Deadman Switch by Timothy Zahn Page A

leisurely through those rings. Scooping up the rocheoids of ultra-high-grade ore that made Solitaire system worth so much trouble … and so many lives …
    Angrily, I shook my head, forcing the thought away. Here we were, barely within Solitaire system, and already everything I saw was bringing me back to the Deadman Switch and the price that had been paid to get the Bellwether here. I was either going to have to learn better mental discipline, or else brace myself for an exceedingly depressing two weeks.
    So do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own …
    Shutting off the wall, I dragged myself out of the contour couch and plodded the two steps back to bed. Eventually, I fell asleep.
    We touched down at Solitaire’s spaceport—named, appropriately, Rainbow’s End—at mid-morning the next day. Mid-morning ship’s time, that is; at Rainbow’s End it was already late afternoon. Too late in the day, probably, to get much of anything accomplished; but it might still be worthwhile to start finding my way around the local bureaucracy. And so, fifteen minutes after landing, I was in a rented car, driving down a very modern roadway toward the capital city of Cameo, twenty kilometers away.
    The car’s computer had been well supplied with cross references, and after a short discussion we decided the place I wanted was the Habrin Tsiosky Office of Justice. I let it do the driving once we reached Cameo’s outskirts, and within a few minutes it delivered me there.
    Within an equal number of minutes, I was again in the car, on my way back to Rainbow’s End.
    Kutzko was just inside the Bellwether’s gatelock when I arrived, supervising the placement of a guard booth. “Mr. Kelsey-Ramos is looking for you,” he greeted me as I stepped aboard. “Hold it a second; I want to give the weapons sensor a test. Here, catch.”
    I caught the needler clip he tossed me—puff adders, of course, Kutzko’s usual ammunition of choice—and tried not to wince as I stuffed it into my tunic. I’d seen what these needles could do to a human being, and just holding a clip of them made me slightly queasy. “I told Captain Bartholomy I was going into Cameo,” I said as Duge Ifversn stepped over to the booth and flipped a pair of switches.
    The archway above me emitted a pig-like squeal. “Looks good,” Duge nodded.
    Kutzko nodded back. “He must not have checked with the captain, then. You should have taken a phone with you. Anyway, he’s in his stateroom with Aikman.”
    Great. All I needed to make the day complete was to have to face Aikman again. “Joy and rapture,” I muttered, returning the clip.
    Kutzko peered at me. “You okay?”
    â€œTemporarily, no. But I’m not ready to roll over and give up quite yet.” I gestured at the guard booth. “What’s all this for? We expecting company?”
    â€œCompany, and lots of it,” Kutzko nodded. “Mr. Kelsey-Ramos has decided we’re going to stay here instead of moving to one of the local hotels.”
    â€œReally?” I frowned. “Why?”
    He grinned lopsidedly. “You’re the expert—you tell me. Real reason, then official reason.”
    It was an old game for us, but one I didn’t really feel like playing at the moment. “Mikha, I don’t have time—”
    â€œCome on, Gilead, humor me. Besides, you look like you could use a cheap victory.”
    I made a face at him; but at this point I was grateful for even bad humor. “Oh, all right.”
    He put on his best stone face and held it as I, for my part, tried to read past his barriers. It was really pretty easy—despite being in a profession that often attracted the more shady sorts, Kutzko was basically an honest person. “Real reason is that he doesn’t trust the hotels,” I said slowly. I