The Icarus Hunt Read Online Free PDF

my grandstand play against the three Yavanni there would be a dozen beings who would remember me, at least half of whom would probably also remember me talking with Cameron. I had to bluff my way out of here, and fast, before they started digging deeper.
    “Sit down, Captain,” Aymi-Mastr said sternly. “Are you telling me you weren’t out last night?”
    “Of course I was out,” I said, putting some huffiness into my voice as I reluctantly sat down again. “You don’t expect anyone to spend any more time than they have to in one of those Vyssiluyan hotel bug-traps, do you?”
    She gave me the Ihmis equivalent of a wry smile, which just made her face that much more froglike. “A point,” she conceded. “Did you visit any tavernos?”
    I shrugged. “Sure, I hit some of them. What else is there for a spacer to do around here? But I didn’t talk to anyone.”
    She sighed theatrically. “So you say. And therein lies the trouble.” She picked up a report file and opened it. “Your word, against that of an unidentified and unknown informant. Which of you should we believe?”
    “Wait a minute—you don’t even know who he is?” I demanded, feeling sweat starting to gather under my collar. I wasn’t particularly good with Ihmis lettering,but I’d made it a point to learn what my name looked like in most of the major scripts in the Spiral. That was my Commonwealth Mercantile Authority file she was holding; and nothing in there was likely to make my word compare favorably against anyone else’s. “What kind of scam
is
this, anyway?”
    “That is what we’re trying to find out,” Aymi-Mastr said, frowning at the file and then up at me. “This photo doesn’t do you justice at all. When was it taken?”
    “About seven years ago,” I told her. “Back when I started doing independent shipping.”
    “No, no justice at all,” she repeated, peering closely at me. “You should arrange to have a new one taken.”
    “I’ll do that,” I promised, though offhand I couldn’t think of anything that was lower on my priority list at the moment. For someone on Brother John’s payroll, it could be a distinct advantage to not look like your official photos. “I’ve been through a lot since then.”
    “Indeed you have,” she agreed, leafing through the pages. “To be honest, Captain, your record hardly encourages us to take your word for this. Or for anything else, for that matter.”
    “There’s no need to be insulting,” I growled. “Anyway, all that happened a long time ago.”
    “Five years in the EarthGuard Auxiliary,” Aymi-Mastr went on. “Apparently a reasonably promising career that went steeply downhill during the last of those years. Court-martialed and summarily drummed out for severe insubordination.”
    “He was an idiot,” I muttered. “Everyone else knew it, too. I was just the only one who had the guts to tell him that to his face.”
    “In most colorful detail, I see,” Aymi-Mastr said, flipping over another page. “Even knowing only a fraction of these Earth words, it’s an impressive list.” She flipped over another two pages—highlights of the court-martial, no doubt—and again paused. “Afterthat was a four-year stint with the Earth Customs Service. Another potential career ended with another sudden dismissal. This one for taking bribes.”
    “I was framed,” I insisted. Even to my own ears the protest sounded flat.
    “Protests of that sort begin to sound weaker after the first one,” Aymi-Mastr said. “I see you managed to avoid jail time. The note here suggests the Customs Service decided you were too embarrassing for a proper trial.”
    “That was their excuse,” I said. “It also conveniently robbed me of any chance to clear my name.”
    “Then there were six months with the small firm of Rolvaag Brothers Shipping,” she continued, flipping more pages. “This time you actually struck someone. The younger Mr. Rolvaag, I see—”
    “Look, I don’t need a