“I’m listening.”
“Isn’t it clear? I’ll pay you to take me away from here.”
“Where to?”
“Through hyper-space to Earth. Well?”
“I’ve been grounded. If I take you through hyper-space, I lose my license.”
“You really don’t believe that, do you? After the Irwadians grounded all of you without warning, and grounded all ships until they can train a few more pilots. You don’t really think I.T.S. would take your license away if you took a ship up and through hyper, do you? Under the circumstances? Especially since you’re in a jam with a totalitarian government gone wild? Do you?”
Ramsey said abruptly: “I’m sorry. I can’t take you to Sol System.”
Margot Dennison smiled. It wasn’t the kind of smile designed to make a man roll over on his back and wave all fours in the breeze. Margot Dennison didn’t need that kind of smile.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I read your mind, you see. Very well, Captain. If you’re a fugitive from Earth—I assume Ramsey isn’t your real name, by the way—you may take me through hyper to Centauri. That will be quite satisfactory. I will make my way from Centauri. Well?”
“Give me the gun,” Ramsey said.