"Where is Seri?"
"He's left me. Or I've left him." She rose and moved away from him, to stand by the curtained window. "I seem to have made a very bad mistake, but I don't want anything from you, not reproaches or condolences or words of wisdom."
"Fair enough."
In sudden anger she faced him. "Why didn't you go away when I asked you to? Why were you so stubborn? You'll be caught now with the rest of us…"
"Caught?"
"Even if you could run, I'm afraid it's too late. I could cry for you, Johnny."
"Could you, Larith?" He reached out and lifted the hair at the back of her neck. It was warm in the palm of his hand, crisp and springy like fine wire. He closed his fingers on it and she gave a little cry, and he held her, forcing her to turn and face him.
"Did you cry that night, when you thought I was dead?"
"I never thought you were dead. I don't know what you mean." Her eyes met his steadily, defiant and angry.
"That's nice," he said. "I'm glad to hear that. But weren't you curious? Didn't you ask Seri what had happened, where I'd gone?"
"Of course I did."
"And what did he tell you?"
"That he'd refused to get involved. That you'd gone to find somebody else, he didn't know who or where."
"And did you believe him?"
"Why shouldn't I have believed him?"
"Yes," said Kettrick. "Why shouldn't you?" He released her and she stepped back, but not far. She continued to watch him. "What did he tell you about Khitu and Chai?"
"Nothing."
"Didn't you notice they were gone?"
"I didn't go back to the house. Seri left early that morning, only a few hours after you…" She caught her breath, looking past him. Chai had stirred at the sound of Khitu's name and it seemed now that Larith saw her for the first time. "I don't understand, Johnny, I don't understand any of it."
Sekma spoke from the doorway. Kettrick had no idea how long he had been there, listening. Now he came in and closed the door.
"Why don't you tell her what happened, Johnny? I'm sure we'd both like to know."
"No," said Larith, "Not now, it isn't important now." She went to Sekma. "I found out something about Seri, just a little while ago. Since I came here to join him. I'm not sure of all the details. This isn't a thing that's safe to talk about, he warned me of that." She paused to get her breath, and then plunged on.
"He's been involved in this for a long time, I guess. Now he and the others…some of them very highly placed, Sekma, right here in Achern…they're about to do something they've planned for years. They're on their way now."
She paused again, and when she continued her voice had a different note.
"Have you ever heard of the Doomstar?"
"Yes," said Sekma. "I have."
"Then…"
She broke off. The plum-colored young Shargonese had appeared in the doorway.
"All ready, sir," he said.
Sekma nodded. He took Larith's arm and escorted her toward the door. "Come on, Johnny. Chai."
Larith said, "But where are we going?"
"I hope you can tell us that, Larith. In the meantime, just away from Kirnanoc. I've pulled rank here about as long as I can, and there are rumblings of approaching trouble."
Larith halted, turning a startled face to Sekma. "You mean you're taking me away? But I can't go, I hadn't planned I…"
"My dear," said Sekma, "after what you just told me, you have no choice. I wouldn't dare leave you here now, to the mercy of Ssessora."
"Oh," she said. "Then you know already."
The Shargonese said tactfully, "I think we'd better go along, sir."
"Some of it," said Sekma to Larith, and steered her firmly down the hall. "Not all, and that's another reason why I must take you with me. You may know something I don't, but I can't stay here to question you. Don't worry about it, we'll make the discomforts as light as possible."
She did not argue any more.
They passed quickly through the building and out the door to the private landing field. Several I–C men were already there. So were Boker, Hurth, and Glevan, but there was no time for much in the way of a reunion. They were hustled into trams and carried out toward the three ships on the I–C pads.
There appeared to be two of them readying for takeoff. One was a small light-armed cruiser of the type used for regular patrol duty. The other stood about twice as tall in its pad, and there were ominous hatches here and there where no hatches ought to be. This was one of the powerful Big Brothers…the ones the little cruisers sent for when they couldn't handle a job themselves.
Kettrick knew they were fast. Certainly faster than Grellah, faster than Starbird or any merchant craft. Perhaps faster than a yacht like Silverwing?
He did not allow himself to hope.
He looked at Larith in the seat ahead of him, sitting quietly beside Sekma, her shoulders bowed a little and the night wind in her hair. He did not allow himself to hope there, either.
The trams split up, taking some of the I–C men to the small cruiser. The rest continued on to the big one. In a very few moments Kettrick was scrambling up the steps after Grellah's crew, with Chai and the Shargonese and a couple more I–C men behind him. Sekma had gone first, with Larith.
The inside of the ship was not at all like Grellah. Everything was clean and unrusted. Everything worked. There was military order and efficiency, none of the slovenly comfort of Grellah's bridgeroom. Kettrick saw Boker looking around him with a sneer for all the spit-and-polish.
"Poor old Grellah," he said. "I hate to leave her."
"You can stay if you like," said Sekma.
Boker shivered. "Thanks," he said, "but I don't love even my mother that much."
Hatches were clanging shut and the warning hooter was going before they were strapped in. The recoil chairs were part of the furniture of a small but comfortable wardroom and the cushions were deep and resilient, not lumpy and beaten down like Grellah's. Chai's large frame fitted one of them well; the I–C had members of all shapes and sizes, and the chairs were adjustable. Kettrick leaned back in his. He caught a glimpse of Larith's face, unusually pale, the eyes large and shadowed, and he thought, "Either way, she didn't count on this."
The thunder of ignition deafened him. The cruiser started, quivering all down her length, a great cat gathering her haunches under her for the spring. For a moment she poised there. Then with a roar and a squall like the mother of all great cats, she leaped skyward.
The sounds faded as she cleared the atmosphere. The enormous pressure on Kettrick's body lessened. He saw the all-clear light go on. Sekma unfastened his straps and let them roll back into their receptacles. He stood up.
"That's good," he said. "Now we can talk." He assisted Larith with her straps. "Are you quite comfortable? Can I get you anything? A drink, perhaps?"
She shook her head.
"Very well," said Sekma. "Now. You were about to tell me something, concerning Seri and the Doomstar."
Kettrick saw the astonished expressions on the faces of Boker and Hurth and Glevan, who had already been sufficiently astonished by the presence of Larith.
"Yes," she said. "I was about to tell you that Seri has gone in Ssessorn's yacht, with some of Ssessorn's men and some others, I don't know who. They have all the parts of the Doomstar…"
"That is to say, the mechanism by which a star is poisoned." Sekma's manner was very direct now, very harsh, quite different from his former politeness. Larith seemed to flinch a little.
"Yes. I can't tell you much about that, I don't know…"
"Never mind, that doesn't matter. Go on."
"They are going," said Larith, "to poison a star, as a sign to the whole Cluster that their group is in power and must be obeyed. The time will coincide with the meeting of the League of Cluster Worlds…"
Sekma said impatiently, "All this we know." He leaned forward intently. "Can you tell me where he's going?"
Ke
ttrick's own senses were so strained that he could hear the soft sound of Larith's breathing, see the slightest motion of her lips. It seemed a thousand years before she spoke.
"Yes," she said, "I do. Quite by accident, because he didn't tell me. Or perhaps not quite by accident. I was deliberately listening at a locked door. He's going to Trace."
20
The name hit Kettrick like a blow between the eyes. In a kind of dumb anguish he looked at Sekma, who ignored him, his face still close to Larith's and his expression unchanged. He seemed to be studying her, and she met his gaze as straightforwardly as she had met Kettrick's when she said she didn't know what had happened that night in Ree Darva.
She said, "I don't know whether you can get to him in time. He's had a long head start, and Silverwing is very fast." She looked away and her shoulders quivered. "I wish I'd known before…"
Sekma took her hand in his. "I'm very grateful, Larith." He rose and went to the door. "Gentlemen, you might as well come with me. VarKovan will find quarters for you. Larith, you'll find the cellaret behind that panel; just touch the button. Make yourself comfortable. We weren't expecting a lady, and it will take a little longer to find a place for you."
He swept them out into the corridor, waiting with a trifle of impatience while Chai came through after them, and then closed the bulkhead door, signing fiercely for silence. He led them quickly along the passage and up a level to the chart-room, which was empty.
"Sit down, Johnny. I know exactly how you feel." He sat on the edge of the table and leaned his head on his hands. "Tell me, for God's sake, you know her. Is she lying? Or is she telling the truth?"
Kettrick said, "If she isn't telling the truth, she's awfully good." He shook his head. "I don't know, Sekma. I just don't know."
And he didn't. Larith had slipped so far away from him that he no longer knew at all what was in her mind. Or at least, he could no longer be sure that he knew.
He went to the wall chart viewer and punched the sector-number of the chart he wanted. He was aware of Boker and Hurth and Glevan standing by, waiting for an explanation but nobly restraining themselves from breaking in. The chart appeared, brilliantly lighted, a tri-di navigational chart that showed the true positions of the stars. Kirnanoc, Trace, the Lantavan Bank, the White Sun.
"Trace would fill the bill," he said. "One inhabited planet, with a dominant species several steps above the Krinn but no great loss to anyone except themselves."
"Might fill it even better," Sekma said. "The people of Trace are a lot friendlier than the Krinn."
Kettrick stared, frowning, at the bright little suns and their tiny planets, at the dark cloud of the drift.
"We thought Trace had to be out because he had said he was going there," Sekma said. "Perhaps he was counting on that."
"Perhaps." Kettrick stared at the little stars, not seeing them now, seeing instead Larith's steady-eyed and honest face. "She might be telling the truth," he said, "as she believes it. Seri might have let her get the wrong information deliberately, knowing she'd pass it on."
"The wrong information," Sekma said sharply. "You believe it is wrong."
"Yes, I do."
"Why?"
Kettrick did not answer at once. He closed his eyes, remembering. "I stood on the steps of Seri's house. I told him I had come back to finish what I started at the White Sun. I remember now the look on his face when I said that. Larith heard it too. Then they both tried to make me go away. When I wouldn't, and when Seri found he couldn't stop me by refusing me a ship, that was when he knew he had to kill me. Now why would he care if I went to the White Sun, unless he were going there himself? Unless he were afraid that I might interfere with his own plans?"
He faced Sekma. "Why would he care? But he did, enough to kill Khitu and Chai and me, and no fault of his that he didn't succeed. Why would he care, Sekma? Why would he give a damn whether I went to the White Sun or not?"
Sekma was silent for a long moment. Then he said, "It's a hard choice, Johnny. I think you're right, but can I be sure?"
"No, you can't," answered Kettrick savagely. "And does it help any to think that Larith came only at the last minute, when Ssessorn must have begun to think we were too close for comfort on Seri's trail? The penitent girl friend, divulging vital information…" He made a harsh gesture. "What are you going to do?"
"I have two ships," said Sekma. "If I split my force I weaken it. I will need two ships to scan a whole planet quickly enough to find Silverwing, or the apparatus, in time…assuming that we are not already too late. Yet I have two possible destinations. I dare not take the chance that Larith is indeed telling the simple truth and that Seri had some other reason for wanting to kill you; perhaps as elementary a reason as that your presence anywhere in the Cluster was an embarrassment, since you might be picked up at any time, and that would inevitably draw attention to himself as your old friend and partner. Attention he could not very well afford, with the Doomstar in his pocket."
He turned to frown at the lighted chart.
"So I will have to split my forces. The small cruiser will jump for Trace, and I will radio back to the cruiser still at Achern to proceed there at once. Ssessorn will undoubtedly get the message and believe that we have all gone there. I hope he'll be happy. Otherwise he may feel that he has to commit some heavy Achernan armament to the cause. And we'll go to the White Sun."
He smiled at Kettrick, a strange fleeting smile with no humor in it. "Gambling, Johnny. How does it feel to gamble with a whole Cluster? Ha! Who wants to be God?" He shook himself, as though to shake away the doubt and fear as a swimmer shakes away water. "There's one thing in our favor, assuming that we have chosen the right target. Big Brother has a little more push than Grellah. We don't have to go through the drift. We can do it in one jump."
Boker muttered, "Thank heaven for that."
Kettrick said, "What about Silverwing?"
"I don't know. But if she were mine, and I were going to use her on a mission like this one, I would have installed in her the most powerful unit I could lay my hands on."
"Ah," said Glevan, "then she will be well ahead of us. Now, supposing that we're a little late…can we jump back again?"
They all knew what he meant. Out of range of the Doomstar.
"Not immediately," Sekma said.
Glevan nodded. "If I'm not mistaken, you have on this cruiser an electronic check system which is much faster than the type we use, and an improved system of recharging, so that you can service your unit in, say, half the time it takes a poor merchantman."
"Less than half, if we forget some of the regulations. But you had still better hope we're not that late."
Because if we are, thought Kettrick, what happens to the Cluster afterward will be of no concern to us.
Sekma spoke into an intercom and then motioned them all out.
"You'll have to clear the chartroom, we've got work to do. And there'll be plenty of time to talk while we're in jump. Don't forget there's a lot I don't understand, either."
VarKovan, the Shargonese, was waiting for them in the corridor. He smiled, his teeth startlingly white against the glossy purple-red of his skin. "You'll have to sleep watch-and-watch-about, I'm afraid. Having the lady aboard makes problems."
They followed him to a cabin the size of a broom closet, with two stacked bunks, normally assigned to any extra personnel who might be riding the big cruiser.
"It's fine," Boker said, "Except for one thing. It's dry."
"The I–C thinks of everything," said VarKovan, and produced two bottles from a locker. "Sekma's instructions."
He refused to join them and left. They sat on the bunks and the floor and Boker served out the liquor. Then he looked at Kettrick.
"I am damned glad you got away, Johnny. The I–C boys had us loose just fifteen minutes after you called."
"Before that," said Glevan, "it was a long afternoon, trying to convince those children of perdition that Boker was an old friend of Seri's and only
wanted to say hello."
The cruiser went into jump before they had emptied half the bottle.
21
Later that night, or what passed for night, after Larith had gone to her cabin and they had the wardroom to themselves, Sekma listened to the full account of Kettrick's meeting with Seri and what had happened afterward.
And he asked, "Why didn't you get in touch with me?"
"Because I wanted to go to the White Sun. I wanted that million credits. I didn't believe in the Doomstar, and I didn't connect Seri with it even then. Not till Gurra."
Boker said, "You were following us when you came to Thwayn." Sekma nodded. "How?"
"I was keeping a close eye on everything that moved from Ree Darva. Seri took off in Starbird, and a few days later you took off in Grellah on the identical course. If you'd been anybody else I might not have thought much about it except you'd have poor pickings. But being Johnny's old friend and shipmate Boker, I thought it a remarkable coincidence. Particularly after it developed that you had suddenly come into money and laid in a stock of trade goods that were pronouncedly Kettrick in choice."
He turned a cold eye on Kettrick. "You're lucky I didn't catch up to you at Gurra. Because I knew what you were up to."
Boker looked curiously at Sekma. "Then you knew all the time he was with us at Thwayn. Why didn't you say something about it? You must have known Flay was hiding him."
"When I was at Gurra," Sekma said, "I talked to Nillaine. She told me that Johnny had been there, and that he was on his way to the White Sun to rob the Krinn. She wanted to be very sure that I would go after him and catch him quickly. It didn't seem right, remembering how Nillaine had used to love him."
Kettrick winced, and Sekma nodded. "It is a pity. There was something wrong about the whole village, something scared and secret. They wouldn't talk about Seri, but they wanted Johnny caught. I suppose they believed that even though you would tell me about the Doomstar, the delay would be enough to guarantee that Seri could accomplish his mission. On top of that, like spiteful children, they wanted you punished."
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