"That's right. If this Rizzoli is the office computer hound, then there might be a way to use her." Darlene hesitated. "I'll have to think about this. I'm not sure...."

"What's wrong? Sounds like a good idea to me," said Jamil.

"There's one aspect to this that doesn't make any sense," Darlene explained. "The Hung know that Dalin Rowan is Darlene Mohini. If Amadi's working for the Hung, he must know that, too!" She spread her hands helplessly. "Why not just arrest me along with Xris? Amadi wants Xris and he wants him for a reason. I thought it was me, but now I'm not so sure."

"There's the death penalty on this planet," said Harry Luck.

Startled and alarmed, they all stared at him.

"Where the h.e.l.l did you come up with that?" Jamil demanded.

"I read about it in one of the vidmags on the transport," Harry said loftily. "I'm not stupid. I do read. I read lots, as a matter of fact."

Darlene had gone extremely pale.

"Could that be the reason?" Jamil asked uneasily.

"Xris wouldn't let matters go that far," Quong predicted.

"I won't let it go that far," said Darlene.

"Yeah, well, it's a little late now, isn't it?" said Harry angrily. "We should have done something when those buzzards showed up on the doorstep! We never should have let them take Xris. We've been in tougher spots than that! We escaped from a Corasian mothership, for the love of G.o.d! We should have done something."

"What could we have done?" Jamil retorted. "The agents had the drop on us. So we start a firefight. What about those kids outside playing on the beach? What happens to them when the lasguns and beam rifles start blasting? Not to mention Xris. He would have been the first casualty. Remember what Fisk said about pushing a b.u.t.ton? They had backup somewhere. You can bet on that. Snipers, most likely."

"Satellite prowlers," said Quong. "They could have incinerated the housea""

"All right, all right. I get it," Harry mumbled disconsolately. He poked a stick in the fire.

"What's the plan now?" Quong asked.

Jamil scratched his jaw. "I'll contact our lawyer, arrange for him to see Xrisa""

"A lawyer!" Harry cried furiously. He jumped to his feet, kicking sand on Raoul, who bleated in irritation. The Little One shriveled up in the heat of Harry's rage, curled into a ball on the sand, and pulled his hat over his head.

"A lawyer? A f.u.c.king lawyer? We should be planning to break Xris out of the Feds' lockup right now! A lawyer? What the h.e.l.l is the matter with you people?"

"Harry," Jamil began, exasperated, "this isn't the time to go in with guns blazing! There's a time for subtletya""

"Jamil is right, my friend. Look, Harry," Quong added, "let us suppose for the sake of argument that we succeed in breaking Xris out. Let us suppose that we get him away safely. This Amadi will simply say to the world, 'See there. We were right! He is guilty!' As it is, with a good attorney, Xris may win the court case. Then he will be cleared of these charges for life. And Darlene will be safe."

"And if he's not?" Harry demanded. "If they send him to the disrupter? Or maybe they won't even wait for that! Maybe he'll be 'shot while trying to escape.' Then what?"

No one had an answer to that.

Harry glared at them, sitting around the fire, so d.a.m.n complacent and smug. They didn't care about Xris, none of them.

"You and your subtleties and your f.u.c.king attorneys and your friggin' satellites." Harry coughed, had to pause a moment to clear his throat. "G.o.ddam smoke," he muttered. He rubbed his eyes, wiped his nose. "All I know is that Xris wouldn't let one of you sit for five G.o.ddam minutes in a prison cell without trying to do something! And it wouldn't be hiring a G.o.ddam lawyer! You people disgust me."

Harry turned on his heel, heading for the house.

"Harry, where are you going?" Quong demanded.

"Back to the hotel."

"Harry, remember!" Jamil said sternly. "You can't say anything about Darlene!"

"I won't," Harry retorted. "Her secret's safe with me. As for the rest of you, call me when you grow some b.a.l.l.s."

"Certainly not a very tactful thing to say under the circ.u.mstances," Raoul admonished, with an arch of a finely plucked eyebrow and a glance at Darlene.

Harry stomped off, trudging through the soft sand, slipping and sliding. He could still hear the rest talking, and wondered why for a moment. Then he realized he had his commlink on.

"You know," Jamil was saying in quiet, thoughtful tones, "Harry's not as dumb as we think."

"He has a certain native perspicacity," Quong agreed.

Harry paused on his way into the house, waited to see if they might change their minds and decide to do something besides insult him.

All he could hear were the waves, rushing into the sh.o.r.e, then rushing back out.

G.o.ddam cowards.

Harry stomped through the house, slammed the front door on his way out.

And as for him having perspicacity, he knew better.

He showered every morning.

CHAPTER 8.

This ain't the shop for justice.

Charles d.i.c.kens, Oliver Twist.

"You've got to give me more to work with, Xris. You had the motivea"G.o.d! Did you have a motive! You had means. You had the opportunity. You've got to respond with something more than just 'I didn't do it'!"

Nathaniel Parker, attorney at law, paced about the small prison room where prisoners were permitted to meet with their attorneys. Parker was in his fifties, short, thin, gray, and balding. He and Xris were old friends, having met years ago on a case, when Xris was with the Bureau. Parker had been doing legal work for a local private detective, a big fat guy with an ego to match. The detective had earned his ego; he'd steered Xris right on the case. It was during dinner at the detective's housea"a gourmet dinner so marvelous Xris had never forgotten ita"that Xris had met Parker.

When Xris formed Mag Force 7, he'd hired Parker as his attorney.

Nathaniel Parker had a gentle demeanor and a soft voice, which he used to his advantage. Juries liked him immediately, tended to trust him. His mild, una.s.suming appearance said to them, Look, would I be defending this person if I didn't believe him?

In reality, Parker was as tough as a frozen piece of beef jerky.

"Look, Xris, I'm used to my clients protesting their innocence, whether I believe them or not, but I'm not used to a client protesting his innocence and then going silent as hypers.p.a.ce on me."

Xris, dressed in a lime-green prison uniform, sat awkwardly propped up in a chair. Since he was a cyborg, the authorities had taken extraordinary precautions with him. They had made him remove his cybernetic lega"a leg that could easily kick through a wall, a leg that held an a.s.sortment of weapons in its many compartments. They had taken off his cybernetic left hand for the same reason. They had considered forcing Xris to shut down his entire cybernetic system, but the prison doctor, who'd been brought in on consultation, maintained that this would imperil the prisoner's life.

The authorities contented themselves with taking his leg and his arm and forcing him to turn off his enhanced-vision eye. Now crippled and partially blind, Xris felt like a bug that had its wings pulled off or a turtle tipped upside down.

On top of this, he was dead tired. He'd spent a day in prison unable to talk to anyone, unable to find out what was going on. This was followed by a restless night. The cells were noisy, with men all around him snorting and snoring. A security light in the corridor shone right in his eyes. Since he hadn't been able to sleep, he spent the night wondering who was doing this to him and why.

Xris's thoughts paralleled Darlene's, if he had only known it. He reached very nearly the same conclusion she had.

Amadi. It had to be Amadi.

But what did he want?

Surely not Darlene. If the Hung knew Darlene was Dalin, Amadi most certainly knew. He could have picked her up as a material witness (to her own murder!) at the same time he arrested Xris. But then, of course, if Amadi had Rowan, he couldn't have Xris, because that would mean Xris hadn't murdered anybody....

Xris finally fell asleep when it was almost morning, only to be roused out of his slumbers by the call to breakfast or what the prison termed breakfast. He dragged himself down to the cafeteria on crutches and sat where he was told to sit. He stared at the coagulating oatmeal for thirty minutes, ignored all attempts by his fellow inmates to make conversation, then dragged himself back to his cell, where he sat stoically, silent and bitter, waiting to talk to his lawyer.

"I didn't do it," Xris said again. "I didn't kill Rowan."

Parker snorted in frustration. "You said that. Twenty times. And, of course, you don't have to say even that much once we go to trial. You have the presumption of innocence. It's up to the Crown to prove you are guilty. But I've told you what evidence they have. You have to admit it's d.a.m.ning."

Xris shifted the stump of the leg to which the cybernetic unit was normally attached. The empty pants leg dragged across the floor. The guard had pinned his empty shirtsleeve across his chest.

"You haven't got a twist on you, have you?" Xris asked quietly. "They took mine."

Parker glared at him in exasperation. Standing up, he began to repack the notepads and his portable computer into his briefcase. "When you decide to take this seriously, let me know. I'm beginning to think you want to walk into the disrupter!"

Xris waved his handa"his good hand, his only hand at the moment. "Sit down, Nate. I'm sorry. I didn't get much sleep last night. As for the evidence, it's all circ.u.mstantial. Dalin Rowan died in a hospital undergoing routine surgery. He wasn't murdered. I've seen the file. He died on the operating table."

"He died in the same hospital where you were a patient. And he was murdered. The files you saw were phony. Doctored, if you'll forgive the pun."

Xris sat in silence, digesting this.

Amadi. It all keeps corning back to Amadi.

"Files were inserted into the hospital's computer to make it appear as if Rowan had died on the table," Parker explained. "In reality, his body was discovered in his room. There was an autopsya""

"Body? Autopsy?" Xris gave an incredulous laugh.

"Yes, what about it?" Parker eyed him, but Xris said nothing more.

Shaking his head, Parker continued. "According to the autopsy report, Rowan died of an overdose of his pain medication. He had enough in him to kill three people. An empty injector was discovered under the bed."

"They're lying," said Xris. "It didn't happen like that. Not according to what the detective told me, anyway. It was Rowan who screwed with the files. He inserted his own death notice."

"Did he?" Parker was intrigued. He took out a notepad. "What proof do you have?"

"I can't tell you."

Parker closed his eyes, ma.s.saged his temples. "Very well. Give me the name of this detective agency and give me permission to look at their files."

"No, sir. I can't." Xris was adamant.

Parker tried a different angle. "Rowan was working on a top-secret case for them just before he died, wasn't he? He was working on the Hung case."

"Yes."

"Perhaps he found out something that would have been very embarra.s.sing to the Bureau...." Parker watched Xris intently.

Xris shifted his position again. It was d.a.m.n uncomfortable, sitting in that chair. His torso was part metal, part flesh and blood. He was off balance. The crutch they'd given him wasn't much help. The pad on which he rested his weight dug painfully into his armpit. He'd tossed it, in a fit of temper, into a corner when he entered the room. Now he couldn't reach it and he wasn't about to ask for help.

"There could not have been an autopsy, because there wasn't a body," Xris said at last.

Parker looked startled. "But there was a body, Xris. We have the certificate from the funeral home. The body was cremated."

"That's not possible." Xris shook his head. "They're framing me."

"Good. Now we're getting somewhere." Parker sat down in the chair. He switched on the computer's recording device. "Tell me. What really did happen to Dalin Rowan? Why do you think they're framing you?"

Xris shrugged. "I don't know why they're framing me. And I can't tell you what happened to Rowan."

"Oh, for the love ofa""

Parker switched off the recorder. Standing up, he walked once around the room, came back and sat down. "All right, Xris. Have it your way. I'll go over their evidence with you again. Maybe we'll find a crack."

He pulled up the files. "You were a patient in the same hospital where Dalin Rowan was a patienta"the Kurt Lens Hospital. You'd been a patient in that hospital for many months. You knew your way around, knew the routine. You knew most of the staff. You could have easily gained access to a uniform."

"Yes, I was in the hospital, but I was in rehab! I was still weak from the accident."

"Were you? Then explain this." Parker turned the computer for Xris to read the file.

Xris glanced at it. "Yeah? So what?"

"You will see that you checked out of the rehab ward at 1500 hours on the afternoon in question and didn't check back in until last rounds at 2330 hours. According to the Bureau, Dalin Rowan died at 1800 hours. You had plenty of time to get the job done.

"And"a"Parker brought up another filea""your doctor's report from the previous day indicates that your cybernetic implants were functioning very well for such a short time in your body, and that you showed a very good range of motion. But here's what's really d.a.m.ning. A psychiatrist says that while your body was recovering, your mental state was not. All you could talk about was revenge for the death of your partner. All you could talk about was how much you wanted to kill Dalin Rowan."

Reaching out, Xris tapped a key on the computer, shut down the files. "Who the h.e.l.l are you working for, Nate? The prosecution?"

The attorney slammed his hand on the desk. "No, d.a.m.n it! I'm your attorney. But the prosecution is going to bring up these facts and I'm going to have to refute them. You've got to tell me the truth."

"Sorry, Nate, but that's the one thing I can't do."

Parker sighed. "Let's start at the beginning. Where did you go that day?"

"How should I know, Nate? That was over ten years ago! I was in the hospital for d.a.m.n near a year. The days were all alike with the exception of sometimes my body worked and sometimes it didn't. And sometimes I hurt like h.e.l.l and sometimes I only hurt like a little piece of h.e.l.l."