"I know," said Sekma, and he left the office.
After a few minutes he came back.
"Silverwing left repair the day after Starbird entered. She took off that same afternoon."
Kettrick groaned. "I don't doubt it. For where?"
"You know better than that, Johnny. She's a private craft, not engaged in commerce. She doesn't have to file an i-t, nor state her cargo. Do you suppose she's carrying just those same components that Seri brought? Or do you suppose that she's got the whole lot with her, the complete mechanism? This is a hot bed, Johnny. No better place in the Cluster for final assembly, the final jumpoff. And no better ship to do it than the sacrosanct private yacht of the curodai of Achern."
He turned to a chart of the Cluster that filled all one wall of the office. "I guess we can take our pick of destinations. And we had better be right the first time. There won't be any second guessing."
He stared at the chart as though he hated it. He had lost weight since Kettrick had last seen him.
"Any ideas?"
"No," said Kettrick. "Not at the moment." He was too old to have ideas any more. Too old and too tired. He stood beside Sekma staring at the chart. Two old, tired men, he thought, and the Cluster is passing from us and ours to the people of the Doomstar, away from a rule of law to a rule of men, and terror, and there is nothing more we can do to stop it. We were just a little too late, a little too slow.
Starbird had reached the appointed end of her journey. How many more ships had reached theirs, coming by other ways from other worlds? And now, somewhere out there among the charted suns, Silverwing was flying, and in a matter of days one of those suns would die.
He remembered Boker's thick blue finger stabbing at these same charted suns, his own pointing out the dark smear of the Lantavan Bank. He shook his head. He did not quite laugh. Somehow it seemed not really funny.
"It looked so simple," he said. "What I was going to do, I mean, because I didn't believe in the Doomstar." He traced the route. "Tananaru, at your invitation. Then Gurra, Thwayn, Kirnanoc…going through the motions, you understand, because they suited me as well as you. Then here." He touched the Lantavan Bank.
"But your i-t said Trace."
"Sure it did. But we weren't really going there. Until later, that is, on the way back. Jump from Kirnanoc, go through the drift, and jump again…" He flicked the White Sun with the gesture of a man saying goodbye. "I still yearned after that million credits, Sekma. I could have done it, too."
Sekma muttered, talking to himself. "Gurra, Thwayn, Kirnanoc, Trace. That was Seri's i-t, too."
"Yes. But he never meant to make it, either."
"Except," said Sekma, "maybe on the way back?"
Sekma was studying the chart, his shoulders hunched, his head thrust forward.
Kettrick said stupidly, "But they wouldn't have any reason to go to Trace. I had to have a way back from the White Sun
He stopped, his mouth still open. Sekma had picked up a pointer and was using it like a rapier, as though he would skewer the stars out ofUhe sky.
"Where would you go from Kirnanoc, Johnny, if you wanted to poison a star? Not Trace, obviously, because you have said you are going there." The pointer rapped a planet. "Here? Possibly. But this system is a populous one, perhaps too large a murder for this stage of the game. Fear has to be fed adoitly. In too great doses it can cause revulsion. So…" The pointer rapped again. "Here? Or here? Both possible, but also populous. And apart from psychology or foolish notions of mercy, populous systems have heavy traffic, many eyes to see and ears to hear, and this time…this one time, Johnny…they must still work in the dark. How much easier and safer to poison a sun that has few children, and backward ones at that."
His pointer stabbed the White Sun.
"Somebody has to die in this demonstration, or the true power of the Doomstar will not be apparent to everyone. It is not, however, necessary nor desirable to slaughter too many. Think of the economic loss to the conquerors; populous systems produce wealth. Wouldn't the Krinn just about ideally fill the bill? They're human enough to die like humans, but they would be small loss. Even the heartstones would be a small sacrifice. And Seri knows all about the White Sun and the Krinn, because he had a partner once that was interested in them. How logical to point out the excellence of this choice to his fellow conspirators. A little difficult to get to, but once there, privacy in which to set up their apparatus is practically guaranteed."
He laid the pointer down and walked away and stood with his back to Kettrick.
"Am I talking nonsense, Johnny? Grabbing at any straw because I can't bear the thought of losing?"
Kettrick said slowly, "I don't think so. I think I know now exactly when it was that Seri decided he had to kill me."
Sekma's head came up sharply.
"I told him," said Kettrick, "that I was going to the White Sun. He asked me what would happen if he refused to have anything to do with the venture. I said I'd make other arrangements and the half share of the money would go to somebody else. And that was when he promised to give me Starbird, knowing I'd be dead before morning."
Sekma turned and faced him. They looked at each other, and away outside a ship came down in a roll of thunder, and the fabric of the office quivered.
The buzzing of the communicator on Sekma's desk sounded incredibly loud and close at hand.
Sekma answered it. He listened briefly, and Kettrick thought that whatever had been said had startled. "All right. Yes," he said, and broke the connection. He looked oddly at Kettrick and walked to the door.
He opened it and stood waiting, and in a moment Larith came.
19
She took Sekma's hand and greeted him. She seemed uncertain, her voice subdued, her eyes a little downcast, as though she might be afraid. She was wearing a garment of thin dark silk, closely belted around the waist and with loose sleeves that covered her arms and shoulders, the sort of costume a woman might wear if she wished to be inconspicuous. As though, Kettrick thought, Larith could ever be inconspicuous.
She came into the office, and then she saw him and stopped, and her eyes widened and her hands made a startled gesture. She said his name, in a voice so low he could hardly hear it.
He said, "Hello, Larith."
She looked from him tor Sekma and back again. Then she shook her head and sat down.
"Just give me a minute," she said. "I wasn't expecting this." She glanced at Kettrick, and he saw the flash of tears in her eyes, though her mouth was smiling. "You do appear at the most unexpected moments…" She turned to Sekma. "I told him it would end this way."
Sekma said, "I'll be back shortly." He went out.
Kettrick stood looking down at Larith. She sat still, her hands clasped, her head bent so that he could only see the mass of copper curls.
"I did tell you, Johnny," she said at length. "I hoped it wouldn't happen, but I told you…"
"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…"