Part 2 (1/2)
It was an odd feeling to be at the helm of a sea-going vessel. Scarbo and I took turns, while Tallin sat glumly to one side looking at the deck. It was hard to know what to think. I realised that Dewi Dammo wanted us out here, had engineered it all, that true to his handling of Pederson and Ella Okani he wished to deal with us here in his special domain - to satisfy some sense of personal justice.
Ben turned to me from the helm. ”They all said: No to your questions, Tom. The monitor was working.”
”It seemed to be, Ben. It was properly sealed. But Namuren or the Seamaster himself could have interfered with it. How would we know?”
”Then Dewi could be aboard. He's actually one of us.” Scarbo marvelled at the possibility.
”Pederson said: Three. Could three of them be Dewi Dammo?” Scarbo frowned. ”A corporate persona?”
”Why not? Three people operating a collective alias, using it as a front, a blind. The Ab'Os have the power and the technology to maintain such a deception, using a single person to distract investigators from a more widespread corporate situation.”
”Namuren?”
”They'd need one Ab'0 at least,” I said. ”Or the Seamaster ... no, he would have to be aboard, wouldn't he? If we trust the monitor. MacRommurque's 'No'
after the 'Yes' didn't cancel the green.”
Scarbo corrected our course a few degrees.
”Another thing,” he said. ”Namuren identified die island as Marmordesse. Why didn't Pederson Try to give us that name?”
I studied the island ahead of us. ”For a start, if he knew the name he wouldn't dare use it. Maximum stress. Just thinking about it would kill him. No, he would have had to talk his way around it. Or, maybe he never knew it by that name. It could be Dewi's special name for it.”
”Which brings us back to Namuren again. Dewi certainly wants us to know that name now.”
”True,” I said. ”And Namuren could be the Port Merilyn Seamaster for all we know. Hammon didn't see him first-hand.”
Scarbo made an impatient sound. ”So who else would you suspect? MacRommurque?”
”I'd say so.”
Tallin Okani looked up. ”Jarvain Alis,” she said. ”Are you serious?” I asked. She shrugged and watched the island. ”You said you need an Ab'O. A Seamaster or a high port official. You have an excursion captain who loves the Sea. Why not a religious leader, someone more involved with charling profits than his sect?”
”But your sister, Tallin ...” I said.
The Samoan girl snorted with contempt. ”Jarvain Alis was in love with my sister.” ”Then he had good cause to seek out Dewi and...”
”Ella was an identical twin!” Tallin said and turned to the rail so her back was to us. Scarbo and I considered the implications, watching the breeze stir Tallin's long dark hair.
Scarbo frowned, lowered his voice. ”But they all said: No to both questions, Tom. Not being Dewi is one thing, especially if it is a shared persona. But they didn't know who Dewi was. Wouldn't that violate the monitor's function?” Ben shook his head.
”Then the device was faulty, which explains the double answer for Dewi being on board.”
”So why did MacRommurque get rid of it - to stop further questions?”
”Possibly. Or just to mislead us further. The one thing we do know for certain is that Dewi wants us out here like this - otherwise MacRommurque wouldn't have been on the dock yesterday, and Alis and Namuren wouldn't have come. We would have found only hirelings, possibly innocent ones who could honestly face a monitor and leave us with no further clues.” Tallin turned back to us. ”Then what could Dewi's motives be?” she asked. ”Why bother with this? Ben told me about the mirror-s.h.i.+ps before. Why doesn't Dewi have you killed far from here, back at Angel Bay, even in Port Merilyn? Did he underestimate you?”
We were nearly at the island. Marmordesse rose from the warm Sea a mile ahead, the dark openings of the doors to the vigil-cells visible between the tall cedars on the central ridge, a simple whitewashed mortuary building on the beach below, with a wooden jetty reaching out into the lake on timber piles. The place looked deserted. Not a soul could be seen - just the quiet sun-drenched beach with low waves rolling between the piles of the jetty and lapping at the white sand, and the quiet shadowed groves and glades beyond. I watched the island getting closer, thinking again of Griff and Ella, then returned to Tallin's questions.
”Two things occur to me, Tallin. One is that Dewi Dammo would like someone to pierce his disguise, to appreciate the intricate operation 'he' has devised. It's a need for sensation, for an audience, even a temporary one since he can't afford to let us leave with knowledge of Marmordesse. Our elimination anywhere else removes the problem, yes, but without the pleasure of having someone know. It may just be vanity.” I hesitated. ”And it's possible that Ella ...”
Tallin finished for me. ”That she discovered Dewi's true ident.i.ty. What is the other explanation?”
”You said it yourself before: Ella was your identical twin. If Jarvain Alis is part of a corporate Dewi Dammo and he loves you, he has Ella again in a sense, safe in his domain.”
”How close are you to your brother?” Scarbo asked.
”Not very,” Tallin replied. ”We're closer now because of Ella, though tnere was no love mere either. They fought all the time. Pride is much closer to the sect. He could be Dewi Dammo for all I know.”
”So could you,” Scarbo said.
”True,” Tallin admitted calmly. ”But do think of what's involved in murdering your identical twin.”
I did so, then thought of Pederson's violent death at Angel Bay.The conditioning had been in him, yes, but could Jarvain Alis have followed him to make sure the dying man did not reveal too much at the moment of his death?
The mere presence of Alis would have brought on thoughts of Dewi, accelerating the process, hastening poor Peter's decline dramatically.
”What an agony it must have been for Pederson to sit there with us, with a part of Dewi present.”
”So what do we do now?” Tallin said.
”We go ash.o.r.e on Marmordesse as Dewi intends, though I doubt we'll find a monitor there. But first we must search this vessel as thoroughly as we can - for another single person, for a hiding place, for anything that will explain MacRommurque's Yes-No answer.”
Tallin and I went to do that while Scarbo brought us in to the small jetty. First we searched the empty upper deck and then - trying to appear as casual about it as we could - went down to where Jarvain Alis, Pride and James Namuren were talking outside a locked crew cabin.
”We have arrived I see,” Namuren said. ”Do we go ash.o.r.e?”
”Yes, Mr Namuren. Are you armed?”
The Ab'0 produced a small laser baton. ”I am.”
”Then please take the MacRommurques with you. We shall meet on the beach in ten minutes.”
”What of you, Captain Tyson?” Jarvain Alis asked, and I could not help but detect a new sinister intelligence behind those steady eyes. I saw no point in concealing what I intended.
”Scarbo and I wish to search the vessel. In view of Captain MacRommurque's Yes-No answer, we must make certain no-one else is on board.” Jarvain Alis smiled. ”Should not Mr Namuren be present?”
”He is most welcome, of course,” I said. ”Three of us will make quick work of it.”
We watched Alis take the baton from the Ab'0 official. then set about our task.
When the search was done, we joined the small group of figures on the beach. It was noon; the sun blazed down on the island. Cicadas droned in the cedars; a stillness hung over everything, broken only by the waves rolling on to the beach.
”Nothing?” Alis said.
”Nothing,” I answered. ”Where are the doctors?”
”We've seen no-one. The building over there is unoccupied.”