Crisis On Doona (18 page)

“I am very troubled by what you’ve told me,” she said after Ken had detailed the seizure at the
Albatross
and the findings of the hearing. “You may count on our support. My father will certainly want to help you, but I’m not sure what he can do. I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do.”

“You can help me find out who informed Rogitel that the
Albatross
was stuffed with contraband. Naturally he refused to reveal his source. The Treaty Controller doesn’t know, or won’t tell. The rest of the Council refuses to talk to anyone other than Hu Shih or Hrrestan. And they’re probably only speaking to Hrrestan because he’s head of the Hrruban contingent. I hate like poison being ignored, Emma.” And Ken managed a weak smile at that defect in himself. “I’ve got to find out who planted that junk, especially that blasted Byzanian Glow Stone, because they admitted being near Hrrilnorr IV. But no one there believed that they’d heard a Mayday.
I
believe!”

“I personally find it very hard to believe that either Todd or Hrriss could be smugglers or pirates. But it is most unfortunate that they did not have the
Albatross
inspected as soon as they landed. Especially in view of that Mayday.”

“I reported that to Hu and Hrrestan myself. You know the boys were Masters of the Hunt, that that trip to Hrretha meant they’d have to work day and night to get the Hunt organized. Newry saw no harm in sealing the ship and letting the boys get on with crucial Hunt details.” He hissed out a sigh, sounding more Hrruban than Hayuman, letting his hands go limp in his lap.

“But Treaty Law had been violated,” Emma reminded him in a gentle voice. She was a noted expert on the topic.

“A Mayday should be considered extenuating circumstances, Emma, not a crime. And there was no one else capable of organizing the Hunt. That could not be cancelled, and that’s why I thought it was permissible for the formal inspection to be deferred. Just for two weeks.” Ken raised his hands again in a pleading gesture. “You know yourself that we have to have the Snake Hunt, whether we dress it up as a tourist attraction or New Home Week or whatever. Those snakes would swarm whether or not there were any Hunters to restrict them. Hu and Hrrestan agreed with my analysis of the situation—Doona
has
to be profitable and the Snake Hunt provides a large hunk of our income. If anyone is guilty of not insisting on that inspection, it’s me. I should be taking the blame.”

Emma looked very grave. “Ultimately you may have to.” Then, having startled him, she went on. “From what you have told me, Ken, it is not just that delay, it is also all those valuable items that were found on the
Albatross
and the tape record of landings and launches within the framework of that Hrrethan journey.”

“Neither Todd nor Hrriss is untrustworthy or a pirate or smuggler.”

“No, they are not the type. However, the fact that blame is being attached to those two young men may yet work in their favor. They are much admired on Earth. Their friendship is legendary. I think you could say that it epitomizes Doona in many people’s minds.”

“Will it? After all this has been broadcast about the galaxy?” Ken asked bitterly.

Emma looked at him sternly. “If there is any rumor, gossip, slander, or libel about this investigation before it has been completed and its report made, there will be far more trouble for the loosemouthed than they can swallow! The boys are under house arrest, not incarcerated in a Poldep facility. Unless they break their bond, they are safe from slander. Now, let’s see what we can find.” She turned to her desktop console.

She initiated a search based on the boys’ names and the name of their ship, the word “Hrrilnorr,” and the names of the artifacts that Ken could recall. “Now we wait.”

When the computer eventually spat out a list of file names, Emma briefly scanned each one, and instead of data, found she was looking at a moir
é
graphic with a blinking square in the center requesting a confirmed password.

“Classified! In the last two weeks, every one of these has acquired a special clearance password. They’re locked!”

Ken swore softly. “Damn it, I’d hoped you’d be able to get through. I got the same graphics. Not a single code I knew got me any results. Do I need to start standing on desks to get cooperation?”

“Not yet ... I hope,” Emma admitted with a wicked light in her eyes. She bent over the board. “I’ve got Father’s code-key number. They wouldn’t dare classify these files too high for the head of Alreldep to access.”

* * *

To Todd’s surprise, his father arrived home for dinner with a very attractive woman whom he introduced as Emma Sumitral.

“How do you do, Miss Sumitral?” Todd asked stiffly, and then the name registered. “You wouldn’t be related to Admiral Sumitral, would you?”

“Indeed I am, Todd Reeve,” she responded, squeezing his hand warmly. “I’ve heard a great deal about you from my father.” She had a brilliant smile that lit
up her gray eyes. Then she crooked her neck to look behind him.

Suddenly his formality deserted him and he burst out laughing. “I gave up wearing that rope tail a long time ago, Miss Sumitral.”

“ ‘Emma,’ please,” she said, and he gestured for her to take a seat. “My father used to regale me with stories about Doona. I was only five when the first wave of settlers left Earth for Doona, so this world has always been special to me. I always wished my father didn’t work for the government so we could have come, too,” she admitted. “I’m glad now that he does. His position has opened otherwise locked doors for me as a researcher, and now I believe it may help you, too.”

“What?” Todd said, grasping at whatever hope was offered him.

“Todd, we’ll wait until Hrrestan and Mrrva arrive. This concerns them, too, you know.” Ken’s expression was so concerned that Todd wondered what they could have found out that would upset his father—more than he was already.

Hrrestan and Mrrva arrived at the Reeves’ house shortly before sunset. Todd greeted them courteously. He had to bite his tongue on “How’s Hrriss?” Even with the parents of his friends, he would not break his given word.

Hrrestan and Mrrva nodded gravely to their son’s dearest friend, their liquid eyes saying what they, too, would not say aloud. Both Hrrubans already knew Emma Sumitral.

“I’ve chased out the other children for the evening,” Pat said, trying to set all her guests at ease. “An adult evening. Kelly ought to arrive any minute now.”

Todd looked up, somewhat surprised, but Kelly hadn’t smothered him with sympathy earlier and she’d scarcely do it in front of guests. “She is?”

Pat glanced at him, worried. “I thought you’d want her input. Isn’t that all right?”

“Sure,” Todd said hastily.

As deftly as her father would, Emma led the discussion away to other matters, and held forth on the subject of trade among the colony worlds. Todd found her not only charming but intelligent. He rather thought she and Kelly would like each other.

Kelly arrived only minutes behind the Hrrubans. They greeted each other warmly. “It’s nice to see so much of you these days,” she said ingenuously.

Todd couldn’t help but gawk at her, for she couldn’t have more plainly told him she’d visited Hrriss, too.

“Well,” said Pat, surprised, “you did learn some diplomacy, after all.”

Then Ken introduced her to Emma and offered drinks all round. For the first time, Todd found that the simple courtesies he usually enjoyed extending struck him as unnecessary time-wasters. Once Hrrestan and Mrrva were settled, Emma began to detail the files she had unlocked.

“It’s turned out to be more than just trusting my father’s opinions of you and Hrriss,” she said, “I think we may have stumbled onto a very complex and highly organized smuggling operation.” She waited patiently until everyone stopped demanding details. “I found some, all right. And more data from the beacons orbiting the other prohibited worlds is still coming in. So far, all of them show the identification number of the
Albatross
as having entered those systems shortly before or shortly after the ship visited Hrretha. The information is not yet complete. There are still four buoys circling interdicted systems left to be heard from, and that data will come in within the next few days.”

“I can’t believe that they all have the code number from the boys’ ship,” Pat said.

“Now, the beacons identify the
Albatross
as being the ship that crossed their barriers in each instance. The codes as you know are complex, not easy to duplicate.”

“As I told you, Emma,” Ken began, his anger building, “someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to make it convincing.”

“For a researcher like myself, there’s just too
much
corroborative detail available to be coincidence or accident,” Emma went on, and although Ken started to protest, Pat touched his arm, her eyes watching Emma’s face. For Pat was beginning to see what Emma was driving at. “So far we have thefts committed by two young males who lack for nothing. They’re psychologically normal, without any history of kleptomania or harmful pranks. Healthy in every way.” Todd blushed at her frankness and she smiled gently at him. “It was necessary to take a glance at your medical profile,” she said. “There’s nothing in it to be ashamed of. To continue, they’re respected by their community, and their future is bright if only they continue to behave as they have. This series of crimes requires a motivation.”

“I know the motivation,” Todd said in a flat voice that showed he was controlling his anger. “This issue would make a terrific fulcrum for the lever to pry Doona apart.”

“I’m inclined to agree,” Hrrestan said, nodding his head in agreement with Todd’s opinion, “but if we have the motivation, can we also discover the perpetrator?”

“Landreau has to be involved in this somewhere,” Todd said angrily, his eyes flashing blue fire. “Rogitel’s presence at the Hrrethan affair was unnecessary. Both ...” Todd halted then plunged, “I felt he was nearly splitting with anticipation and it couldn’t have been for the inauguration of another grid facility! He was there, keeping track of ... of us ... on Landreau’s orders. The Admiral would do anything to discredit Doona this year and to disrupt the crucial talks that are going on. A scandal like two notable citizens of Doona turning out to be pirates and smugglers could tear everything apart. Only how did it get done?”

“The opinion of the Ssspeakrrrs,” Hrrestan added, “favors the idea of a conspiracy, aimed at you and our son, to discredit the Rralan Experiment. They have informed me that they are conducting their own investigations into these charges as they know that never have you or my son behaved in a dishonorable fashion. As Emma Sumitral has ssaid, there is far too much evidence against them. There are elements on Rrala who also wish this Experiment to end in disarray. These are being scrutinized. True guilt lies elsewhere but it will be discovered.”

“And I,” Kelly said, looking inordinately pleased with her contribution, “am handling the unofficial Terran Investigative Group. You didn’t know you had one, did you, Todd?” She grinned at him. While she had admired Emma’s clear-minded statements, she hadn’t quite liked her tone, nor the way she had smiled at Todd. Sort of, well, proprietary and perhaps a little patronizing. Whoa! Kelly thought, yanking hard on her own mental reins. Who was acting proprietary now?

“May I remind all of you,” Emma put in, “that it is essential that all investigations be done as circumspectly as possible so as not to prejudice the official one?”

Ken leaned forward toward Emma. “We must all be wary of how we proceed. But, in spite of the need for caution, I’ve started some inquiries through the Alreldep office, and I discover, to my relief,” and he grinned at his son, “that the memory of Todd as he was has been replaced by the record of a hardworking young man.”

“Which reminds me, Dad, this hardworking young man did some rounding up today with Lon. And we found out something I like even less than I like my present anomalous position. We’re minus seventeen horses, mostly yearlings and two-year-olds.”

“Seventeen horses gone since the last count?” Ken repeated, staring at his son in disbelief. As if he didn’t need this, too, on his plate.

“One was dead of ssersa poisoning and I helped Lon clear that field myself. There were other ssersa plants where there shouldn’t be a one.”

“Ssersa does not have legs to walk,” Hrrestan said, shaking his head as he knew how careful the Reeves were about hand-pulling the toxic weed from all grazing areas.

“There was also this burned-out patch on the one flat space in the field,” Todd went on. “Shuttle-sized, I’d say.”

“Rustlers!” Ken nearly bounced from his chair with indignation.

Hrrestan hissed. “That is a most serious crime. There have been no instances of animal theft in years.”

“Lon reported to Poldep. We sent a list of the brands to Michael,” and Todd turned to Kelly, who was as surprised and angry as any stock rancher would be. “One or two of ’em may have jumped the fence.”

“But not seventeen,” Ken said, still absorbing the shock. “We’ll have to hang on to some of the breeding stock, then, Todd.”

“Dad, I’d ask around to see if there’s anyone new here who’s had a sudden embarrassment of credit. I’ll just put it about that there’ll be no charges pressed at Poldep if that little herd wanders home, wagging tails behind ’em.”

“Could snakes have caught them?” Pat asked. “You had that breakout at the Boncyks’. What if a Mommy or two got past you?”

“None did,” Todd replied flatly, frankly upset that his mother even asked such a question.

“Well, it was a possibility,” she said apologetically.

“What else could go wrong?” Kelly asked, more rhetorically than expecting any answer.

“What else?” Emma asked, her expression clearly reflecting her dislike of adding to the current problems. “I think I’d better be the one to tell you. Admiral Landreau has arrived. He gridded in just before I left Treaty Island.”