Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

artificial.” Suddenly he smiled. “With one exception. I was assured that I could experience sexual pleasure with an artificial organ, but I was unwilling to trust them. I mean, if they were wrong, I couldn’t go back . . . so I have retained my own organ. That is why I am wearing these ridiculous shorts—out of consideration for poor innocents like Val here.”
    “That explains the Platinum,” said Cole. “What about the Duke?”
    “Simple. I run Singapore Station. It is my fiefdom; I am its duke.”
    “It’s a lot for one man to run,” commented Cole.
    “So is a starship,” responded the Duke. “We each have the power of life and death over our serfs.”
    “I don’t have any serfs.”
    “Then by all means let us call them honored subordinates,” said the Duke. “I shall be meeting one of them in another two hours.”
    “Let me guess,” said Cole. “David Copperfield?”
    “How did you know?”
    “He’s the only member of my ship besides Val who’s ever been here before,” answered Cole. “At least, I assumed he’d been here. I know none of the others have.”
    “Remarkable creature, isn’t he?” said the Platinum Duke. “And how he cherishes that Dickens collection of his!”
    “His appearance doesn’t bother you?” asked Cole. “I mean, a very strange-looking alien dressed up exactly like Pickwick or Sydney Carlton?”
    “What would you think of me if I criticized the way someone else looked?” said the Duke with a smile that displayed his platinum teeth. “By the way, have you any idea what he wants to see me about?”
    “To put himself right with me,” said Cole.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “It’s a long story,” said Cole. “Suffice it to say that the Theodore Roosevelt is now in the mercenary business. I’ve been told, as I’m sure David has, that you are the best source for determining who might need our services, what they are willing to pay, and whether they can be counted on to give us accurate information and to honor their financial commitments.”
    “Easily done,” said the Duke. “Ordinarily I would charge ten percent for my services, but because you are in the company of the remarkable Valkyrie, and especially because you are in the bad graces of Susan Garcia, who kept ordering me into harm’s way and saw to it that there are pieces of me all across the Teroni Federation, I will charge you only five percent. How does that strike you?”
    “It seems fair,” said Cole. “But there’s one more thing.”
    “Isn’t there always?” said the Duke. “Shall I guess?”
    “If it makes you happy.”
    “You don’t want to get in a situation where you’re overmatched,” suggested the Duke. “After all, you haven’t mentioned any support ships, any backup capabilities of any kind whatsoever.”
    “True,” agreed Cole. “But that’s a given. What I had in mind were some ethical considerations.”
    “Ethical considerations in a mercenary?” said the Duke, laughing. “Now, that’s a novel concept!”
    “I’m glad you’re so easily amused,” said Cole dryly. “We won’t provide military support for anyone dealing in drugs. We won’t supply military support for any action that will serve the purposes of the Teroni Federation. And we won’t provide military support for any action that will be detrimental to the Republic or its Navy. We may be on the run from them, but we spent our lives serving their cause and we won’t go to war with them.”
    “You’d feel differently if you were wearing some artificial limbs,” said the Duke.
    “Perhaps, but I’m not.”
    “All right,” said the Duke. “In point of fact, your ethical considerations probably don’t eliminate more than three or four percent of the people, planets, and interests that would be interested in your services.”
    “Fine,” said Cole. “Lay the best of them out for David when he shows up, and understand that he is not empowered to commit the Theodore Roosevelt to any action.