Tabor's face darkened. "Your father warned you, son. She's poison. Already you are convinced that she didn't kill him, but it'll always be my personal opinion that she is the one who shot Thymar."
"I believe so, too, but she has offered to help me find out who did. I'm seeing it through to find out what she knows."
"She's a liar and a thief. She'll get the two Jewels your father left you and do the same to you as she did to him."
Nathan knew that seemed the obvious conclusion, but it wasn't reasonable in the face of things he had seen. There was something more that was far from obvious. There was the mystery of Firebird herself and the magic pool of Luline. And the mystery of the Jewels themselves.
"I'll find out my own way," said Nathan.
Tabor's face broke with a deep laugh then. "I might have known what your answer would be. In a lifetime of argument with Thymar I never won yet. I see I'm going to do the same with you. Let's drink. You and Firebird come aboard the Sunbeam for tonight. I'll leave for Venus in the morning and wait for you to come back—which won't be long, I'm predicting."
Nathan went over to the table where Firebird still seemed to ignore her surroundings. But there was admiration in her eyes.
"That was nice handling," she said. "I knew you could do it."
"It could have been done without shooting," said Nathan.
"You don't know the 'Orbit'," Firebird replied with a smile. "No man sets foot in here for the first time without being tried by gunfire. I gave you the best possible opening. You took it like a veteran of the spaceways. They'll respect you, now."