Ларри Нивен - Crashlander

Feather didn't know my alternate name. But if she had access to the Fafnir police, she'd tanj sure recognize that vest!

With the rest of the afternoon I bought survival gear: a backpurse, luggage, clothing.

On Earth I could have vanished behind a thousand shades of dyes. Here … I settled for a double dose of tannin secretion, an underdose of sun block, a darkened pair of mag specs, my height, and a local beard and hairstyle.

Arming myself was a problem.

The disk hadn't spoken of weapons on Fafnir. My safest guess was that Fafnir was like Earth: they didn't put weapons in the hands of civilians. Handguns, rifles, martial arts training belong to the police.

The good news: everyone on the islands carried knives. Those flying sharks that attacked me during the sunbunny run were one predator out of thousands.

Feather would arm herself somehow. She'd look through a sporting goods store, steal a hunting rifle … nope, no hunting rifles. No large prey on Fafnir, unless in the kzinti jungle, or underwater.

There were listings for scuba stores. I found a stun gun with a big parabolic reflector, big enough to knock out a one-gulp, too big for a pocket. I took it home, with more diving gear for versimilitude and a little tool kit for repairing diving equipment. With that I removed the reflector.

Now I couldn't use it underwater; it would knock me out, because water conducts sound very well. But it would fit my pocket.

I took my time over a sushi dinner, quite strange. Some time after sunset I stepped into a transfer booth, and stepped out into a brilliant dawn on Shasht.

Outbound Enterprises was open. I let a Ms. Machti take Martin Wallace Graynor's retina prints. «Your ticket is still good, Mr. Graynor,» Ms. Machti said. «The service charge will be eight hundred stars. You're four months late!»

«I was shipwrecked,» I told her. «Did my companions make it?»

Iceliner passengers are in no hurry. The ships keep prices down by launching when they're full. I learned that the Zombie Queen had departed a week after our landing, about as expected. I gave Ms. Machti the names. She set the phone system searching, and presently said, «Your husband and the children boarded and departed. Your wives' tickets are still outstanding.»

«Both?»

«Yes.» She did a double take. «Oh, good heavens, they must think you're dead!»

«That's what I'm afraid of. At least, John and Tweena and Nathan would. They were revived in good shape?»

«Yes, of course. But the women — could they have waited for you?»

Stet: Carlos, Tanya, and Louis were all safe on Home and had left the spaceport under their own power. Feather and Sharrol — «Waited? But they'd have left a message.»

She was still looking at her screen. «Not for you, Mr. Graynor, but Mr. John Graynor has recorded a message for Mrs. Graynor … for Mrs. Adelaide Graynor.»

For Feather. «But nothing for Milcenta? But they both stayed? How strange.» Ms. Machti seemed the type of person who might wonder about other people's sexual arrangements. I wanted her curious, because this next question — «Can you show me what John had to say to Adelaide?»

She shook her head firmly. «I don't see how —»

«Now, John wouldn't have said anything someone else couldn't hear. You can watch it yourself —» Her head as still turning left, right, left. «In fact, you should. Then you can at least tell me if there's been, if, well. I have to know, don't I? If Milcenta's dead.»

That stopped her. She nodded, barely, and tapped in the code to summon Carlos's message to Feather.

She read it all the way through. Her lip curled just a bit; but she showed only solemn pity when she turned the monitor to face me.

It was a posed scene. Carlos looked like a man hiding a sickness. The view behind him could have been a manor garden in England, a tamed wilderness. Tanya and Louis were playing in the distance, hide-and-seek in and out of some Earthly tree that dripped a cage of foliage. Alive. Ever since I had first seen them frozen, I must have been thinking of them as dead.

Carlos looked earnestly out of the monitor screen. «Adelaide, you can see that the children and I arrived safely. I have an income. The plans we made together, half of us have carried out. Your own iceliner slots are still available.

«I know nothing of Mart. I hope you've heard from him, but he should never have gone sailing alone. I fear the worst.

«Addie, I can't pretend to understand how you've changed, how Mil changed, or why. I can only hope you'll both change your mind and come back to me. But understand me, Addie: you are not welcome without Milcenta. Your claim on family funds is void without Milcenta. And whatever relationship we can shape from these ashes, I would prefer to leave the children out of it.»

He had the money!

Carlos stood and walked a half circle as he spoke. The camera followed him on automatic, and now it showed a huge, sprawling house of architectural coral, pink and slightly rounded everywhere. Carlos gestured. «I've waited. The house isn't finished because you and Milcenta will have your own tastes. But come soon.

«I've set credit with Outbound. Messages sent to Home by hyperwave will be charged to me. I'll get the service charges when you and Milcenta board. Call first. We can work this out.»

The record began to repeat. I heard it through again, then turned the monitor around.

Ms. Machti asked, «You went sailing alone?»

She thought I'd tried to commit suicide after our wives had changed parity and locked the men out: an implication Carlos had shaped with some skill. I made a brush-off gesture and said, «I've got to tell him I'm still alive.»

«The credit he left doesn't apply —»

«I want to send a hyperwave message, my expense. Let's see … does Outbound Enterprises keep a camera around?»

«No.»

«I'll fax it from the hotel. When's the next flight out?»

«At least two weeks, but we can suspend you any time.»

I used a camera at the hotel. The first disk I made would go through Outbound Enterprises. «John, I'm all right. I was on a dead island eating fish for a while.» A slightly belligerent tone: «I haven't heard a word from Adelaide or Milcenta. I know Milcenta better than you do, and frankly, I believe they must have separated by now. Home looks like a new life, but I haven't given up on the old one. I'll let you know when I know myself.»

So much for the ears of Ms. Machti.

Time lag had me suddenly wiped out. I floated between the sleeping plates … exhausted but awake. What should I put in a real message?

Carlos's tape was a wonderful lesson in communication. He wants to talk to Feather. The children are not to be put at risk. Beowulf is presumed dead. C'est la vie; Carlos will not seek vengeance. But he wants Sharrol alive. Feather is not to come to Home without Sharrol. Carlos can enforce any agreement. He hadn't said so because it's too obvious. A frozen Feather, arriving at Home unaccompanied, need never wake.

And he had the money! Not just his own funds, but the money Feather knew about, «family funds»: he must have reached civilization ahead of her and somehow sequestered what Feather had funneled through the ARM. If Feather was loose on Fafnir, then she was also broke. She owned nothing but the credit that would get her a hyperwave call to Home, or herself and Sharrol shipped frozen. Though Carlos didn't know it, even Sharrol had escaped.

Nearly five months. How was Feather living? Did she have a job? Something I could track? With her training she might be better off as a thief.

Yeah! I tumbled out of the sleepfield and tapped out my needs in some haste. She hadn't been caught at any capital crime, but any jail on Shasht would record Adelaide Graynor's retina prints. The caller ran its search …