“I appreciate the offer, Geis, but-”

“Habitats; whole asteroids; mines on Fian and Speyr; island barges on Trontsephori-”

“Geis,” she said, stopping and turning to him, taking his hands in hers for a moment. His thin face shone palely in the deepening red light. “Geis; I can’t.” She forced herself to smile. “You know they’d track me down eventually and you’d only get into trouble for Harbouring. They’ll use the Passports. If they wanted to-if they had the excuse that they thought you were sheltering me they could tear you apart, Geis.”

“I can look after myself.”

“I don’t mean you personally, Geis; I mean this commercial empire you’ve been so busy constructing. I watch the news; the anti-trust people are crawling all over you already.”

Geis waved one hand. “Bureaucrats. I can deal with them.”

“Not if the Huhsz use the Passports to open your data banks and search your files. All these precious companies, all these… interests; you could lose them all.”

Geis stood, staring at her. “I’d risk that,” he said quietly.

She shook her head.

“I would,” he insisted. “For you. If you’d let me, I’d do anything-”

“Geis, please,” she said, turning from him and walking in the other direction, towards the distant shape of the ancient beachcombing machine. Geis paced after her.

“Sharrow, you know how I feel about you; just let-”

“Geis!” she said sharply, barely glancing back at him.

He stopped, looked down at his feet, then walked quickly after her.

“All right,” he said when he was level with her again. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have said anything. Didn’t mean to embarrass you.” He took a breath. “But I won’t see you hounded like this. I can fight dirty, too. I have people in places you wouldn’t expect; in places nobody expects. I won’t let those religious maniacs get you.”