'You'd make great bait, though.' Helm pushed himself back, roaring with laughter, and got up as he saw a sesheyan coming across the field toward them. 'You've got more chat to hold with these people, probably. I'm finished victualling. Gonna head out again. You have my Grid code. Call when you know what you'll do, or leave word with Delde Sola if I'm in drivespace. I always check with her when I make starrise again. Enda-'
'Stars light your path, brother,' she said.
'Don't you trip, either,' said Helm and headed off.
The sesheyan coming toward them was Ondway, who looked after the mutant with a thoughtful expression. 'I thought he might stay.'
'Said he had things to do,' Gabriel said, pulling a chair out for him. 'How are they settling in?' 'Well enough. We did not lose too many,' Ondway said, 'between your departure and Trader Dawn's arrival. There is much work to do to decide where everyone needs to be, where they will settle. There is at least one family,' he added, 'who feel they must spend many months in the forest enclaves now as a result of their children's journey with you.'
'I didn't mean to teach them bad language,' said Gabriel desperately. 'Really, I-' 'Language?' Ondway looked at him peculiarly. 'It was the computer games. Their parents are nontechnology-oriented. They do not feel that computers are good for their young. They feel they must now spend weeks teaching them how to enjoy themselves once more without having a machine to help them.'
Gabriel chuckled at that. 'How much is the faceprice going to be?'
Ondway gave him a rueful smile. 'You are a fool even to speak of it,' he said. 'They and I owe you faceprice beyond anything that can be calculated. When you understand what that means some day, come back and claim it.'
'If they leave me alive after this,' Gabriel said, nodding upward at where VoidCorp ships no longer hung for the time being, 'some day I will. But believe me when I tell you that I had no choice. I just had to do it. Don't make me out to be a hero. Heroism doesn't come into it.'
'For the one who does such an act,' Ondway said, 'it never does.' He got up. 'Come back again after your travels, and see your people. They are making staves about you.' 'Oh please,' Gabriel said.
'You will see eventually,' said Ondway, 'and then you will not blush, for the staves have a peculiarly . . . human taste to them.' He made a face, one that crinkled his face under the goggles. It was a smile, Gabriel thought. 'But come back. And you, honored, see that he does.' 'I will see to that,' said Enda. 'Under the trees go well, Wanderer: beware what rises from below, and drops from above.'
Ondway dropped that huge jaw in a grin and walked off across the field again to the large hangar that had been converted to office space and support quarters for some of the relocated sesheyans. 'Will we come back here any time soon?' Enda asked.
'I think it might be smart if we took a little vacation from this part of space,' Gabriel replied. 'Algemron is supposed to be nice this time of year.'
'A possibility,' Enda said. 'Well, Sunshine will be ready to lift tonight, and after that-the choices are ours.'
Gabriel nodded. 'I may have a few loose ends to tidy up,' he said, 'but tomorrow I'll be ready to go.' That night, late, they sat in the darkened cockpit, just resting and listening to another of Enda's fraal recordings while they looked up at Hydrocus. The great ruddy light of Grith's primary was reduced to a crescent at the moment, and small spicules of gas-burst light erupted here and there from the turbulent atmosphere, backlit by the yellow fire of Corrivale.
'At the end of this long day,' ' Enda said, 'we are left with one question whose answers are still lacking.' She looked at Gabriel, dark-eyed. 'Why did they send you to kill the ambassador and the others? Who sent you? For what purpose?'
Gabriel shook his head. 'Until I find out more about Jacob Ricel-'
'But he is dead,' Enda said.
'I wonder,' Gabriel said. 'Is he?'
Enda looked at him as if he might have taken leave of his senses.
'I don't mean the man who died in some kind of e-suit accident on Falada,' Gabriel said. 'I mean the real identity behind that name. Are we sure whoever 'ran' him doesn't know more about this than Jake himself did? Can we be sure whoever 'ran' Jake didn't also run me?'
'There may not be as much hidden below this matter as you think, Gabriel,' Enda said.
'There may be more,' said Gabriel. 'The past few weeks have, well, sidetracked me somewhat, but it's time to get back on track. I have to find out more about the people who got me into the situation aboard Falada, Ricel in particular-if that was his name-or whoever was behind him. Once I've found that out, I can begin assembling the evidence that will clear my name.'
'Trying to assemble it,' Enda corrected.
Gabriel looked at her and frowned, then finally nodded.
'This is going to take a while,' he agreed, 'but not forever.'
'May it be so,' Enda said.
Some light-years away, in a white-and-steel office, a conversation was taking place between two men.
One was tall, the other was short, and their suits were of the kind approved by their employer. Beyond that, there was not much to choose between them, for both had spent years cultivating the kind of faces that did not stand out in a crowd and that is quickly forgotten even once it has been described. They spoke in near whispers, uncertain whether, even at their level, their offices were quite secure.
'The Concord tame bloodhounds can sniff around all they like,' the tall one said. 'There's no material evidence. They won't ever be able to prove anything. Life on Grith will go on as always.'
'That's the problem,' his superior muttered. 'It's such a shame. We were so close.'
Both of them sighed. 'Never mind,' said the tall man. 'We've got plenty of time yet. Who knows? Their star might even flare. F2's like that are so unstable.'
He smiled a long, slow smile. 'Now, about those third quarter figures...'
The next morning, at last, came the call for which Gabriel had been waiting. He was only surprised that it had taken this long, since they had been on Grith for three days, but Concord Administrators were busy people.
The marines who came to pick Gabriel up from the field at Redknife treated him with surprising respect, though they did not speak to him more than necessary. That was in line with their duty. You did not chatter to people on transport even if they invited it, and Gabriel did not invite it.
Trader Dawn seemed even more gigantic from the inside than from the outside, if that was possible. The walk to the office where his questioner awaited seemed to go on for about a week, and numerous people in Star Force uniform stood around to watch him pass by. A few of them saluted him. Gabriel did not return salute, since he was not in uniform, but he bowed his head a little to them as he passed and tried to keep hold of his composure afterward. It was difficult.
The room into which he was shown was almost a twin to the last one. Small and plain with a table across which all kinds of writing implements and notes were scattered, the room would not have been below the station of a mid-level bureaucrat. On the other side of the table, in a chair that seemed marginally too low for him, sat Lorand Kharls. As Gabriel came in, he rose.
'Mr. Connor,' he said. 'Will you sit?'
Gabriel pulled out a chair and sat.
'I want to thank you for what you did,' Kharls said.
'I didn't do it for you,' Gabriel said. 'Those people down there were reason enough.'
'You're right,' Kharls said. 'That is the just man's response. Nonetheless, you deserve thanks. There are few enough people who would do what you did because it needed doing.'
Gabriel accepted that and sat quiet. He had at least learned something from Enda while they had been together.
'How did you bug my ship?' Gabriel asked after a moment. 'I beg your pardon?'
'I am convinced that you knew where I was most of the time,' Gabriel said. 'Someone else may have had us bugged as well, but I am uncertain as to who the guilty party might be. You, though-of your responsibility for having us bugged or traced, I'm certain.'
Kharls looked at him thoughtfully. 'You're suggesting,' he said, 'that I thought you might lead me to something?'
