Nunku nodded slightly, her fingers working. Her face was absorbed, not at all surprised, and Rip suddenly wondered if she hadn't already thought of it, but out of an innate courtesy listened to his ideas. She's a leader She's a leader, he thought, watching her. She makes all these weird beings feel needed and valued She makes all these weird beings feel needed and valued. A good trait, he realized, for a captain.

"Ah," she said, with that sudden smile, and he knew he'd been right-she'd initiated a search right from the start because no computer was that fast. "I have done inquiries on each of the ownership combinations furnished by the Exchange listings, and of them, there is one that is registered as based here, but the owners..." She paused, and in a lightning move sent yet another probe into the system. "Zounds!" she exclaimed. "As I surmised. Sphere Eleven Startraders, a limited partnership. These owners were once individuals, but all are deceased."

Dane clapped his hands, ignoring the laugh from Tooe and some of her friends as the movement sent him into an inadvertent somersault. "Run the dates of payments from Sphere Eleven Startraders for a month before and after each of the ETAs on the insured ships."

Once again Nunku's fingers sped over her screen, and then she sat back and smiled. "There it is," she said. "The Jheel is on the listing after Ariadne Ariadne, but no others. Koytatik, however, is listed after... five disappeared ships, each a month after the ETA."

"It's good," Rip said, rubbing his fingertips to get rid of the tingle of the computer tech who is on the scent, "but it's still not proof. The last connection-"

This time Nunku laughed, a lovely, merry sound. "The trail of credit from Sphere Eleven to whoever is providing the money."

Stotz came forward and spoke for the first time. "That probably won't show up," he said. "If it's Flindyk, he's so entrenched in the system he knows how to ride it and how to blind it. I'll stake any sum he gets some goon to pay cash, anonymous source, into the Sphere Eleven accounts at intervals that have nothing to do with the payouts-"

"And in amounts that won't match withdrawal sums or dates from his own funds," Rip said. "Yup. I'd do that too, if I were setting up a hijacking empire. Make sure your flunkies are paid promptly, because they don't care where it comes from, but make certain the source is sufficiently fuzzy for the random legit auditor, who does care."

"Then we're stopped after all?" Dane asked, looking annoyed.

"I shall see if I can break through the guardians of Flindyk's own accounts," Nunku said quietly.

"Look, Viking," Rip said. "Let's take what we have and give it to the captain and the others. We can't expect to get it all at once, but what we have here ought to be enough for quick brains like Ya's and Van's and Wilcox's, not to mention the Old Man's."

"Right," Dane said, but without much enthusiasm. He turned to Nunku. "Thanks for your help, We'll report back."

"Momo and Ghesl'h'h shall see thee safely out of the Spinner," was all she said.

All four men were silent on the long journey out.

Just before they returned to the Queen Queen, Dane said, "Why don't you take this data to the captain? I'm going down to Shver territory to see if our ferret extracted anything more. We obviously need every scrap of data we can get."

"Bad idea," Stotz said. "Didn't someone say Flindyk has to be onto that ferret by now?"

"It's going to burn at me until I know," Dane said. "Look. I'll do it just like before, nice and easy. If there's anything suspicious, I won't go in."

"At least sound it first," Stotz said.

Dane and Rip shook their heads at the same time, and Dane grinned before saying, "If the ferret's discovered, the sounder will be too."

Rip said, "Then I'm going with you."

"Maybe we should all go," Frank said.

Dane shook his head. "In that grav, if you try to block a Shver's hit your arm will shatter. And Johan, your nuller skills won't be much use in one-point-six gravs."

Stotz grinned. "All right. Besides, I think this"-he waved the chip Nunku had given them-"better get into the captain's hands right away."

They stopped at a maglev concourse, and before separating, Mura said, "If you're not back right away, we're all coming after you."

19.

"Promise me one thing," Rip was saying as he and Dane rode the maglev down. thing," Rip was saying as he and Dane rode the maglev down.

"What's that?" Dane took in a deep breath. It was good to be in one grav again. Strange, the almost overwhelming sense of rightness. Almost Almost worth the rest of the journey, he thought wryly. worth the rest of the journey, he thought wryly.

"If you see any of those Clan Golm jokers, we're smoke. Any," Rip repeated.

Dane grinned. "Already decided that. They have to know we're onto them, which means-"

"If we do see them, they're there to make trouble," Rip finished.

Dane laughed. He had a suspicion that Rip's emotions were much like his-anticipation, impatience, a weird mixture of fun and fear.

And a desire for justice.

"One more piece, one more clue," Dane muttered. "That's all we need. Let it be there."

After a few moments, during which the acceleration gradually increased, Dane felt a kind of twinge in his mind, like a bad memory that hadn't quite surfaced. Puzzled, he glanced at Rip, who was sitting back against the seat, doing heavy-grav breathing.

Rip looked up right then, and said, "Just had an ugly thought: what if it had been us?"

"You mean instead of the Ariadne Ariadne?"

"Could have been," Rip said, his dark eyes narrowed. "If we'd found some kind of rare mineral on the Denlieth run, or something else we could have made a big killing on-"

"And we would have radioed ahead to Trade for insurance," Dane said, continuing the thought.

"And these slime buckets would have been sitting on our jump point, waiting for us. And the Queen Queen would be orbiting in Mykosian space now, empty, with some other name painted on her side." would be orbiting in Mykosian space now, empty, with some other name painted on her side."

Dane flexed his hands. How good it would feel to grab some hijacker by the neck and fling him out a lockhole into space! No Free Trade ship should have to go through that again. They simply had to win. They had to.

Rip sighed.

"Winning, right?" Dane asked, humor leaching back into his thoughts. Anger in high grav didn't feel good; it was as if a big Shver foot stepped on his heart every time it beat.

"And Tooe," Rip said. "First I was thinking about how right our cause is. That any crew would feel the same. Then I thought of Tooe and her... what do you call it again?"

"Klinti," Dane supplied.

"Let's imagine that everything miraculously clears up and we don't end up brigged here forever, and we're ready to blast off. Do you think she's going to be able to leave those people?"

Dane shook his head. "I don't know. It's been on my mind all day today," he admitted. "Until she took off to warn Nunku-and I understand why she did it-I thought there was no problem. But she really does seem to need to see how the klinti is doing, to talk to Nunku, to get her ideas. Makes me wonder if all her work with me is a kind of game." He shifted position to ease a cramp forming in one leg. "Well, Van says whatever happens with her, it's good practice for me. I guess I'd gotten so accustomed to things as they are I half thought I'd be an apprentice forever."

"I guess we'll see," Rip said. "Hoo. We have to be almost there-I feel like somebody dropped a spaceship on my chest."

Dane glanced out the port just in time to see them grounding. The maglev whizzed along the Shver countryside, through forests of great-trunked, spreading trees, toward the stop now familiar to them both.

The nature of Shver building made it impossible to scan ahead for dangers; they did not like their domiciles in the open, the buildings were never more than one story-not surprising for a race that couldn't jump-and even the general-purpose establishments were fairly secluded. Dane noticed, as they slowed, that once you were on the surface you did not even see roads. Was being witnessed traveling as big a taboo as public eating? Or was it merely prudence on the part of a people whose culture was unabashedly militant?

No one to answer that, Dane thought, leaning forward carefully-the last thing he needed was to strain an abdominal muscle by jerking his body forward just to scan the concourse as the maglev pod gently braked toward its stop.

Shver were about, but none of them bore the clan marking of Golm.

He looked with care on both sides before nodding to Rip. Walking with caution, they disembarked from the pod and started toward the building.

Shver came and went, but except for a curious stare from a pair of small Shver, no one paid them the least heed- overtly.

Dane felt he was being watched, and attributed it immediately to the knowledge that Nunku's ferret was bound to have been discovered. There were no signs of danger, and he kept ceaseless watch, though it meant turning his head and slowing his step so that he did not risk losing his balance.

They passed inside and went straight to the communications chamber, where Rip took his turn at watching while Dane keyed in for messages.

There was nothing.

Alarm now burned in every muscle, intensifying the pull of the heavy gravity. Something was wrong; Rip did not speak, but the wariness in his gaze and his tightened jaw indicated he felt it as well.

The two men moved just a little apart, in case they had to defend themselves, as they started their retreat. No one waited outside the com chamber. Relieved, they sped up just a bit, until they reached the outer door. There was the pod, not fifty meters away.

Dane wanted to keep his gaze on the relative safety of the maglev pod, as though that would vouchsafe their reaching it, but he forced himself to turn his head from side to side, scanning.

No one was in sight-no one at all.

Bad sign.

"Hurry," he breathed, the word coming out in a whuff whuff. Ignoring the protest of joints, muscles, and lungs, he quickened his step, and Rip did the same beside him.

Twenty-five meters...

Twenty...

Fifteen- Shadows appeared on the periphery of his vision, spiking his adrenaline. Crouching slightly, he turned-and his hand encountered the ceremonial weapon of a huge Shver.

Pain lanced through Dane's knuckles. The Shver-a first-rank citizen, a part of his mind noted hazily-had moved with preternatural quietness right up behind him.

More Shver appeared, hemming in Dane and Rip.

The Shver whose weapon Dane had inadvertently touched began to speak, his low voice sounding like thunder in a distant valley.

Rip stayed silent and watchful, until the Shver suddenly turned and departed as silently as they had come.

"I got that last," Rip said, as they eased themselves into the pod. "Something about Monitors?"

"They're reporting to the Monitors," Dane said, shock ringing through his head. "All nice and legal," he added bitterly. "Flindyk wins again-a legalized murder."

"What?" Rip exclaimed, then gasped for air. "Murder?"

Dane said, "I've been challenged to a duel."

Craig Tau watched Jellico's impatience steadily increase until at last he laid his hand decisively on the table and said, "I can't wait any longer. The Kanddoyds might keep all hours but Ross doesn't, and I don't want to risk talking to whoever sits in his office when he's gone."

"We'd just get referred to the Monitors," Van Ryke said.

"Or picked up by them," Wilcox muttered.

Jellico gave one last glance at the chrono and shoved himself gently up from the table, catching hold of the hatchway. "If they're not back in... half an hour, Wilcox and Stotz, you go get them. Ya, I want you on the com. Cofort, are you still going up to the Spin Axis?" He looked across the mess cabin at Rael for the first time during the discussion.

"Yes," she said. Craig felt her tensing beside him-as if she were bracing herself for an argument.

But he gave a short nod and said, "Weeks, if you go with her, maybe the two of you can shorten the time you're needed up there. You've helped in the sick bay before-just do what she asks you to."

"Glad to help," Jasper said with his shy smile.

Jellico jerked a thumb at Jan Van Ryke. "I want you along with me, Van. I need your assessment of Ross. Something's missing, and I can't put my finger on what. You too, Craig, for the physician's point of view."

His hard gray gaze lifted, as if by chance, to Rael's face again, and he hesitated, as if about to say something, but quite suddenly he turned and vanished.

For a time Rael stood where she was, watching the hatchway. Tau was also still, observing. He could heard the captain's voice in the corridor outside, giving orders to Mura and Ali Kamil, and then he was gone.

Rael Cofort flexed her hands, then suddenly looked up to meet Tau's gaze. He didn't say anything, or look away. There was nothing to say. She did not try to hide her emotions; she understood that he knew what was going on. She also understood his compassion-and his determination not to make the mistake of trying to interfere.

She smiled, gave a slight shrug, then she too vanished through the hatchway.

A few minutes later Tau propelled himself through the outer lock after Van Ryke and the captain, then pushed off to sail down the corridor to the maglev halt. With some amusement he watched Van Ryke's big form maneuver with grace around the corners and up the last corridor.

They settled into a pod, Van Ryke's bushy white brows soaring as he scanned around them. As might be expected, the pods were all full of a variety of spacers all determined to get some kind of business done before the last of the diurnal emporia closed-either that or were about to embark on what passed for an evening's conviviality in a habitat.

Unfortunately it also precluded any kind of private talk. Tau wanted to find out more about what the captain wanted him looking for-though he decided as they sped along that maybe observation without any previous expectation coloring his views might be the most valuable.

There was no one in the Way of the Rain-dappled Lilies; this was where the highest Kanddoyd officials lived. Tau looked forward to the spectacular view of the inside of the habitat that this particular area was said to offer.

Ross was present. Tau had heard about the Rose Garden, but at least by the time the Kanddoyd who greeted them had ushered them inside the legate's domicile, he was not to be found studying his holographic plants.

The office was recognizable as a standard Patrol captain's office, right down to the regulation desk. Nothing was out of place, nothing looked amiss. Even the windows were blocked, giving the room an atmosphere of focus and efficiency. Ross himself was seated behind his desk, neat in the black and silver uniform of a Patrol officer, his long face alert.

"Captain Jellico," he said as the three Solar Queen's Solar Queen's men walked in. "I'm glad you're here-it saved me having to request an interview." He looked down at a flimsy. "I've received a surprising number of complaints, mostly rowdyism and illegal trespassing, about your crew. Can you explain that?" men walked in. "I'm glad you're here-it saved me having to request an interview." He looked down at a flimsy. "I've received a surprising number of complaints, mostly rowdyism and illegal trespassing, about your crew. Can you explain that?"

"It's why we're here," Jellico said, handing Ross the printouts that Tang Ya had prepared, plus a tape spool.

Ross set the spool in a slot, where it could be automatically downloaded, as he perused the printout in silence. When he looked up, he frowned slightly, but otherwise there was no expression at all on his face. "How did you get this information?" he asked.

"Illegally," Jellico said.

Ross dropped the papers, which took a long time to settle to the desk. Tau watched them in fascination as the legate stared at a point in space midway between his visitors, then looked up again. "I can stop the transmissions-in fact, I will send a coded 'gram to HQ..." He halted.

Van Ryke said, "I am assuming that if what we've found out is true, even your secure line has probably been compromised."