"I can't.I don't know how to cross-cut.This is my first time in the Ranges.He was shepherding me!"Now there was grievance and indignation in Bollam's voice.That particular tone triggered the appropriate memory in Killashandra's mind: it was exactly how Bollam had sounded when he couldn't find the Apharian files.
"So this is why Bollam suited him," Killashandra said, bitter with realization of exactly what Lanzecki was doing.
Lars stared at her, jerking her arm to pull her around to face him."Turn the sled.We've got to try."
"No."She reset her hands on the yoke, gritting her teeth against the pain that suddenly scored her and the tears that threatened to blind her."No, we can't!Rules and Regs!Mayday means nothing on Ballybran!"
"Nothing?"Lars roared at her."Lanzecki's been our friend, your lover! How can you abandon him?"
"I'm not abandoning him," Killashandra shrieked back, glaring her anger, her hurt, the pain of knowing what Lanzecki wanted!"Get out of there, Bollam," she bellowed at the comunit."Save your own skin.You can't save his."
"But I can't just leave!"Bollam sounded shocked, horrified at this heartless advice."He's the Guild Master.It's my duty…"
"There is no such duty in the Rules and Regs, Bollam.There never was and there never will be.Get out of there, Bollam, while you still can.Leave Lanzecki."
"I don't believe I'm hearing you say this," Lars cried.
She swiveled around at him, tears streaming down her face, her throat closing so that she was momentarily deprived of speech.
"He wants it this way," she managed to choke out.Then she swallowed hard on her grief and glared straight into Lars's appalled face."Consider, Lars, would there be any other logical reason why Lanzecki would team up with a dork like Bollam?A novice in the Ranges?Physically too weak to knock him out of thrall?We haven't the right to interfere.We owe Lanzecki his choice."
She hooked her elbows through the yoke so that Lars would have to break her arms to get control of the sled.But he didn't try.He sat staring at her as she sent the sled roaring out of the Range, using every ounce of power in its powerful new engines.
"Lanzecki intended to opt out?"
"Singers have that option, Lars," she said in a voice as low as his.Her throat thickened again, her eyes stinging with tears.It was a hard reality to accept, but she didn't doubt for a moment-now-that that had been Lanzecki's intention.She could even hear his deep voice replying to her puzzled query about Bollam: that the man had his uses.She ought to have known what Lanzecki was about and tried to-tried to what?Talk a tired man out of ending a life that had grown too tedious with responsibility, too tiresome with problems, too lonely with his longtime partner dead?"He's been Guild Master for centuries."
Lars was silent until, behind them, they could both hear storm wail creeping inexorably nearer.
"Then is that also why he was so intent on me understanding Guild politics?"Lars asked, softly, shakily.
"What do you mean by that?" she demanded.
"I'm not sure I know," Lars replied, raising his hands in doubt."It was just that-well, Lanzecki knew you and-whenever we were in from the Ranges, he sought out our company, but I always thought it was you…" His voice trailed off.
"Don't get any ideas, Lars Dahl," she said coldly, harshly."You may be a Milekey Transition…"
"So are you."
"But there's no way I'd be Guild Master."She glared at him, willing him to respond in the same vein."Damn it, Lars, you're my partner.And there's a lot more to being Guild Master than understanding the politics of the job."
"That is true enough," he replied in a muted voice, his eyes looking directly ahead as they passed over the last hills before the Cube.
The flight officer signaled them to park their sled near Sorting with the other half-dozen vehicles that had fled the storm.Killashandra killed the engines and turned to Lars.
"Start with the crates, will you?I'll report," she said bleakly.
"I will, if you want me to," Lars offered, suddenly human again in his unexpressed sympathy.
"No, I was pilot."
The flight officer, a lanky lean man whom Killashandra didn't recognize at all, was trotting in her direction, signaling her to wait for him.
"Were you within range of Bollam?The one Lanzecki was shepherding?"
"Yes," Killashandra said so flatly that the man blinked in surprise."He couldn't break Lanzecki out of thrall.We told him to get the hell out of the Ranges."
"You mean…?"
The cargo officer arrived at that point, her face grim.
"I mean Lanzecki chose!"She dared the flight officer to argue her point.
"You're sure, Killa?" the cargo officer asked.
Killashandra rounded on her, away from the accusing eyes of the flight officer.
"Why else would he choose a dork like Bollam?And a novice?Too inexperienced to know how to break thrall and too physically insignificant to be a threat!"
The cargo officer bowed her head, her eyes closed.
"I don't understand… Were you near enough, Killashandra Ree, to reach them in time?" the flight officer demanded.
"I accepted Lanzecki's choice.You'd better."
With that Killashandra turned on her heel, returning to her sled at a pace that was nearly a run.Behind her she could hear the flight officer arguing with Cargo, whose low and curt rejoinders told Killashandra that she, at least, accepted Lanzecki's option.
As she helped her silent partner unload their cut, she knew that Lars's feelings about that option were ambivalent.The news seemed to seep through from the Hangar into Sorting, and conversations were muted, arguments over crystal prices conducted in low tones.When the Sorter told them how much they had earned for the green, Killashandra felt none of the elation such a figure should have elicited.Lars only arched his eyebrows, nodded acknowledgement and turned away.The Sorter shrugged.Dully, Killashandra followed Lars to the lifts.She did listen to the Met report that was being broadcast, even in the lifts, since weather had top priority with most singers.Nothing was said about missing sleds.Nothing ever was.
"That's a relief," Killashandra muttered as the report concluded.The storm had been one of those quick squalls, fierce in its brief life, its only damage that of taking Lanzecki's life in its fury."We can be back out in the Ranges by tomorrow evening."
"Fardles!Killa."Lars rounded on her."Lanzecki's not even found and-"
Her livid expression stopped his words."The sooner I'm in the Ranges, the sooner I'll forget."
"Forget Lanzecki?"Lars was stunned.
"Forget!Forget!"The lift door opened, and she ran down the hall to their apartment.She heard him following her and wasn't even grateful.
As she slammed into their quarters, she heard the radiant fluid slopping into the tub.Pulling off her coverall and boots, she stumbled into the room and clambered into the bath.The fluid was no more than calf-deep, so she stood under the spigot and let it roll down her back and shoulders.Dimly she heard Lars's voice, updating his records.She began to curse, so she couldn't possibly hear a word he said.
All the resident staff of the Cube were quiet and depressed the next noon when Killashandra and Lars reached the dining room.While Killa filled her tray from the alcohol-drinks dispenser, Lars kept looking around, peering at the faces of those sitting in alcoves.Seeing his discreet search for Bollam recharged her vexation.
"Lanzecki opted out, Lars," she said in an intense, low voice, jerking him to her side."What're you drinking?"
"Yarran!"His voice was flat.
"Yarran?This is no time for beer!This is the time to get paralytic drunk!"
He gave her a bitterly amused look."I thought you wanted to be back in the Ranges tomorrow morning.With a hangover?"