Through the Eye of a Needle Part 2

They're what are called flare stars, which fits, too. The whole thing is forty-five or fifty light-years away. The Hunter isn't really sure about the speeds of their interstellar flyers, but thinks the distance is reasonable."

"You've mixed a few p.r.o.nouns up-mostly the 'we's'-" his mother said, "but I think we get the picture. All right, we'll be optimistic too-we have to be, just as both of you do." The Hunter appreciated her choice of words; after the confession about his life span, it would not have been unreasonable for a human being to suspect that Bob was just another incident in his life, who would be dying a little sooner than his other hosts. In fact, the alien was seriously disturbed, by Bob's situation, and at least as much bothered by his own responsibility for it. He was not permitting himself to think about his own future if they failed to save Bob's life.

Bob's father might have been as aware of this as his wife seemed to be, but his words provided no evidence either way. His job with PFI involved enough responsibility to make him a forceful and decisive person, and his words, after a few moments' thought, concerned only the actions to be taken.

"All right. Step one, Bob gets a good night's sleep so he can at least start tomorrow looking and acting normal. Two, he visits Ben Seever first thing in the morning, tells him everything, and takes whatever steps possible to get an a.s.signment which won't make his condition any worse. It would be nice if it left him free for work on the search project, but we'll stay with possibles for the moment.

"Three, I do what I can about getting hold of free-diving equipment-I know there isn't any on Ell, but I think the company is experimenting with it on Tahiti. I also do research on metal- detecting equipment, its availability and usefulness for underwater work.

"The Hunter thinks of every possible way to get the attention of any of his people who may be on the island, or on Earth, without going to the extreme of publishing the whole story worldwide. I wouldn't mind doing that myself, but if it would interfere with whatever they'd normally be doing here, it might cause them to give up Earth as a bad job and leave. I don't see that that is really likely, but we're not taking the chance.

"Finally, both Bob and the Hunter give serious thought to which, and how many, additional people we might let into the business. I doubt that five people, one in shaky health and one restricted in his physical movements, are going to be enough. I know it will take thinking, but think."

But it was not thought which started the first recruiting action.

3. Complications

"Lighted any more fires lately?"

It was not a standard greeting by any criteria, and to both Bob and the Hunter it was more than disconcerting. The young woman who had given it was not herself surprising; they both had known Jenny Seever for years, and had heard that she was working for her father. As the island population had grown, the company had made additions to the Seever residence, turning it into a small hospital. Seever himself had had to become a little more formal in the matter of keeping records on his patients. The first thought to cross the minds of the two visitors was that Seever had made a record of the earlier project, and his daughter had come across it in the course of her work.

Bob, however, rejected this after a moment's thought. The doctor would not have written anything down, much less left the record where anyone else could find it, without first consulting Bob himself and his symbiont.

Nevertheless, the girl seemed to know something. The police project had indeed ended in a fire, an oil-fed bonfire which had consumed the alien fugitive, and the question could hardly be coincidence. However, Bob had read his share of detective stories, and was not going to be tricked into telling her more than she might already have learned.

"Lots," he answered, after a hesitation which he realized was probably revealing. "It was a good spring in the Northeast, and picnics were quite the thing before finals. Why?"

Jenny made no direct answer; her listeners got the impression that she had not expected the sort of response Bob had given. In this they were quite right. Since she was much quicker-witted than Bob or the Hunter, she knew better than to continue firing blindly after the first shot, had missed. She changed the subject, letting others make what they could of it- not that she thought of the man standing in front of her desk as representing two people, of course.

"I suppose you want to see Dad."

"Sure. I can't start work for PFI without a checkup, and I owe PFI several years of work in return for my chem degree, so obviously PFI wants me to have a checkup. Also, I'd like to see him anyway, just as an old friend. Is anyone with him now?"

"Yes. You'll have to wait." She couldn't resist one more shot "Would you like some matches?"

"No, thanks. I don't smoke."

"Not even fuel oil?"

"Not for fun."

The Hunter rather wished he could take part in the duel, but had to admit to himself that his host was doing well enough.

Obviously the girl knew something; any chance of coincidence had vanished with the second question. It would be necessary to learn her status from the doctor before anything revealing could be said, but this seemed as obvious to Bob as it was to his symbiont.

"People have queer ideas of fun," Jenny countered.

"I see. Like being mysterious. Look, Kid, or Miss Seever or whatever you want me to call you, I don't know what you're talking about." The Hunter, with the pa.s.sion for strict truthfulness which had developed naturally in his long life, was rather disturbed by this remark. Even the reflection that it was not totally false, since Bob could really only guess what she was talking about, did not console him completely. "If someone has burned a house or something like that here on Ell, I don't know anything about it-I've been away for two years, and just got back last night. If you're talking about something else, you'll have to be specific enough to make sense. If you're just being funny, it isn't. If you've been reading mystery stories, change detectives. I'm not falling for the all-is-lost-fly-at-once line."

"Why should you?" she asked. Bob felt for a moment that he had made a slip, but carried on without a break that anyone but the Hunter could have spotted, both hoped.

"I shouldn't and I couldn't. There's nothing to fall for. If you're suggesting that I'm a pyromaniac, check your dad's files-you keep 'em now, don't you?"

"Thanks. That's an idea I hadn't thought of," she returned. I'll do that when I have the time."

Neither spoke again for ten minutes or more. Both sat, thinking of all the things he might have said differently. The Hunter made a few suggestions to him, but got no response. Jenny paid no obvious attention to her visible guest, and appeared to be busy with her normal paper work.

Eventually a door opened and a ten-year-old boy with his arm in a sling came through, followed by the doctor. The latter interrupted an admonishment about tree-climbing as he caught sight of Bob, came over to shake hands warmly, and ushered him into the examination room.

"Heard you were back-I suppose everyone has, by now. For good this time, isn't it? Did you drop over to be sociable, or are they putting you right to work? How are you, Hunter?-I suppose you're still there."

The Hunter almost answered; Seever was the one human being who sometimes made him forget that communication had to be by relay-who habitually spoke to him as though direct conversation were possible. Bob was usually amused by this, but showed no sign of it this time.

"Both, I guess," he answered Seever's last question -first. "Yes, the Hunter is here. Nothing's been said officially to me about showing up for work, but I imagine they're taking it for granted.

Unless I'm told otherwise, I'll be over at the main shop on Monday; but there are problems I'll need your help with, first."

"Oh?"

Bob wasted no time in recounting the situation; Seever listened silently. He nodded or raised an eyebrow at times but said nothing until Bob had finished. Then he summarized.

"As I see it, you two want to find one or both of those s.p.a.ceships, or their remains, as a step toward getting in touch with some of the Hunter's people who may or may not be on Earth, in the hope that they can solve or get hold of someone else who can solve, Bob's medical difficulties, a.s.suming they can be solved.

Pretty iffy. We are hoping they can be, that they're actually on Earth, and that finding the ships will help you find the people. I won't ask pardon for the loose p.r.o.nouns, you know what I mean.

My job is to keep you functioning, and, if possible, free part of the time-holding the juggler's plates in the air, as the Hunter so aptly puts it-until all this is ac-accomplished."

"It could be said more encouragingly, but that's right as far as you go," conceded Bob. "You do have one other job. Somehow PFI will have to be persuaded to use me in some way that won't either kill me too soon or reveal my medical problems to too many people.

You can't just say I'm not able to work. Old Toke takes a big interest in people, and I can imagine his shipping me back to the States, or j.a.pan, or wherever he happens to think I can get better medical attention than you can provide here. I mention this, of course, just to keep you from loafing between the shots of whatever you have to give me to keep me going."

"Phmph," snorted Seever. "Whatever I- "And in addition," the young man went on, "you'll really have to do something about Jenny." "My daughter? Why? If you're falling in love with her I certainly don't object, but you'll have to do your own courting."

"Did you ever tell her about the Hunter and our adventures a few years ago? Or tell your wife so Jenny could have heard, or write any of it where she could have come across it to read?"

"No. None of those. I've wanted to tell Ev, but it isn't my secret.

I will, if you and the Hunter ever let me. I've never written any of it anywhere."

"Then why did Jenny just now greet me, or us, with questions about fighting fuel oil fires? As I remember, she was away from Ell when we disposed of the Hunter's little problem--and she'd have been only about eleven then, anyway."

"That's right, she was." Seever was both puzzled and surprised.

"I can't imagine what she's up to, or what she's found out, or how.

If I talk in my sleep that coherently I'm sure Ev would have said some-thing, and it still wouldn't explain Jenny's hearing me. Do you want to have her in and ask her right now, or have me ask her alone later on, or hold everything until you've done some thinking and investigating on your own?"

The Hunter expressed himself strongly in Bob's ear, but his host had reached the same conclusion in- dependently and even more quickly.

"The last, by all means. I'd just as soon she didn't know we'd even mentioned it to you. We have no idea how much she knows, or why she's interested. If anyone starts asking her, she'll feel more certain she's on to something real-if she isn't certain already, of course. The only fire I can imagine her asking about is the one I lighted when we tricked the Hunter's quarry out of Dad's body-I can't remember ever lighting another that would mean anything special to anyone, at least. I can't see why she should be asking, if she never heard about it from anywhere."

"So," Seever cut in, "you're between Dilemma's right horn of needing to find out what she could have heard and where she could have heard it, and the left one of not wanting her to think that what she has heard means anything-if she doesn't already. I can see that, and will do my best not to make things any more confusing. I won't say anything to Jen if she doesn't start saying things to me. If she does, I'll find out what I can. You're right-she wasn't here that other time; she was in the hospital on Tahiti recovering from bone surgery I couldn't handle here, and her mother was with her. As you say, she was only eleven anyway.

Someone else must have seen you light the fire, and must have told her, a.s.suming there's any rational basis at all for her question.

The alternative is not only impossible for me to consider, but calls for more coincidence than I can stomach." He paused in thought for several seconds.

"Look," he said at length. "I'm not going to say anything to her unless she spoke first, and I'll keep the promise unless you release me, but give this some thought. If I don't say anything to her, thereby implying that you didn't say anything to me about her fire questions, won't that itself be suspicious? Why wouldn't you have mentioned it to me? Shouldn't I question her, not as though she poking into someone else's business, but as though I were wondering about her state of mind?"

The point seemed well taken, to the Hunter. Bob was less convinced.

I can't stop you," he said slowly, "and don't want to hold you to a promise which goes against your judgment. So-well, do what you think is best. You certainly know her better than I do. The Hunter and I have to find those ships, and can't spend time yet finding out what Jenny's up to."

Seever raised an eyebrow; it seemed to him that his daughter's actions might be relevant enough to the current problem to deserve very close and immediate investigation. Bob failed to notice the change of expression, and the Hunter failed to see it clearly. His host's eyes were aimed in more or less the right direction, but the image of the doctor's face was not in their foveal region. The alien could make use of the less central parts of the retinas better than their owner could but not perfectly; there was no remedy for the fact that the eye lenses did not focus perfectly.

"Somehow," Bob went on, "we've got to get hold of a boat.

Dad's looking for diving gear and metal-finding equipment, but the ships certainly went down off the reef-at least, the Hunter's did, and that generator casing from the other turned up at a place which suggested it had been brought from outside. We'll need a reasonably good boat, because there'll be wind and surf problems out there."

Seever accepted the change of subject. "It'll need size, too, to carry air pumps and hoses and all that stuff," he said.

"Maybe not. Dad's going to try to find free-diving gear-the sort of stuff that fellow Cousteau has been developing. I was pricing it back in the States, but couldn't afford it or I'd have brought a set with me."

"Maybe the company has some."

"Dad was going to check that. Even if it does, though, I'll have trouble using their stuff full time."

"You'll have trouble doing anything full time except work for PFI. I may be able to clear you from heavy muscle work or fix you up so you can do it, but I don't see you spending eight hours a day poking around on the ocean bottom outside the reef. Thorvaldsen is very pro basic research, but your project would hardly fit anything he's likely to have in mind."

The Hunter and his host had talked this situation over at great length, and Bob was able to respond promptly.

"We've had some ideas on that. Remember, I have an even better certainty that it can be done about both fusion power and faster-than-light travel than Toke had about biological engineering back in the twenties, when he started PFL. I'm as certain about them as the Russians were about the nuclear bomb-they didn't have to steal anything; when we used it, we'd given them free the only bit of knowledge whose lack might have kept them from making their own. If I could convince Old Toke that I really had something in either line, he'd probably back me carte blanche for basic research. There are only two troubles. One is that I'll have to solve my medical difficulties first, before I'll really have much to show him; and second, I can't honestly tell him either that I know how the Hunter's people do these things, or that they start giving up technical information hand over fist after they've cured me. In fact, as the Hunter admits, they'd probably be very cagey about letting me or any other human being learn many details for a generation or so, even after they open Earth up to symbiosis, if they do. I don't like the idea of deceiving the old guy for several reasons, not the least of which is my doubt that I'd get away with it.

"Of course, this just may be my uneasiness about telling anyone about the Hunter and his people any-way; every time I think of it, I think of the word spreading that R. N. Kinnaird has lost his marbles."

"You know I could prove your story," Seever pointed out. "I did to your parents."

"You'd be taking a chance. Not everyone has been cured of synthetic pneumonia by a lump of green jelly, and not everyone who learned about the jelly would react in a nice, friendly, rational manner. I don't want to sound too paranoid, but I can see people who learned about the Hunter resenting my advantages."

"Your present 'advantages' are hardly targets of jealousy."

"We're a.s.suming my problems are going to be solved- remember? I'm trying to take the long view. Let's make the spreading of the word to the upper echelons the very last string to the bow, and concentrate on finding a decent boat."

"With no diving gear at all, even the self-contained sort you mentioned what hurry is there for a boat? Surface diving off the reef won't let you search below three or four fathoms, and even that would take roughly forever," Seever pointed out.

"Of course. And I couldn't do much in one day without wearing myself out, unless you can do something about these weakness attacks. That wasn't the idea. Do you remember that piece of metal the fellows and I found out on one of the reef islands, the one that almost got Kenny Rice drowned?"

"I remember your telling me about it. You said it was a generator casing or something like that from one of the ships. I never saw it myself."

"That's it, we want to find it again, and let the Hunter check it over more carefully. He thinks he can get some idea of how far the other one traveled with it. He'll try to move it around himself under water to get some idea of the effort involved, maybe even backtrack. That thing certainly wouldn't have dragged very freely through the coral."

"Won't the coral have grown enough in the last seven or eight years to make that sort of detailed study pretty futile?"

"Maybe, but the Hunter thinks it's worth doing, and I agree. At least it will help us narrow down possibilities ties until we get the diving gear. Of course, any other ideas which anyone gets will be welcome, too." I Seever sighed. "All right," he agreed, "let's get down to my strictly medical part of the problem. Let me take a blood sample, not that I have the lab equipment I'd like, and I'll see if I can get any ideas from what I don't find in you." His expression was clearly pessimistic. "There's one sort of known illness which vaguely resembles what you describe, and I've heard of a drug which might possibly help the symptoms. Just to make you happy, there's no claim it will touch the cause, which no one has yet identified. Of course, I don't have the drug here."

"Where would you have to send for it?" asked Bob. The States?"

"j.a.pan would probably be faster."

"Is it something you ever use? I mean, will anyone here get suspicious if you order it?"

"Don't get paranoid, youngster. No one ever checks on what I order. I'm my whole department. There's no one on Ell who would react to the name 'neostigmine' even if he saw the order, except maybe Old Toke himself. If you really want to worry, devote your thoughts to the fact that I'm only 'guessing it may help. Maybe I'll get more ideas from your blood, but don't count on it. Even though the Hunter is a detective, not a biochemist, and has grown up with a nonhuman species, he must know more about human physiology and biochemistry than I do. If he tells you to do anything, do it; don't wait for my advice."

The Hunter knew that Seever was right, but rather, regretted his having brought up the point. Bob's morale was already quite low enough, and keeping him alive was already hard enough. Trying, to keep the young chemist's hopes up was complicated by his intelligence; anything encouraging, to be worth, saying, had to be reasonable. He and the Hunter had talked, long before and very briefly, of the possibility of finding the fugitive's ship and learning enough from it to let them build a larger one capable of taking Bob himself to Castor. Bob had dismissed the notion out of hand; it had been perfectly obvious to him that the job would have been a.n.a.logous to a Cro-Magnon man's trying to copy an airplane engine. It was not a matter of native intelligence, but of the culture's back-ground knowledge.

"I'll take blood from inside the right elbow, Hunter, if you want to get out of the way," Seever said as he approached with a large syringe. "I won't bother with the ligature if you'll supply a little back pressure on the vein."

The Hunter agreed, Bob nodded, and seconds later the doctor had his sample.

"What now?" he asked. "Have you started to feel that fatigue yet today?"

"Nope, not yet. All I've done is bike down here, of course."

"What are you going to do now? Start looking for a boat, or entertain your sister?"

"She's in school for a few more hours, thank goodness. It's a pity vacation starts so soon. I'm just as bothered how to keep her little nose out of this project as I am about keeping it secret from the rest of the island-I suppose those amount to the same thing; if she knows, she'll tell her friends. However, we'll play that by ear.

The first problem is a boat."

"What happened to the one your bunch used to have?"

"It sort of died of old age. The last time it started to fall apart, none of us had the time to fix it."

"Well, I have a suggestion, but you may not like it."

"What?"

"Jenny has a boat-more of a canoe, really-that she might be willing to lend."

"Without being told the whole story? I can't believe it."

"Oh, I wouldn't say she was that feminine," the father chuckled.