The Icarus Changeling (The Icarus Series Book 4) by Timothy Zahn

The Icarus Changeling (The Icarus Series Book 4) by Timothy Zahn

Author:Timothy Zahn [Zahn, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER FIFTEEN

We piled back into the two vehicles, the Ylp I’d heard Scarf call Guard Three again riding backstop behind us, and headed out.

As I’d anticipated, Braun’s tour of Bilswift’s hotspots came up dry.

The same couldn’t be said about the weather. The wind seemed a little gustier tonight than it had been during previous evening rains, and even with the protection of raincoats and hats enough water got blown sideways to thoroughly soak everything from midshin on down. We put up with it for nearly two hours, until the rain was starting to subside, when Selene finally called it quits.

“There’s nothing here,” she told Braun. “All the scents have faded.”

“I don’t believe you,” Braun said flatly. “Tirano said he could pick up scents even a week later.”

“He was talking about inside scents or those on protected surfaces,” I told him. “Out here, with rain gushing down on everything, trace molecules get washed away pretty fast.”

“What then is your next plan?” Scarf demanded.

“Well, as long as Badgeman Zilor is blocking access to the spaceport, Tirano and Galfvi are effectively stalemated,” I said. I paused, pretending a new thought had suddenly occurred to me. “Unless . . . Braun, you said Lukki had a boat. Would Tirano or Galfvi have access to it?”

“They’re not supposed to,” Braun said, his voice deepening as he saw where I was headed with this. “But with those two, who knows? You thinking they might bypass Zilor and bring the package in from the river or ocean sides of the spaceport?”

“Theoretically, they still need to come out in the open to get to the Patth ship,” I said. “But if it has a back door that’s out of Zilor’s sight they might be able to pull it off.”

“Or they merely kill the badgeman and are done with it,” Scarf said impatiently. “That is the simplest solution to their problem. They have already killed Lukki and her servant. What prevents them from killing again?”

“The fact that they’re not stupid,” Braun said grimly. “Killing a badgeman is the one thing guaranteed to bring the whole Alainn legal system down on top of you.”

“It’s actually worse than that,” I said. “Right now, Zilor’s sitting at the edge of a spaceport, which puts it within Commonwealth jurisdiction. Among other things, that means expedited search warrants for everything in the immediate vicinity. I don’t know off the top of my head what the legal radius is, but it might include all or part of the Patth ship.”

“Your people could then search it without a warrant?” Scarf asked.

“No, they’d still need a warrant,” I told him. “But they could get it pretty much automatically and in a matter of minutes.”

Scarf made a sort of grinding sound. “They are Patth. They would merely appeal to their embassy, and the badgemen would be ordered away.”

“They could try,” I said. “But I doubt they’d get anywhere. Economic clout or no economic clout, Braun’s right. No one likes a badgeman killer. And I’m guessing that also includes the Patth.



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