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.He had friends in Summerlands.And he seemed to share her opinion of Dr.bint Hezra- Fong.She piped the input from Fassa's cabin through her speakers in Forister's cabin.After a moment's stunned silence, Forister sat down amid the piles of an- tiques on his bunk and listened carefully."Darnell thought Alpha would kill the man for him.She'd had a bunch of accidents with the tests she ran on her charity patients; she was getting quite good at faking death certificates with innocent-seeming causes of death.She used to boast about it at our annual meetings.One more wouldn't have been any problem for her.But she didn't kill him.She keeps him so full of Seductron that he doesn't know who he is, and when- ever she wants Darnell to do her a favor, she threatens to cut the man's Seductron dosage.""His name?' Sev demanded.Fassa looked down."I'd like some assurances that you'll see my sentence reduced.""You know I can't do that," Sev told herShe twisted her fingers together."You could lose the records of this last trip, though.Without your tes-PARTNERSHIP179timony and the recordings, there woulan't be any hard evidence against me." She looked up, eyes bril- liant with unshed tears."Please, Sev? I thought you cared for me a little.""You were wrong," said Sev in a voice as dead and even as any droneship's artificially generated speech."Then what do I have? Why should I give you a damned thing?" Fassa pounded on the yielding sur- face of the bunk in frustration.Her fists sank into the plasmaform and left momentary dents that smoothed out as soon as she lifted her hands."Oh, all right.Go ahead and see me mindwiped, or sent to prison until I'm too old to care," she said wearily."Why should the others get away with it when my life is ruined? The man's name is Valden Alien Hopkirk, and he used to own Hopkirk Glimware right here on Bahati.Is that enough for you, or would you like his Central Citizen Code as well?""Any little thing you can tell us would be much ap- preciated," said Sev carefully."Well, I don't happen to know his CCC, so you're out of luck!" Fassa snapped."Wait # wait # there's more.""There is?""Find Hopkirk, and you'll have evidence on Alpha and Darnell both," Fassa said rapidly."But there's another one you ought to get.His name's Blaize."In the brawn's cabin, Forister lowered his head to rest on his clenched hands."Blaize Armontillado- Perez y Medoc," he whispered."No.No."Fve family m the Nyota system.I was going to visit after fleft Sunrnierhnds.Nancia cut off the audio transmission to Forister's cabin and shut down her own sensors there.She lis- tened alone while Fassa babbled out the details of Blaize's felonious career on Angalia; the diverting of PTA shipments, the slave labor and torture of the na-180Anne McCaffrey fc? Margaret Battrive population he was supposed to be guarding.Some day Forister would have to know and face those details, but not yet.She would leave him alone until he requested the recordings of this conversation, and then she would let him listen in privacy.And so Nancia was the only witness when Fassa's confessional came to an abrupt ending.After she finished the tale of Blaize's misdeeds, Sev probed her."I've looked up the records of that first voyage," he said, almost casually."There were five of you in it together, weren't there? You, Dr.bint Hezra-Fong, Overton-Glaxely, Armontillado-Perez y Medoc, and one other.Polyon de Gras-Waldheim, newly commis- sioned from the Academy.What was his part in the wager?"Fassa clamped her lips shut and slowly shook her head."I can't tell you any more," she whispered."Only # don't let them send me to Shemali.Kill me first.I know you never cared for me, but as one human being to another# kill me first Please.""You're wrong in thinking I never cared for you," Sev said after a long silence."You said so yourself.""You asked if I liked you a little," he corrected her."And I don't.You're vain and self-centered and you may have killed a good man and you've yet to show any interest at all in Caleb's fete.1 don't much like you at all.""Yes, I know.""Unfortunately, he went on with no change of ex- pression, "likeitornot# and believe me, I'm not at all happy about the situation # I do seem to love you.Not," he said almost gently, "that it'll do either of us much good, under the circumstances.But I did think you ought to know."CHAPTER ELEVENCaleb recovered with amazing speed.Two hours after his arrival at the clinic, forty minutes after Alpha bint Hezra-Fong had analyzed the poisons in his blood and slapped on stimpatches of the appropriate antidotes, the nervous convulsions had stopped.Nancia knew exactly when that happened, because by then she had thought to send Sev Bryley to Summerlands with a contact button discreetly replacing the top stud in his dress tunic and a second contact button to clip onto Caleb's hospital gown.While Forister remained on board as a nominal guard for Fassa, Sev lounged about the public rooms at Sum- merlands trying to look like a worried friend-or-relative and chatting up the recuperating VIPs.Nancia watched the clinic from two angles: the convulsive shuddering view of a cracked white ceiling, emanating from Caleb's contact button, and the repetitive views of artificial potted palms and doddering old celebrities to whom Sev talked.On the whole, the potted palms were more valuable than the celebrities; at least they didn't waste Sev's time with their reminiscences of events a century past"None of these people know anything about Hopkirk," she whispered through Sev's contact button."I've noticed," he replied as the senile director emeritus of the Bahati Musical College, aged one hundred seventy-five Standard Central Years, tottered away for his noon meds."Can't you do something more productive?""Give me time.We don't want to be obvious.And stop hissing at me.They'll think I'm talking to myself and hearing voices."182Anne McCaffrvy & Margaret Ball"From what I've seen of these befuddled gentry, that'll make you fit right in.""Only," said Sev grimly, "if they don't hear the voices too."Nantia hated to leave him with the last word in an argument, but she was distracted at that moment.Something had happened # or stopped happening.Caleb's sensor button was no longer transmitting a jig- gling view of the cracks on the ceiling; the image was still and perfectly dear.Not quite still.A regular, gende motion assured her that he still breathed.A moment later, two aides exchanged a flurry of rapid, low-voiced but mainly cheerful comments over Caleb's bed.Nancia gathered that the news was good; his (three-syllable Greek root) was up, his (four-syl- lable Latin derivation) was down, they were putting him on a regular dosage of (two-word Denebian form), and as soon as he was conscious they were to start him on a physical therapy routine.She complained to Forister about the jargon."Now you know how the rest of the world feels about brains and brawns," he said soothingly."You know, there are people who think decomposition theory is just a little hard to follow.They accuse us of mystifying the mathematics on purpose.""Huh [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]