Dark Ararat - Brian Stableford [74]
Matthew’s head had dropped as the rifle had become increasingly burdensome, and it wasn’t until Blackstone gave him the cue to look up that he realized that they had almost reached their destination. He realized too that whatever else Blackstone was right or wrong about, the ex-soldier was certainly right about his needing a rest.
As soon as they were inside the double door Blackstone said: “I’ll just get rid of this stuff, then I’ll show you where you’re bunking. We put you in together, if that’s okay.”
Matthew nearly asked why he couldn’t have Bernal Delgado’s bunk, but he remembered in time what Solari had said about Bernal and Maryanne Hyder playing “happy families.” He put Blackstone’s gun down, resting it against the plastic outer wall of the dome. Then he leaned against it himself, glad of the respite.
While they were briefly alone, Solari took the opportunity to say: “I didn’t expect it to be this bad. There were plenty of places back home where a cop was as welcome as a plague-bearing rat, but I didn’t expect this to be one of them.”
“It’s not just you,” Matthew said. “I reckon we came in on the end of a big argument—and I suspect that was only one item in an ongoing war. There’s been a serious breakdown of consensus here. Bernal’s death might have caused the cracks to widen, but there’s a lot more to it than that.”
“So what caused today’s big argument?” Solari wanted to know.
Blackstone returned just in time to field the question. “The boat,” he said, succinctly. “Four berths, one of which fell vacant when Delgado was killed. If anyone was its captain, he was, which means that no one knows how to decide whether the empty slot goes to Matthew here, or whether Tang should take it.”
“I should get it,” Matthew was quick to say. “I’m down here as Bernal’s replacement.”
“And Lynn will back you up. Ike Mohammed too. They think that’s a majority, since they were the other two-thirds of the original transfer team and still are two-thirds of the remnant of the boat’s intended crew. Tang isn’t happy with that way of deciding things. Maryanne’s on Tang’s side in everything now. Dulcie didn’t want to commit herself; God never does; I wanted to meet you before casting a vote, if I have one. Democracy in action!”
Matthew assumed that “God never does” was a criticism of Kriefmann’s indecisiveness rather than the Almighty’s.
“What about me?” Solari put in. “Do I have a voice?”
“Don’t tell me you want to go too,” Blackstone said.
“That’s not what I meant,” Solari said. “I was asking whether I have any voice in who goes and who stays … and when the boat is cleared for departure.” He obviously felt that the answer ought to be yes in both cases—which would allow him to hold the expedition back until he’d completed his investigation, lest the murderer should slip away unapprehended.
“No, you don’t,” Blackstone told him, brusquely. “The boat trip’s scientific business—nothing to do with you. Long overdue. The moment we figured out that the aliens had to be downriver in the glass-roofed grass forest we should have set off to find them. I was ready to walk, but I got outvoted. I even got voted off the expedition in favor of Dulcie.”
“If it’s scientific business,” Solari pointed out, “it’s nothing to do with you, either.”
“Maybe it isn’t,” Blackstone came back at him, “but if they run into trouble down there, they might need a man who can shoot straight. That’s why I was sent here in the first place, when we thought they might still be skulking in the hills. If it were up to me, I’d be the one taking Bernal’s place.”
“It’s not up to you,” Matthew put in. “I’m Bernal’s replacement. The berth has to be mine, if I want it.”
“Do you?” Blackstone wanted to know.
“Yes.”
Blackstone opened his mouth to offer some further objection, but he was seized by a sudden doubt and hesitated. He deliberated, lowered his voice and said: “Look, I’m sorry about all this. We know we shouldn’t be in this mess. If we could get out of it with a few handshakes and a group hug we would. I wish I could say that your arrival will help, but it won