Timothy Zahn - The Icarus Hunt

Out of the corner of my eye I caught the slight wrinkling of Nicabar'sforehead.

Everett didn't seem particularly worried; and if there was anyone who had aright to be worried at the moment, it was Everett.

"Whatever his story was, it turned out to be unnecessary," I continued, tryingto distract Nicabar's attention away from questions about Everett'sunconcerned attitude. The last thing I wanted right now was to have a former EarthGuardMarine to go all suspicious of this setup. "Cameron didn't show up, so Everettsimply pretended he was the one who'd been hired in the first place."

"You know, McKell, Everett's right," Shawn growled. "This is all Grade-Aspeculation. You said yourself Cameron got away from you on Meima. How couldyoupossibly know what happened?"

"It's not speculation at all," I said. "You see, I had a brief talk withCameron after the incident with Ixil's cabin. He told me he'd tackled someone busilypreparing a poison-gas mixture out in the Icarus's lower corridor; but hefurther told me that it wasn't anyone from the crew. His assumption was thatit was someone who'd come in from outside the ship; but if one of the crew hadlet a stranger in, why wasn't he there with him to help carry out this secondmurder? No, it's much simpler to assume that one of his original crewers wasreplaced right from the start."

"You said Everett came aboard to deliver a message," Tera said. "What did youmean by that?"

"In Ryland's eyes, I was flirting with treason," I said, feeling my fingerstightening on my plasmic as I stared blackly across the length of the table atEverett. "But apparently he thought I could still be redeemed, or at leastcould be scared back into the fold. And so in his typically crude and heavy-handedway, he ordered Everett to kill my partner."

"Your partner?" Tera gasped. "Jones was your partner?"

"No, of course not," I bit out, a flood of emotion suddenly washing over me.

An innocent man had died, all because of me. "Jones was exactly as advertised: amechanic Cameron hired off the street for the Icarus. And that's where Everett made the mistake that so muddied the water that it took me until now to figureit out. He was so convinced that my partner and I were both jumping ship andabandoning Ryland's contraband on Meima that he just assumed that the Icarus'smechanic was my partner. Add to that Jones's natural friendliness and socialease, and it probably looked to him like we'd known each other for years.

"And so, knowing that it was traditionally the mechanic's job to assist withanyspacewalks, he sabotaged the rebreather on the suit that was Jones's size andsat back to wait for the inevitable."

I gestured toward Everett with my plasmic. "But then you made a slip, a smallone, which I didn't catch until a comment Revs made on Palmary jogged it backto mind. We'd gone to Xathru to turn Jones's body over to the port authoritiesand incidentally to pick up Ixil. While we were all out of the ship you calledRyland to report that the foul deed was done, but also told him I'd saidsomething about bringing yet another partner aboard to fill Jones's slot.

Rylandconfirmed that you'd missed your intended target, but since his cargo hadindeed been delivered on schedule it was all cool now and to just stay aboard andkeepan eye on me."

"So where was the slip?" Shawn asked. "I don't see any slip."

"The slip came later," I said, watching Everett's face. "When you came intothe ship while I was talking to Ixil in the wraparound. You took one look at himand said, 'So this is your partner.' There's no reason for you to have put it thatway unless you'd already believed someone else was my partner."

Everett's expression didn't change, but there was just the slightest twitch ofhis lip. Enough to show that, despite his protests, I'd hit the mark.

Nicabar cleared his throat. "Question. If everything was so cool, why did hetryto kill Ixil on Potosi?"

"Because between Xathru and Potosi the situation suddenly stopped being cool,"

I told him. "The first thing I did when we reached Potosi was to call Ryland toget the location of a dealer I could buy borandis from. By that time the swirlof Patth activity around the Icarus was starting to heat up, and Ryland wasnone too happy that one of his people—me—was at the center of all the attention."

"Why didn't he just tell you to jump ship?" Shawn asked.

"Because he knew I wouldn't do it," I said. "I'd already told him that part ofmy cover as a poor but honest ship's pilot was to stick with the Icarus, andhe knew better than to argue the point with me over a StarrComm link. Besides, healready had a plan that would preempt the whole decision.

"You'd all been told to stay aboard ship while I went to get the borandis. ButEverett had orders to check in with Ryland, so he loosened Shawn's restraintsenough that he'd be able to work his way free and escape. Then, while the restof you were out searching, Everett headed to the StarrComm building. Maybe youeven called while I was still talking to him; he was off the line a long timelooking up the location of a drug dealer to steer me to.

"Anyway, Ryland told him to do two things. First, to phone in an anonymous tipto Najiki Customs that we had smuggled gemstones aboard; and second, to killIxil, who Everett told him was still sleeping off his burns. When customsfound a dead body aboard and locked the Icarus down for investigation, Rylandreasoned, I would be out by default.

"Unfortunately for all his cleverness, everything went wrong from that pointon.

Cameron caught Everett preparing to kill Ixil, clobbered him, and put thechemical vials inside Ixil's room where Everett couldn't easily get at themagain."

I looked at Tera. "Do you remember, Tera, when you cut into my phone conversation with Everett to tell us you'd found Shawn? Do you remember how hesounded?"

"He did seem a little odd," she said, her forehead wrinkled with thought. "Alittle blurry, as I recall."

"He was a lot blurry, actually," I said. "At the time, I assumed it wasbecause Shawn had hit him during his escape. Now, I know it was because he hadn't yetrecovered from your father's one-two punch."

"Dad keeps in pretty good shape," Tera said. "I'll bet he still can pack awallop."

"Especially when properly inspired," I agreed. "I'll have to look up yourthrow-boxing record, Everett, and see if you had a history of easy knockoutsor whether Cameron was just lucky. At any rate, when Everett came to, he knew hewouldn't have time to come up with a Plan B before the Najik arrived, so hehightailed it off the ship, remembering to lock the hatchway behind him thewayit had been when you'd all scattered to look for Shawn.

"Sure enough, the Najik arrived in force and prepared to open the ship thehard way. And there Everett's second stroke of bad luck came in: Chort returned tothe ship about the same time and decided they shouldn't go in without thecaptain being there. So he blocked their path; and no one in the Spiral goesout of their way to irritate Crooea. The Najik were probably in the process ofdiscussing protocol with their HQ when the third and final bit of bad luckarrived."

"You?" Nicabar suggested.

"Me," I confirmed. "Ryland knew how far across the city he had sent me for theborandis, and figured the whole thing would be over and done with long beforeI could make it back. What he didn't know was that the sky was going to open upand rain small mammals, and that as a result I would hire a cab instead ofusingthe more anonymous public transports the way his employees are supposed to. Atany rate, I got back in time to bluff the Najik out of a real search, and wewere off again."

"An amazing bit of deduction," Everett commented, shaking his head in feignedwonderment. Apparently, he still wasn't ready to give it up. "Seriouslyflawed, of course, but still interesting to listen to. Tell me this, then, Mr.