Brace pushed past him, turned into another companionway and walked to
the main fork. He pressed a stud and the inner door opened. Stepping
into the compartment, he pressed another stud, watched the inner door
close and the outer one open. He gulped to equalize the change in air
pressure in his ears.
* * * * *
An S.P. man flicked on a light and shined it full in Brace's face.
Brace touched a button and flooded the entire port with light. "What do
you want?" he snapped. "I'm not blasting off for two hours! Come back
in an hour!"
"Is this him?" one of the S.P. men asked the other. The other nodded.
The first man who had spoken turned back to Brace. "We're not looking
into your take-off, Captain. We're investigating a killing."
"What do you want me to do? Solve it for you?"
The S.P. man took the insult but stiffened a little. "No, sir. We'd
like to examine your ship. There's a girl missing."
"Oh!" Brace shouted sarcastically. "Then she MUST be on my ship! It's
just swarming with kidnapped women! It COULDN'T be any other!!" He
waved his ape-like arm toward the collection of hulls.
The S.P. man's lips tightened into a thin line.
Brace ran his thick fingers through his hair, studying them for a
moment, then asked, "Do you have a search permit?"
"No sir," the S.P. man replied, "but we thought, under the
circumstances, your courtesy might--"
Brace snorted. "You could get one in half an hour--but--it would
interrupt my breakfast." He scowled. "All right--come on!"
The two S.P. men stepped into the port and Brace jabbed the closing
button viciously. "Now have a good look, because it's going to be your
last look at anybody's ship!"
"You're going to file an objection?" the S.P. man asked.
Brace threw back his head and roared with laughter. "Am I going to
file an objection!" he gasped. "Why, I'm going to ground my ship and
personally stay here until they yank the shields off you!!"
"Well, sir, if that's the way you feel, Captain, we'll not search your
ship until we have an official permit."
"You're in my ship now!" Brace snapped. "So come on! Have a good look!!"
"Sir, if you'll accept our apologies ... we don't wish to intrude on
your legal status...."
Brace motioned toward the companionway. "Do you want to search it or
not?"
"Captain Brace," the S.P. man said stiffly, "it's only a routine
search. We're quite convinced that a man of your standing wouldn't
jeopardize his ship and, if you'll consider the incident closed, I'll
be glad to see that no further trouble is given you."
The S.P. men had made a mistake by stepping in the ship of course, and
Brace could make much out of it. He grinned to let them know that he'd
like nothing better than to make much of it.
"Would that be satisfactory, sir?" the S.P. man asked.
Without taking his eyes off the man, Brace jabbed the opening button.
His face was not distorted, yet it carried the feeling, the hint of a
snarling, savage animal. In the atmosphere of such unspoken animosity,
the S.P. men stepped out as the outer port opened. Brace watched them
climb into the sand car and back away, then he thumbed the air-lock
control, waited for the inner door to open, and entered the ship.
* * * * *
His mate was standing inside, a tall, heavy man with beetling brows, a
man who obviously tried hard to emulate his Captain.
"Well?" Brace demanded.
"None of my business," the mate answered, shrugging, "but I think you
should have given it to them. What crust! 'May we look your ship over?'
I'd have let them look over the end of my fist!"
Brace bared his teeth in anticipation of the effect of his words. "I
couldn't," he growled. "The girl's in my cabin." Then he pushed by the
astonished mate, turned in the companionway and burst into a roar of
laughter. "Fouled 'em up again!" he shouted.
The mate stared dumbly at Brace for a moment, then shrugging, went off
in the other direction.
Brace stood outside his cabin door, speculating. What should he do
now? Finding no answer to his question, he opened the door and stepped
in.
The girl was sitting on the edge of his bunk. She looked at him, then
down at her hands, as though the sight of him was repulsive to her.
When she looked up at him again, her level eyes made Brace wince. She
didn't seem afraid like he expected her to be. She was defiant.
"I see you're awake," Brace said. He hadn't meant to growl that way,
but he couldn't help it.
She clenched her hands and glared at him. "Why didn't you kill me like
you did my brother?"
"I'm sorry," Brace replied. "I didn't mean to kill anyone. Not that I
have any objection to killing if it's necessary. In this part of space,
you kill when you have to--but--well your brother was an accident."
He watched tears come to her eyes and scowled. "What's done is done! I
didn't mean to kill your brother, but he's dead, and there's nothing
anyone can do about it!"
She cried softly for a few moments, then sighing, brushed the tears
from her eyes. Brace leaned against a wall and stared at the deck,
sorting through plans and discarding them.
"I believe you," she said quietly, and it startled Brace. "I believe
you when you say it was an accident. I promise not to tell anything
about it to anyone. Now will you let me go?"