"Well, you knew you were under surveillance."

"I hate it!" Brun flung herself down, in a gesture that reminded Esmay of a child's petulant flounce. Esmay was not moved.

"So? You agreed-"

"I agreed to have the stupid bodyguards around, not to have them putting illicit scan devices in my room. Damn them!"

Esmay felt much older than this spoiled girl. "They're doing their job . . . and you're not making it easier."

"Why should I?"

"Grow up!" It wasn't what she'd meant to say, but she had been thinking it, and she couldn't hold it back any longer. To her surprise, Brun whitened as if Esmay had hit her.

"I'm very sorry to have bothered you." She was up and out the door before Esmay could say anything. Esmay stared at the shut door a long moment. Should she apologize? Altiplano manners demanding apology for almost everything quarrelled with Serrano advice not to apologize too much; she wished she could talk to Barin about it, but she had to finish the calculations for a project in support planning. She forced herself to concentrate on the work, with the consoling thought that perhaps Brun would no longer want to be on her team.

But that hope disappeared when the study team assignments came out. Brun had managed, by whatever means the daughter of the Speaker of the Grand Council could use, to get herself assigned to Esmay's team in the Escape and Evasion course. Esmay told herself that was unfair; it might not have taken any deviousness at all. Perhaps she'd just asked, and they'd given. Brun's demeanor gave no clue; she gave her usual impression of complete unconcern.

"Your problem today is to assess the security problem associated with moving a high-risk individual from this room"-Uhlis pointed at it on the diagram-"to the shuttle port, which is here." A map graphic came up on the screen. "You have available the materials in the box on your table; you are briefing the head of the security detail in forty-five minutes. Go."

The first thing to do, the class rules declared, was to open the envelope in the box and find out

who was commanding this exercise. To Esmay's relief, it was neither Brun nor herself. Lieutenant Marden-who had, though hastily, at least read the first assignment-seemed to have a basic grasp of the topic so far, as he handed out the materials to Esmay, Brun, and Vericour. They all set to work, and their presentation won a passing grade, though not a high one. Brun's failure to recognize a potential threat dropped their score, and Uhlis was unforgiving.

"The point of working as a team is for all of you to combine skills and knowledge, not to hide in your own narrow area of responsibility. Any of the rest of you could have noticed that Sera Meager had ignored the possibility of an aerial attack on the motor route-and should have."

Esmay felt the sting of that. She had wondered why Brun didn't mention it-and she had said nothing, since she was trying to arrange the resources she supposedly had, none of which included anything she knew could take out aircars. But Uhlis's greatest scorn fell on Lieutenant Marden, as their commander. By the time he was through, Esmay was afraid Marden would be in shreds on the floor . . . as it was, he disappeared rapidly after the lab, and showed up again only at dinner.

Esmay took her tray to his table.

"I should've said something," she said. "I did wonder about air, but since I didn't have any resources to deal with an air attack-"

"That was in my packet," Marden said. "If and only if someone mentioned it, I could call for reinforcements. I thought that meant I couldn't mention it myself, but-as you heard-that's not what it meant at all." He stared at his plate. "I'm not really hungry. Sorry to lower your ratings average, though."

"Don't worry about that," Esmay said. "I think we were all too worried about stepping on each other's territory. Wonder if all the other groups had the same problem."

"Well, from what I hear, no one got a satisfactory, let alone a commended. But I feel really stupid."

"I don't think-" began Esmay. But Vericour appeared at the table.

"Do you think we'll have the same teams for the field exercise?" He sat down before either of them answered. "I hope not-getting the Speaker's daughter through it safely is going to make it harder on us." He turned to Esmay. "Harder on you, in particular."

Esmay felt moved to defend Brun. "I don't know-she has no military background, but she is smart and willing."

"And just about demonstrates rashness, from what I hear." Vericour reached for the condiment tray, and sprinkled galis sauce generously over his entire plate. Esmay sneezed as the sharp fumes went up her nose. "Sorry-I forget what this can do to sensitive noses. Mine went years ago."

"She is the Speaker's daughter," Marden said, in a lower voice than Vericour had used.

"Well, yes. She's also a celebrity in her own right, so she can't expect not to be talked about.

She's always on some newsflash or other. You know they have a team here covering her training."

"She can't help that," Esmay said. "They're always after prominent people, and she is good- looking-"

"She's spectacular," Vericour said. "But I can't see her sneaking across anything unobserved, can you?"

"She got from Rotterdam back to Rockhouse Major-" Marden said.

"Yes, back when no one imagined a girl like that would work her passage on an ag ship. Now they know-and you can bet she won't do that again." He turned back to Esmay. "Do you follow the newsflashes, Esmay?"

"No," Esmay said. She had never paid much attention to the gossipy newsflashes, with their emphasis on fashion and celebrity.

"Well . . . if you had, you'd have seen Brun Meager in everything from formal gowns to skinsuits, posing elegantly on a horse or lounging by a picturesque beach. Flatpics of her are probably in more lockers than anyone but actual storycube stars."

Great. Someone else who thought she was astoundingly beautiful. Esmay could picture every flaw in that face and body-not that there were many.

"But except for the daring rescue of the most noble Lady Cecelia"-that sounded like a quote from someone's purple prose-"nothing I've read suggests she had any real sense. So now we're stuck with her . . ."

"If the teams are the same," Marden said. "Maybe they aren't."

"Maybe they aren't, but I'll bet Esmay ends up on the same team. They'll want to put another woman on her team, and who else would they put? Taras? Don't make me laugh. Taras wouldn't have a chance with Brun Meager. No, they'll put the best they have, and that's you, m'dear." Vericour bowed, grinning. Esmay felt embarrassed. How could she deal with this? It did not help that Brun chose that moment to appear at their table.

"Won't do you any good to flirt with Suiza," she said to Vericour, apparently apropos of the bow.

"But you could always flirt with me."

Vericour spread his hands, rolled his eyes, and then mimed a swoon; everyone laughed but Esmay. It was funny, but she was too conscious of the vivid intensity next to her to enjoy it.

"Could I talk to you a bit?" Brun said, turning to her with a more serious expression than usual.

Under the eyes of the others, Esmay had to say yes.

"I know I did something wrong, but not what . . . how could I arrange air cover when we didn't have any resources? And why should I have worried about it, when the information we were given didn't mention any such threat?"

A technical problem she could answer; Esmay quickly outlined the logic behind their low score.

Brun nodded, apparently paying attention, and Esmay warmed to her again.

"So . . . even if there's no evidence to indicate a certain kind of threat, you still have to counter it?"

"You have to assume your intelligence is incomplete," Marden put in. "It always is."

"But if you're too cautious, you can't get anything done," Brun said. "You have to act, even before you know everything-"

"Yes, but with an awareness of what you don't know, and its implications," Esmay said.

"And it's not so much what you don't know, as what you think you do know-that's wrong-that will get you killed," Vericour said. "It's the assumptions-that no mention of an aerial threat means no aerial threat, or no mention of piracy in a sector means there are no pirates."

"I see," Brun said. "I'll try to do better next time, but I have to say I'm better at reacting quickly than seeing invisible possibilities."

When Esmay got up to leave, Brun trailed along instead of heading for the ball courts with the others, and Esmay sighed internally. She was tired already, and had at least four hours of studying to do; if Brun insisted on talking to her, she would be up late again, and her energy was running out.

"I know you're busy," Brun said, as they got to Esmay's quarters. "But this shouldn't take long, and I really don't know where else to go."