"Mr. Künstler probably told him not to tell anyone, including you," I said. "The fact that the other two Nemuti Lynxes had already been stolen from their owners would have made him extra cagey with his. The point is that Daniel didn't leave Earth running from anything. He left running toward something."
"The Viper," the Modhri said suddenly.
I nodded. "Exactly."
"What Viper?" Penny asked. "You're not making sense."
"On the contrary, he makes perfect sense," the Modhri said, as if unknown pieces were suddenly dropping into place. "Mr. Künstler was killed on his way to Bellis, where the last Hawk had been stolen. He was hoping to contact the thieves and buy the sculpture from them."
I felt my stomach tighten. I'd already guessed that was the reason Künstler had been on his way to Bellis. But the certainty in the Modhri's voice strongly implied that it hadn't been entirely Künstler's idea. "Or else he was lured with a promise to trade the Hawk for his Lynx," I said. "The people who killed him clearly expected him to have the Lynx with him."
If I could have seen the Modhri's face I would have been ninety percent sure I'd nailed it exactly. As it was, I could only make it to about seventy percent. But it was enough. The Modhri had indeed enticed Künstler onto that Quadrail and to his death. "Unfortunately for them, the Lynx was already on its way in the opposite direction," I continued. "Daniel was heading toward the art museum where one of the Vipers had also been stolen, probably also hoping to wheedle the sculpture out of the thieves."
"Or also planning to falsely offer a trade," the Modhri said darkly.
Penny was staring at me with horrified eyes. "Are you saying Mr. Künstler was killed over a stupid piece of art?"
I shrugged. "Collectors can get pretty fanatical."
"No," Penny said, her voice firm. Fire, and a sharp, intelligent mind. "There has to be more to it than that."
"You can ask Mr. Stafford when you find him," the Modhri said. "You'd best see now to your preparations—the Quadrail for Ghonsilya will be arriving in the station in a little over an hour. Good luck with your search, Ms. Auslander." He turned his covered eyes to me. "And to you as well, Mr. Compton."
The three Halkas were nowhere to be seen as Penny and I made our way through the twisting corridor and out again into the reassuring light of the Coreline. "We'll find Bayta and have her get us reservations," I told Penny as we headed toward the shuttle waiting area.
"That was weird," Penny murmured, walking very close to me. "That man—he won't be going with us, will he?"
"I'm sure he won't," I said. It was clearly the answer she wanted, even if it wasn't entirely true. "But I imagine he'll have friends aboard keeping an eye on us."
"Keeping an eye out for Daniel and this stupid sculpture, you mean," Penny said harshly. Her fright was fading away, leaving a growing anger in its place. "But it won't work. Daniel's too smart for them."
"It'll be all right," I assured her. "Trust me."
"I will," she murmured. "I do."
I looked sideways at her. She didn't return my glance, but there was something in her profile I hadn't seen before. A softness, and some actual genuine trust.
The Modhri had been right: she was an attractive woman. She was also rich, still single, and not all that much younger than I was.
Resolutely, I turned my eyes and mind away. I was here to protect her, Daniel, and the Lynx. Nothing more.
And I would. Because what the Modhri didn't know was that Fayr wasn't waiting for me on Laarmiten, as he'd read in the message chip he'd stolen at Terra Station. Fayr was on Ghonsilya, in the same Magaraa City neighborhood where we were all heading.
I hoped he'd brought all his guns with him. Knowing Fayr, I rather expected he had.
THIRTEEN :
Penny's friends didn't understand the abrupt change of plan, of course. Given Penny's vague and rather incoherent explanation, I probably wouldn't have understood it either. One of the boys offered to accompany us, but it was a token offer and he was easily talked out of it.
Morse, in contrast, was grimly serious in his insistence that he go along. I'd expected nothing else, and didn't even bother to argue with him. I had no illusions that he would ever stick his neck out for me, but I was pretty sure I could count on him to protect Penny when the shooting started. That made him worth putting up with.
Besides, when push came to shove against unknown assailants, he might even take my side instead of leaving me to sink or swim on my own. Stranger things had happened.
Paradoxically, for the moment at least, we were probably as safe as we were ever going to be. Certainly as safe as I'd been since I stumbled into this war. We had something the Modhri wanted, and until he got it he was going to take exceptionally good care of us.
Just the same, Bayta made sure to get us our usual double compartment for the trip to Ghonsilya. Lockable doors are a good thing to have. I had her upgrade to a compartment for Penny, too, for the same reason. Bayta wondered a little about that, but I pointed out the girl was our only solid connection to Stafford and that we therefore needed to make sure she was as safe as possible. Her daddy could certainly afford the extra cost.
I did let Morse take only the standard first-class seat his pass permitted. I figured he could take care of himself, and I knew the kind of conniption the ESS accountants would throw over any unauthorized expenditures. There was nothing to be gained in getting him into any more trouble than he was probably already in over all this.
Besides, he might very well have to spring the extra cash for that locked door on the way out of Ghonsilya.
It was a five-day trip from Ian-apof to Ghonsilya, and it went off as smoothly as any I'd ever taken. At Ghonsilya Station we collected our luggage and took the shuttle to the transfer station, where we breezed through customs and reserved tiny staterooms aboard the next torchliner headed for the inner system. Ghonsilya's current positioning vis-à-vis the Tube translated to another six days of travel, and we all settled in to enjoy the ride as best we could.
It wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded.
Morse, while cordial enough, was still nursing the secret resentment against me that he still refused to talk about. Penny was brooding with an equally potent nervousness about the situation she'd been unexpectedly drop-kicked into. Bayta was even quieter than usual, probably worried about the two of them in addition to her usual worrying about the two of us.
And as the forced idleness of torchliner travel built up toward boredom, I found my thoughts turning increasingly toward Penny.
It was absurd on the face of it. I knew that. Her family's wealth created a social chasm between us that I could never hope to cross, she was already engaged to someone else, and despite her twenty-three years she was clearly a babe in the woods when it came to stuff like this. My focus needed to be on the Lynx: finding it, getting it away from the Modhri, and then keeping it away from the Modhri long enough to find out what he wanted with it. Anything that fell outside those parameters came under the heading of potentially lethal distractions.
It was a litany I repeated to myself at least once a day. Usually more than once. But the harder I tried to push my feelings into the background, the more they stubbornly popped out somewhere else. Somewhere along the line, I knew, this growing obsession was going to get me into trouble.
The last evening before we reached Ghonsilya, it did.
I had taken to eating dinner quickly and then escaping from the general press of other passengers to the aft observation lounge. That particular lounge, with its view marred somewhat by the blazing nuclear fire of the drive, was usually fairly empty, which was just the way I wanted it.
Not that the solitude was helping my mental wrestling. If anything, being alone with my thoughts actually made things worse. But at least I didn't have to put up with any mindless prattle from Tra'ho'seej excited about returning home. The ultrasonic overtones in their voices always made my teeth hurt.