He began to rise. Maybe he recognized that to break her apart would destroy him and his, for he lowered himself again and whispered, “You do not rave in a dream. You know what you utter. But why do you, my lady? Why?”
Again Dagny sighed. Grief was a thickness in her THE STARS ARE ALSO FIRE 44!
throat. “Oh, I’m sure you saw the deed as—patriotic —if you have anything like a conception of what Earth calls patriotism. Do you? Doesn’t matter, I suppose. You’re young, idealistic in your way, born and bred in a hard world where life often goes cheap.
“The scheme is easy to reconstruct. You sent Wahl a confidential message asking to see him at his place— in the crisis, he wouldn’t be anywhere else unless duty pulled him out—see him about his daughter. You admitted having kept in touch with her. Did you get her to message him as well? I’d rather think you didn’t. It wouldn’t have been really necessary. He’s her father, he loves her, he’d receive you, hoping to talk you out of marriage or whatever you threatened him with. You knew his habit of solitary swimming; everybody on Luna has heard of it. You knew that the right words, calculated to enrage and frustrate him, would soon drive him to the pool, to work off enough fury that he could carry on in his job.”
“And what of that?” Erann demanded.
“Only this. You’d slipped into that room and set the water thermostat way low, well under zero. Afterward, of course, you returned and set it high, because the ice had to be melted as fast as possible. Once that had happened, if you’d gotten the chance I suppose you’d have reset it for the regular temperature, but you didn’t, and I doubt you were counting on it. A warm pool would look kind of odd, but still the death would seem—accidental, or natural, if medically peculiar. In the general ruckus, and the Selenarchs touching off whatever hell they have planned, nobody would give the funny detail any close thought. By the time somebody figured out the truth, if anybody ever did, you’d be long gone. And we’d have far bigger problems on our hands.”
Erann sat expressionless.
Dagny smiled on the left side of her mouth. “Want me to spell it out, do you? Okay. Supercooling. If it isn’t disturbed, pure water can be cooled well down
past its freezing point and stay liquid. Drop anything in, then, and it solidifies in a flash. Wahl plunged, and suddenly he was enclosed in ice. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t breathe. Consciousness would have lasted a minute or two. A bad death, that. He deserved better.”
Now Erann got up. He stood above her and said, with tiger pride, “Luna deserves better than him.”
She wouldn’t let his height domineer her. She didn’t want to look into his face anyway. “Suppose the scheme had failed?” she pursued. “The crystallization could easily have been triggered prematurely.”
“
“Then, were I accused, I would call it a jape, of intent merely to avenge humiliation. Did they doubt me, the question could not be tried before the contest for liberty had ended. Zamok Vysoki would be no worse positioned than aforetime.”
“Nobody would buy that plea any more.”
He shook his head. Brightness slid across the platinum locks. “Nay, clearly not, when he is in fact slain and you have bared the means. Investigation can belike find traces of me in the room. Denial can but degrade me, and I will not make it.”
He soared across the floor and stood at the wall, as if to let her see him easily and entirely. “Besides,” he said, “you are now the one who grips hardest of any. I will not hamper or delay you. Maychance you can find an escape for all of us.”
The sight of him blurred. Dagny rubbed her eyes. She.would not weep. Damnation, she had work yet to do. But he was honorable, by his lights he was honorable, and having done what he could, he stood ready to suffer what he must.
A thrilling went through her. He said that, had his plan miscarried, his cause would be no worse off. She couldn’t stop to quiz him further, nor to wonder whether it had slipped from him or was purposeful, a signal and an appeal to her. But it fitted in with what else she figured. “Stay put till you hear from me,” she ordered. “Look into yourself and think. Understand that you are the first Beynac who was ever a murderer. Then make what peace with your spirit you can.”