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her arms beneath her breasts.
    “Question stands, though,” Ryan said. “Baron, baron’s healer, whitecoat, whatever.”
    “She’s different,” Great Scott said. “She’s a great whitecoat, very dedicated. Just like her father.”
    “We’ve got total respect for the late Lucien Mercier,” Sparks said. “Even if he did go to work for that shitheel Baron Dornan.”
    “Maybe Dornan wasn’t such a total shitheel after all,” Long Tom said. “He hired Lucien.”
    “Gimme a break,” Randy snorted. “His own kids had to chill him.”
    “So he wasn’t Father of the Year,” Long Tom said. “He still had the welfare of his people at heart.”
    “Except for the ones he worked to death, tortured, or just plain murdered,” Randy said. “He was a tyrant motherfucker.”
    “Now, Randy, you know a lot of that’s down to his sec boss Dupree,” Long Tom said.
    “He hired the man. He kept him on. You met Baron Dornan. He didn’t like a mosquito to fart in his ville without his by-your-leave. Dupree did nothing Dornan didn’t sign off on.”
    “Baron Tobias is different,” Katie said firmly. “He’s not like his father at all. Except he supports Amélie in her work the way his father did hers.”
    Ryan perked his ears up. The Finagle wrench had changed her tone again. She sounded distinctly fond of Baron Tobias of Haven.
    “And his sister,” Great Scott said with a certain bitchy relish. “She rules as his co-baron. She’s a big supporter to Amélie, too.”
    “Because she keeps her alive!” Katie said.
    “Elizabeth Blackwood has some kind of wasting disease from childhood,” Long Tom explained. “Amélie has managed to slow its progress. Now she’s working on a cure.”
    Krysty caught Ryan’s eye. He could tell she was wondering the same thing he was: was that the cargo they were guarding? The cure for the life-threatening illness?
    In one way it didn’t matter: the gig was the gig. They’d given their bond to do the job. They’d do it as best they could. But Ryan’s mind couldn’t help calculating in the background: could they turn this to some kind of lasting advantage in Haven?
    I SIS HAD TURNED UP . Ryan had noticed that except during emergencies or special maneuvers, the captains and even crews of the three vessels tended to circulate among the ships at whim. He guessed there wasn’t much reason not to.
    Now the tall, silver-haired woman said, “I still think it’s a mistake dealing with a baron at all. Even if it’s through a trusted servitor.”
    Long Tom shot her a pained look. “Isis, we’ve been through all this—”
    “There’s still time to come to our senses.”
    “But, Ice,” Katie said, “it’s Baron Tobias.”
    She cocked a thin-plucked brow at the other woman. “And that matters how?”
    “Well, he’s hardly a typical baron. He really tries to help his people.”
    “So did the old baron, Dornan—in his way,” Randy said. “He got the same concern for the people a rancher has for his cows. It profits him to keep the livestock healthy as possible. Nothing more.”
    “Oh-hh,” Katie said in exasperation. “You people.”
    “If we judge people by actions and not what we imagine their motivations are,” Long Tom said, with an air that made Ryan sure he was invoking some long-held principle of Tech-nomad life, “then Tobias is a pretty right guy. He hasn’t shown any of his father’s hard-ass tendencies so far.”
    “He certainly has a fondness for leading the troops into battle,” Great Scott said. “Not one to lead from behind.”
    “You people aren’t exactly backward when it come to a fight,” Mildred said.
    Ryan frowned at her. He didn’t want to get into any debates with these people. Anyway, they seemed to do ace at arguing without any help from outsiders.
    But instead of snapping at Mildred the shaven-headed man just shrugged. “Well, true enough. When we have to.”
    “Beside the point, anyway,” Isis said. “Power corrupts. If Tobias