Pulsar Race (Starship’s Mage #9.5) - Glynn Stewart Page 0,30

supported, and I still felt adrift for a few months.”

She reached over the table and put her fingers on his.

“No one begrudges you taking the time to be certain of what you want, Ivan,” she told him. “But if it helps…that raid we didn’t talk about? Il Maestro Aquila was captured alive. He’s heading for trial and already been denied bail.

“He’s not getting out of jail anytime soon, if that helps your decisions.”

Ivan captured her fingers under his free hand, ignoring his food as he met the woman’s gaze.

“It might just,” he admitted. “Thank you.”

The warm touch of her fingers on his also helped his decisions, but she already knew that.

The doorbell on Ivan’s apartment sounded exactly six minutes and twenty seconds after it was supposed to. Despite his assorted misgivings about the Navy, he’d been an executive officer or a department head on various starships for fifteen years. If a subordinate had shown up that late for a meeting, he’d have told them off thoroughly—quietly and in private but thoroughly.

Karl Charpentier wasn’t a subordinate, though. At this moment in time, he wasn’t a superior or employer, either. Ivan had agreed to one voyage, one race.

That was done, but the future lay out before them, and Ivan had spent some time organizing his apartment to the standard he’d have expected of himself aboard a warship.

Now he poured coffee for them both and slid a mug over to Charpentier.

“Final documents are all signed and sealed,” his friend told him. “I still owe ten million on Restoya, but that’s payable over four years now that I’m back in good standing.”

“That’s good to hear,” Ivan said. “What about the other debts?”

“Weirdly, I can’t find anyone from la Cosa Nostra to try and pay them back,” Charpentier said. “Aquila appears to have vanished and his people have gone to ground. I’m going to hang on to what I owe them for a while, just in case, but they’re not around for me to pay.”

“He is apparently in the gentle hands of the Martian Investigation Service,” Ivan noted. “While he may not have turned on his people, I imagine the MIS got some of his junior hands who did.”

“May they all receive their just deserts,” his friend said prayerfully. “And hopefully never mention that we were there!”

“We’d be facing, what, a fine or a year in jail?” Ivan asked. “Worst-case scenario, we come out okay, I think.”

He also suspected that any record that they had been present at the Black Pulsar Race was going to end up locked down in MISS files. Theodore may have used him and Restoya, but she had a solid sense of favors owed.

They weren’t going to get caught up in that mess if she could do anything about it…and he suspected his new girlfriend was going to be able to do a lot about it.

“True enough, true enough.” Charpentier drank his coffee. “It’s been a hell of a few weeks, and I think you might still owe me an apology, but…we came out okay.”

“I’m not sure apologies cut it for what I did,” Ivan said calmly. “I am sorry I sold you out, Karl. I am. I just think I owe you more than words.”

“You saved my life twice over,” his friend admitted. “I won’t call it even just yet, but I will call it forgiven. Fair?”

“More than,” Ivan agreed. “Thank you, Karl. I still owe you one run, too. I promised to take you out to recruit Mages somewhere else.”

“You did,” Charpentier said. “Are you down?”

“Not today.” The Mage chuckled. “Not tomorrow. But yes. I can do that for you. On the other hand, part of your recruiting trouble here was Aquila…and much of the rest was that you didn’t have any Mages.”

The other man finished his coffee and gestured the cup questioningly to the coffeepot.

“Go ahead,” Ivan told him.

“You sound like you have a suggestion,” Charpentier noted as he refilled his mug.

“Think of it as an offer,” Ivan suggested. “I…I won’t work for you, Karl. But everything looks handled to keep Restoya safe and back to just being another courier ship.

“I’ll work with you,” he offered. “I want a partnership in the operating company. I’ll be your senior Ship’s Mage, handle getting you the rest of the Mages—but we all take the two months you need to be here for Lyle off.”

“Two months’ vacation and a share in the company?” Charpentier asked. “That’s…”

“You can consider my equity stake seven million dollars,” Ivan said dryly.

His friend paused, then laughed.

“You’re