"My lawyers tell me," Rachmael said, "that three days stand between me and THL seizing the Omphalos."
"You can't blast off within three days?"
"The deep-sleep equipment. It's a week from being readied." He let out his breath raggedly. "A subsidiary of THL manufactures vital components. They've been — held up."
Freya nodded. "And your coming here is to request us," she said, "to pick up the Omphalos, with one of our veteran pilots, disappear with her for a week, until she's ready for the flight to Fomalhaut. Correct?"
"That's it," he said, and sat waiting. "I'm not good enough to lose her. They'd find me. But yours — one of your best." He did not look directly at her; it meant too much.
"You can pay our fee of — "
"Nothing. I have absolutely no funds. Later, as I continue to liquidate the assets of the corporation, possibly I — "
Freya said, "There's a note here, Xeroxed, from my employer, Mr. Glazer-Holliday. He observes that you're poscredless. His instructions to us — " She read the note, silently. "However, we're to cooperate with you, despite your financial helplessness." Glancing up at him she said, "We'll dispatch an experienced pilot who will take the Omphalos off where THL, where even the UN agents acting for the Secretary General, Herr Horst Bert old, won't find her. This our man can do — while you manage, if you can, to obtain the final components of the deep-sleep equipment." She smiled slightly. "But I doubt if you'll obtain those components, Rachmael; there's an additional memo here to that effect, too. You're right: Theodoric Ferry sits on its board of directors, too, and this is all legal, this monopoly which the firm possesses." Her smile was bitter. "UN sanctioned."