He waved to the door guards and rejoined his fellow passengers at the intersection of the corridors. "What were you doing?" asked Na'Toth with suspicion.
"Going to the bathroom. Then I turned the wrong way, I guess." He smiled at Captain Vin'Tok. "Keeping something valuable in the hold, are you?"
The captain's eyes narrowed, and the veins on his naked cranium pulsed slightly. "We regret the need for guards, but we were on a delicate mission when we were re-routed. You understand, I'm sure."
"Oh, yeah," agreed Garibaldi. "I'm sorry, what did I miss?"
"I was explaining the mess schedule," said the captain. "I also apologized for not being able to offer you any recreational facilities."
"That's all right," said Garibaldi pleasantly. "I don't think we'll be bored."
"I can tell him the schedule," Al Vernon offered.
The captain continued, "Your cabins are the two at the end of the corridor, across from each other. Women are on the starboard side. The cabins are unlocked—just touch the panel. Your luggage has already been placed there. Now if you will excuse me, I must check our course."
Once again Na'Toth demonstrated how to be a good passenger as she set off at a brisk walk toward the women's cabin. Garibaldi fell into step alongside Ivanova but, unfortunately, so did Al Vernon.
"Dinner is in two hours," Al said cheerfully.
Garibaldi looked pointedly at Ivanova, making it clear that he had something he wanted to talk about. But how could he, without bringing Na'Toth, Al, or both of them into his confidence? Ivanova was sleeping in the same cabin as Na'Toth, and Al was sleeping in his cabin.
"After I change into my sweats, I'm going to do my isometric exercises here in the corridor," Ivanova said.
Garibaldi nodded. "See you later."
"We'll be seeing a lot of each other," said Al, making it sound like a threat.
Garibaldi glanced at his chubby companion, wondering if he had been wrong to bring the stranger on this trip. But Al seemed to know how to insinuate himself into the Narns' good graces, and that was a useful thing to learn. Besides, they had a daunting task ahead of them—trying to negotiate a strange planet filled with stubborn Narns. How could they be any worse off with Al along?
The chubby human pressed the panel, and the door slid open. "After you!"
CHAPTER 8
Captain Sheridan looked at the elderly Narn sitting before him in one of B5's detention cells. Pa'Nar managed to look defiant and guilty at the same time. Lou Welch stood nearby, slapping a billy club against his palm with loud whacks. Sheridan would never allow a prisoner to be beaten, but maybe the Narn didn't know that. At any rate, nothing else they had said or done had had any effect on the prisoner. He had adamantly refused to say anything, other than his name and his story about going broke.
"Listen," said Sheridan sternly, "you might as well make this easier on yourself. We know you were involved in an attack on one of our security officers. Why don't you tell us why? What were you trying to hide?"
The Narn glared at the humans. "Do your worst to me."
Lou Welch moved toward him threateningly. "He's asking for it, Captain. Let me treat him the same way he treated our guy."
Sheridan waved Welch back. "I'd rather not. I think Pa'Nar will realize that he could spend an awfully long time in an Earth Prison if he doesn't cooperate."
The Narn smiled. "You mean, you have something worse than Down Below? I am well accustomed to hardship."
Welch glared at him. "Where is your accomplice?"
Pa'Nar shrugged. "I don't know who you're talking about."
"Ha'Mok," answered Welch. "What happened to him?"
The Narn crossed his arms defiantly. Captain Sheridan was about to give up and stick the elderly Narn in a holding cell until Leffler was well enough to identify him, when a security officer appeared at the window.
"Ms. Winters is here," said his amplified voice.
"Show her in," ordered Sheridan.
Pa'Nar looked a bit ill at ease as the attractive telepath was escorted into the holding cell. She gazed thoughtfully at the Narn and said, "I don't suppose he's told you anything."
"Nothing," answered Sheridan. "Do you think you could scan him?"
"I could try," she answered, "but I haven't had much success with Narns in the past." She began to remove the glove from her right hand. "When I start, would you ask him questions to focus his mind?"
Welch grabbed the Narn's arm and pinned it to the armrest of his chair. He struggled a bit, but the burly security officer was much stronger than the elderly Narn. The telepath touched Pa'Nar's hand and instantly recoiled, as if receiving an electric shock. But she bravely resumed the contact, although she swayed uncertainly on her feet.
"Why did you attack the officer?" asked Sheridan.
The Narn flinched and tried to remove his hand, but Welch held it firmly. "Where is Ha'Mok?" demanded the captain.
"Leave me alone!" the Narn growled.
"Does this have anything to do with G'Kar?" asked Sheridan.
With that question, Talia's back stiffened, and a grimace distorted her lovely face. She yanked her hand away from the Narn's wrist.
"Are you all right?" asked Sheridan.
"Yes," she said, rubbing her forehead. "This definitely has something to do with G'Kar. In fact, he thought of G'Kar, with every question you asked. I wouldn't want to swear to it, but I have a feeling that he thinks G'Kar is alive."
"Bah!" scoffed the Narn. "This woman is crazy."
Sheridan studied Pa'Nar. In an hour of questioning, that was the only charge he had bothered to refute. "All right," said the council, "it's time to contact the Narn Council, the Kha'Ri."
"No!" snapped Pa'Nar. "If you do that, you will put lives in danger."
"Whose lives?" Sheridan demanded.
The Narn crossed his arms and closed his eyes, apparently done talking.
Sheridan's lips thinned with anger. "Keep him locked up in here until we get Ivanova and Garibaldi back safely. No visitors, no legal counsel, no nothing."
"Yes, sir," answered Lou Welch, slapping the billy club into his palm.
In the corridor outside her cabin aboard the K'sha Na'vas, Ivanova did some stretching exercises to limber up. Then she put her hands against the bulkhead and pushed with both arms until she could feel the muscles stiffening along her back and shoulders. Under her sweat suit, she could feel the perspiration starting to flow.
The door across from her whooshed open, and Garibaldi stepped out. He whispered, "Al is asleep. He wasn't kidding about his head hitting the pillow." The security chief glanced down the corridor. "I'd like to see what's in that hold."
Ivanova put her right foot against the bulkhead and flexed her leg. "We don't want to start an incident. Let's just get through this ordeal and stop thinking that G'Kar is alive. Two quotes from Mark Twain doesn't make much difference against a Shon'Kar and a plasma explosion."
The door across the hall slid open, and Na'Toth stepped out. Ivanova kept exercising, and Garibaldi did a few half-hearted jumping jacks.
The Narn glared at them. "You two have disappointed me. I thought I knew you, but since you came aboard you have acted like prisoners trying to escape from a jail. Have you no sense of decorum? You have undertaken this journey to honor G'Kar, not to indulge in petty suspicions and plots."
Garibaldi looked at Na'Toth for a moment then turned back to Ivanova. "I'm going to tell her."
"Go ahead," said Ivanova, who stopped her exercises to watch the attaché's reaction.