The Alien Trace [Cord 01] (31 page)

    Cord dug his fingers under the chain to dislodge the skeleton's grip. Tanna had wrapped herself around his body, weighing him down; the skeleton stepped to one side as Cord staggered, withdrawing his bony hand. Cord threw himself to the floor, jerking on the chain at the same time. The skeleton fell in a heap, on top of Tanna.

    For a while, the skeleton remained motionless, moving only because Tanna's body moved, but not taking any action of its own. Tanna heaved and moaned, her muscles tightening around him; unwillingly, Cord felt himself orgasm at the same time. During that moment of weakness, the skeleton came to life and tried to reach around Tanna for Cord's throat. With a mighty thrust, Cord desperately threw them both to one side and rolled away.

    Leaping to his feet, he wrapped the trailing chain around one arm. Grabbing a chair, he swung it with all his strength at the skeleton, which was laboriously getting to its feet. With hollow snapping sounds, parts of bones came apart, and splinters flew in all directions. The upper torso scrabbled away from what was left of the lower. Cord continued to pound at the quivering bones until they were reduced to shards. He kicked the skull away, and it went rolling.

    He stood there panting, leaning on the remains of the chair. Almost wraithlike, the blond twins approached him, floating past a spent Tanna, still lying on the ground. Trailing them was the nameless security guard. The three surrounded Cord and caressed him lightly, trying to coax his organ out again. When the security guard tried to unwrap the chain from his arm, Cord-knowing he could not go through the same scenario again-lifted up the splintered chair and tried to stab the human with it.

    The man stepped back; Cord advanced. May and Mary threw themselves at his back; one of them managed to untangle the chain and pull on it. Cord swung the chair around and sank a jagged piece into the nearest twin. She vanished. He quickly jabbed the remaining twin, and she also disappeared.

    His strength and mental alertness increased as each adversary was vanquished. Only the guard remained; he launched himself at Cord, who whirled around just in time. As the human speared himself on the chair and faded, the circular movement of Cord's body inadvertently whipped the chain around his own neck.

    As he fought to unwind it, the entire dream sequence faded from view and everything went black. A dim light then penetrated the darkness, and Cord awoke to find himself fighting the trailing headset cord. He ripped it from his head and dragged himself to his feet. The effects of the drug lingered-his movements were ataxic. How much time had passed? He managed to hit the "Time" button on the terminal and the screen showed the date-port reckoning, of course-and the hour. Four hours or a little more had elapsed since he and Julia had entered; he could not guess how much time had passed since Julia had altered the program and left him.

    He breathed deeply and called to mind a Mehiran hymn intended to calm the worshiper. Then, moving deliberately because his muscles still responded only sporadically, Cord typed security's number.

    "O'as Garatua," he grated, vocal cords stiff.

    "Sorry, she's not in. May I have her call you back?" responded Garatua's cheerful young assistant.

    "It's urgent. Where can I find her?"

    "On the loading dock. I'll transfer you, if you wish."

    "Yes." Speech was returning, Cord found. He wondered why Julia had not killed him outright.

    The screen blanked. After a pause, the security man's face reappeared.

    "Sorry again-their line is busy."

    "It's all right. I'll go down there." Cord cut the connection and called K's office.

    The Trade Agent's screen was in message mode. Anger tautened Cord's body.

    "K, Julia McKay is the killer. I'm going to the loading dock to find O'as. We've got to find Julia before she gets out of the port."

    He made his way to ground level, dodging others on the walkways and chafing at their slowness. If he arrived and found O'as gone, it would be the last stroke of the whip. But she was probably settled there for a time, perhaps to investigate pilferage or some such matter.

    The atmosphere of the loading dock was relaxed, however. Several people in grubby coveralls were standing around, drinking vending-machine coffee. O'as was leaning against a crate, watching the screen. The loading-dock door was sealed, Cord saw, so the screen provided the only view of the field.

    "In case of an accident," O'as said as he joined her, seeing his curiosity. "This way, if she blows, we lose a couple of monitors-not the whole shipping department."

    Cord's attention shifted to the screen.

    The ship standing alone on the field was not large. It looked old. Understanding came in a rush: someone saying, "There's a freighter due in a couple of days."

    "O'as! You've got to stop it," Cord shouted. The last words were lost in the roar of its rockets, loud even as transmitted and muted by the monitors.

    "What's wrong?" O'as called.

    Cord made his way to her side where she stood in front of the screen. The ship stood on a pillar of flame.

    "The killer is on board."

    The freighter rose on its bright column until fire no longer washed the field beneath it.

    "Balls of the Blue God," Garatua muttered. "I wish you'd found out five minutes sooner-they'll really moan if we make them come back. Not that we can force them. All we can do is ask politely. Who is it?"

    "Julia McKay."

    The ship seemed no more than a comet tail now.

    O'as repeated her original oath and added a few more. She blanked the screen, and her square hands moved over the keyboard with surprising speed.

    "Port control? Garatua, security, here. I've been informed there's a murder suspect on the
Lady of Eire
. Radio the
Lady
and advise. If they will come back, we'll take care of the problem. If they choose not to return, ask the captain to detain their passenger Julia McKay and we'll communicate with the authorities on E'aij regarding extradition. Copy? Out."

    In spite of the urgency of the situation, Cord still found it amusing that Garatua's terminal manner was as brusque as her conversational style.

    "Now," she said, "I hope you're right. If not, I just made a fool of myself. What makes you think she's the One?"

    "She actually admitted it to me during a session at the stim-center. When I came to, I went looking for you, to organize a search and seal the port. I'd forgotten there was a ship in. When I saw it, I realized she hadn't killed me outright because she expected to be long gone by the time I woke up. She probably planned her escape when she heard the
Maida
was returning."

    Someone said, "It's beautiful, the way they rise. My father was second officer on one of those."

    O'as smiled. "My grandfather was a pirate on one." She added to Cord, "Well, what do you think of your first launch?"

    The urgency of the moment had overshadowed the liftoff for Cord. Now, looking back, he was able to appreciate its incandescent and fierce beauty.

    "Incredible," he answered. "It's like sex, the first time. You can't believe how good it is until you've experienced it."

    "Yeah." Garatua's fingers typed out a number; Cord recognized it as K's.

    "It's only taking messages," Cord told her. "Or was when I tried-"

    The message-mode response did not bother O'as: she keyed in one more number.

    "Private code," she explained. "It transfers the call to K's current location. Which is probably beside his girlfriend."

    There was no picture; K evidently had the camera turned off. But the voice that answered was unquestionably Hamilton K's.

    "Hamilton, something has occurred. Meet Cord and me at port control."

    "I'll be there."

    In the background, a female voice murmured, "Do you have to go right now…?" before O'as broke the connection.

    

    

    Port control was on the top floor. To enter the room was startling; for an acrophobe it would be terrifying, Cord thought. The entire outer wall was transparent; it was as if there were nothing there at all.

    "It's quite safe," the chief controller assured him. "The wall is as thick here as any place else. The difference is that it's been made transparent rather than black. Something to do with aligning the atomic structure. It's a very expensive process, so not many places can afford it. But we have to be able to see the field, in case the instrumentation fails."

    "Never mind that now," O'as said. "Has there been any reply from the
Lady of Eire
?"

    "It's coming in now." The controller peered at the terminal screen, grunted, and tore off the sheet of hard copy. He handed it to O'as without comment.

    " 'No passenger McKay on board. Check for stowaway has turned up nothing. Is there some mistake? Advise.' Name of Names," O'as exclaimed. "Cord, if this is a mistake, I'll-"

    Hamilton K strode in, interested but detached as always.

    "Julia McKay is the murderer, so says Cord," O'as announced. "She may be on the freighter
Lady of Eire
. Can we order it back?"

    "I have no authority over that ship or her captain. But surely the captain will return if he is aware he is carrying a suspected murderer?"

    O'as said, "He denies Julia is on the
Lady
."

    "If they can't find her, they haven't searched carefully enough," Cord retorted. She was aboard the ship; she could not have stayed in the port, and she could not have gone over the wall to vanish on Mehira. He was sure she knew the ship was her only chance of escape.

    "Then there's nothing to be done about it," K said.

    Cord saw that K did not believe-or only half believed- that Julia was guilty. It was not difficult to follow the Trade Agent's mental processes as he fitted together the pieces.

    That sweet lady? A Centrist missionary? Still, she was on the
Maida
; as a nonemployee she was responsible to no one in the port for her time or whereabouts. She had helped Greffard arrange the demonstration…

    At last Hamilton asked, "Do you have any proof?"

    "She admitted killing my parents!"

    "But it was during a stim-dream," O'as pointed out.

    Hamilton K raised his eyebrows. "Sorry, Cord, but much of this is circumstantial evidence. It won't be easy to convince most people that a Centrist missionary, especially one as quiet and likable as Julia, could be a cold-blooded murderer."

    "I will have proof when I catch her."

    "Why would she. kill? What sense is there in it?" K demanded.

    "I don't have all the answers. But you know I'm right: you can recognize the truth when you see it. Think about it. Pars talked to her, and she gave him advice. Read his diary again, and think about what effect her spiritual counseling would have on a man who was already half crazy with fear. You, O'as-you once mentioned her behavior when you were questioning Bird. Somehow she encouraged Bird to hold out. Was Julia enduring the sight of her pain with noble fortitude-or was she drinking it in?"

    "I don't know," O'as muttered. "I don't know. Maybe."

    Their resistance was without conviction. The explanation was so
right
.

    "Why did she leave?" K wanted to know. "She couldn't have guessed the
Maida
had discovered the bones and was on its way."

    "I told her about the
Maida
," Cord said sheepishly. "And even though I pretended to her that I was unable to finish the telepathic receiver, she was afraid I'd remember sooner or later. She would not have wanted to take the chance of staying on here, although I let her think Pars was guilty. A freighter came in, she knew I wasn't leaving on it-so she decided to. And because I trusted her-slept with her-I overlooked so much…"

    "What now, Cord?"

    Cord returned Garatua's gaze levelly.

    "I will track her down and kill her."

    "It's a big galaxy," Hamilton K said.

    "Not big enough to hide her from me."

    

    

    It was two days until the
Maida
spaced in. As Cord anticipated, the ship's captain insisted on personally questioning the previous passengers. She was not willing to accept data from Cord's telepathic receiver, though it would have speeded up the investigation.

    "Hypno-interrogation is admissible in a court of law almost anywhere. Your mind reader isn't-not yet. You say this Centrist is the one we want. I say, let's eliminate the other suspects first."

    Working at fever pitch, it took three more days to demonstrate that the crewman's killer was not in the port. Even then, the captain was not completely convinced of Julia's guilt.

    "However," she conceded, "we'll notify the Ten Suns home office and any ports in subspace radio range. They can take care of advising the local authorities and getting in touch with your missionary."

    "The local authorities may or may not pay any attention," O'as observed.

    "It won't matter," Cord told her. "I am leaving on the
Maida
-with the captain's permission?"

    She gave it with a nod. "If you can pay your passage, you're welcome to a berth."

    Hamilton K laughed grimly. "He can pay. He could buy a ship of his own, if he wanted one."

    "Oh?" said the captain. She was tall and heroically built, with a wide, humorous mouth. "Do you play games of chance, young man?"

    "I could learn."

    "Good. We'll leave orbit as soon as we've finished loading. K, if you've got any documents to send to Ten Suns, be sure I've got them by the twenty-first hour. There's no point in wasting my time here."