Bayta shivered. “Way too close. With all of them.”
“That he was,” I agreed. “But that’s the point. In retrospect, I can see he was throwing out every possibility he could think of in the hope that one of them would spark a reaction. He didn’t really know who or what you were.”
“And?”
“Think back,” I said. “He didn’t know who runs the Quadrail … but the Modhri does. Remember, back with EuroUnion Security Service agent Morse, when we were trying to beat the Modhri to the third Lynx sculpture?”
“The Quadrail siding,” Bayta murmured, her face suddenly rigid. “He saw a Chahwyn.”
“And since we know Morse is a deep-cover walker, it follows that the Modhri has surely figured out by now what it was he saw,” I said. “Furthermore, by now that information has certainly spread to every mind segment across the galaxy. If the Shonkla-raa don’t know who’s running the Quadrail, it can only be because the Modhri hasn’t told them.”
Bayta looked across the transport at the back of Minnario’s head. “But why not?” she asked. “Can’t the Shonkla-raa force him to talk?”
“Probably, but only if they think to ask the right questions,” I said. “In this case they didn’t, and the Modhri clearly didn’t volunteer it. That also means the Shonkla-raa’s telepathy is one-way, by the way—they can implant commands while they’re whistling their happy little tune, but they can’t read their slaves’ minds. Anyway, the point is that if the Modhri’s not on the Shonkla-raa’s side, he’s on ours.”
“Or on his own.”
“True,” I conceded. “But right now, I think that’s as good as we’re going to get.”
Bayta shook her head. “I hope you’re right.”
“Me, too,” I admitted. “But we’re safe, Terese is safe, and the Shonkla-raa haven’t got you to experiment on. I’m ready to call that enough victory for one day.”
For a moment Bayta was silent. “They wouldn’t have gotten what they were looking for, you know,” she said. “The Chahwyn auditory and telepathic frequencies. If they’d gotten close…” She trailed off.
I felt my stomach tighten. “Your symbiont?”
“Would have chosen to die,” Bayta said simply.
“Ah,” I said, the complete uselessness of the word making my stomach tighten even more. “I mean—”
“I know what you mean, Frank,” she said. She hesitated, then reached over and took my hand. “I do understand you, you know. Maybe better than you think I do.”
I gazed into her eyes, once again completely at a loss for words. What did she mean by that? I understand? Or we understand? What was it like, her life with a Chahwyn symbiont inside her, or interwoven with her, or however it worked? Were they truly one being, as she’d described it to me?
If so, what would have been the cost to her for her Chahwyn part to die?
I didn’t know. I couldn’t begin to know.
But I would fight, and I would die, to prevent her from ever having to find out. “It won’t happen,” I said. “I won’t let it.”
“I know,” she said. She lowered her eyes. “By the way. That kiss earlier?”
I swallowed. Here it came. “Yes?” I said warily.
“I just wanted to say that I enjoyed it. Very much.” Her lips puckered mischievously. “So did she.”
I was still trying to find something to say to that when she stood up and crossed back to where Terese was curled up in her seat.
She had resumed her place beside Terese, and I could tell from their head movements that they were talking again in low tones, when Minnario activated his chair and floated back to me. “May I have a word?” he asked.
“Certainly,” I said, shifting over to the aisle seat so that I would be closer to him. “I was just thinking about Emikai.”
“I’m sure the Shonkla-raa are doing likewise,” Minnario said soberly. “I believe he’ll prove to be a formidable opponent for them, provided he survives Director Usantra Nstroo’s investigation. To have had so many santras and msikai-dorosli slaughtered in his presence may be difficult to explain.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” I assured him. “He’s going to blame the whole thing on me.”
Minnario’s eyes widened. “On you?”
“Why not?” I said. “I was the one everyone saw waving my reader outside Hchchu’s office just before they were attacked by a group of watchdogs. Obviously, I must have used the same gadget against Wandek and his buddies.”
“Interesting,” Minnario murmured. “Simple, effective, and impossible to disprove.”
“Unless someone takes a close look at the watchdogs’ bodies,” I said with a grimace. “Even for Fillies, I’m guessing that kind of knife-hand engineering is pretty unorthodox.”
“Isantra Kordiss and the surviving Shonkla-raa should have sufficient rank to discourage any such investigations,” Minnario said. “You need not worry about the station’s remaining msikai-dorosli, either. Now that the Shonkla-raa are aware of my mind segment’s presence, they’ll certainly realize it’s in their best interests to keep the animals alive.”
“Ready to be pressed into service should the need arise,” I said ruefully. “One more good reason to avoid Proteus Station in the future. I hope Emikai hasn’t bitten off more than he can chew.”
“Only time will tell,” Minnario said. “But he may yet find unexpected aid in his battle.”
I eyed him. There was an odd hint of grim amusement about his face. “Is there a joke here I’m missing?” I asked.
“Yes,” Minnario said. “But the joke is not on you.”
I frowned … and then, I got it. “Which one of them is it?” I asked. “No, wait,” I interrupted myself. “It’s Kordiss, isn’t it? Our old buddy Blue One.”
“Exactly,” Minnario said. “You are amazing, Mr. Compton. Simply amazing.”
“Hardly,” I said with a snort. “I should have figured that one out hours ago. How else could you have known where the Shonkla-raa were keeping Bayta?”
“How else, indeed?” Minnario said with a nod. “Though I will admit I had a bad moment during her rescue when you threatened him with death.”
“Good thing Bayta zapped him with the kwi before it came to that,” I agreed. “Doubly good, actually, since that meant he missed the party in the docking bay. And the Shonkla-raa even provided the hypo you used to inject a piece of coral into him while he was unconscious in your room. I suppose the coral was hidden in the central cylinder of your chair’s thruster array?”
“Correct,” Minnario said. “Don’t be concerned, though. It’s not there anymore.”
“I know,” I said as another bit of the puzzle fell into place. “All those bathroom breaks you made Emikai stop for on your way to the docking bay. You dumped the rest of the coral into the station’s water system.”
“Where it will cement itself to the inside of one of the water reclamation tanks,” Minnario confirmed. “Thus avoiding the normal purification procedures.”
“Thus providing a larger base for the watchdog mind segment,” I said, nodding. “And for your new ally among the Shonkla-raa.”
Minnario’s mouth made a wincing motion. “Isantra Kordiss is not an ally, not in the way you assume,” he said. “He can’t be. If the colony settled into its normal resting place beneath his brain, he would react the instant any of his fellow Shonkla-raa used their control tone.”