Merced looked disgusted. "That kills it. We're back at square one again."

"Not necessarily," Mataroreva told him. "They found some. Twelve, to be exact. They didn't show on your list of recovered materials," and he indicated the still glowing screen of the viewer that Merced had been studying, "because all the edibles, for example, were grouped together. What's more," and his eyes gleamed, "all twelve were damaged. Now, friends, what does that suggest to you?"

"Twelve!" Amazing how everything is falling into place, Cora thought. "All broken. If animals had been responsible, they would have emptied the twelve and left the others. Instead, it seems we've exactly the op- posite situation." She looked at Merced. "How many containers did the town manifest list as ready for ship- ment?"

"Eight hundred."

"Seven hundred and eighty-eight unaccounted for, hmmm? Allowing for dispersal by wind and wave,"

and she nodded to Rachael, "I'd say that left rather a

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large number which have unaccountably disappeared."

"Even allowing for extreme weather," Merced agreed. "It would normally be expected that some- what more than twelve should have been recovered.

If animals were involved, they would not break into sealed cases and leave a dozen that were already open." He glanced at their guide. "What about con- tainer fragments?"

Mataroreva shook his head. "Uh-uh. Only the twelve. No pieces."

"Couldn't they have been listed with other contain- ers of approximately the same size and composition?"

"No," he said positively, "Each polymultiene crate is stamped with the name of its town, the day it's sealed with whatever it's holding, who provided the contents, and most importantly, the contents them- selves. The searchers found other containers, but none holding Teallin."

"Well." Cora slapped both hands on her knees, stood up. "That's that, then. No more mystery. Some- how a group of belligerents-local, human, or off- world-are raiding the floating towns and destroying any evidence that could implicate them."

"Pirates," Rachael said.

"Oh, Rachael, I'm not sure such an archaic term-"

"Why not?" Mataroreva asked. "As many millions of credits, as many deaths, as we have? I can't think of a more appropriate term."

They split, Merced to recheck his lists, Rachael to strum her neurophon. She kept the range down, and Cora left the stimulating projections behind as she walked up on deck and moved to the stem of the ship. Mataroreva went with her.

. "But why?" she muttered, staring down into the clear water. Purple and yellow fish drifted beneath her, vanished under the stem. "Whole towns, entire populations?. . ."

"H you kill ten people or a thousand, the penalties

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are the same," Sam told her softly. "Once the first step, the first multiple murder, is committed to cover one's tracks, subsequent actions become routine.

You'll be wiped and personality reimprinted for the first as much as for the second and third. Why risk

witnesses?"

"I suppose you're right." She tried to consider the

situation coldly, as a question of statistics and not of individual lives. "At least we know what we're looking

for now, if not who."

"I imagine they're from off-planet," he speculated.

"I can't believe even part-time residents of Cachalot committed ma.s.s murder for profit. For any reason.

But you're wrong about one thing. We're not going to be looking for these people. At least, you're not. I'll communicate our information and our theory to Ad- ministration and they'll turn it over to my people.

This is peaceforcer work, not biology."

"I'd like to keep working," she argued. "Maybe we have a good idea who to look for, but not how to lo- cate them. They've covered their work thoroughly.

How can your people find them?"

He considered. "If this was a more technologically developed world, I'd set up a scan for any shuttle- craft leaving or arriving and have it searched for con- traband materials. But Cachalot's satellite system is nowhere near sophisticated enough to watch the whole planet. Though they have to be getting the stolen

merchandise off-planet via shuttle.

"As to finding the local end of the business, that's

going to be tougher still. We can't search every town and independent gathering vessel. Not only isn't it practical-illegal goods could easily be dumped or de- stroyed-but the Cachalotians wouldn't stand for it."

He grinned slightly. "Our citizens are very independ- ent, as you may have guessed."

"What does that leave you with?"

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"Trying to catch them just before they act." He sounded grim. "I don't like the implications there."

"Were the other lost towns also getting ready to make full shipments?"

"Sorry. I had the same thought. That was one list 7 checked. Not only did they have varying stocks on hand, but I'a, the second town attacked, had just fin- ishing sending off its quarterly production only a few days before it was wiped out."

"It could have been mistiming on the part of the attackers."

"It could have been." He shrugged. "It doesn't mat- ter."

"Why not?"

"Because I think we'll find, when we check the rec- ords, that all produce, regardless of quant.i.ty, disap- peared," and he went below.

He was gone quite a while. Cora did not move, con- tinued to watch the subsurface denizens, to envy them their freedom from thought. Much better to be able to rely only on instinct, she mused.

"Well?"

"Everything crated for shipment," he told her. "No sign of it. And that's not all. Merced and I made a detailed study of the recovered-articles lists. Absent from them is just enough in the way of water-resistant valuables-power packs, generator units, converters, and personal effects like jewelry-to give credibility to our theory.

"Many personal items were recovered-sunk to the bottom or found inside pieces of town. But enough is missing to fit with our a.n.a.lysis. Our pirates were care- ful to limit their greed. The absence of all such items would have pointed to human agents long ago. But just a few-now, they wouldn't be missed." One mas- sive fist punched gently into its opposite palm. "I'd like to meet these folks." His expression now was any- thing but boyish. "Yes, I'd like to meet them."

134 CACHALOT.

"Sam, how can you predict where the next attack will take place since they don't rely on information regarding which town is ready to ship?"

"Time for some inspired guesswork, I suppose. We do know that every attack has taken place under cover of bad weather. All towns have been alerted to that fact. I've requested meteorological reports for this quadrant of sea for the next week. All four towns were within two thousand kilometers of each other.