Doomstar

'Thanks,' said Kettrick. 'Maybe I will.' He was shaken. He wanted to go somewhere and think. He added, 'If I don't find him.'

He started for the door.

The yellow-eyed man trotted alongside. 'Earthman, aren't you?'

'Yeah.'

'Long way from home,' said the man. 'What ship?'

'Venture' said Kettrick. It was a common name. There would be at least six Ventures in any given port at any given time. He beckoned to Chai.

'Quite a playmate you've got there,' said the yellow-eyed man. 'Well, good luck.'

'Thanks again,' said Kettrick, and went out into the street.

He went well away from the Hall. Then he found a carved stone bench beside a canal and sat down, and stared at the black water.

Starbird had ended her flight. Her cargo was sold in the Market. And where was Seri?

Where was the Doomstar?

Gurra, Thwayn, Kirnanoc, Trace. Only we never got to Trace. Starbird dumped her cargo and went into repair. Had she really had a breakdown, or was Seri burying his trail? Kettrick did not believe it was a simple breakdown. It could happen, of course. Ships were ships, even one carrying the Doomstar. They did crack tubes or blow their relays. But if Starbird really had, her crew would not be sitting in a hostel. Time was too short. Seri could not wait two weeks, or three. He would have to find another ship and go on.

Only we never got to Trace. We broke down at Kirnanoc, if the I–C or anyone else should ask. And we're still there. A ship can't carry a Doomstar, can she, if she's sitting in repair?

Well, of course. It was just too easy, tagging Seri from Point A to Point B. The itinerary had to be posted because of I–C regulations, and therefore it might be followed. But nobody can follow you if you're not going anywhere.

End of trail.

Kettrick got up. He went back to the busy streets, with the many-colored crowds and the tall pale Achernans moving through them, cold and proud, wrapped in silken cloaks. At random he selected a place that catered to outworlders with food and entertainment. In the lobby there was a bank of public communicators, each one enclosed in a plastic bubble for privacy.

Kettrick went into one and called the I–C.

A bored female voice answered. Kettrick asked to speak to the agent. The voice required him to please state his business.

'Contraband,' said Kettrick, and she said, 'Oh,' and put him through. A man's voice, rather sharp and irritable, came on.

'All right, what is it?'

Kettrick said, 'Is your recorder started?'

Sounding a little startled, the agent said, 'Yes.'

Forcing himself to speak slowly and clearly, Kettrick said, 'This afternoon the ship Grellah, P.O. Ree Darva, Tananaru, landed on pad number 895dashGYdash4…in case they've moved her. Her skipper and crew were arrested by the spaceport guards and are being held by somebody, if they're still alive. I'd appreciate if it you'd call the appropriate embassies. Boker, Captain, and Hurth, Mate, from Hlakra. Glevan, Engineer, from Pittan. I'd appreciate it if you'd call the embassies right away. The only thing these men did was ask about a ship named 'Starbird.'

There was a sound on the other end as though the agent had leaned forward abruptly. 'Who is that? Who's speaking?'

Kettrick asked, 'Are you bugged?'

The agent said grimly, 'As of the last two hours, I think we're clean. Unless they've worked awfully fast. We're getting to be experts around here.'

'I'll take a chance. This is Johnny Kettrick…'

'Kettrick? Kettrick…!'

'Shut up and listen. Seri Otku, in Starbird, picked up one component of the Doomstar on Gurra, and a second on Thwayn. Starbird is now here at Achern, in the repair dock. She was i-t'd to Trace, but she isn't going there. Do you have any information on the whereabouts of Seri Otku?'

The agent said, 'None. Kettrick, where are you? Kettrick…'

'Stand by, I'm going to see what I can find out. And call those embassies!'

He flipped the switch, cutting short the urgent clamorings on the other end. The last thing he wanted now was to be picked up by the I–C and badgered about his old sins. Or about anything.

How much good it would do to call the embassies he didn't know. He didn't even know whether Boker and the others were still alive. If they were, the quickest and best way to help them would be to break this business wide open.

In the meantime, he had done all he could.

He went out again with Chai, into the streets. He kept glancing back whenever he could without being obvious about it, to no avail. In the kaleidoscopic swirl of the crowds it was impossible to tell if he were being followed.

At the first canal he found a public livery. The Achernan boatman watched with enormous distaste as Chai clambered in after Kettrick and settled herself in the curtained house.

'The Market,' Kettrick said, and the boatman pushed off, the little motor in the stern purring almost inaudibly.

It was only after some minutes of threading the waterways that split upon the towering pink cliffs of palaces and diverged to flow beneath carved temples from which a thousand faces watched with time-bleared stony eyes, beneath the fretted peaks of many-chambered dwellings, and past green promenades heavy with the poison sweetness of the white vine, that Kettrick noticed a particular boat always behind them.

17

The boat had at its forepost a lantern with a crack in it. Otherwise he might never have seen it until too late. There were many boats, coming, going, drifting, with sounds of music and laughter coming softly through their curtains. The music was sweet and haunting in the extreme, and it set his nerves on edge. The crack in the lantern was a thin one, shaped roughly like an old long S. It was in the colored outer shell, so that the cold light sphere inside showed a bright white thread against the soft green. He saw it once shortly after they started. He saw it again after the first branching, and yet again after the second.

From that time on he watched it.

It was perfectly possible that someone else was bound for the same destination. The Market never closed, and many outworlders preferred to do business at night because of the daytime heat. There were also an infinite number of destinations along the way. But he remembered the white rabbit man with the coyote eyes, and he wondered if there had not been a call to somebody about the Earthman with the big gray Tchell who came asking for Starbird.

They entered a long stretch where there chanced to be no other boats at the moment, and suddenly the green lantern put on speed and began to close.

An Achernan voice, speaking Achernan, hailed Kettrick's boatman, and he slowed to answer. The green lantern slid closer and a tall Achernan in a pale cloak appeared, standing by the forepost. He talked to the boatman, reaching out to grasp the sternpost of Kettrick's boat.

Kettrick came out of the house, moving very fast. He hit the boatman. The boatman flung up his arms and fell toward the bow of the other boat, catching at the outstretched arm of the Achernan in the pale cloak. They fell