Snake in the Grass – CODA

Bernoulli wasn’t looking the happiest of guys on the vidscreen. “Mal, I don’t know what to tell you. They’re mad.”

“Why? They got what they paid for.” Mal crossed his arms. “Didn’t they?”

“Of course. Enough stuff to cover half their planet in bloody cattle. Doesn’t stop them insisting they’ve been gypped.”

“They tell you what they think they’re missing?”

Bernoulli fidgeted slightly. “No. They were particularly tricky in that regard. Wouldn’t give me any details.”

“Do you want to know them?”

The other man sat up straighter. “Then … you did steal something off them?”

Mal shook his head. “Nope. Not a thing. Least, nothing that belonged to them.” Quickly he went over what had happened. “… so Tannhauser went home a happy man. We delivered the goods and got the second portion of our pay, and everybody won.”

Bernoulli sighed heavily. “I didn’t know, Mal. You gotta believe me.”

“I do,” Mal said. “I never thought you’d be a party to this.”

“And if I were it wouldn’t be you I’d be asking to carry it,” Bernoulli admitted.

“Best you don’t.”

The two men looked at each other across the ether for a long moment. “Guess I’ll be getting back to them, telling them there was nothing happened. Maybe I could blame the Alliance.”

“You could. I’d also take it as a kindness if you could wave Griswald. Wouldn’t want them coming after him. He seemed a good man.”

“He is. You’d get on well with him. He’s slightly more willing to take on the more … dubious aspects of the work, but … I’ll let him know.”

“I’d be grateful.”

Bernoulli became all business again. “Might have another job coming up in a couple of weeks.”

“Less on the dubious side?”

The other man grinned. “A bit. I’ll wave if it comes to anything.”

“Okay.”

The screen greyed out.

“You really think he didn’t know, Mal?” Hank asked, slipping back into the pilot’s seat.

“Not this one, anyway.”

“But maybe others?”

“I get the feeling this might be