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to."
"Eventually?" Sal said. He smiled again.
Gelert rolled over on his side and fixed Sal with one eye. "I'm glad you're on our side," he said, "that's
all."
"But these people are deep in deception, Gelert," Sal said softly. "Deep. We are going to have to chase
them right around the block, up hill and down dale, before we get what we really need to know out of
them. The second 'set of books' looks tight enough ... but the third set is going to look absolutely
watertight, I'm sure. It's going to prove everything they've said to us about their balance of trade; it's
going to confirm that they are on the straight and narrow, and all these other people are out to make them
look bad. So you guys, and the other investigators, had better come up with the goods within a week or
so, and give the rest of us a reason to stay around and dig deeper. Otherwise, this whole thing is going to
turn into a PR exercise, for them, proving how hard-done-by the poor Alfen are. Played for a fool by
naughty Interpol and the silly UN, so full of mere humans, so easily led astray. We need some nice solid
excuses to hang around ... and we need all the rest of the team, of which you two are part, to provide
them to us. Otherwise, my data suggests they're going to turf us out of here in less than a week."
"We'll do what we can," Lee said, though she wasn't sure what that might be. "Gelert?"
"I could bury something and claim to forget where I left it," Gelert said.
Sal nudged Gelert with his foot. "Someone's reputation, probably," he said. "But somewhere here there's
a smoking gun. We need to find it ... and pronto."
*9*
The people gathered in the hotel lobby the next morning looked like an unusually worn-down tour group,
standing around with their luggage and regarding the morning with bleary equanimity. Some of them
looked much more bleary than others. Lee guessed that she was probably well into this second camp, for
she hadn't slept well the previous night. She hadn't exactly been expecting to, anyway. But it had come as
a shock to her to return to the suite and find a low mist lying over everything outside ... and when the mist
rose, there had been no sign of the mountains.
That had shaken her badly enough to make Lee spend the whole night curled up on one of the couches in
the suite's sitting room, looking out into the darkness, past the city lights. Morning began to gray out the
black of the sky, little by little, and Lee sat there fixedly watching the horizon for the least sign of the
jagged shapes she knew should be there. But they didn't come. And finally dawn slipped up over the far
edge of the world to illuminate a broad and smiling plain, a beautiful green patchwork landscape of fields
and forests, mostly flat until it melted away into gently rolling hills and the mist of distance away at the
hinted-at horizon; but no mountains were to be seen anywhere.
Through her frustration and unease, Lee knew her own uncertainty was being used against her as a
weapon. It was a potent one ... and the only way to take it out of the hands of those using it against her
was to admit that she had no idea what was going on here, and resign herself to appre-hending what
might present itself before her, rather than ac-tively searching under appearances ... for the moment. If
they think they've thrown me off the scent, as Gelert would put it, then they may get careless in
some other way. So, fine: let them think I've learned my lesson. Or that I'm scared.
I won't have to fake that very hard...
Exactly on time Isif dil'Hemrev turned up, looking what was to Lee almost intolerably beautiful, as if she
had bathed in morning dew, that swirl of hair like night around her shimmering where the sun caught it as
she escorted the group out to the pavement in front of the hotel. There Lee had a moment's irrational
satisfaction as, ever so briefly, she saw dil'Hemrev look up and around at the sky and display annoyance.
Her eyes went chilly, and a little straight deep frown line drove down from the middle of her forehead to
the top of her nose, disfiguring that perfect face for just a few moments. Lee began to feel ashamed of
herself for being so pleased to see the alabaster perfection marred. Then the shame gave way to
puzzlement. What's she so upset about? It's just a late bus or something...
Beside Lee, Gelert looked up, his ears twitching. "Not bad," he said under his breath. Lee looked where
he did, where dil'Hemrev was looking, and saw the transport an-gling in toward them in utter silence, the
sun glinting on its long sleek shape through the still-fading morning mist as it landed with exactitude out in
the center of the greensward near where she and Gelert and Sal had had their talk. She glanced over at
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