Bactine (37 page)

Daniel however thanked him for the honour.

Warlem nodded as he put the goffeesh over his shoulder again. "I think, my friend, the information you seek is something you should discuss also with my mother. We can answer your questions together..."

Daniel followed Warlem to the large hall. Udriga, Clelem's wife, sat on a large couch, drinking tea.

"Oh, Mr. Zacharias. How do you feel?" she asked.

"A lot better, my lady." Daniel then had the time to ask his questions. None of Rayko's friends sounded like the type that would coax her into running off. And neither of the two people could think of a reason for her to disappear without a word. More and more the cloaked person took the centre of attention. It just didn't make much sense. But then, many things suffered from that.

"And the row she had with her father just before she vanished?" Daniel tried one more time.

"Those happen frequently," Ugidra said. "Rayko has a mind of her own, and that clashes with the ideas of her father. If they don't have words at least twice a week, one of them is ill."

"Being ill has not stopped them before, mother," Warlem reminded her.

"Then, please, allow me to just mention some names," Daniel said. "Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy? Would he have anything to gain from this kidnapping, if it really is one?"

Ugidra shook her head. "No. He and Clelem have their differences, but I don't see him do this. He has always been friendly to us."

"The shape of the man in the cloak would certainly fit him, though," Warlem thought out loud.

Ugidra watched her son. "Seigner Huajo would never do something like this. He wouldn't be able to, physically. His walking is bad enough, Warlem, do not mock the man, please."

"Then what about the senator, Seigner Dirrit ko Asac?" Daniel just tried the name, to provoke a reaction.

The two people stared at Daniel in disbelief. "You cannot be serious, Mr. Zacharias," Ugidra finally said. "The senator is a really dear friend. He adores Rayko, and he gets along with my husband very well."

"Do you then know of other people who could be considered enemies of your husband?" Daniel was sure that Clelem would have some more. He just had to think of the way the man had treated him, which made his blood temperature drop a few degrees. At least, that was how it felt to him.

Ugidra and Warlem went through a set of names that meant nothing to Daniel, but there was no one they were able to point at. Except for perhaps Seigner Folkling ko Keran. Or Seigner Willin ko Noles. They were ship owners also, and it seeped through that Clelem had pulled some nasty business trick on them that would give them reason to be less friendly towards the man.

Daniel got the suspicion that the list was longer than the two people wanted to tell him.

They talked for a while longer, but nothing new came out of that, so Daniel left the Dandra ko Galems and called for a carriage home. Warlem, who had accompanied him to the foot of the hill in the floater, insisted to handle the costs for that ride.

On the road, Daniel took his device and tried to talk to Tomlin. His friend was at home, also recovering from his adventures.

"Daniel, rascal, where are you? What was so urgent that you ran off yesterday?"

Daniel explained so much as he could and wanted, about Rayko's disappearing act and what he had heard and seen. "And now I wonder if you have any idea about the things that go about in that environment of ship owners, the politics and those kinds of things."

Tomlin frowned. "I'm not really the person to talk to about that, Daniel. Sorry, but I am in a different line of work."

"I know, you're in the pirate fighting business lately." They laughed. It helped to release some of the tension that was still inside them. "Well, thank you anyway, Tomlin. I hope I did not disturb your rest with this call."

"You can call me any time, Daniel, and you know it. So don't give me that, okay?"

They ended the call. As the carriage rolled into Skarak, the hydger called for Daniel's attention. It was Ulaman contacting him.

"Daniel, where are you? You were busy just now!"

"Hey, Ulaman. Good to see you. How are you?" Daniel was really glad to see the captain's face.

"I'm fine, Daniel. They patched me up some at the hospital and then Xandree made them agree that she could take me home."

Daniel laughed. Xandree was Xandree. Even after the ordeal she had been through. "How is Xandree doing?" She had not been looking her best either.

"Running the ship, as usual," Ulaman grumbled, but the wink he added told Daniel things were fine. "Now you stop all your questions and come over here. We're all here and we miss you. We need you to be here, Daniel."

"Where is here?"

"Our house. I will give you the address, and then you get here as fast as you can." It was not a request. That was underlined by the display fading into a set of numbers.

Daniel stored the identification in the hydger and then used that to change the destination of the carriage. The change in goal also had a change of mindset in store for him. For now he simply looked forward to seeing his friends again, instead of being faced with the problems that the disappearance of that mud-ball playing girl had thrown into his lap.

The ride to Ulaman and Xandree did not take long. Daniel was glad his clothes were clean and that he was feeling so much better. Showing up there like the smelly type he'd been when he went to the Dandra ko Galem house would have been bad. He had just been so tired he couldn't have cared less, then.

The house of the captain and his wife appeared to be quite small. It looked as if someone had thought it a great idea to take a wide alley and turn part of that into a house. The front door was hardly wide enough to grant Ulaman entry into the place, Daniel grinned as the carriage stopped in front of it. Three small windows over each other, next to the door, had to supply all the light for what was behind that door. What was lacking in width of the house, the height had to make up. It was three storeys high, higher than most other buildings in the street. That gave the house a very strange appearance, compared to the rest.

Daniel knocked on the door. It only took seconds before it opened.

Stroro's grinning face appeared from the relative darkness behind it. "Daniel. Come in. We've been waiting for you."

The pirate-fighter came into a strangely formed long living room, which was to be expected considering the narrowness of the house. The amount of familiar and happy faces made him feel amazing and when they saw him come in, they all in turn came to greet him. Daniel was pleasantly surprised to see Draiky there, with Ombra.

Quickly Xandree arranged for a place where Daniel could sit, and someone else provided him with tea and sailor's biscuits. The best kind. Then the crew overloaded Daniel for a while, telling him about how they had been treated by the pirates, and what they had endured while they had been kept as nothing better than slaves.

Daniel had a hard time at several moments, as he heard all the stories. He had worried about their fate, but he had not worried hard enough, he understood now. It made him so immensely more grateful to persist in getting these men and women out of there.

After the avalanche of words that his friends had to share with him, while also showering him and the other people with gratitude about how they had come to save them, Daniel explained that he'd had no other choice. "I just had to try this. And I am glad it all worked out so well."

Tea had been replaced with beer and the local variety of rum. Daniel settled for the beer. He still had a promise to keep, to look for the missing person. Rum would not do his brain much good for that.

"What are you lot going to do now?" Daniel asked.

"The Seigner is having a new ship built, Daniel. It is the Pricosine 2. He told us yesterday, remember?" Darigyn frowned.

"I missed his speech," Daniel elaborated. He remembered the trip to the shipyard, and the words he had caught there, as he was stuck on top of the parts on deck. "I was called away for something. So he is getting a new ship. That sounds good."

"It will be," Darigyn said, fire spreading through him. Part of that was his enthusiasm about the new ship, part of it was the rum, without a doubt. "And all who want can sail on it again, he said. He said that he felt good to see all of us back."

Daniel nodded. The sour taste that he had, about Clelem not making any serious attempt to save the crew, came back double force. "That sounds fabulous, Darigyn."

"You're coming with us again, aren't you, Daniel? You're a good man on board," Ulaman added to the conversation.

"Well, the Seigner has not asked me about that," Daniel said truthfully. "He told me that I am no longer working for him."

This news caused quite some uproar among the people present. Several stared at him, others were immediately on their feet, informing Daniel that they would all go to talk to the Seigner about that. It took Daniel a while to calm everyone down and hold them from doing things that they might regret later. He felt good about their wish to keep him as part of the crew, though.

"I have a new assignment at the moment." He told them about Rayko who had gone missing. "Her mother asked me to find her, and I am currently looking for clues on what might have happened."

Another storm of words and comments streamed over the long table, ranging from 'who cares about that girl anyway' to 'give me the bastard who took her and I'll take him apart'.

To Daniel's surprise it was Ombra, the tiny woman, who came over to him. She sat down next to him. "Daniel... I am certain you can find the woman. You brought so many people back. We are all proud to call you a friend. If there is something we can do for you, please ask. I am sure that everyone here agrees with what I am saying."

All sailors in the room had fallen silent as Ombra spoke. After she'd finished talking, they all cheered and made it clear they agreed with her.

Xandree got up. "Daniel... I don't know if you have heard, but we know that the Seigner sometimes has a problem with the senator. Dirrit ko Asac. Ulaman and I feel that you should go and talk with the senator."

"The senator?" Daniel could not believe what he heard. "I met the senator, at the evening party at their house. He can't be connected to that."

"The senator has a problem with something he fights, Daniel," Ulaman said. "He is political and does things to get rid of drugs. But everyone knows that drugs are his weakness also. There are rumours that the Seigner sometimes -uhm- helps the senator. And that then has all kinds of things with politics that follow from that."

It was not the first time that Daniel heard of the senator being somewhat of a drugs user. But he had not heard before that Clelem might have a hand in that. And how would he be helping? With drugs? Or with money to get them? Or with contacts? This all sounded far-fetched. Rumours. But then... where there was smoke, there usually was fire.

"And what do you all think of her brother," Daniel asked, trying to invoke a reaction.

"The dandy? He is scared of anything larger than a sheet of paper with words on it, Daniel!" The crew told him about a time that Warlem had been aboard the old Pricosine, and how the man had already become seasick while the boat had been moored.

That was contradicting what Daniel knew. On the new ship, Warlem had only complained about the time and the cold, not about being on a ship and becoming sick. It was a moment where Daniel wished he could go back to being just a soldier, and not an investigator. He was not cut out for this.

Daniel said goodbye to his friends when the sun had since long traded places with the three moons that circled the planet in an awkward cluster. In the dimly lit street he summoned a carriage. Normally he would just walk home. Today however, he'd had a good time, and a decent number of drinks. And the influence of the drinks, he was certain, would make him see all kinds of places of Skarak that might be interesting, but not the most interesting one: his bed.

When Daniel came in, he shivered. So long had he been gone. So much had happened. So strange, he thought, that the first night he had been back in Skarak, he had spent in the house of Clelem Dandra ko Galem. Without the man knowing it. That was really too bizarre for words.

He took a quick shower and headed for dreamland.

-=-=-

Daniel woke up after a night of very disturbing dreams. Just about everyone he had met on this planet had appeared in it, and many of them had performed in a circle dance around Rayko. That was something that puzzled him most.

Over breakfast he pondered the things he should do now. How would he find a young woman that had disappeared without a trace? What did he know about her, even? Just that she was stuck-up, hated him and argued with her father a lot. If he just knew what that was about, that might give him some clues, but asking her father was not something appealing at the moment.