Diane Duane & Peter Morwood Space Cops 02 Kill Station

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to be. Evan, we weren't here five minutes before that ex-bozo showed up. Doesn't that evidence suggest something to
you?"
Evan sat still and held onto his temper for a moment. "It does," he said finally, and very quietly, "but the evidence is
circumstantial at best. And you know it."
Joss knew that tone of voice by now, and held his own peace for a moment. "All right," he said. "But Evan, it needs to
be looked at nonetheless. You had better ask your lady friend a question or three."
Evan held still again, and then said, "I think that might be inappropriate, under the circumstances. Don't you? If you
want to ask her something, do it yourself, Officer."
Joss was quiet for a couple of breaths. "I will," he said. "But it can wait a little while. First of all, let's get back to
Willans and make sure that this little shakedown hasn't done more than shake us up."
164 SPACE COPS
IT WAS A LONG QUIET TRANSIT BACK TO THE
station, and neither man seemed especially willing to say anything to the other. The tension on board ship was
unusual, and because of that, uncomfortable. It was Joss who finally broke the silence.
"You're coming with me," he said quietly, not giving orders, not even making a request. Just assuming that his buddy
would do it without needing any more elaborate explanation. He was wrong.
"To where?" said Evan. There was something about the way he spoke, and the way he stared at Joss when he said the
words so carefully, that had a challenge and a defiance in it. He knew where, and why, and to whom they were going,
and he seemed to be waiting for Joss to come right out and say it.
"Mell's place." Joss tapped a few keys on the nearest console as if it were more something for him to do than anything
relating to piloting the ship. He looked Evan straight in the eyes. "Because I want to be absolutely sure about your
lady friend, and just right now, I'm not."
Evan felt himself expanding inwardly, the rush of blood or adrenaline or inhaled air that usually meant trouble for
someone. The suit hid it, and he controlled the expression on his face, so that the only thing Joss might have noticed
out of place was a slight hesitation in his partner's flow of speech. Then Evan, voice completely steady, said, "What's
the point in that?"
"Come on, Officer Glyndower," and Joss said it right, glinn-doo 'wer, instead of his usual mangled mispronunciations,
"we've just been shot at by a ship whose crew can't answer questions, a ship that had no business being where we
were, a ship that had double no business carrying that sort of weaponry. I think that since we've few enough suspects
who might know the who and the where and the why, we should start with the one who's been closest to us both."
SPACE COPS 165
"I resent that, O'Bannion," said Evan. He did, too, really and truly, rather than the slight, easily controlled outrage that
would have been more usual hi any of the several other circumstances. Maybe because, in those other circumstances,
he could have been sure of his position as defendant. This time Evan wasn't sure at all. Maybe that was why he
resented it so much, taking refuge in formal names and stiff-necked annoyance rather than letting Joss have his say.
And maybe both of them saw it in time.
Either way, Joss and Evan saw where the dialogue was headed, and both of them stopped talking in the same moment.
The sudden quiet sounded even sillier than the slow, polite rising of voices, so that both men looked at one another,
uncertain of how the next word or breath was likely to be received.
"Okay," said Evan. "The point to you, then. Did we take any damage that you can see, by the way?"
Joss shook his head. "No, but the diagnostics aren't equipped to assess the kind of damage I'm worried about. Do you
have any idea how hot that damn braided beam is?"
"Hot enough to blister my ass, at least," he said.
Joss snorted. "I measured it at five hundred thousand C, or thereabouts. Trouble was, the hull sensors aren't built to
handle that kind of thing. The estimate might have been low." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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