Judgment at Proteus (22 page)

[Yes,] he said. [The central position of the array is a stabilizer, not a thruster. Oh, and even though each of the thrusters has individual controls, I can also control them directly from my chair while they’re detached, provided I’m close enough.]

I looked at Bayta. Her overt defiance was gone, but there was still a tightness in her throat and cheeks. “Do you want an apology now?” I asked. “Or would you rather save it until later when you can enjoy it more?”

She gave me a tentative smile, and as she did so the last of the stiffness faded away. “Later will be fine,” she said. “Right now, we have work to do.”

*   *   *

Having the means to carry our prisoner across Proteus was only the first half of the problem. We also had to somehow disguise the fact that we were carrying an unconscious Filly through busy hallways without someone becoming suspicious enough to call the Jumpsuits down on us.

Fortunately, Emikai had already laid the groundwork in his brief post-funeral questioning of some of Tech Yleli’s neighbors. One of the standard questions in a murder investigation always centers around the deceased’s employment history, which for Fillies would mean a list of his contracts. Yleli must have had a lot of such history, because each of the three drawers in his file cabinet was over half full. Naturally, the team investigating his murder couldn’t be expected to set up camp in his apartment, which meant the cabinet needed to be taken somewhere else.

The fronts of the file drawers were attached to the drawers themselves with simple screws, which Emikai’s multitool made quick work of. The cabinet was considerably shorter than Blue One, but it was deep enough that we were able to put him inside in a sort of half-sitting, half-crouching position that would probably have been pretty uncomfortable if he hadn’t already been asleep. After that it was simply a matter of putting the drawer faces back on and wedging them into place, turning the cabinet on its back onto four of Minnario’s thrusters, and we were ready to go.

Or so we thought. We had maneuvered the cabinet nearly to the door when it suddenly gave a hard twitch to the side and settled to the floor. “What happened?” I asked, reflexively grabbing for the side of the cabinet. “Minnario?”

[Yes, I set it down,] he said, frowning at his chair controls. [But I didn’t make it twitch. There’s something not right here.]

“What sort of something?” I asked. “Are the thrusters losing power?”

He shook his head. [No. Something seems to be interfering with the control signal.]

I looked down at the cabinet, the back of my neck tingling. Our first night here, when the Jumpsuits had gone crazy trying to find a non-missing Minnario, he’d mentioned that the locator in his comm interfered with his chair’s controls. “Emikai, you did relieve our friend of his comm, right?” I asked.

“Of course,” Emikai said. “It is over there on the side table.”

“Yeah.” I held out a hand toward him. “Multitool, please?”

We found the extra tracker pinned to the inside of Blue One’s inner tunic lapel. “Very cute,” I said, taking the device across the room and setting it beside the comm. “Minnario, how’s it running now?”

[It seems all right,] Minnario said, sending the cabinet on a few tango-like maneuvers around the living room. [Yes, that was the problem.]

“Good,” I said. There was a wafting of air as Bayta came up beside me. “Emikai, would you mind putting the drawer faces back on?”

He nodded and set to work. “So we were supposed to walk into a trap?” Bayta murmured.

“Or else they were just being careful,” I said. “Do you recognize our friend, by the way?”

She nodded. “He was one of the Filiaelians at the interrogation
Usantra
Wandek took us to. Do you think he was the one who killed Tech Yleli?”

“Could be,” I said. “I was trying to steer the conversation that direction when the noise from the funeral started up again and he tried to take me out.”

Bayta shivered. “If there isn’t a trap waiting out there now, there will be soon,” she said quietly. “They’ll be furious when they discover what we’ve done.”

I shrugged. “Just gives us more incentive to figure out how they fit into the murder, and then find a way to nail them for it.”

“
Logra
Emikai’s only giving us one day.”

“It’ll be enough,” I assured her. “If not to nail the Shonkla-raa, at least to persuade Emikai to give us more time.”

Emikai finished wedging the last drawer face in place and straightened up. “Are we ready?” he asked.

“We’re ready,” I confirmed, taking Bayta’s arm and rejoining the others. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Where exactly are we going?” Bayta asked.

I looked at Minnario, busily maneuvering the file cabinet into line with the door. “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll find something.”

*   *   *

The bullet trains would have been the fastest way to get back across the station. But they would also harbor more prying eyes and idly inquisitive minds than I wanted to have staring at our party and our cargo. So instead we took the back route, traveling the regular corridors and hallways and avoiding even the major traffic lanes and glideways.

We did what we could to disguise the oddness of our party by letting Emikai walk alone beside the floating file cabinet, with Minnario hanging back at the very limit of his control range, while Bayta and I and the watchdogs hung back even farther.

The marching order was helpful, but it was also open to exploitation by any Shonkla-raa who might have tumbled to what had happened and managed to track us down. I kept a close watch, but while we got plenty of curious looks from the other pedestrians no one started any trouble.

And finally, we arrived at the hiding place I’d had in mind ever since Bayta and Minnario had first showed up at Yleli’s apartment.

Minnario’s room.

“I do not like it,” Emikai said flatly as I started pulling the drawer covers off the cabinet. “It is well known that you are Attorney Minnario’s client. This is the first place his allies will look for him.”

“The second place, actually,” I corrected, taking hold of one of Blue One’s arms. “The first place they’ll look will be my room. Give me a hand, will you?”

Together, he and I got the sleeping Filly out of his makeshift coffin and up onto the couch. He didn’t fit on this one any better than I had on the one in my room, but I wasn’t particularly worried about how comfortable he would be with his feet hanging off the end. “Good,” I said, reaching behind him to confirm that his wrist restraints were still secure. “Phase one, complete. On to phase two.”

“Which is?” Emikai asked.

[To prepare for trial,] Minnario spoke up. While Emikai and I had been getting Blue One out of the cabinet, he had settled in at the computer and was peering at the display. [I’m informed your next hearing will be tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.]

“I thought
Chinzro
Hchchu wanted me to investigate Tech Yleli’s murder,” I protested. “How am I supposed to do that while I’m sitting around listening to lawyers?”

[Obviously, he thinks you can,] Minnario said, gesturing toward the display. [The message is very clear. Ten o’clock tomorrow.]

So much for Emikai’s grace period. Depending on how much legalese
Chinzro
Hchchu decided to pull out of his sleeve, Minnario and I could be stuck there the whole day. “In that case, I’ve got the rest of today to figure out who Blue One is and find a connection with Tech Yleli. Do either of you have a camera I can use to take his picture?”

[I do,] Minnario said, pulling a small, flat disk from his chair pouch. [You call him Blue One?]

“Only until I get his real name,” I said, taking the camera and getting a few shots of Blue One’s face from different angles. “When we first met, he was wearing a blue tech’s outfit.”

“You did not say that you and he had previously met,” Emikai said, eyeing me oddly.

“It just hadn’t come up yet,” I assured him. “I wasn’t hiding it, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“What were the circumstances of this meeting?” Emikai persisted.

“
Usantra
Wandek wanted to ask me about
Asantra
Muzzfor’s last hours aboard the super-express,” I said. “Blue One was part of the audience. End of story.” I turned back to Minnario. “Did you and Bayta—?”

“That is
not
the end of the story,” Emikai interrupted. “You have not even told
me
all of what happened to
Asantra
Muzzfor. What did you tell them?”

“I told them the truth, the same as I told you,” I said. “Besides, all of that is irrelevant. You heard Minnario—we’re dealing with the New Tigris incident, and no one has any business looking at anything else.”

Emikai’s blaze darkened. “I am not a member of the court,” he rumbled. “
I
choose what is relevant to me.”

“Fine,” I said. “You come up with some questions, and I’ll be happy to answer them. But later. Right now, I have to get back to my room and my computer and see what I can dig up on this guy.”

For a moment Emikai glared at me. Then, reluctantly, he nodded. “Very well,” he said. “But this conversation is not yet over.”

“I’ll look forward to finishing it,” I assured him as I turned back to Minnario. “As I was starting to ask, were you and Bayta finished with your witness prep work?”

[Yes,] the Nemut said, looking back and forth uncertainly between Emikai and me. [Before you leave, though, do you have more medication for my guest?]

“Yes, of course—sorry,” I said, digging the bottle and hypo out of my pocket and handing them to him. “Give him—what was it, about two of the little hypo marks?” I asked, looking at Emikai.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “Two
vikka
every six hours.”

[I understand,] Minnario said. [What about food and water?]

I gazed over at our sleeping Shonkla-raa. If Emikai’s six-hour time estimate was accurate, he should be coming to in about three and a half hours. “Tell you what,” I said. “Forget any fresh injections for now—I’ll come by about the time he’s due to wake up and handle it. I think by then I’ll want to talk to him anyway.”

[Are you sure that’ll be all right?] Minnario asked, looking apprehensively at our prisoner. [What if you’re late? He’s considerably bigger than I am.]

“He’s a lot meaner, too,” I said. “But don’t worry, he’s not going to break out of those restraints any time soon.”

“But if we’re not here by the time he starts to wake up, call one of us at once,” Bayta added.

“Right,” I agreed. “We’ll see you in a couple of hours.” I raised my eyebrows at Emikai. “You coming?”

“In a moment,” Emikai said. “I would like a word first with Attorney Minnario.”

I frowned, looking back at Minnario. [It’s all right,] he assured me. [Actually, I’d like a word with
Logra
Emikai, as well. Until later.]

“Until later,” I said. With a final look at Blue One, I took Bayta’s arm and left the room.

The corridors were crowded as we made our way back toward the medical dome. But that was okay. I didn’t really want to talk right now, and I could sense Bayta was in a deep study of her own. The only ones of our group who said anything for most of the way, in fact, were Doug and Ty, each of whom sent out a yip greeting to another watchdog and his master as they went in the opposite direction on the glideway.

The traffic had mostly cleared out, and I could see the archway into the medical dome ahead, when Bayta finally spoke. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to check on Terese before we go to our room,” she said. “Make sure she’s all right.”

“No problem,” I assured her. “Were you able to find out anything new about the attack?”

“Not really,” Bayta said. “She didn’t seem to want to talk in front of Minnario.”

I grimaced. “Yeah, I was afraid that would cramp your style a little. Did anyone notice the missing hypos?”

“I think Dr. Aronobal might have,” she said. “I saw her looking at the area where they were all laid out, and then she went out in the corridor and had a short conversation with one of the techs. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he left in something of a hurry.”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” I said. “They can’t prove anything. At least, not until they talk to Blue One.”

Bayta exhaled loudly. “There’s something wrong here, Frank,” she said pensively. “Everything that’s happened here is just
wrong
, somehow.”

“For example?” I asked. I already had my own list, but I wanted to hear hers.

“The attack on you, for one thing,” she said. “Why did they send only one person? Were they really that overconfident? Or did they want you to win so that you would do exactly what you did?”

“You mean wrap Blue One in cotton and drop him in a hole?”

“Or they may have hoped for something worse,” she said, a brief shiver running through her. “They might have thought they would lose on the New Tigris killings, and were hoping to get something else to accuse you of. If we hadn’t found that spare tracker, it would have led them right to him. Whether he was alive or … not.”

“True,” I agreed. “Okay, so we’ve got the attack. Anything else bugging you?”

“Yes, several things,” she said. “Why lure you to the scene of Tech Yleli’s murder? Just so they could jump out at the right time and frame you? But that didn’t work. More importantly, they should have
known
it wouldn’t work.” She gestured down at Doug and Ty. “As
Logra
Emikai and
Chinzro
Hchchu quickly realized.”

I looked down at the watchdogs, thinking about Doug’s lack of action when the locals accosted me at Yleli’s funeral. “Actually, that alibi may actually not be as tight as they all think,” I said. “Doug didn’t exactly leap to the defense of all those fine, upstanding citizens who jumped me. I wouldn’t mention that to anyone else, of course.”

“But why try it at all?” Bayta persisted. “In fact, it’s worse than that. Not only did the frame-up not work, but in a way it actually backfired on them.”

“How so?”

“It brought you and your Westali training back to
Chinzro
Hchchu’s attention,” she said. “I assume that’s why he asked you to investigate the murder.”