Star Risk - 04 The Dog From Hell by Chris Bunch

"I feel like I've been shot at and missed and shit at and hit." M'chel couldn't offer much beyond sympathy and another round.
    The firm picked up a quick and easy contract, helping a system find advisors to train their military.
    All that would be necessary was for Star Risk to hire reliable people�and, even in the flaky field of mercenarying, there were such�coordinate on a syllabus with the client world, and inspect the work done once or twice an E-year.
    Jobs like that, never bragged about in resumes or bars, paid the rent.
    Goodnight contacted Hal Maffer, a fairly reliable contractor, told him what they needed, and moved on to another project.
    Within the day, Maffer, sounding worried, was back on the com, saying that three of the four teams he contacted didn't want to accept a contract with Star Risk, having heard the company wasn't that reputable, and was getting a very nasty reputation for not paying its people when it should.
    Goodnight hit the roof, knowing well how many deadbeats worked in his field, and how desperate circumstances could become if Star Risk got the reputation of being a deadbeat.
    Maffer said he'd stand by.
    Goodnight started checking the rumor mill, and found that, indeed, someone was spreading the word that Star Risk had had a good rep, but they'd gone sadly downhill.
    Nobody knew where the slander had come from, nor who'd started it, but "everyone" had heard it.
    Goodnight managed to piece together a team for the contract, but it became necessary to post a bond. Since Star Risk's banking was awry, that required some financial jiggling, almost enough to make the job not worth handling.
    Goodnight retired to a bar�any bar�fuming gently.
    Freddie was the next target.
    A rather nubile journoh showed up, claiming to be a freelancer interested in doing a major piece on Star Risk as an example of a reliable, moral mercenary outfit.
    M'chel tried telling von Baldur to get away from her�that journohs, any journohs, are always the pilot fish of disaster for soldiers.
    Von Baldur pooh-poohed her, saying that he was good with people, and could tell there was no malice in this woman. He gave her everything�including, Riss suspected, some exceedingly after-hours attention, and they parted as smiling friends.
    Two weeks later, it appeared the smile had been on the face of the tiger, as one of the biggest-selling tabs in the Alliance appeared with a screaming headline:
    DEADLY MERCENARY RING ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES.
    And the drop:
    STAR RISK, LTD. NAMED IN CIVILIAN ATROCITIES.
    There was nothing to the story, except some wild rumors that had been floating around for years about never-to-be-named soldiers of fortune who were utterly guilty of some ugly crimes.
    Suddenly Star Risk was named as the guilty party, even though the firm hadn't been in existence when at least five of those atrocities had been committed.
    "Wonderful," Freddie muttered.
    "Indeed," Riss said, trying not to gloat.
    "Come on," she said. "I know the bar where Chas is hanging his hat these days."
    She did hope the episode would slightly reduce Friedrich's proud boasts about being an unerring Isaiah.
    "Cheer up," she told the pair, after uniting them over alcohol. "It can only get better."
    It didn't. It got very much worse.
    Next was a tax audit. This, however, was no particularly big deal. Among the original settlers of Trimalchio IV had been several tax evaders, so the Revenue Division of the planet's tiny government was small and ineffectual.
    But this, coupled with a "safety inspection" of Star Risk's offices, was enough to drive Jasmine King to the bar.
    Grok came along, amiably, since he'd found a definite fondness for Earth cognac.
    The four were joined by Chas Goodnight, who announced that he'd picked up a tail, and, worse yet, that there were other lurkers outside the bar, clearly waiting for their assigned targets to leave.
    "It's not that I'm doing anything nefarious, and if I can still pronounce that word I'm definitely