Timothy Zahn - The Third Lynx

"I guess that explains why you hate me," I said as the final piece of Morse's personal puzzle fell into place. "It also explains how you came to be a Modhri walker."

"A what?" Penny asked, sounding bewildered.

"An unsuspecting member of the Modhri group mind," Stafford told her, his eyes on Morse. "You sure about this, Compton?"

"I'm positive," I said, watching Morse closely. Somewhere along here the Modhri colony within him would realize the jig was up, take over his body, and make a fight of it. "Applegate was probably the one who got Morse infected."

"Ridiculous," Morse spat. "I've never touched Modhran coral in my life."

"I'm sure you don't remember," I said. "The Modhri's been working on keeping a very low profile, especially on Earth."

"So you therefore argue from silence?" Morse snorted. "What dazzling logic."

"No, I argue from my knowledge of the Modhri and how he works," I said. "Particularly how he uses thought viruses to carry subtle suggestions between friends and trusted colleagues. Which is how I know for certain you're carrying a Modhran colony beneath your brain." I gestured to Penny. "You really shouldn't have tried to make me fall in love with her."

Beside Penny, Stafford stiffened. "What?" he asked carefully.

"It started aboard our private train to Jurskala," I said. "Morse spent those couple of days filling Penny's mind with suspicions about Bayta and me. That naturally drew the two of them closer together emotionally, enabling the Modhri to slide in his thought viruses."

Stafford looked sideways at Penny. "What kind of suggestions was he making?" he asked.

"Don't worry, they're pretty short-lived." I focused on Penny. With her fiancé sitting there beside her, I knew, this was likely to be awkward. But it was important that she hear this. "You haven't had any sort of feelings of attraction toward me lately, have you?"

The tip of her tongue swiped quickly across her upper lip. "It wasn't the way you make it sound," she said. "I was just grateful to you for your help in finding Daniel. That's all."

"Of course," I said, looking into her eyes. Backpedaling and spin-drifting it for all she was worth.

And with that, the last faint lingering hope within me finally died a quiet death. The last lingering Modhri-counterfeited hope. One more reason, I reflected, for me to hate him. "The point is that you switched your opinion of me just a little too quickly," I told her. "Especially after all of Morse's horror stories."

I looked back at Morse. Still none of the telltale signs of a Modhri takeover. "At the same time, the Modhri inside him was also working on me."

"Only you claim thought viruses need a line of friendship between the two parties," Morse said acidly. "I don't think you and I exactly qualify."

"I said they work best that way" I reminded him. "But whether we personally liked each other or not, we were still colleagues who'd been thrown together on the same case. That relationship also lowers emotional resistance walls. Besides, the Modhri didn't need to make me do anything outlandish, at least not at the beginning. All he wanted was to tweak my emotions a little."

"Why?" Stafford asked, clearly not happy with this line of conversation.

"To distract me, of course," I said. "The Modhri wanted my mind on Ms. Auslander instead of focusing my full attention on the problem of finding you and the Lynx and getting you out of his reach."

Abruptly Penny stiffened. "Is that why I ran after you in the Ghonsilya transfer station when you grabbed that gun? Because he told me to?"

"I'm afraid so," I said. "The Modhri had only a few walkers under his control on the scene. He needed to move you into a position where the oathling would have easy access to you."

"And so I supposedly persuaded her to go running toward a lunatic with a loaded gun?" Morse demanded. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous this whole thing sounds?"

"Do you have a better explanation for what's been happening?" I countered.

"As a matter of fact, I do," he said. "If I'm right about Colonel Applegate tumbling to this scheme and having to be eliminated, then this whole charade is just an attempt to do the same to me." He nodded toward Stafford and Penny. "If there even is a Modhri walker among us, who's to say it's not Mr. Stafford or Ms. Auslander?"

"Good question," I said. "Unfortunately for you, there's an equally good answer. For starters, Mr. Stafford is definitely out. If he was a walker, he wouldn't have run off with the Lynx in the first place."

"And Ms. Auslander?"

I shook my head. "Doesn't work. She wasn't anywhere near the Künstler estate the night the Modhri tried to steal the Lynx."

Morse's eyes narrowed. "What are you implying?"

"Don't act the innocent," I reproved him. "It doesn't fit well on you. There was a Modhri walker waiting outside the grounds of Künstler's estate the night of the botched robbery. I know that because one of the captured robbers tried to get Künstler to tell him where the Lynx was, which only makes sense if there was another part of the local mind segment within contact distance."

"That could have been anyone off the street."

"Except that the average person off the street isn't Intelligence trained," I said. "I read the police report, remember? The would-be burglars knew far more about penetration and stealth techniques than they should have. Someone with Intel training had to be running the show."

"Maybe it was someone else from ESS," Morse said, a hint of desperation starting to edge into his voice. He was too good an agent not to recognize how quickly this box was closing around him. "Applegate knew a lot of people. It could have been any one of them."

"It could have," I agreed, wincing with sympathetic pain for the man. This had to be a terrible shock to him, like having the diagnosis of an incurable disease thrown in your face without warning.

But I pushed the feelings away. Compassion formed the paving stones to the same hell Morse was now in. "But it wasn't someone else …because you were the only Intelligence agent with me when I was persuaded to visit the coral crates in the Quadrail baggage car."

Some of the last remaining color drained out of Morse's face. "You said that was the Cimma."

"Of course I said that," I agreed. "The last thing I wanted was for the Modhri mind segment aboard the train to know I was on to you."

"But why couldn't it have been the Cimma?" Morse persisted.

"What, a stranger who called me friend more times than a used-car salesman?" I shook my head. "There's not a chance in hell he could have planted a thought virus that quickly and effectively."

Morse's eyes darted to Bayta, then to Stafford and Penny, a cornered rat looking desperately for a way out. But there wasn't one. He knew the truth now; and there was nothing left to do but accept it. Deliberately, I settled my mind and body into combat mode as I waited for the Modhri mind within him to make its final, desperate move.

But to my surprise, it didn't. Morse turned back to me, his eyes haunted but with none of the telltale signs of a Modhri takeover. "So why tell me now?" he asked.

"So that you'll understand this," I said, lifting my right hand above the tabletop to reveal the Chahwyn kwi . The weapon gave a slight tingle against my palm as Bayta telepathically activated it. "I've been assured it'll just knock you out for a few hours. You and the Modhri inside you."

He swallowed visibly. "All right," he said. "If this is the only way to persuade you I'm not your enemy …go ahead."

And still not a peep from the Modhri. For a moment I hesitated, wondering if I could possibly be wrong.

But I wasn't. And whether the Modhri was learning how to play it subtle or was simply floored by my logical brilliance, he was still the Modhri. Mentally crossing my fingers, I squeezed the kwi .