Doomstar

appalled.

'Even in the I–C?'

'Didn't you ever wonder why I wouldn't notify my own to look the other way if they happened to see you? You have no idea how the poison of the Doomstar has spread. I believe every one of the men with me tonight is loyal, but I can't be sure. So most of them believe that you were wanted simply for breaking the law.' He sank wearily into the chair behind the desk. 'You took an awful chance with that call, Johnny. However, it saved your neck, because I was able to get there in time.'

'How did you know where to look for me?'

'You said you were going to see what you could find out. Where else would you go but to the Market?' Sekma leaned forward and said furiously, 'But the next time, goddamn it, don't be so clever. I could have picked you up right where you were calling from, only you had to cut the switch and run.'

'The last I heard,' said Kettrick, 'you were on your way to Gurra. How did I know you were here? You never made any effort to contact us at the port, and you could have had me there all afternoon.' He was a little bit sore about that. 'Anyway, if I hadn't run, I wouldn't have found out what happened to the Doomstar.'

Sekma said, 'What did you find out, Johnny?' His eyes were desperate, though his voice was soft and almost without expression. 'I hope it's good, because otherwise we seem to be at a dead end.'

'The yacht Silverwing was in repair with Starbird. The components of the Doomstar were obviously not sold with the cargo. They are obviously not sitting in Starbird, either, not with the timetable so short. I believe the components were transferred to Silverwing.' He added unnecessarily, 'She belongs to Ssessorn, the curodai…'

'I know,' said Sekma, and he left the office.

After a few minutes he came back.

'Silverwing left repair the day after Starbird entered. She took off that same afternoon.'

Kettrick groaned. 'I don't doubt it. For where?'

'You know better than that, Johnny. She's a private craft, not engaged in commerce. She doesn't have to file an i-t, nor state her cargo. Do you suppose she's carrying just those same components that Seri brought? Or do you suppose that she's got the whole lot with her, the complete mechanism? This is a hot bed, Johnny. No better place in the Cluster for final assembly, the final jumpoff. And no better ship to do it than the sacrosanct private yacht of the curodai of Achern.'

He turned to a chart of the Cluster that filled all one wall of the office. 'I guess we can take our pick of destinations. And we had better be right the first time. There won't be any second guessing.'

He stared at the chart as though he hated it. He had lost weight since Kettrick had last seen him.

'Any ideas?'

'No,' said Kettrick. 'Not at the moment.' He was too old to have ideas any more. Too old and too tired. He stood beside Sekma staring at the chart. Two old, tired men, he thought, and the Cluster is passing from us and ours to the people of the Doomstar, away from a rule of law to a rule of men, and terror, and there is nothing more we can do to stop it. We were just a little too late, a little too slow.

Starbird had reached the appointed end of her journey. How many more ships had reached theirs, coming by other ways from other worlds? And now, somewhere out there among the charted suns, Silverwing was flying, and in a matter of days one of those suns would die.

He remembered Boker's thick blue finger stabbing at these same charted suns, his own pointing out the dark smear of the Lantavan Bank. He shook his head. He did not quite laugh. Somehow it seemed not really funny.

'It looked so simple,' he said. 'What I was going to do, I mean, because I didn't believe in the Doomstar.' He traced the route. 'Tananaru, at your invitation. Then Gurra, Thwayn, Kirnanoc…going through the motions, you understand, because they suited me as well as you. Then here.' He touched the Lantavan Bank.

'But your i-t said Trace.'

'Sure it did. But we weren't really going there. Until later, that is, on the way back. Jump from Kirnanoc, go through the drift, and jump again…' He flicked the White Sun with the gesture of a man saying goodbye. 'I still yearned after that million credits, Sekma. I could have done it, too.'

Sekma muttered, talking to himself. 'Gurra, Thwayn, Kirnanoc, Trace. That was Seri's i-t, too.'

'Yes. But he never meant to make it, either.'

'Except,' said Sekma, 'maybe on the way back?'

Sekma was studying the chart, his shoulders hunched, his head thrust forward.

Kettrick said stupidly, 'But they wouldn't have any reason to go to Trace. I had to have a way back from the White Sun

He stopped, his mouth still open. Sekma had picked up a pointer and was using it like a rapier, as though he would skewer the stars out ofUhe sky.

'Where would you go from Kirnanoc, Johnny, if you wanted to poison a star? Not Trace, obviously, because you have said you are going there.' The pointer rapped a planet. 'Here? Possibly. But this system is a populous one, perhaps too large a murder for this stage of the game. Fear has to be fed adoitly. In too great doses it can cause revulsion. So…' The pointer rapped again. 'Here? Or here? Both possible, but also populous. And apart from psychology or foolish notions of mercy, populous systems have heavy traffic, many eyes to see and ears to hear, and this time…this one time, Johnny…they must still work in the dark. How much easier and safer to poison a sun that has few children, and backward ones at that.'

His pointer stabbed the White Sun.

'Somebody has to die in this demonstration, or the true power of the Doomstar will not be apparent to everyone. It is not, however, necessary nor desirable to slaughter too many. Think of the economic loss to the conquerors; populous systems produce wealth. Wouldn't the Krinn just about ideally fill the bill? They're human enough to die like humans, but they would be small loss. Even the heartstones would be a small sacrifice. And Seri knows all about the White Sun and the Krinn, because he had a partner once that was interested in them. How logical to point out the excellence of this choice to his fellow conspirators. A little difficult to get to, but once there, privacy in which to set up their apparatus is practically guaranteed.'

He laid the pointer down and walked away and stood with his back to Kettrick.

'Am I talking nonsense, Johnny? Grabbing at any straw because I can't bear the thought of losing?'

Kettrick said slowly, 'I don't think so. I think I know now exactly when it was that Seri decided he had to kill me.'

Sekma's head came up sharply.

'I told him,' said Kettrick, 'that I was going to the White Sun. He asked me what would happen if he refused to have anything to do with the venture. I said I'd make other arrangements and the half share of the money would go to somebody else. And that was when he promised to give me Starbird, knowing I'd be dead before morning.'

Sekma turned and faced him. They looked at each other, and away outside a ship came down in a roll of thunder, and the fabric of the office quivered.

The buzzing of the communicator on Sekma's desk sounded incredibly loud and close at hand.

Sekma answered it. He listened briefly, and Kettrick thought that whatever had been said had startled. 'All right. Yes,' he said, and broke the connection. He looked oddly at Kettrick and walked to the door.

He opened it and stood waiting, and in a moment Larith came.

19

She took Sekma's hand and greeted him. She seemed uncertain, her voice subdued, her eyes a little downcast, as though she might be afraid. She was wearing a garment of thin dark silk, closely belted around the waist and with loose sleeves that covered her arms and shoulders, the sort of costume a woman might wear if she wished to be inconspicuous. As though, Kettrick thought, Larith could ever be inconspicuous.

She came into the office, and then she saw him and stopped, and her eyes widened and her hands made a