The Domino Pattern

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Book: The Domino Pattern by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online
Authors: Timothy Zahn
Tags: Fiction, SciFi, Quadrail
said. “Your call.”
    She hesitated, and I had the odd impression that she was searching my face looking for the right answer. “I’m not that hungry,” she said.
    That was the answer, all right. “Me, neither,” I agreed. “Go get ready. We head out in fifteen minutes.”
    Eighteen minutes later, we passed through the rear vestibule of the third compartment car and entered the first of the first-class coach cars.
    I’d rather expected that Kennrick would still be deep in conversation with Usantra Givvrac, and I was right. The Human was sitting on the edge of a scat near the right-hand wall, talking earnestly with one of the four Fillies I’d seen him boarding with at Homshil Station.
    And now that I was focusing on the Filly himself, I could see that he had the graying body hair of someone well advanced in years.
    That alone was mildly surprising. Fillies of that age and rank usually stayed close to home and sent out their younger colleagues and subordinates on fact-finding and contract-making missions. I wondered what kind of lure Pellorian Medical had lobbed into the water to bring out someone of Givvrac’s standing.
    Kennrick was sitting where he could watch the vestibule door, and as Bayta and I entered the car he spoke a few last words to the Filly and stood up. The alien himself looked at me and nodded a silent acknowledgment as Kennrick maneuvered his way through the little clusters of seats the rest of the passengers had constructed. “That was fast.” he commented as he reached us. His eyes flicked to Bayta, but he didn’t comment on the fact that I’d brought a guest along.
    “Bayta and I can do this alone if you weren’t finished with your conversation,” I offered.
    “No, that’s all right,” he said. “ Usantra Givvrac wants me present when you question Master Tririn. He wants to get to the bottom of this even more than you do.”
    “I’m sure he does,” I said, returning Givvrac’s acknowledging nod with one of my own. “After you.”
    The three of us headed aft, walking through the rest of the first- and second-class cars and on into third. As we passed the second/third dispensary I glanced inside, but there was no one there except the server Spider on duty. There were no dead bodies, either. Bofiv having apparently been taken back to the baggage car while Bayta and I slept.
    We found Tririn hunched over in his seat, his eyes staring fixedly at the seat back in front of him as he ignored both the exotic alien travelscape playing on the display window to his left and Master Bofiv’s empty seat to his right. In the aisle seat of his row was the Nemut Kennrick had mentioned, his rainbow-slashed eyes focused on a reader, his truncated-cone-shaped mouth making little motions like a pre-K child trying to sound out the words.
    Two rows ahead of them, Terese German was sitting with her eyes closed, a set of headphones locked snugly around her ears, a silent but clear warning to all and sundry that she wanted to be left alone. Two seats to her right, next to the train’s outer side, a young Juri with the unpolished scales of a commoner was gazing intently at the dit rec drama playing on the display window to his right.
    We passed their row and came to a halt beside the Nemut. “Master Tririn?” Kennrick called softly. “Master Tririn?”
    The Shorshian didn’t answer, or even turn to face us. “I don’t think he wants to talk.” Kennrick concluded. “Maybe we should try again later.”
    “Or maybe we should try a little harder right now,” I said, looking at the Nemut in the aisle seat. “Excuse me?”
    “Yes?” the other asked, his deep voice sounding a little slurred. Small wonder; now that I was standing over him I could see that he had an open bag full of small, colorful snack cubes resting in his lap. Apparently, the mouth movements I’d noticed earlier had had nothing to do with the sounding out of words.
    “I’d like to get past, if I may,” I told him, gesturing

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