The House That Jack Built by Robert Asprin & Linda Evans

“Probably in one of the suitcases that porter dropped,” Skeeter growled. “What I want to know is, how the hell did Julius get tangled up with terrorists? I know that boy. He wouldn’t get involved in something like that, not without a damned good reason.”

Robert Li said slowly, “Those Ansar Majlis leaders you caught are denying it, but it’s pretty clear they paid Armstrong to hit Jenna Caddrick. So it’s a good bet Armstrong masterminded the hit on Ianira, too. If I remember right, Julius disappeared about the same time her whole family vanished, didn’t he? But surely the boy wouldn’t have helped the Ansar Majlis voluntarily?”

Kit glanced at Skeeter, reading murderous hatred in the younger man’s eyes and the set of his jaw. The one-time con artist said through clenched teeth, “If Armstrong blackmailed him with a threat to Ianira’s life, he would’ve done anything that pack of cutthroats demanded. And waited for a chance to slit their throats, later.”

A chill shivered its way up Kit’s spine. This was a side of Skeeter he’d never witnessed, the side that had survived twelfth century Mongolia and the worst childhood any ‘eighty-sixer on station could lay claim to. Slowly, Kit nodded agreement. “Yes, I think you’re reading this situation very clearly, Skeeter. Julius would’ve done anything to save Ianira, if Armstrong had kidnapped her as well as Jenna Caddrick. Armstrong’s pals in the Ansar Majlis might well have been holding the boy prisoner with Marcus and the girls, probably forced him to help them all escape the station. And my bet is, Armstrong sent at least one of his men down the Britannia with the fake I.D. Jenna Caddrick’s roommate was supposed to use. Benny Catlin wasn’t anything more than a decoy, to make us think her kidnappers had gone to London, when they planned to take her to Denver, all along.”