"I most certainly am capable of taking care of myself,' Kelly said vehemently. "Oh, Todd and that d.a.m.ned awkward sense of honor of his! Well, he wouldn't be Todd without it." Hrriss contented himself with a nod. "Be yourself. Be helpful, be cheerful. And now let us all be helpful and see what we can learn." He glided across the room to the computer station and flicked it on with just the nail of his first finger. Sitting down, he logged on his user number. "I shall begin with Hrrula's ranch. He mourns every time one of his hrrsses goes missing. It is a personal affront to his care of them. I will drop a note to obtain permission.

Nrrna and Kelly watched while the data base brought up the user message board. Hrriss had his fingers poised over the keyboard when the screen cleared to show the last user number accessing the file.

"I cannot continue,' Hrriss said, his voice sad and reluctant.

"That is Zodd's number at the bottom."

"But if he's not on the net now, surely .

"Not now. The time indicates that he logged off thirty minutes ago." "Then go ahead."

"I cannot. It might be construed as an infringement of our oath not to contact each other. What if it was suggested that he left messages in a file for me to find and erase?"

"Sometimes . . ." Kelly raised hands above her head in pique, then lowered them, accepting such a scrupulous interpretation of their restriction.

"You're becoming as paranoid over this as Todd.

"Thank you,' Hrriss said solemnly. "In that context, it is a compliment." Kelly rolled her head and threw up her hands again, this time turning to Nrrna for guidance.

"Well, then, Nrrna. It's up to us. We'll investigate on our own, won't we?" Nrrna nodded enthusiastically. "So move out of that chair and let either me or Nrrna log on. Get you out of the room so you cannot be tempted, scaredy cat,' and Kelly made shooing gestures with her hands at Hrriss. "If you're so concerned about our involvement, we may or may not tell you what we learn. Your place or mine, Nrrna?"

"Stay here!" Hrriss said, his tone just short of pleading. "I will not look." And he went to sit on the pillows farthest from the computer station.

"You can be in the same room with us while we're jeopardizing our reputations in helping you?" Kelly said teasingly.

"You both do us honor,' Hrriss said gravely, and picked up a tape viewer, turning his head away.

"But please tell me when you have located that leopard Appaloosa hide."

CHAPTER 6.

KELLY FOUND ALl KIACHIF IN ThE PUB of the Launch Center, weaving to a circle of his captains a story of derring-do during an ion storm in which he and one of his men had rescued the ship, getting the cargo and everyone on board to their destination with nary a scratch.

The Codep captain's talk was punctuated with alliterative triads and circ.u.mlocutory references, but he had a knack for making a story come to life. When the others drifted apart to discuss the merits (and veracity) of his tale, Kelly approached him.

"Captain Kiachif?" The s.p.a.cer looked up. "What may I do for you, little lady?"

"My name's Kelly Solinari. I'm a friend of Todd Reeve."

"That's something we have in common,' he said kindly. "Come and commune, with a cup of cheer?"

"No, thank you,' Kelly said, declining the offer of a drink. "I don't really feel very cheery. His father said that you offered to help clear him of these accusations against him."

"I've been of that mind, if you understand me." Kelly dropped her voice to a discreet whisper. "It is Admiral Landreau, isn't it, who hates Todd and his father enough to frame them?"

"Hates "em lock, stock, and block. Always has since they made a fool of him. Only he made more of a fool of himself. They didn't have to help much, if you see what I mean,' Kiachif said. Having spoken his mind in as guarded voice as she had used, he took a deep drink and let out a sigh of satisfaction as he put the gla.s.s down.

"You don't happen to remember any other distinctive horses wearing Reeve markings?" Kiachif screwed his face. "I remember that one, like I told Ken. But perfect pat and plain, Miss Kelly, I didn't think much of that incident. You see, that Aden feller, their manager, was doing the shipping, so it seemed natural that all the horses had Reeve Ranch marks. That leopard-spotted one just stood out so much among the bays and browns."

"But it did have a Reeve brand on it, then?"

"Yup, it surely did."

"But how could it have?" Kelly's voice went squeaky as she tried to keep it low and couldn't repress her outrage.

"Well, now, the freeze brand is not supposed to be alterable.

Technique's practically perfect. But nothing's perfect.

"Oh, don't tell me someone has a system for altering brand marks!

Can you think of the havoc that'll cause?"

"Nope, don't want to think about it. I want to think how I can prove Todd Reeve never rustled nothing in his life, never stole nothing, never fiddled with log tapes or deviated from his registered flight plans. I want to think how ships been getting through one of the most secure security systems in the galaxy. That's what I want to think about. And this helps." He lifted his empty gla.s.s and signaled a pa.s.sing harman.

"Bring the bottle!" When the bottle had been brought, he inspected the cap with a narrowed eye before he broke the seal and filled his gla.s.s.

Kelly was somewhat astounded by his capacity but she kept her expression polite.

"Can't be one of the Codeps. I got them under my thumb,' and he held it up, flat and broad and stained, "if you know what I mean. They know all better'n accept stolen goods "cause it makes me mad and besides that, makes it look like the government's condoning theft.

Fred Horstmann was some upset about that bundle of hides but I calmed him down. That Zapata provenance checked out genuine. So we got to go back further in this rustling-business, hide-marking, moneymaking nonsense. I do remember'-Kiachif paused thoughtfully-'carrying a feller back to Earth. He'd done his prison term. Knew all about lasers did Askell Klonski. A weasely little wart, if my memory doesn't mislead me. Claimed he could change a tattoo of a wanton, winking woman so she was blinking with the other eye and you'd never know it hadn't been that way to start." Kelly smothered a laugh, for his words conjured up an indescribable vision.

Kiachif held up his hand.

"He'd be just the sort to deftly do the deed, if you know what I mean. Now, I don't know if he was bragging or not. Those types do.

He'd served his sentence, but he didn't learn it, if you understand me.

The guards in the galley said he was a genius in laser techniques.

Served as a trustee his last years on the Rock because he was the only one who could fix the alarm system. He was so good no slips, skips, or blips went undetected. No escapes at all during his tenure.

Shortened his sentence slightly, where it shouldn't have ended at all, if you follow me. If I hadn't had orders signed by Varnorian himself, I doubt I would have carried him anywhere."

"Where is he now?" Kelly asked eagerly.

Kiachif ma.s.saged his whiskers. "Still on Earth, so I hear. No decent colony would have him. He was pushed in on a snooty section of Corridor and Aisle, to the infinite consternation of his neighbors.

They say he's "not our type, dear."

"Kiachif did a humorous imitation of a proud matron looking down her nose at Kelly. "Spending a lot of money, too. I'd like to know where he got it. With his record, the chances that it was hardly honest are high. "Hmm,' Kelly said thoughtfully. "Any chance of contacting him soon?" Kiachif nodded his head up and down, refilling his gla.s.s again. "Strangest part is that that man was released just about ten years ago. "Oh!

"That's what I said. Ten years ago. Not so lon before I saw that leopardy horse. The moon played hide-and-seek with the doud as the two girls sneaked down toward the transportation grid on the Hrruban side. A thin spot ol light penetrated the clouds, striking the ground in front of them, and they ducked behind the bushes.

Kelly hoped there were no small nocturnal predators abroad, not when they didn't wish to draw attention to themselves. Night critters all had mean bites.

"You do know how to set the grid, don't you?" Kelly asked Nrrna in a tone barely above a whisper.

"I do, but, Kelly,' Nrrna replied, "you know this is highly illegal." "So is what they're doing to Todd and Hrriss,' was Kelly's whispered reply. "Time's running out.

All Kiachif thinks he knows the man who could have used a laser to change animal brands and he's on Earth, so that's where I've got to go and fast. Ii we can just cast doubt on one of those phon> charges against Todd and Hrriss, we might be able to prove that a conspiracy exists. If we can't, whc knows what will happen to them-or to Doona." Nrrna sighed. "I know, I know. But you must be very careful. If it was discovered that I a.s.sisted you to grid back. . -" Kelly brought her face very close to Nrrna's. "I'd never tell who helped me, Nrrna.

Anyway, who's going to know, if we keep to the schedule you worked out?

I'll get to the medical supply warehouse on Earth. You just make sure you're here to rescue me when the pallet comes, all right?" She squeezed Nrrna's hand for confidence.

"A female shouldn't be so fearless,' Nrrna said.

"Where did you get the idea I was fearless?" Kelly demanded. "I'm terrified but that doesn't keep me from doing it, because it's the only way I can help Todd." She took three deep breaths. This was worse than watching Big Mommies heading toward you.

"And it's your way of helping Hrriss. So let's get it done. "To she who dares falls the prize,"' she muttered to herself before she beckoned for Nrrna to lead the way.

When they reached the grid, there was no one in sight. Kelly didn't at all like using the Hrruban grid: it made her nauseous.

Nevertheless she jumped lightly to the platform, turned to stand inside the pillars, and held on to them for support until her knuckles hurt.

Silently she begged Nrrna to hurry as the slender Hrruban bent over the controls. The grid beneath her shoes started to vibrate. She barely had time to register that effect before the misting clouded her immediate vicinity.

"Good luck,' came Nrrna's soft voice, and lingered as Doona dissolved around her friend.

Kelly materialized inside the transport chamber on Earth. Nrrna had carefully chosen a time when Hrringa was unlikely to be on duty.

The only light was the circular glow of the clock calendar facing the grid. It was not quite dawn here on Earth. As Nrrna had suggested, a time when security guards of any species are likely to be less alert.

So all tho excuses she thought up for Hrringa could be forgotten.

None of them had sounded very convincing anyway. So the first hurdle was over. Now tc proceed without getting apprehended on Earth when she wasn't supposed to be here. If she wa caught, her career as a diplomat might be over before it had properly begun.

She swallowed hard, trying to open her throat.

Fortunately she knew the floor plan of the Hrruban Center. It was in the middle of the Alreldep block, part of the s.p.a.ce Services cube.

Once she got out of the building, she should have no problem findin her way around, but there might be sensors and alarms designed to detect body heat or movement.

She couldn't remember much about the securit> measures in the Alreldep block, but there waS generally much more fuss about getting in that getting out. If she was caught in the Hrrubar Center, it would be obvious that she'd had Hrruban accomplice, because no Human knew ho to operate a Hrruban grid. And, undoubtedly Nrrna would come forward to share the blame.

Gingerly she moved off the grid, expecting an moment for lights to flash and alarms to shriek. Sh stepped onto the floor below the platform, hei body tense, until she realized she had broken nc security circuits. She took a deep breath of relief.

She took a second and a third, forcing herself tc calm down so she could think logically how tc proceed now. Pending the end of her holiday and her return for a permanent a.s.signment, Kelly's privileges in the Alreldep computers had been suspended. Therefore, she needed someone else's help in finding All Kiachif's clever parolee. She knew several people who had the necessary skills, and clearance, to find that file in the central computer complex. But first she had to contact them. She didn't dare use the Hrruban Center's communications units. Hrringa shouldn't have to answer questions about why calls were made from his office in the middle of the night. A public facility would be much more sensible, if farther from her present position.

Her luck seemed to be holding, for the center must have been designed to accommodate visitors appearing through the grid at times without benefit of operator on this end. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, she could see a double line of tiny low-intensity lights set into the floor leading away from the grid. Cautiously Kelly followed them to the door. She tried the handle, hoping that she hadn't come all this way only to be locked in the Hrruban Center all night long. As the handle moved without hindrance, she murmured a thanksgiving. It probably rocked on the outside. It swung easily and silently open.

No alarms sounded and no lights came on. For all her apprehension, she had accomplished the transit without problems. In no time, she found an exit Aisle and was shortly in the main Corridor of Alreldep block and in the main swim of foot traffic without drawing any attention. Now to find a communications kiosk.

The hour may have favored her undetected arrival on Earth, but this was the time when lateshift workers were abroad, and a certain dangerous element of society crept out of their lairs, dens, and hiding places to catch the unwary for what they might have of value about their persons. Proper citizens were too afraid of Aisle and Corridor gossip to report a.s.saults or robberies, so the petty criminals were bold as well as vicious. Kelly was Doonan bred as well as born, and trained to take care of herself, but she didn't want to be noticed.

To deflect a would-be a.s.sailant would be easy but it would certainly identify her as a most unordinary pedestrian.

Cautiously she kept glancing right and left. No monitors were in view. The gray pa.s.sage with its moving conveyor belts carried scattered traffic. It wasn't elbow-to-elbow as it was at major shift change times, though there seemed to be as many as Doona had hosted for the Snake Hunt. As she watched all the dutiful citizens in their dull muddy clothing, one mumbled an apology under his breath and his fellow pa.s.sengers moved aside so he could get off without touching them.

Kelly stepped carefully onto the far edge of the belt, keeping her head down so that no one would look closely at her. She concentrated on walking in the stiort mincing steps she had learned to use in her years on Earth. She adjusted her usual stride, hunched her shoulders, let her arms hang listlessly at her sides, and pretended disinterest in those she pa.s.sed on the faster belt. It wasn't as hard as she had feared. The greater gravity of Earth made her muscles work harder at keeping the same pace. The one precaution she had taken before leaving Doona was to alter the vibrant shade of her hair with a dulling brown rinse. It would wash right out, but she'd recognized the wisdom of that artifice. She hadn't had time to search for her old student tunics but she'd worn the dullest, grungiest clothes she owned. Even these were a little bright in comparison with the garments of shift workers at five o'clock in the morning. However, she wasn't going to be on the beltway very long and no one was paying any attention to her.

She remembered to take shallower, grudging breaths, just like everyone else. That way she also avoided "tasting' some of the stink of an overcrowded city. Had the air got worse in the short time since she'd left? Or was it the shocking change from breathing the exhilarating air of Doona?

As soon as she spotted a communications kiosk, she muttered the appropriate apologies and stepped off. Her fellow riders carried past her without ever looking up. Monitors might be watching: they always were even if Earth was less restrictive than it had been a quarter century earlier. Controls remained in place to handle the offenses, both real and imagined, of the multiple billions of Humans who lived in such restricted s.p.a.ce.

The booth provided her with complete privacy once she shut the door and activated the "engaged' signal. Now it was decision time.

Which of her former friends could she positively rely on? Who was well enough placed to get the information she needed? There were rewards available to those who turned in miscreants. Returning without leave was only a misdemeanor but she didn't want to risk even that.

One by one, Kelly considered a list of her fellow university students.

Cara Martinek was a supply clerk in the s.p.a.cedep offices. She couldn't inquire about a former felon with impunity. Jane Kaufenberg worked as a senior researcher at the Amalgamated Worlds Library.

Unfortunately Jane probably wouldn't have the necessary clearances to access Alreldep and s.p.a.cedep records. She was also rather prissy and would very likely balk at the thought of making an illegal data search.

Dalkey Petersham? He was bright, and had graduated first in his cla.s.s from his Section Academy before attending the university. Kelly hesitated to approach him, even though they had once worked together on a cla.s.s project-or perhaps because they had worked together. Dalkey was good, but his after-school thoughts went in one direction only, and Kelly had always told him no. Still, he did work for Landreau, in the right department, and he might even have heard office gossip.

Kelly checked her reflection in the viewscreen.

With her fingers, she swiped her hair into place. It was a little earlier than was decent to make a comunit call, but she remembered that Dalkey worked first shift. He should already be awake.

The unit in Dalkey's apartment answered after the first blink.

Kelly plastered on a big smile as the camera changed to live.

"Dalkey!

Hi!"

"Kelly!" She was right. Dalkey was up and dressed. He was still rail-thin, and his hair was brusquely chopped into the bureaucrat's unbecoming clip. He wasn't bad-looking, but there had always been something too smooth about him that turned her off. Trying to be impartial, she had to admit that there was never anyone so obviously born to wear a narrow-necked suit. "Are you back on Earth?"

"I am,' Kelly said, and let 6ut a deep breath.

Once she uttered the next phrases, she was committed. "Can I come over and talk to you? I'm not far from your Aisle. I've got a favor to ask." Dalkey looked surprised but pleased. "Sure. I've got thirty before I've got to punch in. Come and have breakfast." Kelly paid a credit into the kiosk and accepted a receipt chit from the slot so the door would open.

Then she retraced her steps to the Corridor. Dalkey lived one more Aisle over, and down to the right several hundred meters on the same level as the Hrruban Center. Several times along the way, she had to force herself to slow down and remember to bow her head like native Terrans. People were beginning to notice her. Kelly bit her lip and concentrated on the appropriate mincing steps, though it was permissible to move slightly faster in an Aisle. She couldn't take any chance that a sharpeyed monitor might become suspicious and whisk her off the Aisle into Poldep headquarters.

Dalkey was waiting right inside the door of his apartment. He lived in a block of flats occupied mainly by government employees in the s.p.a.ce Services. With an elaborate bow, he escorted her inside.

"Welcome back, Kelly. May I hope that you're back on Earth for a long stay?"