Dek stepped up beside her, thumbs in his belt next to his fancy pistol, his quetzal-hide cloak pulled back over his shoulders as he squinted up at the morning sky. “The day I arrived here, you asked me why I had come. Told me the old saw about finding myself, dying, or just coming here to leave. I found myself, but that’s not nearly as fascinating as your story. You came, determined to leave. Then, afraid you would die, you found yourself when you weren’t even looking.”

He gestured around. “All of these people? They remember that you fought off mobbers, that you took your place on the line during Whitey’s raid, and that you drove Benteen out. You made Corporate Mine happen from sheer guts and determination. You take the same risks they do. Put your life on the line side-by-side with them. The colony on Donovan is alive because of you.”

She squinted up at the sky, wondering where the shuttle might be. “There have been too many failures mixed in, Dek. The Maritime Unit, the three attempts to drive the No. 3 into the mountain. Good people dead.”

“Nothing’s free, Kalico. And part of what they love about you is that you know what has to be done; and when it costs lives, you grieve just as much as they do.” Dek gestured. “How’s Step’s eye this morning?”

“Someone left him with a hell of a shiner.”

“Yeah, Creamer.”

She turned. “Excuse me?”

Dek crossed his arms nonchalantly. “Creamer came stalking into The Jewel yesterday afternoon while I was running my game. I let him sit in, staked him to fifty SDRs. Bought him a whiskey. And while he was no mean poker player to start with, the more whiskey he drank, the larger the errors in his judgment. He’d already gambled away most of his armor, having convinced himself he was going to win it back on the next hand. When someone asked how you would react to that, he said the most unkind and vulgar things about your female anatomy.”

Kalico felt her anger begin to brew. “He gambled away his armor?”

“Like I said, the more he drank, the higher his regard for his poker skills. But after he made that rather rude comment about your anatomy, the whole casino went dead silent. Can you imagine? The Jewel? At that time of night? You could have heard an invertebrate fart from thirty meters. Never seen the like.”

Dek had that self-bemused look, made a chiding sound with his lips.

Kalico shook her head, pinched her nose. “Sucking vacuum. I’ve got an IG landing at any moment, and you’re telling me a marine colonel gambled away most of his armor?”

“Well, all of it, actually. He had an outstanding tab that he couldn’t pay. And he wasn’t exactly conscious to object to the settlement Alison imposed. Especially given the broken furniture.”