"No, Raoul!" Xris said.

Jamil strong-armed Raoul, dragged him back.

"You don't need to be introduced," Xris said. "Not now."

"I don't! Are you sure?" Raoul asked with dangerous sweetness.

"I'm sure."

"If you say so." Raoul shrugged his shoulders delicately. "By the way, Jamil, you're hurting me."

"Sorry." Jamil loosened his grip on the Adonian's wrist.

"Don't be," Raoul said softly.

"You have one minute," Fisk barked.

Xris faced the team. "First, Jamil, contact the team's attorney. I want Parker himself, not one of his flunkies."

Jamil nodded.

"Second"a"Xris's gaze encompa.s.sed all of thema""carry on with the job. Looks like we might need the cash to fund my legal expenses."

"It's not funny, Xris," Harry said.

"I know," Xris said, adding lamely, "I'm sorry."

Jamil glowered. Quong looked stern and severe. Raoul's lashes were lowered, but he kept his gaze on Fisk. The Little One, holding tightly on to Xris pants leg like a child about to be parted from its mother, peeped at the agents from beneath the fedora.

Harry waited for Xris's signal. He would take out Fisk with a shoulder to the gut. Jamil and Quong could deal with the other two agents. Thena"

"Good-bye. Good luck." Xris gave them a final glance.

"Xris!" Darlene took a step forward. "I'm going toa""

Xris caught her in his arms, gave her a kiss, and hugged her to his chest.

"Good-bye, sweetheart," he said loudly. In a harsh whisper that could only be heard over the comm, he said quickly, "Listen to me, all of you. Someone's set me up and he's done it for a reason. My guess is Amadi. He knows Darlene's not dead. He told me so."

Fisk, on the sidewalk, rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Tampambulos. Your minute's over. You can send your girlfriend a postcard from the lockup."

Xris held on to Darlene a moment longer, speaking through the cover of her hair. "Darlene once discovered someone high up in the Bureau was tied into the Hung. This may be our chance to find out who! Not a word until you hear from me. Promise? Rowan?"

"I promise, Xris," Darlene said reluctantly.

Xris released her with a kiss on the cheek. "All right, Fisk. I'm ready."

His jaw set, his face colder than his metal body parts, Xris walked down the stairs. His feet crunched on pieces of the broken stone urn. Watchful and wary, Fisk accompanied him.

Harry tensed, ready to jump. He expected Xris's "Now!" to explode among them like a grenade, wrecking havoc.

A gray hover vehic, unmarked, was parked on the landing site. Rizzoli, looking embarra.s.sed, stood near the door on the pa.s.senger side. She held the door open. Xris entered the hover without a backward look. As he was climbing into the vehic, sliding across the seat, he spoke very low, but with such vehemence and force that every syllable was clear.

"None of you knows any connection between Dalin Rowan and Darlene Mohini. Remember that! I'll be in touch."

Rizzoli climbed into the hover, seated herself next to Xris. Fisk climbed in the front, next to the driver. The two agents in sweatshirts, who had been guarding the back of the house, came around to the front.

"Sorry for the disturbance," said one politely. "We'll arrange a time for you to come downtown tomorrow"a"he glanced at his watcha""make that todaya"for questioning."

"Just routine," said the other. "And if any of you were thinking of taking a trip, I should tell you that your pa.s.sports have all been revoked. Don't worry. They'll be reinstated as soon as we have all the information we need. Then you'll be free to go. Good morning."

With a cool nod, the two sauntered, at a slow pace, down the sidewalk.

Harry cast a pleading, stricken glance at Jamil.

Jamil shrugged. "We have our orders," he said bitterly.

Turning, he walked inside the house. The others followed, with the exception of Harry, who waited on the lawn.

Harry watched the hover lift up, make a graceful turn in midair, and glide at slow speed along the marked hover routes that ran between the houses. He had a fleeting memory of his old neighborhooda"all the would-be teenage s.p.a.ce pilots buzzing the housetops, flying under bridges, playing chicken with occasionally disastrous results. The hover sedan flew sedately around the corner and that was the last Harry saw of it.

Head down, his feet kicking at bits of broken urn, Harry returned to the house, slamming the door loudly on his way inside.

The sun was starting to rise, shining in the sky like a hot pink penny. Hard to believe it was dawn already.

They stood staring at each other. No one moved or spoke.

"I don't know about the rest of you," Jamil said at last, "but I could use a walk on the beach."

Harry blew up. "A walk on thea""

Jamil flashed a warning glance at him.

"Oh." Harry subsided. He understood. A little late, but he understood.

"I'll go remove my lipstick," Raoul said. "And change into my beachcomber outfit. I won't be a moment."

"Wait a minute, Loti. Did the Little One get anything out of Fisk?"

The Little One growled and pounded himself on the head, making a dent in the fedora.

"Fisk was using a mind block," said Raoul.

"d.a.m.n," muttered Jamil.

CHAPTER 7.

A dead body revenges not injuries.

William Blake, "Proverbs of h.e.l.l"

The team rea.s.sembled out on the beach, about a mile from I the house. The early morning breeze blowing off the ocean was pleasantly cool. Jamil built a driftwood fire, over Raoul's indignant protests that now his clothes would reek of smoke.

"Sit upwind," Jamil snapped. He was not in a good mood.

"It won't help," Raoul protested. "Smoke follows beauty, you know." He drew a fan from his purse and plied it frantically.

"Xris and Harry both checked the house for bugs," Jamil said, "but we've got to a.s.sume they missed one."

"Satellite surveillance," Quong said.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I didn't think of that."

The fire danced among the driftwood, the salt in the wood causing the flames to burn with vibrant colors of blue and green.

"We have to tell them the truth," Harry said. "We have to tell them that Darlene Mohini is Dalin Rowan!"

"We can't, Harry," Jamil returned. "You know what will happen to Darlene if her cover is blown."

"Her cover's already blown," Harry argued stubbornly. "The Hung know who she is. They've tried twice to kill her. Her cover doesn't matter now. We can't let Xris go to the disrupter for Dalin Rowan's murder when hea"'scuse me, Darlene, I mean shea"is sitting right here!"

Darlene said nothing. She stared into the flames, seemed not to have heard.

"We have thrown the Hung off Darlene's trail," Quong observed. "They don't know where she is at the moment."

"But they sure as h.e.l.l will know where she is if she shows up on the vids!" Jamil said. "Besides, you heard Xris's order, Harry. Or at least I a.s.sume you heard it. You did have your communicator on this time, didn't you?"

"I had it turned on," Harry said defensively. "I keep telling you guys, the one time that happened I had popcorn caught in my tooth and it interfered with reception. This time there was nothing caught in my teeth. I heard his order fine."

Jamil frowned dangerously. "Then are you saying we disobey it?"

Harry couldn't imagine disobeying Xris. He'd been with Xris a lot of years, more than anyone else on the team. Harry admired Xris. Harry thought Xris was the smartest man he'd ever known, the smartest and the bravest and the best. Harry had once even thrown himself on a grenade to save Xris's life. The grenade had been filled with sleep gas and Xris had not been in any dangera"except of taking an unforeseen snoozea"but, as Xris himself had said, it was the thought that counted.

"Xris wasn't himself. He wasn't thinking straight." Harry looked up hopefully. "Maybe he could plead temporary insanity."

Jamil rolled his eyes, turned to Darlene. "What Xris said at the enda"about you discovering that someone high up in the Bureau was working for the Hunga"what was that all about?"

Darlene continued to stare into the fire. She had her knees drawn up to her chin, her arms resting on them. And though she was wearing a sweater and sitting close to the blaze, she shivered.

"After the explosion at the factory, the explosion that killed our partner Ito and maimed Xris, I went undercover and infiltrated the Hung's operations. I knew that one of our agents, a man named Armstrong, had been working for the Hung. He was the one who set up Xris and Ito to die in the explosion, and he tried to kill me. He thought he'd succeeded.

"I managed to get enough evidence to prove that Armstrong was on the take. He was about to be arrested, but someone beat us to him. Armstrong was murdered. The official word was that the Hung had been afraid he was going to turn on them, and killed him before he could talk. But I knew better. I was working for the Hung at the time and I knew that no orders had been issued by them.

"Armstrong had been taken out because he was going to reveal someone higher up in the Bureau who was being paid by the Hung. Someone who had a lot more to lose than that wretch Armstrong.

"I couldn't find out who it was, though. Not with Armstrong dead. I guessed that whoever it was knew I was on his trail. He would take care of me the same way he had taken care of Armstrong. That's when Dalin Rowan died and Darlene Mohini came into existence.

"Xris thinksa"and I guess I have to agree with hima"that this is why he's being arrested. The person I suspected then and the person I suspect now is a man named Jafar el Amadi. I still don't have any proof, though." Darlene sounded discouraged.

"Who's this Amadi?"

"Our former boss. He was in charge of the Hung investigation. Amadi worked against the Hung for years. He knew more about them than anyone. He retired, but his boss, a man named Robison, brought Amadi back on the case. Despite the fact that their leaders are in prison, the Hung are still in business. And they're afraid of me, as evidenced by the fact that twice they tried to kill me. The Hung know that Dalin Rowan is still alive and they now know that he's not Dalin anymore, but Darlene." She glanced around at all of them. "Amadi knows that, too. He knows that Dalin Rowan isn't dead."

"The h.e.l.l he does!" Jamil exclaimed, startled. "Then why arrest Xris for a crime he knows he didn't commit?"

"Because Amadi knows Xris can't tell the truth!" Darlene said helplessly. "If he did, as you said, he'd blow my cover. He wants something from Xris and he figures he'll use this to pressure it out of him."

"If Amadi was working for the Hung," Dr. Quong said, "why did he permit you to go undercover and expose them? Why did he let the Hung leaders go to trial and then prison?"

"There wasn't anything he could do to stop it. Not without revealing his hand." Darlene shrugged. "And let's face it, the Hung were only put out of commission temporarily. Someone saw to it that the Hung leaders were transferred to a high-cla.s.s, luxury prison known as Jango. Their operation is ongoing, even expanding. And because they're in prison, no one ha.s.sles them. It's a pretty sweet setup."

"What do you think this Amadi is trying to gain by arresting Xris?" Quong asked.

"My first guess was that Amadi was going to use this phony arrest to pressure Xris into giving me up," Darlene said slowly, thinking out loud. She rested her chin on her knees, stared into the fire as if, like the ancients, she could read the answers to her questions in the flames.

"Just what is it you know about the Hung, anyway?" Jamil asked.

"It's not what I know, exactly." Darlene hedged. "It's what they think I know. They think I know the location of the Hung's secret bank account. The one they're using to fund their operations."

"Do you?" Harry blurted out. "Where is it?"

Darlene avoided his eyes. Biting her lip, she picked up a stick and started poking at the fire. Sparks flew up in a shower that caused Raoul to squeal in protest.

"She can't tell us, Harry," Jamil said shortly. "In fact, she shouldn't tell us. I certainly don't want to know."

"Nor do I," Quong agreed. "They will be asking us questions today, and the less we know, the better." He frowned. "In fact, we probably know too much already. They will be giving us truth tests."

"Not to worry," Raoul called out, having removed himself as far from the conflagration as possible yet still hear what was being said. "I have a little concoction of my own that you can take with your orange juice this morning. You will be so relaxed during their questioning that you can lie without the least possibility of their detecting it. If they ask you if Xris Cyborg is your mother, you can answer yes with a clear conscience and no perceptible agitation in the brain waves."

"Check it out, Doc. If you think it's okay and it won't turn us into mindless zombies, we'll take it," Jamil instructed.

Raoul took offense. "Mindless zombies!" He sniffed. "I a.s.sure you it will do nothing of the sort. I take the drug myself on occasion, such as when Darlene and I go shopping for clothes."

Jamil grunted. "All right. We never heard of Dalin Rowan. We never heard of this Amadi guy and we never heard of the Hung. Got it, everyone? You got it, Harry?"

Harry frowned. "Yeah, but I don't want it."

Darlene looked up. The fire had been of some inspiration, after all.

"There might be a way to work this," she said. "When that Talisian broke the urn, Xris spoke two words into the commlink."

"Rizzoli and computers. Yeah, I heard him," Jamil said.