Well, of course. It was just too easy, tagging Seri from Point A to Point B. The itinerary had to be posted because of I–C regulations, and therefore it might be followed. But nobody can follow you if you're not going anywhere.
End of trail.
Kettrick got up. He went back to the busy streets, with the many-colored crowds and the tall pale Achernans moving through them, cold and proud, wrapped in silken cloaks. At random he selected a place that catered to outworlders with food and entertainment. In the lobby there was a bank of public communicators, each one enclosed in a plastic bubble for privacy.
Kettrick went into one and called the I–C.
A bored female voice answered. Kettrick asked to speak to the agent. The voice required him to please state his business.
"Contraband," said Kettrick, and she said, "Oh," and put him through. A man's voice, rather sharp and irritable, came on.
"All right, what is it?"
Kettrick said, "Is your recorder started?"
Sounding a little startled, the agent said, "Yes."
Forcing himself to speak slowly and clearly, Kettrick said, "This afternoon the ship Grellah, P.O. Ree Darva, Tananaru, landed on pad number 895dashGYdash4…in case they've moved her. Her skipper and crew were arrested by the spaceport guards and are being held by somebody, if they're still alive. I'd appreciate if it you'd call the appropriate embassies. Boker, Captain, and Hurth, Mate, from Hlakra. Glevan, Engineer, from Pittan. I'd appreciate it if you'd call the embassies right away. The only thing these men did was ask about a ship named "Starbird."
There was a sound on the other end as though the agent had leaned forward abruptly. "Who is that? Who's speaking?"
Kettrick asked, "Are you bugged?"
The agent said grimly, "As of the last two hours, I think we're clean. Unless they've worked awfully fast. We're getting to be experts around here."
"I'll take a chance. This is Johnny Kettrick…"
"Kettrick? Kettrick…!"
"Shut up and listen. Seri Otku, in Starbird, picked up one component of the Doomstar on Gurra, and a second on Thwayn. Starbird is now here at Achern, in the repair dock. She was i-t'd to Trace, but she isn't going there. Do you have any information on the whereabouts of Seri Otku?"
The agent said, "None. Kettrick, where are you? Kettrick…"
"Stand by, I'm going to see what I can find out. And call those embassies!"
He flipped the switch, cutting short the urgent clamorings on the other end. The last thing he wanted now was to be picked up by the I–C and badgered about his old sins. Or about anything.
How much good it would do to call the embassies he didn't know. He didn't even know whether Boker and the others were still alive. If they were, the quickest and best way to help them would be to break this business wide open.
In the meantime, he had done all he could.
He went out again with Chai, into the streets. He kept glancing back whenever he could without being obvious about it, to no avail. In the kaleidoscopic swirl of the crowds it was impossible to tell if he were being followed.
At the first canal he found a public livery. The Achernan boatman watched with enormous distaste as Chai clambered in after Kettrick and settled herself in the curtained house.
"The Market," Kettrick said, and the boatman pushed off, the little motor in the stern purring almost inaudibly.
It was only after some minutes of threading the waterways that split upon the towering pink cliffs of palaces and diverged to flow beneath carved temples from which a thousand faces watched with time-bleared stony eyes, beneath the fretted peaks of many-chambered dwellings, and past green promenades heavy with the poison sweetness of the white vine, that Kettrick noticed a particular boat always behind them.
17
The boat had at its forepost a lantern with a crack in it. Otherwise he might never have seen it until too late. There were many boats, coming, going, drifting, with sounds of music and laughter coming softly through their curtains. The music was sweet and haunting in the extreme, and it set his nerves on edge. The crack in the lantern was a thin one, shaped roughly like an old long S. It was in the colored outer shell, so that the cold light sphere inside showed a bright white thread against the soft green. He saw it once shortly after they started. He saw it again after the first branching, and yet again after the second.
From that time on he watched it.
It was perfectly possible that someone else was bound for the same destination. The Market never closed, and many outworlders preferred to do business at night because of the daytime heat. There were also an infinite number of destinations along the way. But he remembered the white rabbit man with the coyote eyes, and he wondered if there had not been a call to somebody about the Earthman with the big gray Tchell who came asking for Starbird.
They entered a long stretch where there chanced to be no other boats at the moment, and suddenly the green lantern put on speed and began to close.
An Achernan voice, speaking Achernan, hailed Kettrick's boatman, and he slowed to answer. The green lantern slid closer and a tall Achernan in a pale cloak appeared, standing by the forepost. He talked to the boatman, reaching out to grasp the sternpost of Kettrick's boat.
Kettrick came out of the house, moving very fast. He hit the boatman. The boatman flung up his arms and fell toward the bow of the other boat, catching at the outstretched arm of the Achernan in the pale cloak. They fell together into the water. Kettrick pushed the motor control to its highest notch. The boat sped away with what seemed like agonizing slowness. Looking back, he saw four Achernans in the boat with the green lantern, two looking after him while the other two worked to pull their comrade out of the water. They cuffed the boatman away and he began to swim toward the bank. In a minute they were coming on again, coming fast.
The canal stretched ahead of Kettrick, a darkly gleaming road down which he moved with the silence of a dream. The great buildings rose on either side, their windows full of enigmatic lights. The boat came on behind him.
And there was no escape.
"Very well," thought Kettrick. "Then I will fight." He called to Chai to be ready, and swung the boat around.
For a moment or two the Achernans did not seem to understand what he was doing. The prow of his boat leaped at them, drawing a long V of ripples across the quiet water behind it. They seemed to think that he was trying to break past them, and they swerved as though to bar his way, and he laughed and braced himself and rammed into them at full speed.
In the light of his own forepost lantern he saw their startled angry faces, the black eyes with the faint stripes at the corners, the narrow supercilious heads. Then the heads and faces bounced wildly about and the lantern went out with a thin shattering crash. Kettrick bent double over his own knees, sliding forward. There were splashing noises, and cries, and wooden sounds of breaking. Kettrick threw the motor into reverse.
For a moment nothing happened. Then the boat wrenched and shook itself and backed away. The other one was settling fast and the Achernans were all in the water, either thrown there by the impact or caught by the quick subsidence. Kettrick continued to run backward away from them.
Chai came back to him. "Water come in front, John-nee."
"I'm not surprised."
"No fight."
"Don't worry, Chai. The night is still young."
He looked for a place to stop. There were landings and water stairs by every building, only these were too brightly illuminated to suit him. However, there was nothing in between, and he could not continue this sternwise flight forever. His own boat was filling, the forepost sinking visibly. He bowed to the inevitable and pulled in to the nearest landing.