"No earth-side leave--"
All right--no leave. They were not, after their late experiences so
entranced with Terraport that they wanted to linger in its environs any
longer than they had to.
"We lose the Sargol contract--"
That did hurt. But they had resigned themselves to it since the hour when
they had realized that they could not make it back to the perfumed
planet.
"To Inter-Solar?" Wilcox asked the important question.
Van Rycke was smiling broadly, as if the loss he had just announced was
in some way a gain. "No--to Combine!"
"Combine?" the Captain echoed and his puzzlement was duplicated around
the circle. How did Inter-Solar's principal rival come into it?
"We've made a deal with Combine," Van Rycke informed them. "I wasn't
going to let I-S cash in on our loss. So I went to Vickers at Combine and
told him the situation. He understands that we were in solid with the
Salariki and that the Eysies are not. And a chance to point a blaster at
I-S's tail is just what he has been waiting for. The shipment will go out
to the storm priests tomorrow on a light cruiser--it'll make it on time.
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