voice came over the comm system, warning the passengers that we were getting ready to leave.
*** The ship was the Excelsior . It was a far bigger and more elaborate vessel than the Goldman . It accommodated four times as many passengers. It was more comfortable. It had a much better menu. And the common room was transparent in all directions save along the spine of the ship. The comet, when we got to it, was spectacular. It was easy to imagine you were not even in a ship, but that you were out riding alongside the thing in your chair. With a glass of wine and a few hors d'oeuvres. Despite all that, I was in no mood for sightseeing. And I wasn't thinking straight. I sat there in the resplendent glow of the comet and wondered whether, when we got back, I could hide in the washroom until everyone had left, then make off with the Excelsior and take it out to the asteroid. There would probably not be a refueling problem. But I'd draw every Patrol ship in the area. Ivan was a better bet. Cavarotti's Comet had been looping around the sun and lighting the skies over Salud Afar for more than three thousand years. It had originally been reported by John Cavarotti, of whom nothing more was known. The pilot explained it was beginning to come apart, and scientists thought it would make only a few more passes before disintegrating. 'There are a lot of people,' he said, 'who'd like to see it saved for future generations. So there's an effort under way.' The comet was close enough to the sun to light up, and it was a spectacular sight. We got in front of it and looked back at the head. We sank below it and braked, allowing it to pass above us. The tail was endless. 'More than a million kilometers long,' said the pilot. 'As comets go, it's pretty ordinary.' During the second day, while we still watched the fireworks, the pilot came back and asked whether I was, by any chance, Chase Kolpath. I hesitated. 'Yes.' 'Your boarding pass says you're Jane Armitage.' 'I'm a writer. Kolpath is my pseudonym.' He frowned, then smiled. 'Okay. I have a message for you. From Ivan.' 'Oh,' I said. 'Good.' 'I told him there was nobody on board with that name. But he described you. Including the accent.' 'All right. Thanks. I was hoping I'd get to see him.' He handed me the message. Chase, it said, hope everything's okay. I'll be waiting when you get back. Ivan.
I disembarked without incident and found him at the off-ramp. He handed me a box of mints. 'What's going on?' he asked. He watched me checking out the crowd. 'Are you looking for somebody?' 'Let's go where we can talk.' 'The club?' 'First place they'd look for me.' ' Who'd look?' 'CSS.' He made a face. 'What the hell are you into, Chase?' I shushed him. 'I need to talk to you.' His features scrunched up, and he made an unhappy noise deep in his throat. 'My place won't work. Kara's got her tikondo group tonight.' Cardplayers. We eventually decided on the Samuels Lounge. It was big and crowded, and when we scouted it, I saw no sign of trouble. 'Okay,' he said. 'Tell me what's going on.' We settled into a booth with a magnificent view: Callistra, blue and brilliant above the rim of the world, and the sky dark and empty behind it. Somewhere out there other galaxies existed. But you couldn't see any of them. I leaned across the table and lowered my voice.
In the middle of it, our drinks came, something unpronounceable for him, dark wine for me. I opened the mints and pushed them toward him. He took one, listened, stared at the table, stared at me, looked around the restaurant. When I'd finished, he sat like a man who'd just been hit with a brick. 'And you think they're holding Benedict?' 'There's no question they're holding him. Or worse.' Ivan was considerably grayer than he'd been during my flight-training days. That had only been about eight years earlier, but he looked much older. More sedate. I thought that the earlier model would have been more likely to take a chance with me. 'Let me guess: You want me to take you to the asteroid.' 'Yes.' 'All right.' He meant All right, I understand what you want, not All right, I'll do it . 'What do you expect to find?' ' Something's there.' 'It's a waste of time. It's also a violation of the guidelines. The company doesn't like us going out there.' 'Since when?' 'The last two or three months. They're worried about the Mutes.' 'Ivan-' 'If I got caught, Chase, I'd lose my license.' 'You're all I've got right now, Ivan. Please. I'll pay you for a full load of passengers. Plus another thousand for yourself.' 'You're insulting me, Chase. Look, I'd do it in a minute if I thought there was a point to it.' 'Do it for me. Humor me. Do it because it may be the only chance I have to save Alex.' I finished my wine. I literally gulped it down. And waited for an answer. He cleared his throat. 'Schedule's open for the next two days. Kara was expecting me to be home for a bit. I've been out a lot lately.' 'Bring her along.' 'I'll ask. But I doubt she'll come. She doesn't react well to transdimensional jumps.' 'So you'll do it?' 'Damn, Chase. Kara's going to start talking to a lawyer.' We waited out the tikondo game. Then we trooped up to his apartment and said hello to Kara. He explained it was an emergency, that it was connected with Alex Benedict, who'd gone missing, and we told her everything we knew. I was reluctant about that, but we had to. We were asking her to trust her husband on an overnight alone with a woman he'd known in another life.
'You can come,' he said. She hesitated. She didn't like any part of the deal, and she probably didn't like me either. But she didn't want to send the message that she didn't trust him. 'Kara, please come with us,' I said. 'We're not sure what we're looking for, and we can use the extra pair of eyes.'
Kara was a beauty. One of those women who couldn't help turning heads. Dark hair, bedroom eyes, pouty lips. She probably had a great smile, too, but I hadn't seen it yet. I waited while they packed. Then they were back. Both looked uncomfortable. 'I hope,' Kara told me, 'that there's really a point to this.' There was a touch of coldness in her voice. Ivan checked with Operations. He told them he was going to Tannemann's Dwarf. Four passengers. Husband, wife, two kids. We made up names. Mr. and Mrs. Inasha of Mt. Tabor. And his own wife would also be on board. 'Taking a break from the routine,' he explained. 'Okay, Captain Sloan,' said the watch officer. 'You're cleared to go. You'll have to use the Borden .' ' Goldman 's not serviced yet?' 'That's correct.'
'Okay. That's fine.'
'You'll be leaving out of A4.'
He explained about Tanneman's Dwarf on the way to the boarding area. It was a dead star. 'It's a popular destination,' he said, 'because it's sucking in a cloud of hydrogen and assorted gases, and that produces some spectacular fireworks. Kids especially love it. If you haven't seen anything like it before, it can be a pretty wild display. Kara's been out there a couple of times, haven't you, Kara?' 'It's lovely,' she said. She still hadn't decided what was really going on. The Borden was waiting at the dock. We got on board. Kara and I settled into the common room, while Ivan took his seat on the bridge. 'How long has your friend been missing?' she asked me. While I began to explain it again, the magnetic clamps let go and we started to ease away from the dock. Once outside the station, we took aim at Tanneman's Dwarf and began to accelerate.
*** Tannemann's was everything Mr. and Mrs. Inasha and their kids could have hoped for. Even at a range of sixty million kilometers, which was as close as we wanted to get, we could see a vivid corona brightening and dimming and exploding. 'You know,' I said, 'something like this gives me the feeling that, despite all the light-years I've logged, I really don't get around very much.' 'When this business is over,' Ivan said, 'provided we're not all in prison, you should spend some leisure time in the area. Take the tours.' 'I've done that,' I said. 'I've been to Boldinai Point, the Haunted Forest, the Crystal Sea, the Golden Isles-' 'You're kidding, right?' The AI was turning us around. Lining up on the asteroid. 'No, I'm not kidding.' 'That's ground-floor stuff, Chase. Couple of those I've never even heard of. Where is Boldinai Point?' Kara was loosening up a bit. She smiled at the question. 'Ivan thinks anything that's on the ground isn't worth your time. It's gotta be out orbiting some gasbag before he's able to pay attention.' 'That's not true,' he said. 'Right. Ivan, when's the last time we've even been groundside? Other than to visit your folks?' He sighed. 'I work hard, Chase, and that's the thanks I get.' I smiled politely. 'By the way,' he continued, 'your friend Benedict is an antiquities guy, right?' 'Yes,' I said.
He and Kara exchanged glances. 'That's a clever way to change the subject, Ivan.' She turned to me. 'But Ivan's right. We have a lost world out here somewhere that he'd be interested in.' 'A lost world?' 'Complete with ruins. Used to be somebody there, millions of years ago.' 'That's the first I've heard that. You're right. Alex would
