Timothy Zahn - The Icarus Hunt

"It wasn't," I told him. "But the murderer hoped most of us would think itwas.

All of us, in fact, except one person."

"But that's ridiculous," Everett snorted. "Why would the Patth want to killJones?"

"I never said the Patth had anything to do with it," I said. "But since youbring it up, that very question is what had me stymied for so long. Youremember Shawn's disease-crazed escape on Potosi, and the Najiki Customs officials whonearly impounded the ship? That was our murderer's handiwork, too."

"What do you mean, his handiwork?" Tera asked. "I thought Shawn broke free onhis own."

"No, he had help, though he probably doesn't remember it," I said. "Themurderer needed Shawn to run away so that everyone would scatter to search for him andhe'd be free to make a couple of private vid calls. The stumbling point hereis that our killer seemed hell-bent on stopping the Icarus, no matter what he hadto do. Yet at every place where he might have turned us over to the Patth, hedidn't do it."

"Sounds like you're describing a schizophrenic," Everett murmured.

"Or a plain, flat-out psycho," Shawn added, glancing furtively around thetable.

"Someone who kills just for the fun of it."

"Actually, there's nothing unbalanced about him at all," I assured them. "Butall right; let's assume for a minute that he is a nutcase. Let me then throwout another question, one that helped me start thinking in the right direction.

Here we have Arno Cameron, creator of an enormous financial and industrial empire, wandering through the hot spots of Meima looking for a crew to get thisvitallyimportant piece of hardware back to Earth. Question: Given that Cameron'ssuccess must have been at least partially based on being an excellent judge ofcharacter, how in the world did he not catch on to the fact that one of thepeople he was hiring was a schizophrenic, psychotic potential murderer?"

For a minute all I saw in their faces was confusion, either at the questionitself or because they were puzzling over the answer to it. All their faces, that is, except Tera's. In that instant I saw in her suddenly wide eyes thatthe pieces were finally starting to fall into place. "The answer, of course," Icontinued, not waiting for the class to respond, "is that he didn't sense anysuch problem because one of you is not the man he hired for your particularslot on the ship."

Chort found his voice first. "That is incredible," he said, the whistlingunder only slightly better control. "How would anyone have known the Icarus wasvaluable enough to do such a thing?"

"And once he knew it, why didn't he just go to the Patth and turn us in?"

Shawn added. "This makes less sense than the psycho nutcase theory."

"Not really," I said. "The answers, in order, are that he had no idea at allthat there was anything special about the Icarus. And he didn't turn the shipin to the Patth because his purpose in coming aboard was something elseentirely."

I nodded to Everett. "Everett was the one who finally pushed me onto the righttrack," I said. "It was back when you all learned what the Icarus wascarrying, and he pointed out that Borodin and the Patth weren't the only possibleplayersin this game. I suddenly realized that he was right; and furthermore realizedwho the other player was."

"Who?" Tera demanded.

I lifted a hand. "Me."

There was a short silence. "I don't get it," Shawn said. "What are you talkingabout?"

"I'm talking about me, and about the people I work for," I told him. "Andabout the fact that the murderer came aboard the Icarus for the sole purpose ofdelivering me a message. A lesson in obedience."

My gun had been waving almost idly around the table, the hand gripping itmakingsmall gestures as I spoke. Now, in a single smooth motion, I brought it topointrock-steady at the center of the large torso looming up over the far end ofthe table from me. "You can tell him, Everett," I said quietly, "that I got themessage."

Another silence descended on the room, this one as thick and dark as tar paste.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Everett said at last, hisvoice husky and as dark as the silence had been.

"I'm talking about a crime boss named Johnston Scotto Ryland," I said. "A manwho thought I needed to be taught a lesson about strict obedience to one'sorders and one's master."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Shawn said, sounding bewildered. "You've lostme completely. How did a crime boss get into this?"

"Because he's a crime boss who's holding a half million of McKell's debt,"

Nicabar said, his eyes studying me with an intensity I didn't much care for.

"McKell's been smuggling for him for the past few years."

"You're a smuggler?" Shawn demanded, staring accusingly at me. "So that's howyou got the borandis so easily. I should have guessed that a big simon-purehotshot like you—"

"Put a baffle on it, Shawn," Nicabar cut him off. "So what did you do to earnthis lesson, McKell?"

"Ixil and I had a cargo of his bound for Xathru," I said. "We were running alittle ahead of schedule, so I diverted us briefly to Meima."

"Why?" Tera asked.

"I'll get to that later," I said. "Ryland has informers everywhere, even on abackwater world like Meima. I think Ryland was already having suspicions aboutmy loyalty, so when one of his snitches reported I'd landed there instead ofXathru he apparently concluded I was getting ready to jump ship or double- cross him or some such thing. Regardless, he decided I needed a lesson on why thatwas a bad idea. Were you that informer, Everett, or just the local muscle for theterritory?"

Everett didn't answer. "Well, the personnel list's not important," I said.

"Either way, Ryland ordered Everett to tail me and find out what I was up to.

He followed me as I wandered around Meima; and was probably right there in thattaverno when Cameron came over and offered me the pilot's post aboard theIcarus."

"How did he know you'd been hired?" Tera asked. "Unless he was close enough tooverhear, couldn't you two just have been having a chat?"

"I'm sure he wasn't that close," I said. "I was keeping a close watch, and Iwould have remembered anyone sitting that close. But he didn't have to hearanything. All he needed was to see Cameron give me a guidance tag to know Iwas taking a job with him.

"So when Cameron left, Everett decided to tail him instead of staying on me, probably hoping to find out who exactly I was dealing with. I had planned tofollow Cameron myself, but I got diverted by a trio of unhappy Yavanni andlost him. He followed Cameron, watched him hire a couple more crewers; and thenapparently decided to take a closer look at one of you. So he let Cameronleave, followed his latest acquisition into a nice dark alley, and clobbered him."

"And this person was who?" Tera asked.

"Whoever Cameron had hired to be ship's medic, of course," I said. "Becausewhen Everett called to report what he'd found—which wasn't much—Ryland told him totake this person's place and follow me aboard the Icarus. Fortunately for us, Everett was actually qualified to handle the job. Or maybe it wasn't justluck; maybe he'd picked on the medic on purpose."

Chort whistled suddenly, a sound that hurt my ears. "I remember," he said. "Hewas the last to arrive. He said he had been delayed at the gate."

"Actually, he'd probably been skulking around the side of one of the othershipswatching the rest of us gathering," I said. "He probably had a whole story worked out to spin for Cameron about how he'd bought the job from a buddywho'd suddenly taken ill or something."

Nicabar snorted gently. "Pretty pathetic story."

"It may have been something better." I cocked an eyebrow at Everett. "Feelfree to jump in if you feel your creativity or cleverness is being maligned."

"No, no, keep going," he said evenly. "It's all nonsense, of course, but itdoes make for fascinating listening."