Touchdown, Touchdown, Rah, Rah, Rah!

Ray found the phone and called Nyquist. Whatever his feelings about Ray, he responded at once with a promise of help. Ray hung up and went to the patio, where two of the students were lying on lounge chairs. One of them was Grace, the economist. Ray helped her walk up to her room. “Bad,” she muttered as they staggered upstairs. “Never thrown up so much in my life.”

“Help will be here soon,” Ray said, crossing his fingers. He looked up as Elizabeth came out of a room. “How is it?”

“Bad,” she said, as Grace lurched into her room. “Toshio’s gone into shock. I’ve got him wrapped up in an electric blanket. Nick’s shaking so much I’m scared he’ll have convulsions. The others aren’t hit as hard, but they’re getting dehydrated and they can’t keep anything down. They must have eaten some kya food, somehow.”

“Damn,” Ray muttered.

“There’s more,” Elizabeth said. “Faber’s missing.”

“Damn,” Ray repeated. He could imagine Faber wandering off somewhere, then collapsing. “We can’t go off looking for him,” he decided. “We have to stay here.”

“We can’t just forget about him, either.”

“I know.” Ray tried to think. “Call Zelk. Have her call out Faber’s teammates. They know what he smells like, and they’ll have an easier time finding him than we would.”

“Good idea. They can track him down like bloodhounds.” She went inside to call Zelk.

The medical team arrived a half hour later, followed by Zelk and another kya. Ray stayed outside to speak with the kya while Elizabeth took the doctor and his assistant into the dorm. “Is anyone looking for Faber yet?” Ray asked.

“Coach Znayu and the team are on his trail,” Zelk’s companion said.

Zelk sniffed in agreement. “Bennett, this is my husband, Hraj,” she said. “Being with the police, I should say Leading Investigator Hraj. Hearing about this problem, and connecting it with other things, Hraj was a bit suspicious.”

“More than a bit,” Hraj said. “Talking with my sweeter scent, she told me a few things that smell peculiar. Let’s try to sniff out some clues.”

Ray followed Hraj around, and found that he had spoken literally. He sniffed the plates and cups scattered around the lobby and patio, ignoring the unpleasant odors with the hardened sensibilities of a professional. After finding something odd in the French fries, Hraj went into the kitchen and inspected several containers of food. “These have both been contaminated with knotvine extract,” Hraj said at last, pointing to a bottle of catsup and a plastic jug of vegetable oil.

“ ‘Knotvine extract,’ ” Ray said. “A few weeks ago Faber ate some by mistake, while the bagdrag team was on a training run.”

“Ah,” Hraj said. “That could narrow our lists of suspects. Someone at the run may have mentioned it to a friend who wanted to incapacitate your people.”

Zelk sniffed at the containers. “I only smell human scents on these bottles.”

“Having double-checked them, I agree,” her husband said. “Whoever poisoned them must have had enough sense to wear scent-proof gloves. And similar shoes; I don’t smell anything but human footprints in here.”

“Being so, that suggests someone with the intelligence of a college student,” Zelk told Ray. “Assuming that, we’ll have a smaller list of suspects.”

“I understand,” Ray said with a sigh. “I hope this won’t cause any trouble for the university.”

“Not as much trouble as I’ll make for whoever did this.” Her eyes narrowed to vindictive slits. “I think I can promise our network friends at least one genuine fur coat...”

Hraj began to question Zelk about possible troublemakers among the student body. Ray went into the lobby, where he helped Jones and her team move into some of the dorm’s unoccupied rooms. With that done, Ray returned to the lobby just in time to see Faber enter with one of his teammates. “Hey, Bennett,” Faber said, while the kya player suddenly retreated from the dorm’s stench. “Tsui tells me the whole team is out looking for me. What’s up?”

“Everyone who was at the barbecue came down with food poisoning,” Ray said. He felt relieved. It suddenly occurred to him that if Faber had taken ill, he would have missed the Big Game. “We were afraid you might be out dying in the bushes.”

Faber looked blanker than usual. “ ‘Dying’? From a little knotvine?”

Ray felt uneasy. “How do you know what they had?”

“Uh, just a guess. I mean, that’s what nailed me, right?”

Before Ray could answer, Hraj and Zelk stepped into the lobby. Their muzzles twitched as they caught Faber’s scent. “Your scent is strong and fresh on the poisoned container,” Hraj said. “Being so, can you explain why you handled it?”

“Better yet,” Ray said, “Can you explain why you missed the barbecue?” “I cut out because those poindexters don’t like me,” Faber said. “I didn’t put nothing in any bottles.”

Hraj’s nostrils flared. “I said ‘container,’ singular. How did you know the poison was in more than one bottle?”