'A sip, maybe a little more.'
'As your blood tests showed. If you hadn't been so cautious you could have followed her over the parapet. Drugs,' he explained. 'A mild hallucinogenic coupled with an euphoric and, oddly enough, a strong sedative. A peculiar combination-you would have sensed a mild distortion of reality together with a carefree abandon and a mounting lethargy culminating in sleep. The abrupt change together with the amount she had drunk must have induced a momentary vertigo. The tension she was under could also have been a contributory factor.' Without change of tone the officer added, 'Did you love her?'
'No.'
'But you were willing to stay with her.'
'Yes.'
'And not for the sake of financial saving-you have no need of money.' From a drawer in the desk Bartain took an envelope and shook out its contents. Among them the blade of the knife glittered like ice, the chain of juscar like blue-tinted mist. Stirring it with a finger he said, 'Portable wealth carried around a throat or waist. A mercenary's trick-your trade?'
'I've worked as one.'
'And as other things too, no doubt.' The finger touched the knife. 'Madam Blayne reports you as being a dangerous man and I agree with her. One who would let nothing stand in his way. A man willing to lie and cheat and even kill if such things were necessary to gain his ends. If I were a curious man I might be tempted to wonder just what those ends could be?'
'Nothing which would have led me to kill Myra Favre.'
'Nothing which caused you to kill her,' corrected Bartain. 'What you might have done is no concern of this office. We're not interested in speculation.' He pushed the scatter of items back into the envelope and threw it at Dumarest. As he caught it the officer added, 'But someone provided that wine.'
Outside, the streets had the soiled, bedraggled appearance of a party which has lasted too long. Night would restore some of the gaiety with the sound and fury of electronic discharges, blazing shafts of color, drifting balls of luminescence but now, in the leaden light of the early afternoon, the streamers hung like dirty washing, the garlands like limp and flapping rags.
The people reflected the atmosphere. Students huddled in their dun-colored robes, waited impatiently for the festival to end and normal routine to provide the warmth of classrooms, the comfort of dormitories and dining halls. Those who could not afford such luxuries resented the others who robbed them of space and opportunities. Visitors ached from nocturnal enjoyments. Others counted their gains or losses and adjusted their aims. Some merely waited.
Dumarest saw a pair of them as he left the precinct station and turned to his left to pause and turn again to retrace his steps. These were two men, students by their robes, a little too clumsy, a little too careless. Dumarest studied them both as he passed; a glance which took in their boots, their faces, their averted eyes. Men who could have been set as decoys to distract his attention from others who could even now be following him with greater skill.
Dumarest remembered the exotic wine Myra Favre had pressed him to drink. Something she had obtained to enhance the evening as she had obtained the gown, the services of a beautician-how had she been so certain he would return? And why should she have wanted him to sleep?
'Mister?' The inevitable beggar stood with a hand out-stretched, his voice the inevitable whine. 'I'm starving, mister. I've no place to sleep. If you don't help me I'll die.'
Dumarest felt in a pocket.
'Me too, mister!' A girl this time, face sunken, eyes feral. 'Just the price of a meal!'
More joined in, others came running as Dumarest sent coins spinning high, to catch them, to send them up again in a bright, enticing stream.
'Me, mister! Don't forget me!'
'No, me!'
'Me!'
'Me! Me! Me!'
Voices rose to a scream, restraint forgotten as Dumarest flung a shower of money into the air. Small coins spun and bounced, tinkling, to be snatched up or kicked or buried beneath lunging bodies. Another handful completed the confused scramble and, as Dumarest moved on, the pair he'd noted were caught up in the surge and swept to one side.
Had they been agents of the Cyclan?
Men could have waited in hope of easy prey-even though civilized Ascelius wasn't proof against thieves, and Bartain had mentioned the desperation induced by the cold. Aside from a scrap of overheard gossip Dumarest had no proof that the Cyclan were on the planet or that Myra Favre had been in contact with a cyber. It was time to eliminate doubt.
'Earl!' Jussara smiled at him from the screen. 'How nice of you to remember me!'
'How could I forget?'
'You flatter me.'
'No-I simply tell the truth.'
'Which could be flattery in itself.' Her smile faded a little. 'I was sorry to hear about Myra. A tragic loss and you must be desolate. Why didn't you call me before?'
'I was otherwise engaged,' said Dumarest dryly. 'As you can imagine.'
'The proctors-I'd forgotten.' Her smile was that of a vixen. 'Am I going to see you?'
'It is my dearest wish.' He smiled in return. 'Just as soon as I clear up a few things. Tonight if I can manage it. Are you free?'
Regretfully she shook her head. 'Not tonight, darling.'
'Tomorrow?' Without giving her time to answer he added, 'I'm too impatient and you must forgive me for being impetuous. Blame your own attraction. I forget I have things to do and could use some help if it's available. At the party you mentioned a name-someone you thought had helped Myra. Okos-if he's good I could use him.'
'A cyber doesn't come cheap, darling. Why not try the university computer system? They are adapted to give analogues on stated problems. I assume you're concerned about your future now that poor Myra is dead. Did you actually see her fall?'
'Yes.'
'And you tried to save her?'
'Of course, but that isn't why I'm calling. About my future, I mean.'
'Of course not.' Her smile turned cynical. 'You must tell me all about it. Not tomorrow, but the day after? Can you make it then, Earl?'
'The day?' His tone left no doubt as to his meaning. 'I was hoping to share dinner with you.'
'That would be nice. Call me in the afternoon and we'll fix the time and place.'
A smile and she was gone, the screen turning a nacreous white as the connection was broken. A doubt resolved but it brought little comfort. Myra had known the cyber. If she had seen him Okos would know of his presence, had anticipated it, perhaps, the prediction later verified. Was that why she had invited him to be her guest? Bribed to hold him in a silken snare? Did it account for the wine-lying in a drugged sleep he would have been easy prey. And why had Bartain held him so long?
He had phoned from a hotel and outside the streets were waking to a sluggish activity as shadows clustered at the foot of buildings and darkened the mouths of alleys. Dumarest plunged down one, took another, traced a wide-flung path of apparently aimless movement, finally plunging into an area of small shops and winding paths. In a store he bought a student's robe, picking one too large, worn, not torn but far from new. When next he hit the streets his face was shielded by a cowl, his bulk swollen by the voluminous garment, his height lessened by a stoop. His camouflage was less efficient than it seemed-putting a man into uniform does not make him invisible to his fellow soldiers. And aping a student meant he had to act like one.
'Not here!' A young man, hard, brash, his robe clean, bright with badges, held up a blocking arm. 'This tavern's reserved for Schrier.' He saw the badges on Dumarest's robe. 'You don't even belong to the Tripart-this area's not for you.'
