"The Juriani have no objections to such a path," Tas Yelfro said. "Stationmaster?"
"It will be as suggested," the stationmaster said.
Tas Yelfro bowed. "Thank you."
"I recommend a room at the Eulalee Hotel," I said. "They have room service, so I won't need an escort to take me to my meals."
"Don't overreach your status," Falc Bresi growled. "You are a criminal, and will spend your time in a holding cell at the detention center."
"Stationmaster?" I invited. "This is your jurisdiction and decision, not his."
"He will be placed in the Eulalee Hotel," the Spider said.
"Make it a top-floor room on the west side," I added. "That way I can keep an eye on what the examiners are doing with the baggage car."
"Very well," the stationmaster said. "Tas Yelfro, you and Falc Bresi may accompany Mr. Compton and his Spider escort to his holding area, if you wish."
"Oh, yes," Falc Bresi said, glaring coldly at me over the top of his beak. "We most certainly do so wish."
The Eulalee Hotel was the tallest public building in Jurskala Station, a five-floor showcase of Jurian architectural prowess rising over the mostly single-story cafes and shops around it. The exterior was done up in Neo-Revival, a style I'd always found both pretentious and ugly. One of the minor advantages of staying there was that, once inside your room, you didn't have to look at it.
The hotel's elevators weren't nearly big enough for our entire party to squeeze into together, so Falc Bresi insisted we take the stairs. The demand was probably designed to annoy me, but I had more urgent things on my mind than Jurian cheap shots and agreed without complaint.
Still, I couldn't help wondering what the travelers relaxing in the hotel's atrium lobby thought as they watched two Humans, two Juriani, and two conductor Spiders making their way all the way up the wide wrought-iron switchback staircase toward the fifth-floor landing. It just begged for a reference to Noah's ark, but given that our escort probably wouldn't get the joke I decided not to bother.
The stationmaster had sent a message ahead, and two more Spiders were waiting when we reached my assigned room. "I assume you're taking the first shift of guard duty?" I asked them as we approached.
In answer, one of them unfolded a leg he'd had tucked under his globe and produced a key. He stuck it into the lock, and the door popped open. "So you are," I confirmed, looking at the two Juriani. "I guess that means your services will no longer be needed," I added as I pushed the door open.
"Yet we would not wish that the entire burden for your security would rest with the Spiders," Tas Yelfro said smoothly. "Therefore, Falc Bresi has authorized a Jurian security team to be assembled from the transfer station. It will be here within the hour."
I grimaced. As if I didn't have enough enemies and potential enemies to keep track of. "That's very generous of you," I said, taking Bayta's arm and easing her through the doorway into the room. "We'll speak again when the investigation is finished."
"We'll look forward to it," Tas Yelfro promised.
I nodded to him and started into the room. Falc Bresi started to walk in behind me, but stopped short as I stood my ground in the doorway. "We'll speak again when the investigation is finished," I repeated, a little more firmly.
For a couple of seconds he just stared at me, as if memorizing the features of my face against the day when he had his people rearrange them. Then, without comment, he turned and headed toward the elevators. Tas Yelfro nodded again at me and followed.
I cocked an eyebrow at the four Spiders now grouped around the door. "Your turn," I said.
"They'll be staying for a while," Bayta said quietly from somewhere behind me.
I looked over my shoulder. While I'd been verbally sparring with Falc Bresi, she'd made her way across the room and was standing with her back to me, staring out the window. Closing the door on the Spiders, I crossed over to her. "You okay?" I asked.
"This isn't going to work, Frank," she said, her voice almost too soft for me to hear. "Every minute we stay here is another minute the Modhri has to bring in more walkers. In three days—" She shook her head, a shiver running through her.
Unfortunately, she had a point. "It'll work out," I said.
She didn't answer. She didn't have to. Grimacing, I stepped around to her side and put my arm around her shoulders. The muscles beneath my hand tensed reflexively at the touch, then softened again. Lifting my eyes from the colorfully dressed Humans and aliens scurrying among the tracks and platforms below, I focused on our train.
The Spiders had finished transferring the cargo from the old baggage car to the new one, and had maneuvered the new car into position between the other two baggage cars. I wondered briefly why they hadn't just put the remaining two cars together and stuck the new one on the end, decided it probably had something to do with keeping the cargo stacks in the properly positioned cargo cars. Through the open roof of the old baggage car I could see a group of smaller tech-type Spiders, both the knee-high mites and the even smaller twitters, moving slowly along the floor as they searched for evidence of how the two Halkas had died. I looked again at the open roof.
And felt my breath catch in my throat. "Bayta, you told me the Spiders took our crate off the train," I said, forcing my voice to stay casual. "Where exactly was it? Somewhere near where we found the Halkas?"
"No, actually, it was in the third baggage car," she said. "The one at the end of the train."
The tingle running up my back went a little more tingly. "Could they tell if it had been opened?"
"I didn't ask them," she said, frowning at me. Casual tone or not, she knew what it meant when I started asking odd questions this way. "But they must have. Otherwise, why would the Modhri have killed them?"
"Is that what you think?" I asked. "That the Modhri killed his own walkers?"
"I assumed he wanted an excuse to keep us here," she said, frowning a little harder. "It's not like he hasn't killed walkers before when he needed to."
"He certainly made use of the situation to make trouble for us," I agreed. "But I think it was mostly pure luck that things turned out that way for him. Do you know where the autopsy is being carried out?"
"In one of the medical center's operating rooms, I think."
"We need to go talk to the doctors." I turned from the window and started toward the door.
"Wait a minute," she said, catching my arm. "We're not going anywhere. You're under arrest, remember?"
"So un-arrest me," I said. "This is important."
"So is your life," she said firmly. "I thought the reason we agreed to this was to keep you away from angry Halkas until we could prove you didn't kill their countrymen. What do you want me to tell the doctors at the autopsy?"
I grimaced, but she was right. "Tell them to check for evidence of asphyxiation."
Her eyes widened. "Asphyxiation?"
"And then," I went on, "have the Spiders check all the air seals on that baggage car."
She looked back out the window. "You mean the whole thing was just an accident?"
"Well, the Modhri certainly didn't kill them himself," I said, carefully sidestepping her actual question. The deaths hadn't been an accident, not by a long shot. But this wasn't the time to go into that. "You didn't see the way those four Jurian walkers came charging in at me after the Halkas died. The Modhri was mad, way madder than he should have been if he'd snuffed the Halkas himself. I think he was convinced I'd killed them, and was going to make it very clear what he thought of that."