Read Trading in Danger for Free Online Page A

get that nonsense about the military out of her head.
    “We think it’s clever,” her father said, with a glance at San that told Ky exactly who he thought was the clever one of the family. Not her, of course. “You’ll have a chance to prove yourself, and you’ll be well out of the way.”
    Out of the way. Like a naughty child. She was not going to cry. “Well, what is your marvelous idea?” she asked in a voice that even she could hear sounded sulky.
    “We’re sending you out to the Rift with a ship going to salvage,” her father said. “You’ll have a cargo on the way out, sell the ship, then come back commercial. Altogether it should take at least eleven months, and by then things will surely have died down.”
    Ky glared at her father and older brother. “You’d think I’d blown up a ship,” she said.
    “Don’t be overdramatic, Ky,” her father said. “No one’s accused you of anything like that. We’re trusting you to do family business. It’s an honor—”
    “No. You’re sticking me in a corner. Hiding me—”
    “We could do that well enough by giving you a job in inventory control right here at the tik plantations. Be reasonable,Ky.”
    “But—I’ll be gone months and months—maybe years. And it’s boring—”
    “The heat will be off you by then, and it may not be boring. You’ll be heading out into the Borderlands.”
    “Maybe.” Ky glared, but she already knew she would take the job. What other choice did she have? “I guess it’s all right.”
    “Good. You’re taking the
Glennys Jones
to Lastway. We’ll send you some help. Gary Tobai for loadmaster, Quincy Robin as crew chief.”
    “Dad, they’re
old
.”
    “They’re experienced. You need that. New captains—”
    “Captain! You’re making me captain?”
    “Were you listening? I offered you the ship.”
    “I thought you meant as shipping agent or something. I don’t really know how to captain—”
    “You have a license.”
    “I have a license, yes, but I haven’t done it. I haven’t worked on a commercial ship since
Tugboat
… er,
Turbot.
”
    “That’s why we’re sending along someone with experience. You’ll do fine,Ky.All you have to do is be guided byGaryand Quince.”
    All she had to do was listen to her elders by the hour. But a ship—even an old wreck like
Glennys Jones
, and a captain’s listing—made up for a lot. “All right… thanks, Dad.”
    “That’s better. Now, go over to the house. Your mother’s waiting. Oh, and we’ve scheduled your implant replacement.”
    She knew better than to suggest a quick comcall instead, but she dreaded what her mother would say.
    Sure enough, she had scarcely come through the door when her mother started in. “Kylara, how could you? You were just getting to know that nice Berlioz boy, and now—”
    “Mother, I didn’t—”
    “And look at you! You haven’t a bit of makeup on! How can you expect to find a young man if you go around looking like some tough off the docks?”
    “Mother, please—”
    “And your father says you’re going away for months, and I’ve had no time at all to take you around… If you’re out of circulation too long, you know, people will forget about you—”
    “That’s the idea,” Ky said. Though if Charley Berlioz forgot about her that was all to the good. Despite her mother’s prodding, she had no interest in Charley. It was Hal… except now it wasn’t, almost certainly.
    “Well, it’s all very well on the political side, but on the matrimonial side, it’s a disaster. They’ll go and marry unsuitable girls, rather than you, and Slotter Key is not exactly full of eligible boys.”
    “Mother, I’m sure that eventually—” At least her mother was still harping on marriage into some civilian family; at least she hadn’t caught on about Hal, whom she would not have considered suitable.
    “Well, we have to do something about your clothes.” Her mother started off down the hall; Ky trailed behind,