Ruth blushed slightly.
Bury laughed. "Renner said you were clever. The truth is, Commander, I was about to call you. I don't know where he is either."
"Oh."
"You put a very great deal of expression into that syllable. You are fond of my-impetuous-pilot?"
"I don't have to say."
"Indeed."
"And he was supposed to make reports-"
"I have them. Recorded," Bury said. "Renner concocted a scheme for exploring the outback with three snow ghost hunters. He was suspicious of two. They left three days ago. I have received no coherent message since."
"You have a ship in orbit."
"Indeed, and Renner's pocket computer was programmed to remind him of the times when Sinbad would be above the area in which they would be hunting. At least once we received garbled signals that we assume were from Renner."
"You didn't go look for him?"
Bury indicated his travel chair. "That is hardly my way. What I did was invite Captain Fox to dinner."
"Have you learned anything else about our ....roblem?"
"A great deal, but nothing about Renner," Bury said.
Renner was glad of the blindfold. A blindfold could mean they didn't intend to kill him. On the other hand, it might mean that they wanted him to think that.
On the gripping hand: the snow ghost. They'd made massive efforts to keep him alive up to now.
His mind was clearing; the drug had worn off to that extent. But he couldn't walk.
He was strapped to a gurney and carried from the lake where they landed to a closed vehicle. The only time anyone spoke to him was when he tried to ask where he was. Then a voice he hadn't heard before said, "We understand that two doses of Peaceable Sam within a few hours produces a terrible hangover. You'd best be quiet." He decided that was good advice and concentrated on remembering everything he could.
The snow tractor drove for about ten minutes, then he was outside briefly. They went in, and down in an elevator, and presently he felt smooth acceleration.
Subway train? They're really organized. He had about decided he was wrong when he felt deceleration and heard the sounds of electrically operated doors. Someone started to speak and was shushed.
They carried him to another elevator, which went down a long way, then he was rolled down a long corridor with only gentle turns, then to another elevator, and after that he was maneuvered around often enough that he lost all sense of direction.
"So," a new voice said. "Let us see what you have brought us. Remove the blindfold and straps."
Renner blinked. The room was large, and completely enclosed, doors but no windows. He was at one end of a long conference table. They indicated a chair and helped him sit in it. His legs still didn't want to do what he told them to.
Four men sat at the other end of the table. Bright light glared past them into Renner's face so that he could see them only in outline.
The Scott brothers stood next to him. One held a spray can. The other had a pistol.
They'd dressed him in someone else's clothes and removed everything he'd been carrying. Renner felt for the alarm tooth and bit it.
There was a chuckle from the end of the table. "If you have a transmitter that can send a message from here, I will buy it from you no matter what it costs."
"One hundred thousand crowns," Renner said.
"I appreciate humor, but perhaps we are short of time. Have you anything serious to say before we fill you with Serconal?"
"You've been busting your asses to keep me alive. You had to find a decent snow ghost, herd him north into the forest, wait till he killed something, drug him, hover over the trees on a helicopter to shake the snow down to cover him up... Twenty or thirty men, a dozen snow buggies, and a helicopter. Indeed, I'm honored."
"What do you think you've found, Mr. Renner?"
"Better you should ask, ‘What does Horace Bury think we've found?' Me, I thought it was more piracy. Then again, you go to too much trouble; it can't be cost-effective. Religious motives. I'm feeling a little light-headed."
"I expect you are. Mister Scott..."
Darwin Scott took a bottle of scotch from Renner's pack and set it on the table with a glass. "They tell me this stuff helps."
Renner poured a hefty shot and drank half of it. "Thanks. Coffee does it even better. What do I call you?"
"Ah-Mister Elder will do."
Renner tried to grin. "Like I said, religious motives. You understand I thought this out last night after I realized the ghost was drugged. I still don't understand all that. You'd have done better just to leave things alone. Bury never cared about your opal meerschaum, and nobody's actually robbing anyone."
Mister Elder's shadow shifted restlessly. "It's a problem. Some of my people do not feel they earn credit in Heaven by doing nothing. You still have not said what you suspect."
"I think you've got a periodic Jump point to New Utah."
The men looked at each other.
"There's an old description of New Utah system. A good yellow star, and a neutron star companion in an eccentric orbit. New Utah must have had billions of years to build up an oxygen atmosphere after the supernova. The neutron star hasn't been a pulsar for at least that long.
Renner's head felt clearer. Coffee would have been better, but the drink had helped . .. and he'd had time to think last night. He said, "For most of a twenty-one-year cycle, the neutron star is way out beyond the comets. Quiet. Dark. When it dips close to the major sun, solar wind and meteors rain down through that godawful gravity field. It flares. The Jump points depend on electromagnetic output. You get a Jump point link that lasts maybe two years. That's when you import opal meerschaum, among other-"
"Enough. It bothers me to be so transparent, Renner, but this is a very old secret. The soil isn't right on New Utah. The True Church would die without periodic fertilizer shipments."
Renner nodded. "But the gripping hand is Bury. He thinks you're dealing with Moties. If he goes on thinking that... Bury's crazy. He'll drop an asteroid on you and explain to the Navy later."
"An asteroid!"
"Yeah, he thinks that way. Maybe he'll decide that takes too long and just use a fusion bomb. Whatever he does, it'll be drastic. Then he could clean up New Utah without interference, without the Navy ever knowing."
"He has abducted Captain Fox," Elder said.
"If Fox knows where I am, Bury will know."
"He does not. But-"
"But he does know where your Jump ships hang out," Renner said. "You've got a problem. Maybe I can help."
"How?"
Renner looked pointedly around the room. "As you said, it's an old secret. I'm surprised you kept it this long."
"There have been few with Horace Bury's resources seeking it."
"Resources, brains, and paranoia," Renner said. "I guarantee you he won't believe anything you can tell him about what happened to me. Doesn't matter who tells him, either. If I don't get back, he'll think Moties were involved, and he'll know just where to look. I take it I'm under the Hand Glacier? You've got a spaceport around here. A secret one. Bury'll find it."
"Is there anything you do not know?"
"Come on, it all fits once you get the key part about New Utah." Renner hesitated. "Then again, I don't truly know that you aren't dealing with Moties. If you're doing that, you've betrayed the human race, and you should be nuked."
Slowly Mister Elder said, "How can we persuade you?"
"Easy. We'll clear that up in a couple of hours. I'll tell you then. Meanwhile, let's think about talking Bury out of whatever mischief he's planning. I'd better do that pretty quick."
"And after that?"
"Then we talk to the Governor. Look, right now you haven't done anything to get you in that much trouble."
"Only enough to be hanged for high treason."
"Technically," Renner agreed. "But if they hanged everyone who trades with relatives on Outie worlds, they'd run out of rope. The only people killed so far were yours."