The Icarus Hunt

CHAPTER 23

FOR A HALF-DOZEN heartbeats they stood or sat in utter silence like carvedmarble statues, every eye staring either at my face or else the gun in my hand.

I didn't move or speak either, giving them as much time as they needed tocatch up with the bombshell I'd just dropped in their laps.

Everett recovered first, easing back down onto his chair as if there were arow of eggs waiting there and he didn't want to break any of them. As if that werea signal, Shawn and Nicabar just as carefully unfroze and hitched their ownchairs back to the table. The three men and Ixil already had their hands on the tableas instructed; I sent a querying look at Chort and Tera and they reluctantlyfollowed suit.

"Thank you," I said, leaning back in my chair but keeping my plasmic ready.

"We have had, from the very beginning of this trip, a number of unexplained and, at least on the surface, inexplicable events dogging our heels. We had the ship'sgravity go on unexpectedly while Chort was working on that first hull ridge, which could presumably have seriously injured or even killed him if he'd hitsomething wrong on his way down. We had the malfunction with the cutting torchthat gave Ixil some bad burns and would probably have killed him if Nicabarand I hadn't been able to shut it off in time. We also had a combination of potentially lethal chemicals put inside Ixil's cabin and the cabin doorrelease smashed while he was recovering from those burns.

"There are others, but I mention these particular three first because it turnsout they're the most easily and innocently explained. It seems that Tera wasthe one who turned on the gravity during the spacewalk in order to keep Chort fromdiscovering a secret about the ship that she didn't want revealed."

All eyes, which had been locked on me, now turned as if pulled by a set ofinvisible puppet strings to Tera. "That she didn't want revealed?" Nicabarasked.

"Specifically, a secondary hatchway on the top of the engine section," I said.

"A hatch her father had used to sneak into the ship that morning on Meima."

"Wait a minute," Shawn said, sounding bewildered. "Tera is... she's Borodin'sdaughter?"

"Exactly," I said, nodding approvingly and trying to ignore the aghast look onTera's face. "Except that the man who called himself Alexander Borodin was infact a rather better-known industrialist by the name of Arno Cameron."

There was the sound of jaws dropping all around the table. "Arno Cameron?"

Everett all but gasped. "Oh, my God."

"I wondered about that," Nicabar murmured. "Someone had to have had tremendousresources to put a ship like the Icarus together in the first place."

"And if there's one thing Cameron's got, it's tremendous resources," I agreed.

"It also turns out that Cameron was the one who sabotaged the cutting torch, though Ixil getting burned was an accident. He'd eavesdropped on Ixil and meas we discussed cutting a hole into the cargo area, and for obvious reasonsdidn't want us to do that. Gimmicking the torch was the only way he could come upwith to stop us in the limited time he had to work with."

"Borodin—I mean, Cameron—was aboard the Icarus with us?" Shawn asked. "Where was he hiding?"

"He must have been in the gap between the inner and outer hulls," Nicabarsaid.

"It was the perfect hiding place. None of us even knew there was that muchspacein there until we started taking the ship apart."

"That's exactly it," I confirmed. "He surfaced once or twice to touch basewith Tera, or to check our course heading on the computer-room repeater displays.

But mostly he just lay low."

"So where is he now?" Everett asked. "I trust you're not going to try to tellus he's still hidden aboard somewhere?"

"I'd be very surprised to find that he was," I said. "Getting back to the mainpoint, it turns out Cameron was the one responsible for those lethal chemicalsbeing in Ixil's cabin in the first place."

"You're wrong," Tera snapped, her eyes blazing. "I already told you Dad didn'twant to hurt him or anyone else."

"I didn't say he did," I said mildly. "Actually, his part in all that was tosave Ixil's life. But I'll come back to that.

"So as I said, some of these incidents can be explained away," I continued, letting my gaze sweep around the table. "But not all of them, unfortunately.

Which brings us to the murder—the deliberate murder—of our first mechanic, Jaeger Jones."

"Murder?" Chort said, his voice almost too whistly in his agitation for me tounderstand. "I thought it was an accident."

"It wasn't," I told him. "But the murderer hoped most of us would think itwas.

All of us, in fact, except one person."

"But that's ridiculous," Everett snorted. "Why would the Patth want to killJones?"

"I never said the Patth had anything to do with it," I said. "But since youbring it up, that very question is what had me stymied for so long. Youremember Shawn's disease-crazed escape on Potosi, and the Najiki Customs officials whonearly impounded the ship? That was our murderer's handiwork, too."

"What do you mean, his handiwork?" Tera asked. "I thought Shawn broke free onhis own."

"No, he had help, though he probably doesn't remember it," I said. "Themurderer needed Shawn to run away so that everyone would scatter to search for him andhe'd be free to make a couple of private vid calls. The stumbling point hereis that our killer seemed hell-bent on stopping the Icarus, no matter what he hadto do. Yet at every place where he might have turned us over to the Patth, hedidn't do it."

"Sounds like you're describing a schizophrenic," Everett murmured.

"Or a plain, flat-out psycho," Shawn added, glancing furtively around thetable.

"Someone who kills just for the fun of it."

"Actually, there's nothing unbalanced about him at all," I assured them. "Butall right; let's assume for a minute that he is a nutcase. Let me then throwout another question, one that helped me start thinking in the right direction.

Here we have Arno Cameron, creator of an enormous financial and industrial empire, wandering through the hot spots of Meima looking for a crew to get thisvitallyimportant piece of hardware back to Earth. Question: Given that Cameron'ssuccess must have been at least partially based on being an excellent judge ofcharacter, how in the world did he not catch on to the fact that one of thepeople he was hiring was a schizophrenic, psychotic potential murderer?"

For a minute all I saw in their faces was confusion, either at the questionitself or because they were puzzling over the answer to it. All their faces, that is, except Tera's. In that instant I saw in her suddenly wide eyes thatthe pieces were finally starting to fall into place. "The answer, of course," Icontinued, not waiting for the class to respond, "is that he didn't sense anysuch problem because one of you is not the man he hired for your particularslot on the ship."

Chort found his voice first. "That is incredible," he said, the whistlingunder only slightly better control. "How would anyone have known the Icarus wasvaluable enough to do such a thing?"

"And once he knew it, why didn't he just go to the Patth and turn us in?"

Shawn added. "This makes less sense than the psycho nutcase theory."

"Not really," I said. "The answers, in order, are that he had no idea at allthat there was anything special about the Icarus. And he didn't turn the shipin to the Patth because his purpose in coming aboard was something elseentirely."

I nodded to Everett. "Everett was the one who finally pushed me onto the righttrack," I said. "It was back when you all learned what the Icarus wascarrying, and he pointed out that Borodin and the Patth weren't the only possibleplayersin this game. I suddenly realized that he was right; and furthermore realizedwho the other player was."

"Who?" Tera demanded.

I lifted a hand. "Me."

There was a short silence. "I don't get it," Shawn said. "What are you talkingabout?"

"I'm talking about me, and about the people I work for," I told him. "Andabout the fact that the murderer came aboard the Icarus for the sole purpose ofdelivering me a message. A lesson in obedience."

My gun had been waving almost idly around the table, the hand gripping itmakingsmall gestures as I spoke. Now, in a single smooth motion, I brought it topointrock-steady at the center of the large torso looming up over the far end ofthe table from me. "You can tell him, Everett," I said quietly, "that I got themessage."

Another silence descended on the room, this one as thick and dark as tar paste.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Everett said at last, hisvoice husky and as dark as the silence had been.

"I'm talking about a crime boss named Johnston Scotto Ryland," I said. "A manwho thought I needed to be taught a lesson about strict obedience to one'sorders and one's master."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Shawn said, sounding bewildered. "You've lostme completely. How did a crime boss get into this?"

"Because he's a crime boss who's holding a half million of McKell's debt,"

Nicabar said, his eyes studying me with an intensity I didn't much care for.

"McKell's been smuggling for him for the past few years."

"You're a smuggler?" Shawn demanded, staring accusingly at me. "So that's howyou got the borandis so easily. I should have guessed that a big simon-purehotshot like you—"

"Put a baffle on it, Shawn," Nicabar cut him off. "So what did you do to earnthis lesson, McKell?"

"Ixil and I had a cargo of his bound for Xathru," I said. "We were running alittle ahead of schedule, so I diverted us briefly to Meima."

"Why?" Tera asked.

"I'll get to that later," I said. "Ryland has informers everywhere, even on abackwater world like Meima. I think Ryland was already having suspicions aboutmy loyalty, so when one of his snitches reported I'd landed there instead ofXathru he apparently concluded I was getting ready to jump ship or double- cross him or some such thing. Regardless, he decided I needed a lesson on why thatwas a bad idea. Were you that informer, Everett, or just the local muscle for theterritory?"

Everett didn't answer. "Well, the personnel list's not important," I said.

"Either way, Ryland ordered Everett to tail me and find out what I was up to.

He followed me as I wandered around Meima; and was probably right there in thattaverno when Cameron came over and offered me the pilot's post aboard theIcarus."

"How did he know you'd been hired?" Tera asked. "Unless he was close enough tooverhear, couldn't you two just have been having a chat?"

"I'm sure he wasn't that close," I said. "I was keeping a close watch, and Iwould have remembered anyone sitting that close. But he didn't have to hearanything. All he needed was to see Cameron give me a guidance tag to know Iwas taking a job with him.

"So when Cameron left, Everett decided to tail him instead of staying on me, probably hoping to find out who exactly I was dealing with. I had planned tofollow Cameron myself, but I got diverted by a trio of unhappy Yavanni andlost him. He followed Cameron, watched him hire a couple more crewers; and thenapparently decided to take a closer look at one of you. So he let Cameronleave, followed his latest acquisition into a nice dark alley, and clobbered him."

"And this person was who?" Tera asked.

"Whoever Cameron had hired to be ship's medic, of course," I said. "Becausewhen Everett called to report what he'd found—which wasn't much—Ryland told him totake this person's place and follow me aboard the Icarus. Fortunately for us, Everett was actually qualified to handle the job. Or maybe it wasn't justluck; maybe he'd picked on the medic on purpose."

Chort whistled suddenly, a sound that hurt my ears. "I remember," he said. "Hewas the last to arrive. He said he had been delayed at the gate."

"Actually, he'd probably been skulking around the side of one of the othershipswatching the rest of us gathering," I said. "He probably had a whole story worked out to spin for Cameron about how he'd bought the job from a buddywho'd suddenly taken ill or something."

Nicabar snorted gently. "Pretty pathetic story."

"It may have been something better." I cocked an eyebrow at Everett. "Feelfree to jump in if you feel your creativity or cleverness is being maligned."

"No, no, keep going," he said evenly. "It's all nonsense, of course, but itdoes make for fascinating listening."

Out of the corner of my eye I caught the slight wrinkling of Nicabar'sforehead.

Everett didn't seem particularly worried; and if there was anyone who had aright to be worried at the moment, it was Everett.

"Whatever his story was, it turned out to be unnecessary," I continued, tryingto distract Nicabar's attention away from questions about Everett'sunconcerned attitude. The last thing I wanted right now was to have a former EarthGuardMarine to go all suspicious of this setup. "Cameron didn't show up, so Everettsimply pretended he was the one who'd been hired in the first place."

"You know, McKell, Everett's right," Shawn growled. "This is all Grade-Aspeculation. You said yourself Cameron got away from you on Meima. How couldyoupossibly know what happened?"

"It's not speculation at all," I said. "You see, I had a brief talk withCameron after the incident with Ixil's cabin. He told me he'd tackled someone busilypreparing a poison-gas mixture out in the Icarus's lower corridor; but hefurther told me that it wasn't anyone from the crew. His assumption was thatit was someone who'd come in from outside the ship; but if one of the crew hadlet a stranger in, why wasn't he there with him to help carry out this secondmurder? No, it's much simpler to assume that one of his original crewers wasreplaced right from the start."

"You said Everett came aboard to deliver a message," Tera said. "What did youmean by that?"

"In Ryland's eyes, I was flirting with treason," I said, feeling my fingerstightening on my plasmic as I stared blackly across the length of the table atEverett. "But apparently he thought I could still be redeemed, or at leastcould be scared back into the fold. And so in his typically crude and heavy-handedway, he ordered Everett to kill my partner."

"Your partner?" Tera gasped. "Jones was your partner?"

"No, of course not," I bit out, a flood of emotion suddenly washing over me.

An innocent man had died, all because of me. "Jones was exactly as advertised: amechanic Cameron hired off the street for the Icarus. And that's where Everett made the mistake that so muddied the water that it took me until now to figureit out. He was so convinced that my partner and I were both jumping ship andabandoning Ryland's contraband on Meima that he just assumed that the Icarus'smechanic was my partner. Add to that Jones's natural friendliness and socialease, and it probably looked to him like we'd known each other for years.

"And so, knowing that it was traditionally the mechanic's job to assist withanyspacewalks, he sabotaged the rebreather on the suit that was Jones's size andsat back to wait for the inevitable."

I gestured toward Everett with my plasmic. "But then you made a slip, a smallone, which I didn't catch until a comment Revs made on Palmary jogged it backto mind. We'd gone to Xathru to turn Jones's body over to the port authoritiesand incidentally to pick up Ixil. While we were all out of the ship you calledRyland to report that the foul deed was done, but also told him I'd saidsomething about bringing yet another partner aboard to fill Jones's slot.

Rylandconfirmed that you'd missed your intended target, but since his cargo hadindeed been delivered on schedule it was all cool now and to just stay aboard andkeepan eye on me."

"So where was the slip?" Shawn asked. "I don't see any slip."

"The slip came later," I said, watching Everett's face. "When you came intothe ship while I was talking to Ixil in the wraparound. You took one look at himand said, 'So this is your partner.' There's no reason for you to have put it thatway unless you'd already believed someone else was my partner."

Everett's expression didn't change, but there was just the slightest twitch ofhis lip. Enough to show that, despite his protests, I'd hit the mark.

Nicabar cleared his throat. "Question. If everything was so cool, why did hetryto kill Ixil on Potosi?"

"Because between Xathru and Potosi the situation suddenly stopped being cool,"

I told him. "The first thing I did when we reached Potosi was to call Ryland toget the location of a dealer I could buy borandis from. By that time the swirlof Patth activity around the Icarus was starting to heat up, and Ryland wasnone too happy that one of his people—me—was at the center of all the attention."

"Why didn't he just tell you to jump ship?" Shawn asked.

"Because he knew I wouldn't do it," I said. "I'd already told him that part ofmy cover as a poor but honest ship's pilot was to stick with the Icarus, andhe knew better than to argue the point with me over a StarrComm link. Besides, healready had a plan that would preempt the whole decision.

"You'd all been told to stay aboard ship while I went to get the borandis. ButEverett had orders to check in with Ryland, so he loosened Shawn's restraintsenough that he'd be able to work his way free and escape. Then, while the restof you were out searching, Everett headed to the StarrComm building. Maybe youeven called while I was still talking to him; he was off the line a long timelooking up the location of a drug dealer to steer me to.

"Anyway, Ryland told him to do two things. First, to phone in an anonymous tipto Najiki Customs that we had smuggled gemstones aboard; and second, to killIxil, who Everett told him was still sleeping off his burns. When customsfound a dead body aboard and locked the Icarus down for investigation, Rylandreasoned, I would be out by default.

"Unfortunately for all his cleverness, everything went wrong from that pointon.

Cameron caught Everett preparing to kill Ixil, clobbered him, and put thechemical vials inside Ixil's room where Everett couldn't easily get at themagain."

I looked at Tera. "Do you remember, Tera, when you cut into my phone conversation with Everett to tell us you'd found Shawn? Do you remember how hesounded?"

"He did seem a little odd," she said, her forehead wrinkled with thought. "Alittle blurry, as I recall."

"He was a lot blurry, actually," I said. "At the time, I assumed it wasbecause Shawn had hit him during his escape. Now, I know it was because he hadn't yetrecovered from your father's one-two punch."

"Dad keeps in pretty good shape," Tera said. "I'll bet he still can pack awallop."

"Especially when properly inspired," I agreed. "I'll have to look up yourthrow-boxing record, Everett, and see if you had a history of easy knockoutsor whether Cameron was just lucky. At any rate, when Everett came to, he knew hewouldn't have time to come up with a Plan B before the Najik arrived, so hehightailed it off the ship, remembering to lock the hatchway behind him thewayit had been when you'd all scattered to look for Shawn.

"Sure enough, the Najik arrived in force and prepared to open the ship thehard way. And there Everett's second stroke of bad luck came in: Chort returned tothe ship about the same time and decided they shouldn't go in without thecaptain being there. So he blocked their path; and no one in the Spiral goesout of their way to irritate Crooea. The Najik were probably in the process ofdiscussing protocol with their HQ when the third and final bit of bad luckarrived."

"You?" Nicabar suggested.

"Me," I confirmed. "Ryland knew how far across the city he had sent me for theborandis, and figured the whole thing would be over and done with long beforeI could make it back. What he didn't know was that the sky was going to open upand rain small mammals, and that as a result I would hire a cab instead ofusingthe more anonymous public transports the way his employees are supposed to. Atany rate, I got back in time to bluff the Najik out of a real search, and wewere off again."

"An amazing bit of deduction," Everett commented, shaking his head in feignedwonderment. Apparently, he still wasn't ready to give it up. "Seriouslyflawed, of course, but still interesting to listen to. Tell me this, then, Mr.

Detective: If I was so determined to get you or Ixil, why did I risk my lifeto help get you away from the Patth on Palmary? To the point of even gettingshot, as you may recall?"

"Oh, I recall, all right," I said with a nod. "And the reason is simple, evenif the rest of the details are a little murky. You didn't hurt Ixil or me becauseby then you knew just how valuable the Icarus really was and that Ryland woulddefinitely want to get hold of it himself. You needed a pilot to get off theplanet; hence, the selfless volunteer work."

With my free hand I gestured to Nicabar. "Revs, however, was a different andmore serious matter entirely. You needed a pilot and an engine specialist toflythe Icarus; but with Ixil and Revs both around, you had two enginespecialists.

Under other circumstances you probably would have been happy to have theduplication; but sometime in the preparation for my rescue Revs must have letit slip that he was an ex-EarthGuard Marine. That was great for getting me out, but not so great when you looked further down the line.

"And so, when Ixil left you in the main club room as rear guard, you proppedupone of the dead Iykams in a likely position behind some of the tables, pickedout a spot nearby, and then shot yourself in the leg."

"He shot himself?" Chort whistled. "But why?"

"Two reasons," I said. "First, because he needed an excuse for why he was outof sight when Revs and Ixil brought me in from the back room. Remember, he had toshoot at Revs from concealment near where he'd set up the dead Iykam, thenmove a couple of tables away from there and shoot the corpse in the back if it wasto look plausible. The only possible reason he could have for lying down on thejobwas if he'd been shot."

I shrugged. "As it happened, he wasn't as good or as lucky as he'd hoped, andwas only able to wound Revs instead of killing him. Still, for putting himmore or less out of action it was good enough."

I was looking directly at Everett as I spoke; and so it was that I caught theflicker of relief that crossed his face just before the quiet andall-too-familiar voice came from the archway behind me. "Very clever, Jordan," the voice said. "Very clever indeed."

I took a deep breath as the rest of the people around the table once againbecame stunned marble statues. "And the second reason he shot himself," Iadded, letting the breath out in a resigned sigh, "was that he wanted an excuse tostayaboard the Icarus after the rest of us came up here to the lodge. ThatStarrComm call he'd made, you see, wasn't to any doctor friend."

With my free hand, not turning or even looking around, I gestured to thearchwaybehind me. "May I introduce you all to Johnston Scotto Ryland."