Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (100 page)

. . . .

Kit came in and
was instructed to land next to the Avaran-Neuten ship. It had
offloaded its passengers and wouldn't take on the next group for
eighteen more hours. The crew was aboard so he could interview them
before they took leave. Avaran was an empire world so everything
was arranged through the machines at the port in milliseconds.

Kit entered the
ship where he was greeted by a Kloven female who said the crew was
in the lounge waiting for him. The crew were Klovens, who were
reptilian and not far different from the Kheth.

"We'll get the
introductions out of the way, then we'll see what we can learn
about this incident," Kit said. "I'm Kit, a Kheth."

"I'm Koolish,
Captain of this ship," one female said. "This is Zarton, my nav
expert and his mate, Mirish, our com officer. This is my lifemate,
Lahst. He's passenger officer.

"The trips only
take six hours each way so don't carry other crew except
maintenance. We have all the standard automatics and servos, of
course. Maintenance stays in their quarters until we are
padded."

"I see," Kit
said. "First, had anyone heard anything whatever about the victim,
no matter what context, before the flight or during the
loading?"

They all shook
their heads. "He was just a passenger – nothing out of the
ordinary," Lahst said. "We get a few Inktans. They have trade with
both Avaran and Neuten and on along the line so they're generally
on every second or third trip. I know Carzo and Emandette. They're
usually on the route this one and his mate took over."

"Ah! How long
ago did these two take over the route?" Kit asked, perking up at
what could prove important.

"Maybe a year
ago," Lahst said. "I've seen them on one other trip and they make
three or four trips a year – or Carzo and Emandette did. I've never
spoken except to welcome them onto the flight."

"Had you ever
seen or heard anything previous to this trip or during the loading
about Letuz?" Kit asked.

"Same answer
for me," Lahst replied and everyone else shook their heads.

"Do you have
any lists or recordings to show me when each passenger booked
flight?" Kit asked.

"They handle
that through the booking desk," Koolish answered. "We get the
complete list at loading time. It's the first we see of it. They'll
give you any of it you want, I'm sure. I suppose you could get it
even if they didn't want to cooperate, being an empire agent."

"Oh, I work for
the empire, but I'm not a regular agent," Kit said. "I could get it
though. Maita sort of helps me out and I sort of help him out."

"You know the
emperor, personally?" Mirish asked. "What race is he?"

Kit laughed and
said he spoke with the emperor and even stayed on EC at times, but
had seen him no more than anyone else – that he KNEW of. He'd
spoken with him and only heard his voice – and wouldn't tell, no
matter what. He might have spent some time with him, but could be
sure to the exact extent that anyone else who spent time on EC
could.

"Z and Thing
know him and spend time directly on his ship with him," Kit said.
"I've been on the ship a few times and he's been aboard, but I've
still seen no more than the ship. I'd be sworn to silence if I have
seen him so it doesn't really matter."

They spoke for
awhile, then Kit headed for the offices. He could directly access
the machines if he could get alone near a terminal.

*

Tab went first
to the flight desk where he received the lists and positions of the
passengers on the flight. He looked it over carefully and recorded
it on his internals. He then determined where most of the
passengers were staying and was pleased only four of them had gone
off-planet, having made a connection for Narjn only two hours after
arriving.

He went to a
hotel where two were staying, one he knew to not be involved
because he was a Mome and they wouldn't do personal violence. The
other would. He was a Jornian and those people were a real headache
to even a machine like him.

He met with
Toon, the Mome, and found he stayed in his seat most of the trip on
the second aisle and quite far back from the excitement. He hadn't
known anything about it until he heard it announced there had been
a "problem" and no one was to leave their seats.

Tab checked the
internal records and found it was probably totally true. Toon had
seen or heard nothing out of the ordinary. He sat in one of the
last seats where he was a bit isolated from the regular flight
passengers who booked the same seats for the flights for a full
year ahead as a general rule.

Nacht, the
Jornian, was a bit of a con man and was smooth and devious. Tab was
immediately suspicious and became a lot more pointed in his
questioning. He was very surprised when Nacht said he would take
the probe so long as any information not related to this issue
wasn't taken and so long as it was reviewed only by machine
judges.

As Tab was a
machine he could easily and truthfully guarantee that.

Nacht was
running from some other Jornians he had bilked out of a lot of
money, but he had no involvement whatever with this business.

Czimminzk, the
only Ternz aboard, knew nothing of it. The strange beings were
perhaps capable of murder, but Tab doubted it. They wouldn't have
been able to figure out how to do something like this. Violence
wasn't familiar to them.

By the time
he'd finished with the list he was more and more certain he was
going about it the wrong way. He'd learned almost nothing, though
he narrowed the suspect list considerably. There were now only six
names on it plus the four Bentans who were traveling on. He didn't
want to have to go chasing after those four all over the galaxy. It
was going to have to be done, though, unless he found some answers
first.

The Bentans
were very unlikely to be involved. They had little contact with
Inktans and were more petty thieves and nonviolent types by nature.
They were capable of almost any type of crime, but a planned murder
was usually a crime against someone of the same race and this one
was definitely planned.

It was becoming
evident they were going to have to figure out how it had happened.
How it was done.

It was time to
call on Letuz. First he wanted to see the Mome for a few minutes to
ask him a very important – maybe – question.

"Toon, did you
notice anyone who changed their seating arrangements during the
flight?" he asked.

"Changed their
seats?" Toon asked.

"If they wanted
to kill him and waited until he booked they would have gotten seats
in those sections where you were sitting. They would have had to
change to a nearer seat, I think, to get close enough to kill him,"
Tab explained. "This isn't the type of thing that could be handled
from any great distance. Certainly line of sight."

"There were
people milling about and going to the lounge all the time," Toon
replied. "I'm very sorry. I didn't notice."

Well, on to
Letuz.

* *

Kit unplugged
from the machine. The only really late bookings were a Ternz, a
Jornian and an Elit. If it was done where the booking was made as
soon as the killer determined Kile would be on the flight Kit's
money was on the Jornian.

He relayed all
the information he had to T6 to relay on to TR. The seating
arrangement could be important. If anyone changed seats to be
closer to Kile – particularly that Jornian – it was as good a clue
as they would need.

Something was
still being overlooked. Something pretty obvious. He could feel it.
He had hunches and this one was strong. Maybe they'd better
determine how it was done. That would be most important. It would
probably eliminate some suspects.

Kit went
back to the ship to have Lahst show him where Kile had been
sitting, then took the copies of the reports Koolish offered
him.

"We're going
home for a few hours," she explained. "Come and go as you please.
If there are any questions you can call me at this number. I’ll
answer anything I can."

Kit took the
paper and thanked her, then went to the passenger section.

Kile had been
laying back, thought to have been asleep, in 3E. Letuz was in 3D.
There was the compartment privacy wall there to his right, put up
so he could sleep undisturbed. He had made no sudden movements or
sounds. The wound would have been fatal within seconds. He may have
snorted, but it would sound like a normal sleep sound.

Letuz stayed in
her seat most of the time, but had gone to the lounge for about
half an hour, then had come to ask Kile if he wanted anything. He
said "no" so she went to the restrooms, then returned to nap. She
assumed Kile was asleep and hadn't disturbed him. When she awakened
an hour or so later and tried to awaken Kile she found he was dead.
The wound was on the left side and low against the seat and had
come from an upward (Toward the head area) and slightly to the back
angle. The knife was a thin, flat, almost all iron homemade thing
cut with a laser from flat stock and filed to a moderate edge.

Soft iron for a
knife? It wouldn't hold an edge! That may be important even if it
didn't make sense. It may be important BECAUSE it didn't make
sense. Of course, it wasn't important it held an edge if it was to
be used only once.

Kit sat in the
seat and looked to the open side. The privacy wall was still in
place. He lowered the seat to about where he figured an Inktan
would be comfortable (He checked with T6 on that. T6's owner had
been an Inktan professor) and figured the angle, slightly upward
and back. Close to the seat.

Okay. He was
definitely killed when Letuz was in the restroom. Had she been in
the seat the knife would have had to go through her.

He then checked
the whole area the knife could have come from. It was either hand
thrown – very unlikely unless someone had practiced one hell of a
long time throwing a knife sidearm from a very low angle – or fired
by some mechanism.

No mechanism
had been found so it was still on the ship or didn't exist.

It couldn't
have been fired with an explosive in that room. Even a
spring-loaded mechanism would have made some noise and compressed
air was out for the same reason. Elastic cord, such as was called
shock cord? Could the iron have been made not to scrape where it
would be heard?

It would depend
on the handle.

Kit checked the
sketch and description to find it was a bare blade without a grip
handle. It was flat along its whole length so it wasn't thrown. To
be effective in throwing sidearm it would have to have a grip. It
was fired – but, damn it! How?

He would have
to search the entire area the passengers had access to. He had to
find that mechanism, but he didn't know anything about what he was
looking for!

*

Tab received
the input from TR and swore quietly. The Jornian had booked late,
but had passed the probe. Letuz was the other probable killer and
she had passed the probe. Now Kit was searching the ship for a
mechanism. He figured the blade must have been fired by a mechanism
through a process of elimination.

No passengers
had changed seats during the flight, either. That was checked and
was definite. That could mean the killing was by some psycho who
wanted to see if he could get away with murder or that the killer
was targeting Kile specifically and knew his schedule for some
time.

Okay.

He rang the
caller at Letuz's rooms and was invited in. She didn't have
anything to add to what was known about the murder. "We took over
from Carzo almost a year ago," she said. "We've never had any
trouble at all. We sell educational materials to all the worlds in
a very large area, you know. It's the kind of thing Inkta is known
for."

"Did this Carzo
retire?" Tab asked.

"No, he took a
job at the printers, doing the editing," Letuz replied. "He and his
partner had the route for a long time and he was getting tired of
never being with his family so decided the time was good to change
his patterns.

"He was sort of
a hero, discovering that theft ring on Zuni, you know."

"Hero?" Tab
asked. "Theft ring?"

"Oh, yes," she
replied. "He went through his purchase orders in a hotel to compare
what changes would be to advantage to suggest to his customers
there and found laboratory supplies and scientific books were far
from their normal proportions for the past two years or more and
alerted the educational system's administration machines. They
instituted a careful search that resulted in indictments of more
than twenty people who were selling the things to restricted
worlds. Even the emperor gave Carzo a special commendation and
bonus."

"Twenty
people?" Tab asked. "What kind of people? What was done to
them?"

"Oh, there were
Jornians, Bentans, Eacherons and an Elit or two, Zurn, and a few I
don't know about, I imagine," she replied. "Four of them were
executed for interfering with restricted and protected peoples. One
was a Bentan and three Jornians. The rest were exiled or imprisoned
for a year in rehab.

"No. That's
right. The Zurn were exonerated. They had merely been used by one
or two of the others and didn't know what was happening. I believe
Emperor Maita made comment about it.

"It was the
Jornians. I remember. They were using the Zurns in some strange
scheme."

That seating
chart was suddenly very important. Tab made excuses and left,
heading for TR.

"Narjn – fast!"
he sent as he entered. "Call T Six. Tell Kit to find that mechanism
and meet me there. We may finally have our break!"

"How do you
figure?" TR asked.