Please keep me standing up long enough to get us out of this, Serrin prayed mentally as Geraint and Rani began the negotiating. Geraint was listening to the flow of Rani’s clever comments, taking his cue from her as she told him implicitly what the trolls might accept for their release. Credsticks they wouldn’t touch; they had no way of verifying them. Geraint’s high-denomination sterling and nuyen notes did, however, speak to them in another language. Dumping slap patches and a pile of shiny equipment out of his bag, Geraint upped the ante even further.