"Do I keep seeing Logan? At least he's in touch with what Larash-Ti is doing and Logan tells me everything he hears." She pasted a bored expression on her face and hoped.
"Yes, see him as you can and work allows." Dedran had other things on his mind. He unlocked the entrance and stood aside for her to leave. Laris went, as quickly as would not be too obvious. She passed Cregar as he approached. He hissed softly in slurring camp dialect in case there were bugs or Dedran's spies were listening unseen.
"You'm say wha' we agree?"
"Es. N' more."
"Done good, girl." He entered the tent and the entrance closed again. Laris didn't wait around. Dedran's tent looked flimsy but it was made of an impervoplas which was nonflamable, soundproof, and had a few other advantages. Inside Cregar was talking slowly, building up to telling Dedran that his dangerous guests, far from being well under cover, were often abroad around the circus.
"You're sure of that?" Dedran was almost incredulous. He'd believe a lot of Baris but Ideena surely couldn't be that much of an idiot. But listening, it was certain she had been.
"I wasn't certain at first. They disguise themselves well. Then I spotted Baris in that pompous merchant outfit of his. When he went out again I had a word with several circus people. They remembered seeing the merchant a number of times." He halted with a definite air of having said all he needed. Dedran wavered. It wasn't that he minded killing, but could he risk it? Ideena was clever. It might not be easy to dispose of her without a fuss, especially with Anders's spies everywhere.
"I'll have to deal with it." He could speak to Ideena. "I'll go there..." he began when a small urgent voice began calling at the door. He ripped it open and grabbed. Laris catapulted in already in midsentence.
"Baris is out. He's in the midway. He's drunk. Any minute now he'll make a scene grabbing some girl. Quick, do something!" Cregar understood before Dedran did, but then he'd supplied the ingredients for the trouble. He nodded.
"Baris! I knew that pair were trouble. Dedran, you deal with Ideena. There's no choice. She won't listen if Baris vanishes. I'll see to that drunken fool. Laris, show me where." They were gone, leaving Dedran to spin momentarily.
If Ideena hadn't stopped Baris going out alone it suggested she'd been sleeping. She wouldn't know the man was causing trouble. And if she didn't know, she wouldn't be expecting trouble herself. Dedran raced for the ship. In a cupboard there he had a number of interesting and unusual items and he knew one which would be useful now.
On the midway Baris was stumbling along. After telling her bond-master about Logan, Laris had gone to Surra to tend the big cat and make her comfortable. She stroked fur grown rough with illness, repeating her promise. She would help, find Storm, free Surra, but not yet. Soon, she was sure. She sat stroking as she considered ways. Perhaps if she could get Surra away somehow, the way she'd arrived, in one of the lifter pallets. Or maybe she could send Storm and Tani an anonymous message.
But would they be satisfied with getting Surra back? Wouldn't it just make them look harder for the other missing team members? She knew how she'd feel if Prauo went missing. She'd do anything to get him back. She wouldn't be in a rush to forgive someone who had stolen him, either. It wasn't as if she'd be returning Surra in mint condition.
With a final stroke of the cat's fur she rose and slipped from the hidden room. It was then she spied the familiar figure of Baris and fled for help. She pointed him out to Cregar after that and hastily retired to her own room with Prauo. The big male feline couldn't see anyone if Laris wasn't looking at them but he could read feelings. Particularly those of people either of them knew. It was how he'd warned her of Logan approaching.
Laris lay full length on her bed, Prauo sprawled beside her, her hand on his shoulder as she received his impressions. Prauo touched the minds of Cregar and Baris, felt their emotions, and shared them wordlessly with her.
*Waves of giddy lust; indignation; a feeling that walls closed in on him,* Baris reeled.
*Taste of Cregar, old pain, new anger. Dislike focused on another. A thread of fear for the animals.*
Baris again. *Recognition. Amusement. A surge of patronage. A lesser one approaches.
*A hard-edged anger replied. A tinge of red. Pleasure. At last. No more pretense. A fractional flash of a girl who looked a little like Laris.*
Baris stumbling. *Odd. World whirling. Legs folding. Blackness.*
Prauo spoke in her head. *The bad one is no more.*
Laris knew it for the truth. She could only hope Dedran knew what he was doing if Cregar had killed at his order. If the body was found ... no, it would be bodies. Dedran disliked loose ends. Ideena would be gone as well. She curled up in her bed and slept. Tomorrow she'd check, very carefully.
Dedran and Cregar had no time to sleep. The idea for the untraceable disposal of the bodies was the circus boss's plan, but he required help. He'd have preferred to use the ship's engine turntable. But the engines were stopped for overhaul, seeing as the circus was staying several weeks on Trastor. If he started them again in the middle of the night, some snooper might ask questions. This other method would work. It had worked more than once before according to his sources. It should work again. And so it would have, but for a technical hitch.
Chapter Sixteen
If Larash-Ti-Andresson had not been happy about the disappearance of Baris and Ideena, their reappearance left him speechless—for all of ten seconds. After that what he had to say should have melted his plasteel building to the foundations. Then he was a whirlwind of action. Demands for specialist reports propagated like Terran rabbits.
Storm and Tani arrived just as the explosion was dying. Reports had begun to arrive. Anders read them and exploded all over again. His visitors listened until the fury had blown itself out.
Then Storm asked questions. "How did it happen, and where were they found?"
Anders snarled. "Ideena was poisoned. Baris was stabbed with a long and very thin blade. I doubt he even knew it. Here, look at this report." He dropped a hard copy before Storm and Tani, then continued talking. "The worst of it is that I suspect this method's been used to dispose of unwanted people before."
Tani raised her gaze from the report. "How did it go wrong this time?"
"Someone will be furious about that," Anders said grimly. "It was outside the murderer's control."
"Anders, what happened?" Storm had finished reading the preliminary reports.
"Trastor has a couple of moons as you know. There's a large mining dome on one and a smaller group on the other. Since they're so close it pays not to use the expensive type of ship. But we have to run a regular service. When the mines were opened we had several small, old-fashioned ships mothballed. We reactivated those. They leave every fifth day from a small separate port."
Anders gave a small snort of amusement. "That was what wrecked things. The ships are really old. They use the matter drive. In other words, at a pinch they can burn anything for fuel."
Tani smiled. "They may be old fashioned but there's still plenty about. The circus you have here uses a huge old freighter of that sort. And the ark has those engines. They're workhorses. No speed but a wide and low-cost range because they can use almost anything at all for fuel."