout for the bounties, I’ll send your cut along.”

“Sounds good,” Juliet nodded, then, before she turned, added, “And you’ll talk to the others about the gunship deal?”

“Of course.” Alice smiled and waved, then leaned into Shiro, and the two sank further into the booth. If Juliet had to guess, they were about to get very drunk.

“You didn’t attempt to read them with the lattice at all,” Angel said as Juliet stepped out into the cool air of the dome.

“No. Come on, Angel, we’ve been sharing a ship with those people for weeks. I’ve picked up so many stray thoughts while trying to sleep or relax; there’s no way they’re hiding anything nefarious. I don’t want to manipulate people I consider friends when we’re talking business. If they were strangers or jerks, maybe.”

“I approve of your discrimination. Your cab should be here within three minutes.”

Juliet sighed and leaned against the bar’s plasteel exterior, watching the dark road. She let her eyes close part way, so she was just looking through slits. Her mind began to wander, wondering what the contact Voronov had set her up with would be like, if he’d be a double agent or if he’d be a real ally, someone with information that would make her job a lot easier.

The gravelly voice of the bouncer interrupted her thoughts, “You all right?”

Juliet glanced to her left and saw him leaning against the building not far from her; his silvery eyes narrowed as he looked down at her. She forced a smile, “I’m good.”

“Just making sure. Got a ride coming?”

“Yep. Any second now.”

“Right. You new around here? Don’t think I’ve seen you before.” He barked a short laugh and said, “That was a dumb line. Your PAI answered my ping earlier with your operator ID, so I know you’ve never been here, and you know I know it . . .” he shook his head at himself, feigning embarrassment.

“Oh, come on,” Juliet chuckled. “That doesn’t work, does it? Pretending to forget a girl already knows what you know?”

“Nah, not too often. Sometimes, though.” He shrugged and added, “Depends on how much drinking was involved, I suppose.”

“Juliet, your cab is pulling up,” Angel said, coming to her rescue.

“Anyway, thanks for checking on me.” Juliet smiled and started toward the boxy silver cab humming softly near the curb.

“No chance?” he called after her.

Juliet looked over her shoulder and shrugged, “Not tonight, but who knows?” Then she touched the latch on the cab, and the side door slid open, revealing a U-shaped seating area. She climbed in, and as the door slid closed, the cab began to pull away; Angel must have given it directions.

“What cab company is this?”

“Atlas Rides, ma’am,” the friendly masculine voice of the cab’s AI said from the front instrument cluster.

“Angel,” Juliet subvocalized, “Find us a gun store nearby, and do some research into coffee shops. Find one that’s popular but has a decently large layout, so I can kind of lurk in there to get a read on Voronov’s operative. What’s his name, anyway?”

“His handle is Lemur. Would you like to see his SOA card?”

“Uh, sure. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at someone else’s card.” Juliet saw a blinking tab appear on her AUI, so she selected it, and a window appeared with Lemur’s SOA data:

Handle: “Lemur” – SOA-SP License #: Dr451-826Personal Protection & Small Arms License #: S56290477

Rating: C-33-9

Skillset subgroups and skill details:

Peer and Client Rating (Grades are F, E, D, C, B, A, S, S+):

Combat:

Heavy Weapon Combat

D +3

Small Arms Combat

B +44

Unarmed Combat

B +13

Technical:

Reconnaissance & Infiltration

B +9

Data Retrieval

C +15

Other:

High-Value Target Neutralization

C +9

Negotiation and Conflict Avoidance

B +1