4. Inconvenient

Hank frowned. “I didn’t steal anything from Bespin. I was trying to steal a shipment of harvested spark, but after Jinn and his brother left us, we were lucky to get out of there in one piece. Even if we’d succeeded, a city as large as Bespin is more likely to eat the loss than chase after a few missing cubes.”

Hank turned a suspicious gaze to the Shinra’ere. “Were the Shima brothers more successful in their illicit Bespin activities, I wonder?”

Jinn’s red eyes gleamed, but he said nothing.

That Roith’delat’en, back-stabbing ghoul! He knew something. And whatever he knew, whatever they’d done, Hank was the one getting blamed for it. He’d been set up!

Remora frowned, swirling the tea in her cup. “That is inconvenient. If you stole nothing, then we have no way to bargain with the authorities to get the bounty lifted.”

She took a sip of her tea, then set the cup down, sighing. “They won’t stop until they’ve found you. Any bounty levied by a skycity is legally enforceable land, air, and sea, until such time as the criminal is turned in. You were lucky the warrant wasn’t issued until after we left Westmouth.”

“How could you possibly know all that?” he asked.

“I read a book on law, once, when I was bored,” she replied easily.

Bored. Right. Nothing like a rousing tome on the inter-terrain judicial system to liven up a slow day.

Still, she was probably right, which meant they were essentially grounded until he was caught or the authorities forgot about him. Neither of which was likely to be soon enough to sate Remora’s impatience.

“There’s no other solution, then.” He grimaced. “We’ll have to turn me in.”

Remora wrinkled her nose. “That’s a terrible idea! You obviously have no concept of how long it took me to find a suitable captain. I haven’t time to waste moving backward. Besides,” she added, “I believe turning you in would distress Bones.”

“Not me,” Hank said, gesturing to the stiffening corpse on the floor. “Him. He’s got no face. They’ll have to take Serena’s word that he’s me when she turns him in for the bounty money.” Comprehension dawned on Remora’s face.

“I get the bounty off my head.” He pointed to Serena. “You get paid.” His hand shifted to Remora. “You get to continue your treasure hunt.” The hand moved to Jinn. “You, however, are going to have to tell me exactly what I’m credited with stealing.”

“If I did that, you would lose plausible deniability,” said Jinn, unblinking.

Hank grimaced down at the corpse on the floor. “Plausible deniability is a lousy shield. You and your brother used me and put my crew and my ship in danger. I want to know why.”

“Perhaps we can continue this conversation at another time,” Jinn suggested, eyes flicking to Serena.

Right. Serena, who had so recently won her way off of his rapidly-shrinking list of friends. He glowered at her.

Serena sighed. “I told you he’d be cross about it, Miss Gates.”

“I suppose he is entitled to some small measure of sulking. You did drug him, after all.”

Sulking. He was betrayed and drugged with intent to turn him over to certain death in order to collect bounty money, and his reaction was called “sulking”.

“I believe this can work to our advantage, however,” Remora said, brightening. “We will need to wait at least a week before heading for Bespin, so that the proper paperwork concerning Hank’s death can be filed. Meanwhile, I can build the device here, with your assistance. And yours as well, Montgomery” she said, turning to the shonfra, “should you choose to lend your expertise. I should be most gratified to see a professional at work.”

The shonfra chittered, his ship translating a moment later. “If I don’t help, I’m afraid the two of you might blow up the entire island.”

Remora smiled up at him as though he’d paid her the highest compliment imaginable. “Splendid, splendid!”

Sometimes Hank wondered if the girl inhabited the same world he did.

The shonfra chittered again, his egg-shaped craft hovering closer to Hank’s head. “About the pilot you seek—” the translator said.

Hank lifted a hand, cutting him off. Eyes hard, he set his mouth into a thin line. “The position is not open to terrorists.”