"So did Director Aymi-Mastr on Meima," Ixil said. "I don't think the Patthhave quite made up their minds just how public they're willing to make theirinvolvement with this."
"It's certainly public enough at the top levels," I reminded him darkly. "Halfthe governments in this region have already been threatened with sanctions ifthey don't find and deliver us."
"True, but that's not the same thing as working directly with localadministrators and customs agents," he pointed out. "Top-level governmentalofficials can usually be trusted not to leak that kind of information, especially when it's something that might cause economic panic among theirpeople."
I scowled at my displays. "So where does that leave us?" He shrugged. "Atleast we're not as much in the dark as most of the people looking for us," he said.
"Whatever the Patth themselves know or don't know, they most certainly haven'tgiven the details to any of their searchers. If they knew what we wereactuallysitting on here, there wouldn't be a government in the Spiral who would giveus up to them."
"I suppose I should be grateful for small favors," I said, trying to think ofhow exactly all this knowledge gave us an advantage. Offhand, I couldn't seeany. "And that brings up another point. We might want to consider makingourselves a list of governments we'd be willing to surrender the Icarus to asa last resort, just to keep the Patth from getting it."
"We could," he said doubtfully. "The problem is finding someone who'd be lessof a threat than the Patth themselves."
I cocked an eyebrow. "You are joking."
"Not at all," he said, his face deadly serious. "As far as we know, the Patthhave no real military other than their own defense forces."
"No, they subcontract the muscle jobs out to the Lumpies," I said sourly.
"Perhaps," Ixil said. "My point is that the Patth would use the Icarusstardrive to cement their stranglehold on civilian shipping. Someone else might insteadput it to military uses."
I chewed a corner of my lip. A faster stardrive certainly wouldn't help inspace-normal combat, and of course there was no combat possible in hyperspace.
It would make it easier to ferry troops, materiel, and warships around, butthat wouldn't be that much of an advantage in the small brushfire conflicts thatstill flared up now and then. Unless we got into another of the huge regionalwars that we all hoped were safely in the Spiral's past, the Icarus stardrivewouldn't gain an aggressor very much.
But then, maybe something like the Icarus stardrive was just the edge apotential aggressor was waiting for. Not a particularly pleasant thought.
"We still ought to make ourselves a surrender list," I said, getting up fromthe command chair and crossing to the plotting table. "Maybe try for a consortiumof governments, just so no one's got a strict monopoly."
"Particularly a consortium that would allow the ship's crew to live," Ixil said.
"Preferably in something less confining than a small lonely cell somewhere."
"That one's at the top of my wish list, too," I assured him, keying the tableon.
"It's always nice to have a common goal. Where exactly are we headed at themoment?"
"I don't know," I said, peering at the possibilities as they came up. "We'recurrently heading for Utheno, on the grounds that having a legitimate exitrecord from Potosi would make it easier to get in and out of another NajikiArchipelago world."
"Utheno is only, what, seventy-five hours away?"
"Seventy-three," I said. "And since that's only about half the Icarus's range, I
also thought a stop there might throw off anyone who might be tracking ourmovements."
I waved at the table. "But now I'm starting to wonder if it would be better tonot get within any single government's grasp more than once."
"Perhaps," Ixil said slowly. "Still, at this point, I'm not sure it reallymatters. The Patth have surely alerted everyone along our vector, and whetheror not we've crossed paths with any particular government agency is probably moreor less irrelevant."
"Do you think we should get off this vector, then?" I suggested. "Veer off tothe side, circle around, and try to sneak up on Earth from behind?"
"No." He was definite. "The Patth aren't going to be fooled that easily—
they'llhave the word out anywhere the Icarus can get to. All that would do isincrease the number of fueling stops we would have to make, which is where we're mostvulnerable, and give the Patth more time to learn what exactly the Icaruslooks like."
"And if they really do have Cameron, to get a complete crew list, too," Iagreedglumly. "All right; Utheno it is."
"Utheno it is," Ixil agreed, snapping his fingers to recall his ferrets. "I'mgoing back to my cabin to get some sleep," he continued as they bounded up hislegs and clawed their way to his shoulders. "I'd like to finish healing beforewe hit Utheno."
"Watch yourself," I warned. "Our murderer may not content himself with leavinghis next batch of poison gas unmixed."
"I'll have Pix and Pax on alert," he assured me. "And there are a couple ofdoor-guard tricks I know. You just watch yourself."
"What, me?" I said, snorting. "The only one we know can fly this monster? I'mthe safest person aboard."
"Let's hope our murderer remembers that," Ixil said pointedly, standing up andheading for the door. "And doesn't have too inflated an opinion of his ownpiloting skills. I'll talk to you later."
He left, leaving the door locked open behind him. I confirmed the vector andtiming to Utheno, then shut down the plotting table and returned to my commandchair. And tried to think.
Our talk with Tera had been good. It had been enlightening and, assumingalwaysthat everything she had told us was true, very useful as well.
The problem was that it had also swept away the whole fragile toothpick-houseI'd worked so painstakingly to put together since Jones's murder. Before, I'dhad a puzzle where the pieces didn't seem to fit together. Now, suddenly, not only had she swept away the pieces, she'd swept away the damn puzzle, too. Theattacks on Jones and Chort, the sabotage to the cutting torch, the anonymoustips to the various customs and port authorities—every time lightning hadstruck I had carefully added the details to the rest of the mix, making sure toinclude the locations of all the possible suspects during that time. And while Ididn't kid myself that I'd sorted it out into a neat package, at least I'd beengettinga handle on it all.
Now, suddenly, everything had changed. Half the sabotage had been done by Teraand her father, a character I hadn't even known was on this particular stageof our little drama, and for reasons far less malevolent than their results wouldhave suggested. And with that confession, my careful checklist of who had beenwhere when went straight out the airlock. In fact, about all I had left toexplain was the gem-smuggling tip to the Najik on Potosi and the poison-gascomponents and smashed release pad on Ixil's room. And, of course, Jones'smurder.
And the damnable part of it was that those were precisely the incidents thatno one had any possible alibi for. Anyone aboard could have sabotaged Jones'srebreather prior to his accompanying Chort on his spacewalk; and everyone wasout on their own during the time Ixil's room was tampered with.
Everyone. Including Tera.
Because Ixil's opinions to the contrary, I still hadn't eliminated her as asuspect. Far from it. The photo Uncle Arthur had sent wasn't nearly definitiveenough for me to accept her claimed identity, and it was for sure that if thereal Elaina Tera Cameron was running around the Spiral somewhere else we'dnever hear about it here on the Icarus. True, she'd known about the hull's alien gravgenerator; but if she was actually one of the archaeologists or techs, shewould have also known about that. Uncle Arthur had said the Ihmisits had rounded upthe whole group, but without knowing his source for that information I wasforced to consider it incomplete if not downright suspect. As to the rest ofher story, I hadn't actually seen Cameron aboard the Icarus, and I sure couldn'tconfirm that he was the one I'd chased leisurely around the 'tweenhull area.