The Icarus Hunt

"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 pla

"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."

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 u

"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 i

"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."