Judgment at Proteus (10 page)

“No, nothing. Should there have been?”

“No, of course not,” I assured her. Only why the hell had he ended up staying with her instead of coming with Doug and me? “I’ll be over shortly to get you.”

“All right,” she said. “Good-bye.”

“Bye.”

I hung up and gestured to the watchdog supplies. “Was all this delivered after you arrived?” I asked Minnario.

[Actually, it was already here,] he said. He had eased himself into the chair while I’d been talking to Bayta, and now twisted the control that sent it rising smoothly to waist height on its thrusters. [I wondered about it, but again was too weary to make inquiries before turning off my comm and going to bed.]

“Speaking of your comm,” I said, “there’s supposed to be a tracker in it for police to use in case of emergency.”

[Yes—the location transponder,] Minnario said, nodding. [My comm did indeed come with such a device. But it unfortunately interfered with the control systems of my chair and I had to have it removed. Are you ready?]

I looked at Emikai, who gave a little shrug. “However you wish to arrange your sleeping quarters is of no matter to me or to
Kuzyatru
Station,” the Filly said. “But you should know that the preliminary hearing postponed from this evening has now been rescheduled for tomorrow at ten o’clock.”

I nodded. “Bayta and I will be there.”

Emikai seemed to brace himself. “
Chinzro
Hchchu has also ruled that your assistant is not permitted to attend.”

[Of course she may attend,] Minnario spoke up. [Not as Mr. Compton’s assistant, but as my chief witness of the events surrounding the charges against him. As such, she may attend all proceedings.]

I felt my cheeks warming. The most blatantly obvious logic possible, and I’d missed it completely.

So, apparently, had Emikai. “Ah,” he said, sounding as bemused as I felt. “Are you certain that is part of the Slisst Protocols?”

[Very certain,] Minnario said firmly. [As it happens, I happened to be studying that very section of the Protocols just before I settled down to sleep.]

“I see,” Emikai said. “I will be certain to bring that to
Chinzro
Hchchu’s attention.” He turned back to me. “A patroller will meet you here at nine o’clock to escort you to the hearing room.”

“I’d prefer that you come yourself,” I told him.

He seemed to measure me with his eyes. “As you wish,” he said. “I will meet you here then.” He looked at Minnario. “I presume you will be content with an ordinary patroller as your escort?”

[Quite content, thank you,] Minnario assured him. [But for now, I’m still very tired. If you’ll be good enough, Mr. Compton, to show me to my new quarters?]

*   *   *

Minnario’s chair couldn’t safely use the glideways, which meant we had to walk the normal corridor the entire way, which meant that it was another long and tiring hour before Bayta and I and my watchdogs—both of them this time—were finally in our new quarters.

Doug and Ty, at least, seemed pleased with the new arrangement. They made a joint beeline for the closet and food dishes, and a minute later the room was filled with the sound of chomping and slurping.

“Any idea why Ty decided to stay with you?” I asked Bayta as we watched them eat.

“No,” she said. “I suppose it’s possible that
Chinzro
Hchchu actually intended one of them to stay with each of us.”

“That wasn’t what it sounded like when he gave the orders,” I reminded her.

“Maybe there are nuances in his Fili that neither of us caught.”

“Maybe.” I looked at the bed, then headed for the couch. “I’ll be over here if you need me,” I said over my shoulder. “You can have first crack at the bathroom.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice oddly strained.

“Of course.” I tried to look her in the eye, but for some reason I was unable to do so. “Unless you had some different arrangement in mind.”

“No.” She paused. “But someone else apparently does. Either the Shonkla-raa or the Modhri.”

I felt my throat tighten. “Luckily, we don’t care what they want,” I said. “I’ll need to steal one of your pillows and a blanket, though.”

“Of course.” She paused again. “Do you think the room is safe?”

I shrugged. “If Minnario’s timeline is right, he got here pretty much right after we left, right while the tech was coding our DNA—well, mine, anyway—into the lock. That doesn’t leave much time for someone to nip in here and plant a bunch of bugs.”

“I suppose,” Bayta said. But her eyes were troubled. She opened her mouth—

“Meanwhile, it’s been a long day, and tomorrow’s looking to be just as bad,” I said before she could speak. “Go get your bedtime prep done so that I can do mine, and let’s get some sleep.”

“All right,” she said, gazing at me with the kind of wary intensity that told me she was on the same wavelength that I was.

Minnario’s timeline did indicate that no one would have had time to bug our quarters. But there was no way to know whether Minnario’s timeline was accurate.

Bayta headed into the half-bath, and then it was my turn. By the time I emerged she was already snuggled down in bed, the blankets pulled up to her chin.

So, to my surprise, was Ty. He had taken up a crossways position at the very head of the bed, his pineapple back pressed against the headboard as if he’d been stapled there. I didn’t know whether or not Bayta had made an effort to get rid of him, but fortunately the bed was long enough that she had enough room despite his presence. She’d also managed to snag the remaining pillow before he got to it.

Doug, for his part, had also skipped out on his doggie bed and was curled up in front of the door. If I’d been thinking about going for a solitary walk during the quiet of the Proteus night, I would have had to seriously revise my plans.

I padded over to the bed and, with only a little hesitation, lay down on top of the blankets beside Bayta. “You okay?” I whispered in her ear, feeling the warmth of her body through the bedding as I pressed myself close to her.

“Yes,” she said. But I could hear the tension in her voice.

Small wonder. We’d done this pretend-snuggling thing once before, also as a way of talking without our conversation being picked up by the bugs that had been planted in that room.

But things had been different then. I’d hardly known Bayta, hadn’t trusted her farther than I could throw a drudge Spider, and hadn’t found her all that attractive.

Now all of that had changed.
All
of it.

I didn’t know what Bayta was thinking or feeling. Most of me really didn’t want to know.

“Do you think he was lying?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, rolling my eyes toward the feathery underbelly a few centimeters from the top of my head, an underbelly that had started a low rumbling. Either Ty had a snoring problem, or the damn things actually purred. “On the other hand, I’m almost positive the other room was bugged, so there was zero chance there of a private conversation,” I went on. “Here, at least we’ve got a shot at it. Besides, what reason would Minnario have to lie?”

“The answer to that might depend on why Attorney Minnario is on Proteus in the first place.”

I grimaced in the darkness. “Theoretically, for medical treatment.”

“And we both know that’s not the whole story.”

“Right, but what is?” I asked. “My first assumption was that he was brought in to be a witness against me in Muzzfor’s death. But Hchchu hasn’t even mentioned Muzzfor. It’s also counterproductive for your hoped-for star witness to suddenly decide to represent the other team.”

“So why did he do
that
?” Bayta persisted. “Why would he decide on the spur of the moment to donate his time to a Human he barely knows? Especially a Human who’s facing serious charges that could very well be true?”

“There are still a few crazy idealistic crusading attorneys out there,” I said. “Maybe he’s a fan of old dit-rec courtroom dramas. Or maybe he really believes that anyone who could take down a multiple murderer is deserving of a good legal defense.”

“Or
Chinzro
Hchchu or the Shonkla-raa brought him in to defend you so that they could get close to us,” Bayta countered.

“Could be,” I agreed. “The problem with that is, why bother? There have to be dozens of lawyers right here on Proteus they could recruit without having to haul Minnario in, especially with what we all agree is a pathetically weak excuse. Without an attorney of our own on hand, we would have to take whoever Hchchu offered.”

“Except that we might suspect an appointed attorney of being in league with them.”

“Not a Filly lawyer,” I said firmly. “Genetic engineering, remember? I don’t think they’re capable of being in cahoots with anyone except their current client. Anyway, if Minnario was working with Hchchu, why on Earth did he so inconveniently disappear this evening, thereby screwing up Hchchu’s hearing schedule? For that matter, why did he volunteer to move to a room that now has a whole bunch of useless bugs in it?”

“Useless because we’re not there?”

“Useless because there are Shorshic vectored force thrusters operating in there,” I said. “Bugs by definition are tiny microphones and transmitters, and thruster harmonics screw up most radio frequencies something fierce. That’s probably why Minnario’s phone transponder messes up his controls—there are only a few frequencies that the thrusters don’t blanket, and phones and local control systems have to share them. No, whoever’s listening in on Minnario’s room is going to get nothing but unreadable and unfilterable static.”

“I didn’t know that,” Bayta said thoughtfully. “Maybe we should start carrying a thruster around with us.”

“High-level diplomats often do, actually,” I said. “One final point: if Hchchu and Minnario were trying to separate us, why would Minnario remind everyone that you qualify as a witness?
I
sure hadn’t thought of that dodge.”

“Could we have two different sides working at cross-purposes?” Bayta suggested slowly. “Perhaps
Chinzro
Hchchu wants to convict you of those six murders and doesn’t want me around for the trial, while the Shonkla-raa
does
want me at the trial so that we’ll both be away from Terese.”

I pursed my lips. Another angle I hadn’t thought of. I was definitely slipping. “Could be,” I agreed. “Certainly the whole idea of saddling us with these watchdogs theoretically gives them the power to control all our movements…”

I trailed off as something suddenly struck me. “What is it?” Bayta asked tensely.

“I was just wondering about the way Ty stuck with you tonight,” I said. “Clearly, the Fillies—presumably including Hchchu—expected both of them to come here with me, even though they knew we were supposedly going to be staying in different quarters. That implies there wasn’t any subtle nuance in Hchchu’s instructions to the watchdogs.”

“Maybe they misunderstood their orders,” Bayta suggested.

“Or maybe you’re right about two groups working at cross-purposes.”

“Perhaps.” Bayta was silent a moment. “Do you suppose one or the other of those groups may have planted trackers in them?”

“Unlikely,” I assured her. “Without a collar or other similar add-on, the only place for anyone to put something like that is inside the animal itself. That requires a fair amount of prep work, more than anyone got after Minnario charged up on his white horse and disrupted everyone’s plans. No, I’m pretty sure they’re clean.”

“That makes sense, I suppose,” she said. “It’s not like someone couldn’t put us under nearly constant observation anyway, assuming they had access to the security camera system.”

“Exactly,” I agreed. “Which I’m guessing they won’t do, since it would involve awkward questions from the patrollers. Much easier to simply have us followed.” I frowned down at Doug. “Which still leaves us with our watchdog tag-team puzzle. I wonder who aboard Proteus is authorized to give these things orders.”

“Maybe Attorney Minnario can find out.”

“Or maybe I can do it myself,” I said. “I think I’ll take a few minutes and see what files the computer will let me get into.”

“Do you want any help?”

“No, you’d better get to sleep,” I said. “Remember that Emikai will be here bright and early.”

“Do you trust him?”

I shrugged. “I’ve got no particular reason not to. He was a cop, which means he’s got his own set of genetic engineering and behavioral restraints.”

“Only his loyalties aren’t to us,” Bayta reminded me. “They’re to the Filiaelian
santras
.”

“There’s that,” I conceded. “And when I say there’s no reason not to trust him, I also mean there’s no reason
to
trust him, either. We’ll have to watch him—and Minnario—and see how this all plays out.”

“While also watching Terese and Dr. Aronobal?”

“Like I say, tomorrow’s going to be a full and rich day,” I said. “Get some sleep.” I patted her shoulder through the blankets and started to roll off the bed.

“Why
Ty
?” she asked suddenly.

“What?” I asked, frowning, as I rolled back to her again.

“
Doug
I understand,” she said. “They look a little like Earth dogs. But why do you call the other one Ty?”

“Actually,
Doug
has nothing to do with the word
dog
,” I said. “It’s the mask sort of things they have around their eyes. They remind me of an old character from Earth literature named Zorro.
Doug
and
Ty
come from Douglas Fairbanks and Tyrone Power, the actors who played the character in the first two dit-rec adventure adaptations of the stories.”

“Oh,” Bayta said. “I don’t think you’ve ever showed me those.”

“I’ll put them on the list,” I promised. “Right after
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.”

“The what?”

“Never mind,” I told her, climbing off the bed. “Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

FIVE

The couch was too short for me to stretch out comfortably, but I was able to take off the cushions and lay them out on the floor instead. That, along with the extension provided by the pillow I’d taken from the bed, made my pallet long enough to serve as a tolerable sleeping platform.