Part 17 (1/2)

”Never mind how he did it,” I cut him off. ”The recriminations can wait. Which direction did he go?”

”I don't know,” Everett said. ”I didn't see him leave. We're all out looking for him.”

”All of you?”

”All but Ixil-we pounded on his door, but he didn't answer, and the door wasn't working right. It's okay-we locked the hatch-”

There was a quiet sputtering click as another phone joined the circuit.

”Everett, this is Tera,” her voice came excitedly. ”I've found him.”

”Where?” I snapped, pulling my city map out and trying to shake it open with my free hand.

”McKell?” she asked, sounding both surprised and wary.

”Yes,” I said. ”Where is he?”

”Outside an outfitter's store at Ude'n Corner,” she said. ”He's accosting people as they go in.””That's a good way to get all his troubles ended permanently,” I growled, locating the spot on my map. It was only a short block away from Gate 2, where I.

was headed anyway. ”Keep him in sight, but try not to let him see you,” I told her. ”I'll be there in a couple of minutes and we'll bring him back together.

Everett, call Nicabar and Chort and the three of you head back to the s.h.i.+p.

Get it ready to fly.”

”Now?” Everett asked, sounding surprised. ”What about the borandis?”

”Done and done,” I told him. ”Make sure-”

”You've got it?” Everett asked. ”Already?”

”I'm very good at what I do,” I told him, trying hard to be patient. ”Make sure we've been fueled and are ready to lift as soon as Tera and I get back with Shawn.”

Another faint hiss. ”All right. We'll see you back at the s.h.i.+p.”

There was a click as he disconnected. ”Tera?” I called.

”Still here,” she confirmed tightly. ”And I think people are starting to get irritated by Shawn's ravings. You'd better hurry.”

”Trust me,” I a.s.sured her, wincing as I turned part of my attention back to the automotive drama taking place around me. ”He must have made good time to be out of the s.p.a.ceport already. How long since he jumped s.h.i.+p?”

”About an hour ago,” she said. ”Just after you left to-”

”An hour?” I cut her off in disbelief, a white-hot flash of anger slicing through me. ”An hour? And you didn't think it worth mentioning to me?”

”We didn't want to bother you,” she protested, clearly startled by my sudden anger. ”You already had the medicine to find-”

”I don't care if I've got the crown jewels to steal,” I snarled. ”Something like this happens, you get on the phone and tell me about it. Let me worry about what it does to my schedule. Is that clear?”

”Clear,” she said, more subdued than I'd ever heard her. For a moment I considered taking another verbal slice of flesh out of her, decided regretfully that it probably wasn't her fault, and kept my mouth shut. Possibly it wasn't any of their faults. Ixil would have known what to do; but Ixil was in his cabin in a coma, and it was painfully obvious that none of the others had anywhere near our experience with this sort of thing.

Instead, I vented my frustration on the map lying open beside me, folding it back up with far more force than was necessary and shoving it into my jacket's left side pocket.

”McKell?” Tera said, her voice suddenly tight. ”I think I see a police car heading this way. Red and blue, with a flas.h.i.+ng blue light on top, moving very fast.”

”Don't worry,” I told her. ”It's a cab, and I'm in it. Flag me in, will you?”

A block ahead, I saw her step to the curb and raise her hand, a vision of loveliness standing there in the downpour in her stylish drowned-rat look. I directed the driver over to her, dropped two hundred-commark bills on the seat beside him as I got out, and pulled Tera quickly away from the curb as he shot off again in a foaming wave. Maybe I'd wasted all that tip money; maybe that was the way he always drove anyway.

”There,” Tera said, pointing across the street.”I see him,” I said. Considering the way Shawn was bouncing around the store entrance waving his arms at everyone in sight, he would have been hard to miss.

Taking Tera's arm again, I steered us through the traffic flow toward him.

After everything else that had happened, the capture itself was rather anticlimactic. Pleading and screeching and cursing at the pa.s.sersby, his wet hair plastered half across his face, Shawn was in no shape to see anything happening around him, Tera and I could have driven up to him in an armored personnel carrier without him noticing. As it was, we simply moved in from opposite sides and grabbed his arms. He gave a single terrific lurch, but there wasn't much strength left in him, and after that one attempt to break free he just stood there shaking in our grip.

We led him away from the door and the pedestrian traffic to the narrow pa.s.sageway between the outfitter's store and the next building over, Tera murmuring soothingly in his ear the whole way. When we were as far out of the public eye as we were likely to get, I dug out the ca.s.sette and fed him one of the borandis capsules. He seemed to be having trouble getting it down until Tera filled her cupped hands with rainwater and gave him a drink.

The effects were quite amazing. Almost immediately his trembling began to subside, and within a couple of minutes he seemed almost back to normal.

At least physically. ”You sure took your sweet time about it,” he growled, breathing heavily as he brushed his wet hair impatiently out of his face.

”Where the h.e.l.l are we, anyway? You said we were going to Mintarius. This isn't Mintarius. I know-I've been there.”

”Change of plans,” I told him shortly, peering closely at his eyes. His pupils, strongly dilated when we'd first grabbed him, seemed to be shrinking back to normal size.

”Yeah, well, that change of plans might have killed me,” he snapped. ”Did you ever think of that? This place must be at least three hours farther than Mintarius was.”

”No, just two,” I said. He was well enough to travel, I decided; and even if he wasn't, we were going. The sooner he was aboard the Icarus and shut away where I.

didn't have to listen to him, the better. Taking his arm, I pulled him back out toward the main thoroughfare.

”Wait a minute, what's the rush?” he growled, leaning back against my pull.

His strength was also making a remarkable comeback. ”We just got here. How about just for once sticking around some planet more than five minutes, huh?”

”Shut up and come on,” Tera snapped, grabbing his other arm. From the look of surprise that flicked across his face, I guessed she was digging her nails into his skin more than was necessary to maintain the grip. Certainly more than I was; but then, I'd only been irritated by his disappearing act for the past

five.

minutes. Tera had had a whole hour of slogging through the rain in which to work up resentment.