The Domino Pattern Read Online Free PDF Page B

strange tastes?”
    [I don’t truly know,] Tririn said, a bit hesitantly. [I wasn’t well acquainted with him.]
    “You were business colleagues, correct?”
    [True,] Tririn said. [But he had only recently joined our contract team.] He ducked his head to Kennrick. [I would say that Master Kennrick probably knew him as well as I did.]
    “And I only met him a couple of months ago.” Kennrick put in.
    Mentally. I shook my head in disgust. Between di -Master Strinni, Kennrick, and Tririn, this was about as unhelpful a bunch as I’d run into for some time. “How about Master Bofiv, then?” I asked. “Did he know Master Colix?”
    [I don’t know,] Tririn said. [I believe di -Master Strinni knew him best.]
    I looked at my watch. I’d already had to awaken Strinni once tonight, and I wasn’t interested in trying it again. “We’ll start with Master Bofiv,” I decided. “Where is he?”
    “Four cars back,” Kennrick said. “I’ll take you.”
    “Just tell me which seat.” I said, taking Bayta’s arm and steering her toward the door. “You should stay with Master Tririn.”
    “I’m going with you,” Kennrick said firmly. “These people are my business colleagues. Whatever happened to Master Colix, we need to resolve it before it poisons relations between us.” He winced. “Sorry. Poor choice of words.”
    “I’ll stay here with Master Tririn.” Witherspoon volunteered. “There may be a couple of tests I can do that don’t involve cutting.”
    “I’ll stay, too, then.” Bayta said. “I’d like to watch.”
    I eyed her. Her face was its usual neutral mask, but there was something beneath the surface I couldn’t quite read. Probably she didn’t like the idea of the body being left alone with a couple of strangers with no Spider present. “Fine,” I said. “Come on, Kennrick.”
    Chapter Three
    Second-class seats weren’t as mobile as those in first class, but they were movable enough to allow families and friends to arrange themselves into little conversation and game circles. Those circles usually remained into and through the nighttime hours, which gave a cozy sort of sleeping-bags-around-the-campfire look to those cars when everyone set up their privacy shields.
    Not so in third. In third, where the seats were fixed in neat rows of three each on either side of the central aisle, the rows of cylindrical privacy shields always looked to me like the neatly arranged coffins from some horrible disaster.
    “He’s down there,” Kennrick murmured, pointing.
    I craned my neck. Master Bofiv was in one of the middle seats to my right, his seat reclined as far as it would go, his privacy shield open. “I see him,” I confirmed. “Quietly, now.”
    We headed back, making as little noise as possible. Third-class seats weren’t equipped with sonic neutralizers like those in first and second, leaving it up to the individual passenger to spring for his or her own earplugs or portable neutralizers or else to hope for quiet neighbors.
    Bofiv was lying quietly when we reached his row. One of the passengers three rows up from him had his reading light on, which had the effect of throwing the Shorshian into even deeper shadow than he would have been in without it.
    Still, I could see him well enough to tell that his inner eyelids were closed. “I woke up di -Master Strinni.” I whispered to Kennrick. “It’s your turn.”
    “But you’re so good at it.” Kennrick said, gesturing. “Please; go ahead.”
    “You’re too kind,” I said, frowning. On Bofiv’s left, against the car’s side wall, was an empty scat, presumably that of his compatriot Master Tririn.
    But on Bofiv’s right, where I would have expected to find the empty scat of the late Master Colix, was the smooth half-cylinder of a closed privacy shield. “Who’s that?” I asked, pointing at it.
    “A Nemut,” Kennrick said. “He’s not part of our group.”
    “Why isn’t that Colix’s scat?” I asked. “Didn’t he want to