By the time he was out the lock and riding a hand impellor toward Harmon’s ship, she was already at the maintenance inlet and working on the latch. That was a datapoint of sorts; she knew what he knew-that it was the least regarded area on any ship, forgotten or ignored until it was needed. He blinked as he realized suddenly that he was as bad as everyone else at protecting Kanti’s flank. He’d never thought about being boarded, so he’d never done anything about alarming or trapping that hatch. He made a note to do it during the next trip to wherever.
When he reached Harmon’s ship, the Spy had been inside for several minutes. He was happy about that; he didn’t want to be treading too close upon her heels.
He followed the slight sounds she made and the marks in the grime on the walkway, hesitated outside the hatch to the aux com. If she was inside, she’d pick up what was happening and be waiting for him. He edged back until he reached the first of the locks he’d passed up, cycled through, and found himself in crew quarters, a sixer once but little more than a stinking hole these days, with the remnants of a crate in one corner, a busted dolly beside it, stains and scratches on the floor. He eased the door open and stood listening by the crack.
Voices came up from the hold, briefly, as if a hatch had opened. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but there was a certain urgency about it that told him the buyers had finished loading and wanted to get away from here like ten minutes ago.
He slid out and began making his way to Bridge level.
“What femme’s this and how come you want to know?”
“The Kliu bounty, fool. Ten thousand gelders alive, zip dead…”
Worm knelt in the shadows of the corridor outside the lighted arch that led onto the Bridge. Though he could hear well enough, he couldn’t see either Harmon or, the Spy. Kliu bounty? Truth isn’t in the femme. At least 1 don’t… no… not the Kliu… not when they’re using me to get out of paying Digby, trying to get out of paying me even with Mort and Xman. Too mean to put down good coin for what they could get free. Another datapoint. She was good at laying down false tracks, voice distorter, too. Hm. Didn’t want Harmon. to know she was female. Interesting. Meant she was squeamish. Planning to leave him alive or she wouldn’t bother. He blinked as he heard her buying the truth of Harmon’s denial. Why? It didn’t make sense.
“Ee! Don’t leave me tied like this.”
“Time keyed, Harmon. So contemplate your sins and…”
Worm got to his feet and hurried as silently as he could to the galley accessway, ducking into it as he heard the sound of running feet.
Harmon was tugging at the ties and cursing with a deplorable lack of imagination as Worm walked in. He stopped, scowled at Worm. “What you doing here?”
“Got the same question you been hearing. Where’s the woman?”
“I told him and I’ll tell you. I don’t know shays about no femme.”
“That’s what you said, yeh. Maybe she believed you. Me, I don’t. So we’re gonna find out the hard way.”
“She?”
“Uh-huh. Delicate little femme, barely old enough to vote like they say. Whipped you good.” Worm stepped close, pushed the shotgun against Harmon’s neck, and triggered it.
When the babble had him, Worm leaned close, spoke slowly and carefully. “A woman was brought aboard your ship.”
“No woman. No.”
“You were told to take her somewhere.”
“No told. Told nothing.”
“Where did you take her.”
“No woman. Nowhere.”
“Where did you go when you left Hutsart6?”
“The Accord.”
“Why?”
“The pay for cargo transfer on Hutsartd. With what I got laid aside, it was enough.to buy loan and stock. Make contract with Yobany Fitz. Get back in business.”
“Zolll She was right. And she’ll be hitting, her other leads now. I’d better…” He shoved the shotgun into his belt sac, scowled at Harmon. “You know me and you’re worse’n Mort for holding a grudge till it squalls. Sorry ’bout this, Harm, but I gotta protect myself. I’m all Fa’s got till I can ransom Mort and Xman.” He took hold of Harmon’s hair and used his cutter to slice neatly through the dealer’s throat. Then he collected the satchel of coin that the Spy hadn’t bothered to take and went running for the nearest lock.
6
The soft squeal of the locator was the only thing that kept him sane in the next month he spent following the Spy.
First there was The Tricky Deacon Pit which he didn’t understand at all until after she took off from there. Information, that’s what it was, she was looking for something and she found out where it was.
Hope rising, he followed the beacon’s intermittent squeal until she surfaced at an out of the way world in the Callidara Pseudo Cluster. Bol Mutiar his Chart told him and the keph said, “Restricted world. Rated purple 9 on the danger scale. Further information interdicted.”
Which raised his brows up to his hairline. He hid in the shadow of a moon and watched the paired ships come round beneath him.
The smuggler’s ship jerked, then began to move away. “Tractor shove. And the umbilical’s cut. Zoll’s Teeth. That has to mean that the smuggler’s here. I’ve got to get down there, no more waiting. I’ve got to drop a loop on both of them before the Spy cuts out on me again.”
He chewed on his lip as he watched a lander emerge from the side of the Spy’s ship, wondering if he should drop a sticktight inside before he went. Maybe she wasn’t like him, maybe she had the maintenance hatch trapped. She thought of things. But if she got away from him this time… no, if she got away this time, it was over. She’d head straight back for Digby, Digby would call the Kliu and collect his fee, and Mort would be dead two heartbeats afterward.
As soon as the shields flared as the lander hit atmosphere, Worm went arcing away. He hit atmosphere twenty minutes later, landed Kanti on a barren islet just big enough to hold her, bonded the EYE to its zipper sled and sent it racing toward the place where the lander touched down.
As he watched her walk toward the children playing on the beach, he thought about activating one of the EYE’s darts and killing her then, but she hadn’t found the smuggler yet and a world is a big place to search and she was a better searcher than he was and she knew things he didn’t.
He watched her face change as she seemed to absorb the langue the children were speaking, though he couldn’t make any sense of it. In less than a heartbeat she was talking back to them and being understood. “Talent. Word is Digby likes Talent, buys it wherever he can. I bet she can truthtell, too, and that’s why she believed or Harmon without worrying about babbling him. No wonder it’s her Digby sent. Spins lies quicker’n a Menaviddan spins web and looks through your lies like you’re made out of glass.”
When she went back to the lander alone, he started the EYE home and chewed on his lip until Kanti’s screen showed her taking the lander up and hovering in the clouds. “She’s looking for something. Those kids told her something. Not enough, I think, but something.”
Through the EYE which was hovering in the fronds of a tree, he watched the local messing with some sand while the Spy crouched beside him. After a while he understood what the man was doing. He was making an island. A particular island. Once again Worm thought about darting the woman, but he still wasn’t sure. It was better to wait until he was actually looking at Lylunda. He couldn’t understand what they were saying, so that island map could mean anything, and he’d already made too many wrong choices.
The Spy bowed and walked back to the lander. The local looked at the map, his face troubled, then he smeared it out with his foot and went the other way along the beach.
Uneasy, Worm called the EYE back, hoping he had time to reclaim it.