‘Keeps the files from gettin’ musty. You got anything else?’
‘No. How did you find out about Honeypeach anyhow?’
She spat, ritually, without moisture. ‘Two dumb stall cleaners at the stables here in Splash One, yakkin’ about stuff while they should be shovelin’ shit. Didn’t see me in the stall fixin’ Tinkerbell’s leg. Both of ’em sort of Crystallites. Not the hard core kind, but the hangers-on. Well. One of ’em has a brother, and he says his brother’s been sent with some other guys off to Northwest. To do in some Explorer knight, so he said. They were all paid a good bit to go. Said the knight would be sent out on a mission and they could kill her when she was on her way back, because the Governor’s wife wanted her dead.’ She spat again. ‘I told Thyle and he called you and Jem for a meetin’. You were late, but you heard the rest of it. We guessed it was Don Furz, she bein’ the only one much in the public eye up there, but we didn’t know ’til I called the Priory it was all goin’ to happen so soon.’
‘I may be able to find out a little more, as I’m not known around here yet, and nobody but the four of us knows I work for the PEC. Are you getting anywhere?’
‘We’re puttin’ two and two together.’
‘According to Jem there seem to have been two attempts on the Explorer’s life in the past, plus the one yesterday,’ Gentry mused. ‘What made Jem suspicious that somebody tried to kill Furz before?’
‘Jem’s got a birdy over in BDL Exploration Division.’
‘Birdy?’
‘A little spy. Somebody low down in the ranks, somebody no one pays any attention to. Probably some data clerk or communications expediter. Jem didn’t say who, and we didn’t ask. Well, the birdy says the orders sending Furz out to Redfang the first time weren’t to standard. Somebody’s approval missin’, something not right. And Jem found out today the orders sending her out there this last time weren’t any more legitimate than the first ones. Both sets were boggled.’
‘Boggled?’
‘Faked! Some wallmouse creepin’ out at night to boggle orders. Who do you suppose? The Explorer King? I’d put my chits there. Easy enough to tell, Gentry. You’ve got the connections. Find out whether Chase Random Hall has accounts on Serendipity. If he’s got money there, it’s nine times sure he’s your wallmouse, sendin’ his own Explorer off to get killed.’ Her face writhed briefly at the thought of this betrayal.
Rheme Gentry made a quick note. ‘Don’t count on my being able to find out anything, Gereny. Mail to Serendipity’s being censored or just lost, even the diplomatic stuff from Government House. BDL controls the ships, and except for a few odds and ends, messages aren’t getting through.’
‘Now how do you know that?’
‘I had acknowledgment signals worked out, things to be planted in the system news, outside the BDL net, and they aren’t showing up. Jubal’s getting zipped up tight, Gereny. I’ll see what I can find out about Hall, but I wouldn’t fasten on him too quickly. It could be someone else. Hall’s a little conspicuous. I’d bet on someone less noticeable.’
‘Poor Donatella,’ Gereny mused. ‘Nice gal. Met her three or four times, always pleasant. No snoot to her, like some of those Explorers. Hope she’s all right.’
‘Well, we’ll hope Tasmin Ferrence got there in time to help her out. Jeshel said he sent four ruffians, but if they were the quality I saw hanging around in the Crystallite quarter, the stun rifle should have increased the odds in our favor. Those two attempts before bother me, though. Brother Jeshel claims no part in those …’
‘Even if it is the Explorer King, I’ll bet he’s not acting on his own. I’d like to know who’s giving the orders.’
Price Zimble sat at the feet of the Explorer King, gently stroking the King’s knees and calves. Chase Random Hall, while relishing the sensation, affected not to notice this intimacy.
‘Then what did you do?’ the King asked. ‘After Donatella got back from Splash One?’
‘I hung around,’ said Zimmy. ‘I’ve been hanging around for days.’
‘She hasn’t asked for you since?’
‘Not once.’
‘You’ve been through her room?’
‘Over and over again. There’s nothing there, Chase. A few odds and ends of papers and things she’s working on, and her own things. That’s all.’
‘No messages?’
‘None that aren’t ordinary. You know. Ralth asking her to have dinner, or Martin inviting her for a drink, or something like that. A thank you note from her old cousin down in Splash One.’
‘It could be code.’
‘Code! For heaven’s sake, Randy. It said, “Dearest Donatella, thank you so much for the nice lunch. Do give my best to your mother. Love, Cousin Cyndal.” If you can make code out of that….’
The King made an irritated moue, his mouth twisting unattractively. ‘Nothing more about the man down in Splash One, the one that died in the Chapter House?’
‘Nothing. No one knows who he is or who sent him. Unless you do.’
‘Don’t be silly, Zimmy. Justin sent him. Who else?’ His voice was not as sure as the words.
‘What do you want me to do now?’
‘In the unlikely event she comes back from this Redfang trip….’
‘Unlikely event?’ Zimmy opened his eyes very wide in ingenuous surprise.
‘Somebody saw to it she got sent, idiot, and it wasn’t me. I saw the orders! They were boggled. Why did the powers that be send her off into the Redfang anyhow? There’s nothing there that really needed doing.’
‘Powers that be?’ Zimmy was all innocence.
The Explorer King sounded irritated. Parts of the puzzle didn’t fit. He, the King, had been told not to do anything to Don Furz. But someone was doing something to Don Furz. Who? And why? He didn’t look closely at Zimmy. If he had, he might have surprised a glimmer of amusement in Zimmy’s eyes.
‘Don’t ask questions, Zimmy. The less you know the better off you are. And
