The Icarus Hunt

"I agree," I said, passing over the fact that if I hadn't cooperatively flownthe ship into his waiting arms it wouldn't have been in his possession.

Considering the size and number of his bodyguards, comments like that werequiteeasy for me to stifle. "I was actually speaking of something else entirely.

Or, rather, someone else entirely."

"Wait a minute," Everett growled, taking a step toward me. "You take creditfor her and I'll cave your face in."

"Ryland?" Antoniewicz invited, gesturing at Tera.

"Everett claims she's the daughter of Arno Cameron," Brother John said. Icould still hear the phony good humor in his voice, but it was curiously subdued.

Most everything good, I suspected, humor included, would darken or wilt inAntoniewicz's presence. "Cameron's the man who—"

"I know who he is," Antoniewicz said. "Tell me why Everett thinks he deservescredit for her."

"I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone that I'm not anyone's carnivalprize," Tera cut in, glaring at each of us in turn but saving her mostwitheringlook for me. I couldn't really blame her on that count, either; if I hadn'trevealed her identity during my brilliant summing up of the case a few minutesago, she'd be just one more anonymous prisoner back in the lodge.

I cleared my throat. "If I might explain—"

"Quiet," Antoniewicz said. He hadn't raised his voice, or changed hisinflection, or even looked at me—the full force of his gaze was on Tera at themoment. And yet, my mouth clamped shut, almost of its own accord, my attemptedmediation cut short as if guillotined. The sheer presence of the man, thepowerand evil lurking veiled beneath the surface, were almost physical qualitieslike his voice or face or expensive suit. For the first time, I truly understood how it was he'd been able to create such a huge and wide-ranging criminal empire.

Tera wasn't nearly as easily impressed as I was. "I don't know who exactly youare," she continued on into the silence, "but whatever it is you think I'mworth to you, you're sadly mistaken."

"No, I don't think so," Antoniewicz disagreed mildly. "Of all those who workedclosely on this ship, only your father remains at large. You're the lever thatwill pry him out of hiding."

"If you think that, you're more of a fool than I thought," Tera scoffed, clearlynot caring whether she offended him or not. Across our little circle I sawboth Everett and Brother John wince, with Pix and Pax giving a little twitch aswell.

One simply didn't talk that way to Mr. Antoniewicz. "My father is fully awareof what this ship is worth to humanity," Tera continued. "And he has never yetlet personal considerations get in the way of what needs to be done. Whateverinformation he has about the Icarus, the last thing he'll do is give it awayto someone like you. Certainly not under duress."

"Not even with his daughter's life at stake?" Antoniewicz asked, his voicepolitely incredulous.

"No," Tera said flatly, straightening to an almost-haughty posture as pridemomentarily eclipsed every evidence of fear and uncertainty. I could imaginethe true royalty of old facing the peasant mobs with the same courage and disdain.

And with the same results. "Pity," Antoniewicz said, sounding almostregretful.

"In that case, you're worth nothing to me at all." He looked at the manstandingbehind me to my right and lifted a languid hand.

And abruptly, the pressure of the gun muzzle on my back vanished as, out ofthe corner of my eye, I saw him bring the weapon around to point straight atTera's face I don't know why I did it Antoniewicz was bluffing, and I knew he wasbluffing. He would never kill a potential hostage whose usefulness hadn't yetbeen tested, not even one who'd verbally spit in his eye the way she had. Iknew it was an act, and if I'd had another fraction of a second to think about itI'd have realized that I was playing directly into his hands.

But I'd promised Cameron that I would watch over his daughter, and thereflexes just kicked in on their own. With my right hand I slapped the thug's gun offtarget, then spun around on my right heel to drive my right elbow into hissolar plexus as I grabbed for the weapon with my left hand.

It was about as close to a complete failure as anything I'd ever tried in mylife My elbow struck an unyielding slab of body armor, my snatch for the gunmissed completely as he twitched it aside out of my reach, and before I couldregain my balance to try something else he'd taken a long pace backward andwas looking at me with the sort of expression you might use for a particularly interesting new species of insect. About the only thing that kept it frombeinga complete failure was that I didn't fall flat on my face in the process.

I braced myself, waiting for the inevitable flurry of shots and the searingpainthat would accompany them. But once again, my reflexive thought was out ofstepwith reality. "Interesting," Antoniewicz said, his voice cutting calmly acrossthe sudden tension. "You were right, Ryland. He is something of the heroictype, isn't he?"

"And seems to have soft feelings for Ms. Cameron, besides," Brother Johnagreed.

He was openly gloating now, I saw, though whether that was at my failure orhis own cleverness I couldn't tell.

"The only feelings I have for her are ones you couldn't understand," I growledback with the ill temper of a man who's just completely humiliated himself.

"Loyalty, for one. Or any of the other sympathetic emotions human beings havefor each other. Of course, in your case, I use the term 'human being' in itsloosest possible sense. You're a lot less human than most of the aliens Iknow."

The gloating vanished from Brother John's face, the handsome face turningsuddenly ugly. "Listen, McKell—"

"Enough," Antoniewicz cut him off, giving me the same interesting-insect lookhis bodyguard had. "Whatever the details of his character flaws, it's clearnow that McKell would not wish harm to come to the lady." He lifted his eyebrowsslightly. "That is clear, is it not?"

I looked at Tera. Some of that earlier defiance was still simmering in hereyes, but the face behind them had gone noticeably pale. The aura of death and evilsurrounding Antoniewicz was starting to get to her. "What's that supposed tomean?" I asked, giving bluff and bluster one last try.

I might as well have saved myself the trouble. "Don't play stupid, McKell,"

Antoniewicz reproved me. "It doesn't suit you. Will you release the locks youput on the Icarus's systems? Or do my men take Ms. Cameron back to the engineroom?"

The ship, I noticed dimly, suddenly felt very cold. "Let me offer analternative deal," I said, my tongue feeling sluggish in my mouth. Antoniewicz wasstartingto get to me, too. "If you'll let Tera, Ixil, and me leave here unharmed, I'llungimmick the ship and give you something that'll be far more valuable to youthan all three of us put together."

"He's stalling," Brother John said contemptuously. "He hasn't got anythingleft to bargain with."

"On the contrary," I said. "I have Arno Cameron."

"You can tell us where he is?" Antoniewicz asked.

"I can do better than that," I said, trying hard to ignore the suddenlystricken look on Tera's face. "I can deliver him to you. Right now."

The atmosphere was suddenly electric. "What are you talking about?" BrotherJohn demanded, looking around as if expecting Cameron to pop out of the alien hull.

"Where is he?"

"He's hiding in the smaller sphere," I said, settling for the simplestexplanation. Giving them the complete story would only confuse the issue. "Ican go in there and get him."

"Really," Antoniewicz said, his voice suddenly cold. "Do you think us fools, McKell? My people checked every cubic centimeter of this ship before I cameaboard."

"Maybe everything out here and in the engine section, but not the smallsphere,"