next question. 'It would have taken six months normal to reach Karig.'
Which meant Boulaye had never reached the world he had booked as his destination. Again Sheen, anticipating, provided the needed data.
'The vessel was the Mantua, a free trader operating on the fringe of the Iturerk Sink. It would have called at Alba and Cilen before reaching Karig.'
If it had followed its posted schedule, but free traders followed profit not routine. It could have missed either or both the named worlds if Boulaye had paid high enough to gain a private charter. Or had the man left the ship at the first port of call? If he had then where would he have gone?
Ten months-in a sector of space in which suns were close and worlds numerous the choice was large.
'Earl?' Sheen Agnostino was waiting at the screen. 'Is there more?'
'Check Varten and Hutz.' Names gained from Tomlin and Cucciolla as planets visited while on the quest. Lies to add to the rest; neither could have been reached in the available time. Yet Boulaye had found something- where? 'Check the transit time to Alba,' said Dumarest. 'Double it and deduct it from the total. Halve the remainder and check on what worlds could be reached in the available time.'
An elementary exercise but even as he gave the instructions Dumarest realized its futility. There were too many imponderables: had ships been available? Had Boulaye retraced his path exactly? Had he even left on the Mantua at all? A passage booked was not necessarily a passage taken as he well knew. A man, suspicious, hugging a rare and precious secret, could well have taken a few elementary precautions to avoid potential followers.
'Two worlds, Earl.' Sheen turned to face him as she made her report. 'Tampiase and Kuldip.'
'Kuldip?'
'The closest.' Her face glowed with reflected light as she turned again toward the screen. 'You know it?'
'I've heard of it.' He remembered Charisse, the Chetame Laboratories-could there be a connection? A moment's thought and he dismissed the idea-what would a geologist have in common with a genetic engineer? But what connection could Boulaye have had with any of the named worlds? What clue had guided his search? Where could he have obtained it? Dumarest said, 'Can you run a wide-spectrum search pattern, Sheen? I want anything which could tie Boulaye in with Earth.'
'Earth?' She turned toward him, her profile etched with light, but she did not smile. 'Earth,' she said again and busied herself at the keyboard. Words flickered to form a column. 'Earth,' she read. 'Ground. The home of a small animal. An electrical connection. Soil. A mythical planet. The opposite of sky. Crude as in 'earthy.' To-'
'The world,' interrupted Dumarest. 'Check Boulaye with that.'
A moment then, 'That's odd.' Her voice carried surprise. 'There seems to have been a deletion. I'll try rerouting.' Her hands moved with skilled practice as she explained what she was doing. 'There is more than one way to ask a question, Earl, and a good computer operator knows how best to get the desired information. If you can't pass it then go around if or over it or attack it from the rear-ah!' She fell silent, looking at the screen. At the single word it contained.
'Erased,' said Dumarest. 'Everything?'
'Not the data.'
'Then-'
'No,' she said. 'It can't be done. Think of a room,' she urged. 'One filled with a billion books. Books which hold the answer to every question you care to ask. If you wanted to build something, a raft, for example, they could tell you how. But you'd have to dig. One book might teach you how to temper steel, another how to cut a thread, a third how to weld. More would teach you how to mine for minerals, smelt metals, process the raw supplies. Then you'd need to discover the correct alloy for the antigrav units and how to make the generator and all the rest of it.'
A lifetime of work and that was knowing what you wanted to begin with. But, once done, others could follow.
'Boulaye?'
'He erased the program,' she said. 'Whatever he was looking for he didn't want others to find.' Pausing, she added, 'I'm sorry, Earl. It's a dead end.'
'No!' He had worked too hard, risked too much, come too far to give up so easily. More quietly he said, 'Check it out, Sheen. Try everything you know. Perhaps there could have been an accompanying program, dual references, something like that.' He waited as her fingers manipulated the keys, spoke again before she could shake her head, 'Erce. Try Erce.'
Nothing. She said, 'It's not even listed, Earl. Is it a word? A name?'
A dream or a lie, something culled from a rotting book or a device to gull others-Dumarest thought of Boulaye, of how the man had died. Would he have enjoyed such a jest? Who would have known if he had?
The day had darkened with a bitter wind whining from the north, the air filled with stinging pellets of ice which settled to form a slick film on the streets and buildings. High above the flags streamed from their poles, ranked as sentinels against the sky, their gaudy hues paled against the leaden clouds. Soon it would be dark with manmade stars illuminating the heavens; patches of glow from serried windows, pools of lambence from lanterns, light which would mask but not remove the misery of those caught in the storm.
'Please, mister, I'm in the third year. One more semester and I'm home dry.' A hand opened at the end of a swaddled arm. 'A veil, mister. Just a veil.'
A student at the edge of desperation or a beggar pretending to be just that; the voice was one Dumarest had heard on a thousand worlds, the whine as much a part of poverty as were sores and rags and skeletal faces. He walked on, turning into a narrow alley, leaving it to cross a wide avenue, skirted a bunch of students studying beneath a suspended lamp to watch others busy getting garlands on lines set high across the thoroughfare. The holiday gaiety was unmatched by the dour foreman who shouted instructions as he beat his hands against the cold.
'Tighter! Get them tight, damn you! Unravel that streamer and space the ornaments out evenly. You want to get paid let me see you move!'
The orders were fretted by the wind as were the flags and streamers, the garlands and gaudy decorations. Dumarest moved on, conscious of the grit of fatigue in his eyes, the ache of tension maintained too long. With steam and icy showers, hot blasts and relaxing heat he tried to get rid of them both, ending after the treatment lying on a soft couch wrapped in a fluffy blanket attended by an obsequious girl.
'You wish to sleep, sir?' Smiling she lifted the headband she carried. 'An hour or a day it makes no difference. A touch and microcurrents will impinge on the sleep center of the brain and bring instant rest. The cost is small. For a little extra you could enjoy a sensatape attuned to the sleeping condition which will induce fantastic and erotic dreams. No? A tuitional tape, then? We have a wide variety covering a multitude of subjects.' Her smile became more personal, more inviting. 'Of course if you wish for something other than sleep that, too, can be arranged.'
'Some coffee,' said Dumarest. 'And something to eat.'
The coffee came in a pot decorated with shimmering butterflies, the cakes molded in a variety of shapes: cones, diamonds, hearts, loops, squares, tetrahedrons, all tinted in a diversity of hues. Luxuries Dumarest could have done without; the coffee was for the caffeine it contained, the food for its energy content. Eating, he thought about Myra Favre.
Why had she lied?
The men she had promised to introduce him to had not been at the party. Tomlin had moved long before and Cucciolla was almost housebound; things she must have known when she had so casually mentioned their names. Or had it been as casual as it had seemed? And why the invitation to be her guest?
Dumarest ate a cake and tasted mint and honey as he sought for reasons other than the obvious. She was not a creature of passion though she played at being passionate. A woman in her position with her influence would not want for lovers even if the partners she chose acted from self-interest. A reluctance to give cause for gossip? A possibility and he considered it, remembering the acid comments made by Jussara at the party. The spite of a jealous woman or a natural-born bitch-would Myra have wanted to avoid creating potentially awkward situations?
He drank more coffee, needing the stimulus it gave. Fatigue brought its own dangers; accumulated toxins could slow reflexes and dull the intellect and now he had to make a decision while knowing, inwardly, what that
