"Uh, no, we won't, Xris," Harry said, looking around. "That's one of the new safety features they've added. According to the head of the Wolf Brigadea""

He finally caught Xris's angry glare.

"Oops," Harry said meekly. "Sorry."

Robison shook his head. He attached a restrainer on Xris's good wrist. "Why the h.e.l.l did you hire such a moron for a pilot?"

"I'm cutting back on expenses. Harry works cheap."

"I see. Take off your arm."

"Huh?" Xris played dumb.

"Take off the arm. I've read reports on you, remember?"

"If you have," Xris returned, "you know d.a.m.n good and well I can't. What do you think it is? An overcoat? A surgeon has to remove the implants. Make a mistake and my entire system will go into shock. I could die."

"So what?" Robison sneered.

"So how much do I know about your operations?" Xris asked. "And who have I told?"

Robison cast a glance at Macdonald, who nodded.

"All right, leave it on. But I know d.a.m.n well you can detach the hand!"

Xris couldn't argue with him on that one. He removed the cybernetic hand at the wrist. The fleshfoam hand looked particularly realistic and particularly gruesome, with wires dangling from the wrist like severed tendons, lubricating fluid dripping from it. Xris held out the hand to Robison, who looked disgusted.

"Put that thing on the floor."

Xris shrugged, did as he was told. Robison activated the restrainer on Xris's good hand. His fingers lost all feeling; the hand went limp.

"Let's discuss my fee," Xris said. "Without me, your friends there would still be squatting on the eighteenth hole. You can bet this fancy transport didn't come cheap. I expect to be paid for this job. Well paid."

"You'll get what you've earned," said Robison with an unpleasant smile. "Just like Amadi here. And your team."

"Team?" Xris repeated, shaking his head. "Why worry about them? They're not involved. Say, you haven't got a twist on you, by chance?"

"The h.e.l.l they aren't. Or perhaps I should put that in the past tense. Amadi was the one who hired your team to go to Del Sola""

"Del Sol!" Macdonald was on his feet. "Amadi sent a team to Del Sol?"

"Relax, Mr. Macdonald. Mag Force 7 has been eliminated as a threat. Permanently. Our hit squads don't miss."

Oh, yes they do. They'd missed Rowan twice. Still, third time was a charm....

Harry shifted his big bulk in his chair, stared bleakly back at Xris, begging him to deny it, to say it wasn't true.

Xris avoided the pleading gaze. He couldn't offer Harry my comfort.

Amadi had hired them. Hired them to overthrow the government of Del Sol. What could a revolution on Del Sol possibly have to do with the Hung? Xris couldn't figure it out, but he told himself bitterly that he should have seen the two were connected. If for no other reason than that his arrest had come at precisely the time they'd been hired for the job.

Coincidence? He had always been the one to maintain that there were no such things. But he'd missed this one completely.

He'd given in to his emotion. He'd let his hate fog up his brain.

What a f.u.c.king, blind, stupid fool I've been! Xris berated himself. And my friends are the ones who've paid the price.

"I don't understand," Macdonald said. "What's going on? What does Amadi have to do with this? The last we were informed, he had retired."

"You don't know this, Mr. Macdonald," said Robison, "but this piece of sc.r.a.p metal you see sitting here"a"he gestured at Xris with the barrel of the beam riflea""was once a FISA agent. He met with an accident. He and his partner were snooping around in a munitions factory when it blew up."

Macdonald stared, eyes narrowed. "What are you saying, Trevor? You hired him!"

"No," said Robison, and he looked nervous. "He did." He jerked his head at Amadi, who was groaning and starting to move.

"You have some explaining to do," Mair said.

"I don't have all the pieces yet myself, sir," Robison admitted. "That's one reason Amadi's still alive. At some timea"I don't know how long agoa"Amadi caught on to me. He intercepted the messages you sent to me. He became Trevor."

Macdonald stared at Amadi with a malevolency sharp as a knife's blade. "You say you don't know when this happened?"

"No, sir, I don't."

"A great deal of damage may have been done."

"It can be undone, sir." Robison shifted one hand off the barrel of the beam rifle, rubbed his palm on his pants. He left a streak of wetness. "Once we find out what he knows and what the cyborg knows. And we'll find out."

They began to discuss various methods of torture, arguing about which was the most efficient. The discussion sent Becking back to the head, but Mair and Macdonald were obviously enjoying themselves. Xris found the conversation boring. He'd spent a year in a hospital having most of his insides, not to mention a few a.s.sorted body parts, taken out, chopped off, disconnected, redesigned, rebuilt, reinserted, reattached. He could have given them a few ideas.

"Twenty minutes to hypers.p.a.ce," said the computer. "All cargo should be properly stowed so that the load does not shift during the Jump. Pilot Luck, shall I run the cargo hold check?"

"We don't have any cargo," Harry felt compelled to point out.

"I know," said the computer gently. "I was only trying to help you take your mind off whatever it is that is bothering you."

"Thanks," said Harry, and he patted the console. "I appreciate it."

"Hey," Xris said, breaking into a conversation between Mair and Macdonald on the efficacy of electrodes attached to breast nipples. "I have to go to the head."

"So go," said Robison.

"I could use a hand." Xris grinned at him.

"Funny." Robison grunted. "Be creative. Oh, and leave the door open so we can see you."

"It's your funeral." Xris went to the heada"a small compartment containing a toilet, a sink, and a tiny shower, located in the rear of the c.o.c.kpit area. Xris stood by the door, waited for Becking to emerge.

"I hate s.p.a.ce travel," said Becking as he left the head, wiping his lips with a trembling hand.

"Man was never meant to fly," said Xris solemnly.

Entering the head, he wrestled with his sweatpants and sat down on the toilet. Activating the internal commlink, he spoke between grunts.

"Harry, can you seize control of this monster from the computer? Fly it manually?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Harry, after some consideration. "You want me to try it now?"

"No. Let's get to Del Sol first."

"You got a plan, don't you, Xris?" Harry was excited.

Xris hated to let him down.

"Not yet. But I'm working on it."

"They're not all dead, are they, Xris?" Harry asked plaintively. "Not Rowan and Jamil and Doc?"

"I wish I could say no, Harry," Xris answered. "But the Hung have killed good people before this."

Harry choked. "I'm worried about my mom, Xris."

"She'll be okay," Xris lied. "They won't hurt her."

"You sure? 'Causea""

"Stop mumbling to yourself, you big ape." Robinson struck Harry hard in the back with the barrel of the beam rifle.

"Fifteen minutes to Jump," reported the computer. "All pa.s.sengers must be in their seats with their safety webbing in place before the Jump sequence can commence."

Xris left the can, went back to his seat.

Robison and Mair lifted Amadi from the deck, settled him in a chair, and strapped his webbing over him.

Amadi's eyes opened. He blinked a few times, winced in pain from the bright light, and took in his surroundings.

"h.e.l.lo, Xris," he said, glancing over at the seat near him. "Glad to see you made it."

"h.e.l.lo, sir," Xris said.

Amadi gave a wan smile. "I even had you fooled, didn't I, Xris?"

"Yes, sir. You had me fooled."

Amadi sat back, sighed, and closed his eyes.

"Ten minutes to Jump," said the computer. "Starting Jump sequence now."

CHAPTER 43.

Life ... is a hand-to-hand mortal combat... between the law of love and the law of hate.

Jose Marti, Letter.

"Del Sol tower, this is Wolf Two Two One Heavy, requesting clearance to Rimindar Field, Over."

There was a longer than normal pause. A controller came on the vidscreen. "Wolf Two Two One Heavy, you are not cleared. I repeat, you are not cleared. Del Sol is a sovereign world and will resist any attempts at illegal infiltration. We are under a state of emergency and cannot accept incoming traffic at this time. I repeat. You are not cleared. Do not attempt to land. Del Sol out."

"I don't understand! What's going on?" Robison demanded, frustrated. "Tell them it is imperative that we land! We have our own emergency."

"I'm sorry, sir," said the computer. "But they have ended communication. I suggest that we monitor local broadcast channels. Perhaps we could discover the nature of the emergency."

"I don't like the sound of this." Macdonald was out of his chair, pacing around the cabin. "Find out what's going on."

"Look at Amadi," said Mashahiro Ito, his voice strong and clear in Xris's head. "He's smiling. You know what that means!"

Xris knew what it meant. The boss smiled only when a case was closed, the verdict in, and he had won.

Amadi's blood-caked head rested against the back of the chair. His skin was ashen; he'd been sick during the Jump, vomiting on the deck. His eyes were closed. But he was smiling.

"I have the signal from the local vid channel," said the computer. "On screen."

"For those of you who have just joined us, I am Ron Sharp, general manager of Station Vid Free Dremeck, standing in for our regular anchors, who are on a.s.signment. We are waiting for word from the palace, where it is reported that His Eminence, Supreme Ruler Kirkov, will be making a prerecorded broadcast to the nation. We have no idea what His Eminence will be saying or why he is not saying it live and in person. We a.s.sume that he will endeavor to calm the nation after this turbulent night of uncertainty and terror."

"What terror?" demanded Mair.

"Shut up," said Macdonald.

The face of a handsome man, somewhat florid and fleshy, with blond, buzz-cut hair, wearing a uniform decorated with ribbon and braid and innumerable gleaming metals, appeared. He was seated at a desk, against a backdrop of a gigantic flag. The man's face was rigid, stoic, expressionless.

"At 0600 hours, I, Gustav Kirkov, have surrendered power. Rulership of this world now lies in the hands of its oldest inhabitantsa"those known to use as dremecks."

Becking gasped.

"Shut up!" Macdonald snarled.

"I have resigned my position as supreme ruler of the world of Del Sol," Kirkov was saying. "Prior to my resignation, all military units under my command were ordered to stand down. The secret police have been disbanded.

"I ask the citizens of Del Sol to remain calm. I have received a.s.surances from the leaders of the new government that you are in no danger. By the time this message is broadcast, I will have left Del Sol. I do not intend to ever return."

A momentary break, during which voices could be heard saying, "Can you confirm this?"

The obviously shocked and amazed news anchor was back on the screen, listening to reports over his comm, his hand pressed to a vidcomm.