Part 55 (2/2)

At the last minute, the Hype cops stopped Dana as he tried to leave the house.

”Hey,” said one of them whose name, he thought, was Malachi, ”why don't you come with us? You look pretty bad, maybe you ought to see a medic. Hey, Captain!” This shout down the corridor brought Cat Graeme out of the front room.

”What?”

”I'm taking the Starcaptain to the cop shop.” He closed his hand around Dana's wrist.

”Don't hold me,” Dana said wearily. ”I've been tied up for four days.” ”Sorry.” Malachi let go of the wrist. Dana thought, I don't want to go to the Police Station, really I don't....

”Wait a minute,” Graeme called. Malachi sighed and walked to her. ”Don't leave,” he said warningly to Dana.

”I'm just going out for a breath of air,” Dana said. He opened the door.

Forty-seven Cabell Street, forty-seven Cabell Street.... The glare of sunlight nearly knocked him down. He basked in the cleansing light for a moment, and then turned north. Five steps from the house and Malachi caught up with him.

”Thought you'd sneak away, huh,” he said. ”That was silly.”

Dana stopped walking. His knees wobbled. ”Look,” he said, ”I've been locked in a room, I've been beaten, I haven't had much food -- the last thing I need is to be pried at and pushed around. I need a bath and about forty hours'

sleep. Once I've had that, I'll be glad to come to the police station and talk to your d.a.m.n computer for hours -- ” He swayed. ”Forty-seven Cabell Street.

That's where I want to go.”

”The Yago house,” said Malachi. ”Who told you to go there? The Commander?” Dana nodded. ”Well -- ” the burly man hesitated, and then said, ”Oh, why not. You're out on your feet anyway. Come on, they'll have the slideway running again by now. Can you walk by yourself? I'm not real enthusiastic about carrying you. You smell rotten.”

”I'll walk,” Dana said. ”Thanks.” Just put one foot in front of the other, preferably in a straight line, he told himself. Malachi chattered beside him, needing no response, it seemed, as he discussed Chabad's weather -- ”I'm from Samarkand, myself” -- Catriona Graeme, Rhani Yago, whom he admired though he had only met her for five minutes -- ”Hey, that's one high-powered lady” -- and Chabad's markets. Every so often he would say, ”You still with me?”

”Still with you,” Dana said.

On the movalong, the pa.s.sengers took one look at Dana and edged away, until around him and Malachi was a clear s.p.a.ce. Malachi said politely, ”You don't mind if I stand upwind?” Dana didn't mind. Near the movalong exit they pa.s.sed a fountain and Dana was tempted to wade into it. ”Better not,” Malachi said.

Dana had almost decided that walking was easy when Malachi said, ”Here we are.” Dana looked up. They stood in front of a house. It was low and covered with green vines that grew over the roof and down the sides of the house and against the windows. It reminded Dana very strongly of a house he had lived in on Pellin.

”You're sure?” he said, because it did not look like either of the houses he a.s.sociated with the Yagos. It was almost plebeian.

”I'm sure,” Malachi said, knocking on the door. A tall, very thin man opened it. Dana frowned. For a minute he could not think why the man seemed so familiar, and then he realized that he looked like -- not in feature but in manner -- Binkie, only he was brown, and Binkie had been white....

He smelled the scent Rhani used on her hair.

”Dana!” She was standing in front of him. ”Sweet mother.” He fended off her outstretched hands.

”Better not,” he said. ”I haven't had a bath in days.”

”Then you shall have one,” she said. Turning, she gave a mult.i.tude of orders to people who came and quickly went. The man who looked like Binkie vanished and returned with a gla.s.s of what smelled like fruit punch. Dana clasped it in both hands.

It was fruit punch.

”Where's my brother?” Rhani asked Malachi.

”I don't know, ma'am. He stayed behind -- I suppose he had something to do.”

Something -- Dana held the gla.s.s out and someone took it from him -- yes, you could say that, Dana thought. He remembered Zed moving from body to fallen body like an avalanche hunting for a place to spill. G.o.d help Michel A-Rae, he thought. Rhani was thanking Malachi, and he gathered the strength to turn and add his own grateful words.

Malachi was diffident. ”Don't worry about it, man. Take care of yourself.” He backed out of the house. Dana felt Rhani's cool, strong fingers close around his wrist.

”Bath,” she said, and led him through her bedroom to a washroom. ”Take off those clothes.” He stripped. As he bared his left side, he heard her suck breath in sharply. She stepped close to him and touched the purple-black bruise with her right palm.

”Now we match,” he said.

”Only mine was on the other side.”

A tub of water stood steaming at his back. He lowered himself into it, trying not to cry out at the sharp pain. The surface of the water turned dark as dirt floated off his skin.

”Here,” Rhani said, handing him a sponge. He sponged himself. It was luxury to be clean. ”I'll do your back,” she offered. He let her take the sponge from his hand.

”This is a nice house,” he said, as the soft, thick sponge moved up and down his spine. The touch was mildly rousing; he felt his genitals stir.

When he climbed from the tub, he tried to hide his erection with the towel. Rhani saw, and grinned. ”Hey, I've seen it before,” she said. Suddenly she pressed herself against him, ignoring the water that ran down him, soaking her clothes. ”d.a.m.n it, Dana,” she said, ”why did you come back? I wanted you to leave.”

It was an odd thing for her to be saying as she hugged him, he thought.

”I tried to leave,” he explained. ”The s.h.i.+ps were grounded, and then I got drunk -- ”.

”I know,” she said. She handed him a thick plush blue robe. He put it on.

”Tori Lamonica told us you disappeared. I called the Abanat police but Captain Graeme didn't want to have anything to do with me.” She grinned, not pleasantly.

”I changed her mind.”

Dana thought for a moment that he would have liked to have seen Cat Graeme and Rhani Yago skopping it. But of course, Rhani had won. This was her world. ”Zed -- looks well,” he said.

She nodded, and brought him into the bedroom. Instantly he was ravenous.

A tray of food waited on a table. He scooped up a meat roll and bit into it. The crisp taste almost made him weep. ”Oh, that's good,” he said.

”He is well,” Rhani said. Who, he thought, were we talking about? Oh, Zed. Yes. ”He has a gym in the back of the house, he exercises a lot. He doesn't go to the Clinic any more, of course. He reads -- ” She sat on the bed, hands between her knees. Her gaze sharpened. ”You spoke with him?”

Dana nodded. ”He gave me something to drink. We talked for a few minutes.

Rhani, why?” Her intense stare alarmed him.

She licked her lips, and reached for a piece of fruit. ”Because he knows we were lovers,” she said. ”He found out last night.”

It was too late to be frightened, but Dana's nerves reacted anyway, drying his mouth and racing his heart. ”Oh,” he said. ”That must be -- he said you had something to tell me.”

”No,” she said, ”that isn't it.”

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