Fall of the White Ship Avatar Read Free

17:03:12
    [Fitzhugh 3]-FALL OF THE WHITE SHIP AVATAR
    through a different door, and couldn't see anyone following, though that was no guarantee; with decent communications and even middling organization, it would be possible to follow them with never the same tail in view more than once—or for very long. Similarly, they'd examined themselves for a bug or homer, though they lacked the equipment for a proper sweep.
    They grabbed an empty tubeway capsule out in the direction of Hubble City. Alacrity leaned his head back for a moment, closing his eyes. "You've been a real pal, not asking a lot of questions about where we go from Luna, Ho."
    "Been a goddamn prince !"
    They both laughed tiredly. "Anyway, I'll fill you in as soon as we're someplace secure," Alacrity promised. "It was nothing I could talk about on Earth because—well, you had the picture."
    True enough. Their spectacular return to Terra had Citizen Ash, Earth's executioner, dismembering Earthservice almost singlehandedly and making the Alpha-bureaucrats tell all they knew about the Camarilla that had kept the planet in isolation for two hundred years. The atmosphere of intrigue and counterintrigue, upheaval and unrest that flared on Earth and across human space made it an unsafe time for confidences about future plans. Especially for Alacrity, pursued from childhood by Langstretch operatives and others, and particularly for confidences to Floyt, who was at the eye of the storm and—
    until a few hours before—destined for years of security debriefings and testimony before courts, boards of inquiry, grand juries, and all that.
    "I'd just assumed you're going to lay claim to the White Ship, no?"
    "Huh! You don't just show up in the Spican system and casually deal yourself in on something like the White Ship, Citizen Floyt. But I swear, she's gonna be mine."
    Floyt looked at him dubiously. "You're not going to clomp around up on deck all night on a whalebone peg-leg, are you? And nail gold doubloons to the mast?"
    "What? Sometimes I wish we had a language in common, Hobart." Alacrity opened his wide, oblique eyes and looked around the capsule uncomfortably. It wouldn't be so hard to wire the whole mass-transit system for covert monitoring. "I'll explain everything a little later."
    Floyt nodded, leaning back, adjusting the shoulder holster so that the Webley rode more comfortably, studying the layout of the capsule for potential fields of fire.
    Despite the joking, Floyt was still mulling what Alacrity had said regarding the White Ship inboard Mindframe. Alacrity had admitted to being more than just a shiftless breakabout; his grandparents were prime movers behind the building of the White Ship. For nearly thirty years the stupendous starship had file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...y%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (7 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:12
    [Fitzhugh 3]-FALL OF THE WHITE SHIP AVATAR
    been under construction and reconstruction, her sole mission being to uncover the secrets of the long-vanished, all-powerful Precursors.
    The White Ship was a lightning rod of intergovernmental conflict, corporate bloodletting, and a near war or two. Who controlled the secrets of the Precursors stood to control the galaxy, or perhaps all of Creation.
    Small wonder that a lot of people were eager to cancel Alacrity's postage and that "Alacrity Fitzhugh"
    wasn't the name given him at birth, but one of many aliases he'd picked up being raised by various breakabouts and serving as one himself.
    The whole business of Floyt's inheritance and the destruction of the Camarilla moved Alacrity squarely into the public eye and splashed his name across the light-years. Then there were Sintilla and her books about Alacrity and Floyt. From what little Floyt knew, Langstretch Detective Network had a standing high-figure contract on the life of the man sitting there in the capsule with him. And Floyt had already seen how very effective Langstretch personnel could