Read The Agent Gambit for Free Online

that I don't know why you're helping me. Your logic don't hold up. If you were Connor Phillips, why can't you be him again, find a ship, and go away? You can get out of it! The Juntavas don't know who you are-what kind of description can they have? That you're short? Skinny? Dark?" She moved her shoulders to throw off some of the tension.
    "The clincher is that you're with me. Without me they look-" She spread her arms. "-and they look away."
    The equation had formed in his head, showing him how he might get away, her death balancing his escape. She knew much about him and could be a danger. In fact, he thought, if I-no! He forced the Loop back and down, refusing to know how useful she would be, dead.
    Setting his empty glass aside, he began to read the breakfast selections.
    She studied his profile, but saw nothing more than polite interest in the information imparted by the selection grid.
    "Well?" she demanded.
    He lifted a slender hand to select an egg dish, then glanced at her. "I think that last night's reasoning is sound. The Juntavas may have an imperfect description of me. Or they may have a photo image. I cannot afford to ignore that possibility."
    Another equation showed itself, this one concerning not her death, but her betrayal. It noted that it was an approximation; the odds were good that her life would buy his own from the Juntavas.
    The long lashes dropped over his eyes and he turned back to the panel, choosing hot bread and a fruit. Gathering the plates from the dispenser, he moved back to the table and took the seat across from Miri.
    She got up silently, selected a slightly stronger brew of Terran coffee, and returned to her chair.
    "So where does that leave me? Instead of wanted by the Juntavas, I'm a political prisoner of Liad, right?"
    He shook his head, attention seemingly more than half occupied by slicing a ripe strafle into two equal portions. He offered her half. When she made no move to take it, he placed it on the table by her hands."Where does that leave things?" she insisted, an edge in her voice.
    "I think," he replied, swallowing a mouthful of eggs, "that it leaves things where they were in the beginning. We are thrown together. We wish to live. Already each of us has brought something useful to the task of surviving. If we are fortunate, we shall live through the experience. In fact, we make our own fortune simply by doing what must be done, as it needs to be done."
    He took a bite of bread, frowned as he reached for the glass that wasn't there, and combed a hand through his forelock, sighing.
    "Mutual survival being the goal, I think you should tell me about these people-the man who owes you money and the friend who keeps your things-so that we may plan usefully."
    He pushed back his chair and went to ask the chef for more milk.
    Miri drank coffee, acutely aware of the weight of the gun in her pocket. She understood about mutual survival: it was why so many of the Gyrfalks had partners. Trust wasn't something that came easily to her; still it was obvious that her companion knew what he was doing in a tight spot.
    "Okay," she said slowly. "The man who owes me money-that's Murph. Angus G. Murphy. The third. He was in my unit in the Merc. Decided he couldn't take all the killing." She smiled at the man across from her. "Thought there'd be lots of glory and romance. Anyhow, he wanted out, and it was safer to have him out, if he felt that way about it."
    Val Con ate, watching her face as she spoke.
    "So, I lent him most of his severance money," Miri continued, "with the understanding that he'd pay it back with interest in three Standards. Been damn near four."
    She leaned farther back in the chair, leaving the untouched fruit between them like a challenge. He did not appear to see it.
    "Murph is recalcitrant?"
    "Absent," she corrected. "Address listed in the poploc. Nobody home." She shook her head. "I didn't have time to buttonhole all the neighbors. Somehow, from the way I remembered him, I