The Modhri was apparently through making trouble for the day Bayta and I made it back to the last third-class car without so much as an odd look from anyone. Not even the four Juri-ani I'd met in the baggage car gave us more than an idle glance as we passed their seats in the last third-class car.
But then, that was how the Modhri worked his magic puppets. It was entirely possible that all four of them thought they'd been dozing in their seats the whole time they were actually chasing me, and were even now sitting there wondering why they felt so tired and achy.
Nowhere along the way did we spot the stationmaster.
We maneuvered through the twisty passageways to the rear of the first baggage car, and I touched the release to open the door into the vestibule. "That's the one," I told Bayta, pointing at the door leading into the next car.
She stepped in for a closer look, putting one hand against the side of the vestibule for balance. "It looks all right to me," she said.
"Except that it doesn't open," I said. Reaching past her, I pushed the release to demonstrate.
And without any fuss whatsoever, the door slid open.
For a long moment we just stood there, side by side in the cramped space of the vestibule, gazing through the open doorway into another maze of safety-webbed crate islands. "It doesn't open?" Bayta asked at last, her voice flat.
"Well, it didn't open," I growled as the door reached the end of its timed cycle and slid shut. I reached past Bayta and touched the release, and again the door slid open.
"I'll take your word for it," Bayta said diplomatically. "Now what?"
"First thing we do is find our crate," I said. Sliding past her, I stepped into the car and headed down the twisty path. With only a slight hesitation, Bayta followed.
I'd been wrong. The first thing we found wasn't our crate. The first thing we found, just around the first curve in the pathway, was a pair of Halkas.
Dead ones.
"What happened?" Bayta asked, her voice shaking a little as I knelt beside the bodies. No matter how many times death intruded on our lives, she never seemed to get completely used to it.
"No obvious marks; no signs of a struggle," I said, lifting one of the victims' heads for a closer look at the eyes and mouth. There was some kind of mucus at the corners of his mouth and eyes, I saw, which probably meant something. Unfortunately, I didn't have the slightest idea what. "Hopefully, some doctor at Jurskala Station will have time for an autopsy."
"What do you do here, Humans?" a voice demanded from behind me.
I spun around, jumping back to my feet as I did so. Three of the four Juriani who'd accosted me in the other baggage car were staring down their beaks in obvious horror at the sight before them. "Can I help you?" I asked cautiously.
The one in front snapped his beak a couple of times, then gestured to the Juri to his right. "Bidran, bring the conductor," he ordered. "Tell him what you have seen. Tell him what these Humans have done."
The other gulped something and turned, running with complete lack of normal Jurian dignity toward the passenger section of the train. "So, Humans," the spokesman said, his tone dark and ominous and still clearly shaken. "You do not merely come back here to steal. You come back here to murder."
"It's not what you think," I protested. "We just found them this way."
"That will be for a court of discovery to decide," the Juri said flatly.
The kwi tingled in my palm as Bayta activated it. Clearly, she assumed I would want to blast our way out of this.
But I couldn't. For one thing, the Juriani weren't under Modhran control, not this time. They were—or thought they were—just honest citizens who'd accidentally stumbled on a double murder and wanted to help bring the perps to justice.
Besides, it was way too late to cover this up by shooting. From the front baggage car I could hear the messenger screaming for assistance at the top of his lungs. Shooting these two would only give us two more bodies to explain when the mob of curiosity-seekers arrived.
"What do we do?" Bayta whispered tensely.
I grimaced. "We surrender to the Spiders," I told her.
I looked down at the bodies. Apparently, the Modhri wasn't through making trouble for the day.
SEVENTEEN :
Four hours later, we pulled into Jurskala Station.
Once in motion along the Tube, there's no way for a Quadrail to send a message on ahead. Nevertheless, by the time I finished giving Bayta her last-minute instructions and stepped out onto the platform, I would have been willing to swear the entire station knew what had happened.
Of course, the rumor grapevine had probably been helped along by the two bodies the drones were carefully lifting up through the baggage-car roof. The fact that there were two grim-faced Jurian officials waiting for me on the platform couldn't have hurt, either.
"You are Mr. Frank Compton?" one of the Juriani asked as I stepped off the train.
"Yes," I acknowledged, noting the polished scales and the subtle markings on their beaks. The one who'd spoken was a Resolver, while the other was a mid-level government official "And you?"
"I am Tas Yelfro," the Resolver said. "Resolver of the Jurian Collective. This is Falc Bresi, governor of Minprov District on Jostieer. We have some unpleasant questions to ask you."
"I see," I said. "May I ask your right of questioning?"
Falc Bresi stirred, either surprised or annoyed by the bluntness of my question. Tas Yelfro, in contrast, didn't bat an eye. "You are accused of a double murder in Jurian space," he told me.
"A double murder of non-Juriani, and inside Spider-controlled territory," I reminded him.
"Both true," Tas Yelfro conceded calmly. "To the first, I remind you that there were three Jurian witnesses to the crime."
"Witnesses to the discovery of a crime, not to the crime itself," I again reminded him.
"That will indeed be the primary question before the court of discovery," the Resolver said. "As to the second, a request is even now being made to the stationmaster for your release into Jurian custody."
I looked over his shoulder toward the complex of buildings that housed the stationmaster's office. Theoretically, I would be on completely solid ground to tell both him and Falc Bresi to take a hike, and all three of us knew it.
Unfortunately, theory didn't always link up with the real world. With rumors sweeping across the station, the Spiders were surely feeling the awkward delicacy of the situation. A pair of Humans found at a Halkan murder scene by Jurian citizenry was an engraved invitation for all three governments to get involved, and I wasn't at all sure how well the Spiders would stand up under the kind of pressure that could be brought to bear on them. Especially with the Modhri busily stirring the pot from the sidelines. "I appreciate your concerns for justice," I told the two Juriani. "I have such concerns myself, though you may not believe that. But I also have duties and obligations to fulfill, and I can't do that from the center of a Jurian court of discovery."
"You should have thought of that before murdering two helpless citizens of the galaxy in cold blood," Falc Bresi bit out.
"Please, Governor," Tas Yelfro said, holding a calming hand toward the other. "Perhaps, Mr. Compton, we will be able to solve our mutual difficulties before your train departs. I believe it will stay for the next hour."
"If not longer," I conceded, craning my neck to look back along the side of the Quadrail toward the baggage cars. With the bodies now gone, there were Spider drones and drudges swarming all over the crime scene, some of them working to unhook the car so that a fresh one standing by could be brought in to replace it. The rest of the Spiders were busy transferring the stacks of cargo to the replacement car.