"Let's go."
The two ran from the house, and climbed aboard the waiting vehicle. It spoke: "State the name in which this car is reserved." | Kirdy looked anxiously at Glawen.
"Do you remember? I've forgot ten. It was something odd."
For a terrible instant the name eluded Glawen as well. He cried out:
"Spanchettai" The vehicle took them back to the Halcyon airport, where they were forced to wait twenty nerve-racking minutes before the flyer departed for Poinciana.
As they flew above the Mirling, Glawen considered what had happened Neither he nor Kirdy had attracted attention on the route to the Borph estate; there could be no reason to associate them with the two deaths. Indeed, the Patrunes would be sure to blame a gang of Sanart terrorists. Still, on the day previously they had mentioned the names "Sir Mathor Borph" and "Sir Lonas Medlyn" to someone. Who? The manager at the Phlodoric Travel Agency. As soon as the news of Sir Mathor's death reached his ears, he would inevitably reach for the telephone and call the police.
"I have an incident to report, which may or may not be relevant to your case." So the conversation would begin, and within the hour the police would take Glawen Clattuc and Kirdy Wook, of Araminta Station, Cadwal, into custody. On Natrice, Patrunes defined the law and its application.
"IPCC affiliation" would be contemptuously ignored.
Another thought augmented Glawen's apprehensions. The police might well derive information from the hired vehicle. They would be informed that a pair of suspicious characters were in all likelihood on the flight to Poinciana, and Poinciana police might even now be waiting for the flight to arrive.
The flyer landed at the airport; the two passed unmolested through the terminal. Glawen saw no evidence of police activity.
Kirdy's thinking appeared to be running parellel to Glawen's. He touched Glawen's elbow and pointed.
"Look yonder."
Glawen turned. At the adjacent spaceport he discovered the familiar hulk of the Sagittarian Ray, from which they had alighted only the day before.
"Yes," said Glawen.
"Your instincts and my logic lead to the same conclusion."
"The passage yonder takes us into the space terminal," said Kirdy.
Without further deliberation, the two rode a slide way into the space terminal, and went to the counter of the ticket agency. Glawen asked the clerk: "When does the Sagittarian Ray depart?"
"In just about an hour, sir."
"And what is its next port of call?"
"Soumjiana on the planet Soum."
"That is convenient. Are accommodations still available?"
"Definitely, sir, in either first or second class."
"We will want two single cabins, second-class."
"Just so. I will need three hundred sols and your identity cards."
Glawen paid over the money. The two displayed their papers and received the passage vouchers.
They moved away from the counter. Kirdy said-in a grumbling voice: "Our luggage is still at the hotel."
"Do you want to go get it?" asked Glawen.
"There is time enough^ and the bodies probably haven't been found yet."
"What about you?"
"I think I'll go aboard the ship."
Kirdy gave his head a nervous shake.
"I'll go aboard the ship too."
"Come along then ... And yet--" Glawen hesitated.
"Now what?"
"There is also time to make a telephone call."
"What of that? Who would you be calling?"
"One or another of the Ideationists. SS. Foum, for example.
I'd like to learn who brought him his ticket."
Kirdy grunted.
"Do you think he'd tell you over the telephone? He'd ask all kinds of questions, and in the end tell you nothing."
