Odd Girl Out

baggage car were staring down their beaks in obvious horror at the sight before them. 'Can I help you?' I asked cautiously.

The one in front snapped his beak a couple of times, then gestured to the Juri to his right. 'Bidran, bring the conductor,' he ordered. 'Tell him what you have seen. Tell him what these Humans have done.'

The other gulped something and turned, running with complete lack of normal Jurian dignity toward the passenger section of the train. 'So, Humans,' the spokesman said, his tone dark and ominous and still clearly shaken. 'You do not merely come back here to steal. You come back here to murder.'

'It's not what you think,' I protested. 'We just found them this way.'

'That will be for a court of discovery to decide,' the Juri said flatly.

The kwi tingled in my palm as Bayta activated it. Clearly, she assumed I would want to blast our way out of this.

But I couldn't. For one thing, the Juriani weren't under Modhran control, not this time. They were—or thought they were—just honest citizens who'd accidentally stumbled on a double murder and wanted to help bring the perps to justice.

Besides, it was way too late to cover this up by shooting. From the front baggage car I could hear the messenger screaming for assistance at the top of his lungs. Shooting these two would only give us two more bodies to explain when the mob of curiosity-seekers arrived.

'What do we do?' Bayta whispered tensely.

I grimaced. 'We surrender to the Spiders,' I told her.

I looked down at the bodies. Apparently, the Modhri wasn't through making trouble for the day.

SEVENTEEN :

Four hours later, we pulled into Jurskala Station.

Once in motion along the Tube, there's no way for a Quadrail to send a message on ahead. Nevertheless, by the time I finished giving Bayta her last-minute instructions and stepped out onto the platform, I would have been willing to swear the entire station knew what had happened.

Of course, the rumor grapevine had probably been helped along by the two bodies the drones were carefully lifting up through the baggage-car roof. The fact that there were two grim-faced Jurian officials waiting for me on the platform couldn't have hurt, either.

'You are Mr. Frank Compton?' one of the Juriani asked as I stepped off the train.

'Yes,' I acknowledged, noting the polished scales and the subtle markings on their beaks. The one who'd spoken was a Resolver, while the other was a mid-level government official 'And you?'

'I am Tas Yelfro,' the Resolver said. 'Resolver of the Jurian Collective. This is Falc Bresi, governor of Minprov District on Jostieer. We have some unpleasant questions to ask you.'

'I see,' I said. 'May I ask your right of questioning?'

Falc Bresi stirred, either surprised or annoyed by the bluntness of my question. Tas Yelfro, in contrast, didn't bat an eye. 'You are accused of a double murder in Jurian space,' he told me.

'A double murder of non-Juriani, and inside Spider-controlled territory,' I reminded him.

'Both true,' Tas Yelfro conceded calmly. 'To the first, I remind you that there were three Jurian witnesses to the crime.'

'Witnesses to the discovery of a crime, not to the crime itself,' I again reminded him.

'That will indeed be the primary question before the court of discovery,' the Resolver said. 'As to the second, a request is even now being made to the stationmaster for your release into Jurian custody.'

I looked over his shoulder toward the complex of buildings that housed the stationmaster's office. Theoretically, I would be on completely solid ground to tell both him and Falc Bresi to take a hike, and all three of us knew it.

Unfortunately, theory didn't always link up with the real world. With rumors sweeping across the station, the Spiders were surely feeling the awkward delicacy of the situation. A pair of Humans found at a Halkan murder scene by Jurian citizenry was an engraved invitation for all three governments to get involved, and I wasn't at all sure how well the Spiders would stand up under the kind of pressure that could be brought to bear on them. Especially with the Modhri busily stirring the pot from the sidelines. 'I appreciate your concerns for justice,' I told the two Juriani. 'I have such concerns myself, though you may not believe that. But I also have duties and obligations to fulfill, and I can't do that from the center of a Jurian court of discovery.'

'You should have thought of that before murdering two helpless citizens of the galaxy in cold blood,' Falc Bresi bit out.

'Please, Governor,' Tas Yelfro said, holding a calming hand toward the other. 'Perhaps, Mr. Compton, we will be able to solve our mutual difficulties before your train departs. I believe it will stay for the next hour.'

'If not longer,' I conceded, craning my neck to look back along the side of the Quadrail toward the baggage cars. With the bodies now gone, there were Spider drones and drudges swarming all over the crime scene, some of them working to unhook the car so that a fresh one standing by could be brought in to replace it. The rest of the Spiders were busy transferring the stacks of cargo to the replacement car.

'It will leave when scheduled,' the Resolver said, a hint of mild rebuke in his voice. If there was one thing in this universe you could absolutely count on, it was that the Spiders would keep their trains running on schedule. 'Until then, we would appreciate it if you would accompany us to the stationmaster's office to await his decision.'

Leaving Bayta and Rebekah alone and helpless, perhaps? But they were hardly that. Bayta had the kwi and a ton of Spiders around she could call on to run interference if needed.

Besides, at the edge of my vision I could see three knots of Halkas loitering on our platform, their flat bulldog faces turned in my direction, their heads leaning back and forth toward each other as they muttered among themselves. Getting out of the public eye for a while might not be a bad idea. 'Very well,' I said. 'But I accompany you voluntarily, with full freedom to leave whenever I choose.'

'That will be for the stationmaster to decide,' Tas Yelfro said. Taking a step to the side, he gestured me past him. 'This way, please.'

It was the perfect setup for a good dit rec drama mob scene, as the alleged murderer was led on foot past simmering groups of the victims' countrymen. But the Modhri was apparently not interested in trying to tear me limb from limb today. The two Juriani and I reached the stationmaster's office without collecting anything more dangerous than a few glowers, and we all went inside.

'Mr. Frank Compton,' the stationmaster greeted me solemnly.

'That's me,' I confirmed, listening carefully to his voice. To my ears, unfortunately, all Spiders sounded alike. 'Have we met?'

'No,' he said briefly. 'Has the current situation been explained to you?'

'I've had the Jurian version,' I said. 'But it seems to me that the only one I need to concern myself with is yours.'

The Spider didn't answer, but merely curled up one of his seven legs from the floor and plucked a reader from the desk. I studied him as he held that pose, paying particular attention to the scattering of white spots on his globe. It was, I decided, a different pattern from the one I'd seen on the stationmaster aboard our Quadrail.

The stationmaster everyone from Bayta on down claimed hadn't been there at all.

This one held up the reader another moment, then laid it down again. 'Very well,' he said. 'Mr. Compton, you may sit. Tas Yelfro, you may speak.'