"I thought he'd be ideal for the Nineteen. Ambitious, intelligent, loyal. The others voted for you, after your campaigns in the Eight. I hated you for that. A woman, in charge of one of the most important territories in the war. I wondered whether we had descended to the perversity of the Fusion." He finished his drink in one gulp and jiggled the empty gla.s.s, silently asking for a refill. She obliged.

"So I watched you, Senior Colonel. Watched and waited for the smallest mistake, the tiniest misstep. But you didn't make one."

"Thank you, Rep," she said smoothly.

He shook his head. "Don't thank me yet. That got me thinking of the exact opposite. What if you were," his eyes brightened, "a Fusion robot of some kind? A bio-mechanical contraption sent to lull us into error?"

He paused and held her gaze with one of his own, probing and inquisitive. As if, through a mere look, he could determine the extent of her alien biology. Cheloi returned the look calmly, willing herself not to flush, not to tremble, not to send tremors through the liquid she still held in one hand.

"Then your driver died. And you were injured. I saw your medical report. Requested it personally."

This is it. They did some deep scan extrapolations. They know I'm not one of them.

She forced herself to blink slowly, to convey the impression she was curious, interested, yet tired.

"I half thought we'd find steel instead of calcium in your bones." He shook his head. "It was one of my favourite pet theories, Senior Colonel. But do you know who saved you from being hauled into HQ Medical for a molecular-level physical?"

Blink. Had she really been that close to being discovered?

"I'm sure I don't know, Rep Kodnell, although," she smiled, "I probably owe them a drink. Molecular-level physicals are quite uncomfortable."

Kodnell barked a short shout of laughter. "They're a semi-annual event at Central Control. You get used to them."

Are they really? How interesting.

Did she imagine that his eyes softened? "It was Koul."

Cheloi frowned. "I'm sorry?"

"My favourite attack dog. Grakal-Ski." He exhaled, a noisy yet oddly comforting sound, considering the tack the conversation was taking. Cheloi hoped his spoken confidences meant his att.i.tude towards her had changed.

"I know how his mind works, Senior Colonel. He would have been livid missing out on a promotion. I myself was angry enough on his behalf. And if I knew my ravening throat-ripper well enough, he would be watching your every move. So I resigned myself to losing the command battle but, as a consolation prize, ensured that Koul remained here as your second-in-command rather than shifting him to another territory where he would have been promoted. In the end, it was better than being here and watching you myself."

Cheloi flicked up an eyebrow while, inside, she seethed. So the pale anonymous man sitting in front of her was the one person responsible for the bane of the last two years. He had forced Koul to remain in a subordinate position then watched the entertainment as her second-in-command tried his best to rip her to shreds. She wondered what the penalty was for killing a member of Central Control. She knew it was death, but what kind of death? Depending on the method, it might be faintly worth it.

"And if Koul couldn't find anything wrong with you, Senior Colonel," he said with a broad smile, "then I couldn't either."

"I'm pleased that you think so, Rep Kodnell."

He laughed again at the stiffness in her tone. "You're not as good a liar as you think you are, Sie."

Oh you don't know the half of it, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

Kodnell drained his gla.s.s again, asked for another refill, then stretched out a hand to encompa.s.s the underground complex. "But we're here now, all happy and on the same side. And I like your idea."

Yes, she supposed she could grasp at that rather than Kodnell's pale neck. It had always been her plan to use the unpredictable Vanqill, hair-trigger commander of Green sector, to precipitate a collapse of the Nineteen. That's why she had been busy encouraging his more reckless exploits over the past couple of years. Sometimes his antics made her grit her teeth and agree with Koul that he should be terminated, but there was no doubt that Vanqill had the touch, the beginnings, of a brilliant strategist.

In capable hands, he could have been moulded into a first-rate commander. What he needed was someone to cut out his ineffective, impulsive tendencies and foster his more critical thinking. Unfortunately, Cheloi was the exact opposite of what he needed. Instead of tempering his excesses and correcting his mistakes, she had subtly goaded him on, making him feel more invincible than he had a right to be, slowly building him up until she could unleash him on an unsuspecting empire. And right now, listening to Kodnell, she could ignore the twinges of guilt over what she was doing to Vanqill and wish them all a pleasant journey into the galactic abyss.

"It's bold, unprecedented," he mused, obviously replaying her suggestion from the meeting in his head, "but I think it could work."

Cheloi nodded. "With the current complications of the Fusion snapping at our heels, it occurred to me that we need to maximise our effect." She took another tiny sip of the life-water. "And, with limited resources, the only way we can do that is to change the way we think."

"The rebels will not be expecting us to fight them the same way," Kodnell mused grimly. "Thanks to you, Senior Colonel, we could be looking at a true turning point in the war."

Definitely. But not the way you think.

He looked down at the golden liquid in his gla.s.s, shifting it so the ripples caught the beams of the overhead illumination. "How long will it take for you to organise the offensive?"

Cheloi's voice was crisp. "Ten days. But I'll need ironclad orders from you, Rep Kodnell. The change in thinking may not sit well with all my sector commanders."

"Of course. You'll have it." He gave her a long look. "Pull this off, Sie, and you'll be looking at the first female generalship in Perlim history."

"I know that, sir."

"Fail, and we'll skin you alive and feed you to the Emperor's zoo animals."

"I know that too, sir."

"Good." He paused and, with a sigh, settled back in the chair. "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

"Just one little thing, Rep Kodnell."

Chapter Eighteen.

Lith entered Cheloi's office with a perfunctory buzz.

"You wanted to see me?"

Cheloi didn't even look up. Her fingers were flying over the keys at her console and she examined the resulting flimsy with a critical eye even as she stifled a yawn.

"Close the door."

She didn't need to look up to see her driver's hesitation, could almost hear the cautious questioning in the way the door slid shut. She scowled and made one more modification before reprinting the flimsy and nodding with satisfaction.

"Here," she said, sliding the slip across the desk. "Take this and go pack."

"Go...pack?"

"Don't take everything. Just enough to make it look like you'll be gone one or maybe two nights. Then meet C-C Rep Kodnell's entourage. They're leaving in thirty minutes."

Cheloi didn't want to look up. She busied herself checking that what she'd written was already queued for transmission to the central data centre. She looked for, and failed to find, dust on the console's slim keyboard. She noticed the coolness of the metal-topped desk beneath her wrists and even glanced at the subtly rippled matte surface. But she knew she was delaying the inevitable. Eventually, she knew, she would have to raise her head.

She looked up and their gazes clashed.

"What's going on?" Lith asked, her eyes bright with tension.

"You're leaving."

She shook her head. "I don't understand."

Cheloi bit her lower lip then, with a sigh, rose from her chair and walked around the desk. Lith turned to face her.

"It's not safe here any more," Cheloi told her. "You need to get out while you can."

"Cheloi-"

Was that the first time she had used her name? Or perhaps it was the first time she had said it normally, without mindless pa.s.sion or bitter censure. Whichever it was, it sounded wonderful on her tongue, and she wanted to hear it again and again until the universe died.

But not her mission name.

"Laisen," she interrupted gently, the words leaving her mouth before she could pull them back. "My name's Laisen Carros."

"What?" Lith's eyes narrowed in confusion.

Cheloi could tell this was all going too fast for her. Which was good. She had the feeling that if Lith kept up with her current maelstrom of thoughts, she'd dig her heels in and refuse to leave.

"You've got to leave," she repeated, picking up the flimsy and shoving it into Lith's stiff hands. "I can't," complete my mission, "command this territory and protect you from Koul at the same time. He has to make another move soon but I can't afford to think about that, so I'm getting you away from him. C-C Rep Kodnell has agreed to take you to the Five's s.p.a.ceport. From there, I've requested priority clearance to Laeyek Omni B. I've told everyone your mother is dying."

Lith was still looking dazed, although a spark of spirit was beginning to rea.s.sert itself. Cheloi could see its embers springing to life behind her eyes. She grabbed her aide by the shoulders.

"Lith, you need to go," she told her urgently, not giving her time to think. "I've made up a story and cleared pa.s.sage off-planet, but this will be the only chance you have before this whole territory gets blown to oblivion."

"Why would it get blown into oblivion?"

A short, humourless bark of laughter escaped from Cheloi's mouth. Why? Because this was the end of things. Because she had organised everything on a hair-trigger and couldn't even guarantee she herself would get out alive.

"It would take too long to explain." Already, she thought she could hear the rush of precious seconds as they trickled through her fingers. "From Laeyek, get to the Fusion as fast as you can," she said in a low urgent voice. "The Perlim will be asking questions after this and you don't want to get caught by them."

Lith's eyes widened as her brain reached conclusions she wasn't meant to reach. Cheloi cursed to herself.

"You're Fusion too, aren't you?"

Cheloi knew she paused for too long.

"I-yes."

She didn't give Lith time to reply. With fierce hands, she captured her face and kissed her, softening only when she felt those soft, generous lips part for her. If there was only one moment from her life she could live over and over, Cheloi thought, this would be it.

She poured every drop of love, longing and regret into that embrace. She wanted to deepen the contact, hold that body against hers, feel Lith's heat warm her own nervous too-cold body, but there was still too much at risk. The door was only closed, not locked, and nothing prevented someone from entering. Not Rumis. And, more dangerously, not Koul.

With reluctance, Cheloi pulled away.

"You've got to go. Now," she said huskily.

Lith lifted fingers to her lips, now flushed and a little swollen.

"What about you?"

Cheloi knew what she was asking but chose deliberately to misinterpret the question. "Lith love, I can't think clearly when you're around. There's something I must do and I can't do it while you're here. Do you understand?"

Her driver, her heart, nodded.

"Get packed. Avoid everyone as much as you can. Don't say a word, not even to Rumis. Get in that skimmer and don't look back until you're safe in Fusion s.p.a.ce."

"I'll find you," Lith promised in a half-whisper as Cheloi shepherded her to the door.

"I know," Cheloi said, because she didn't want to lie. She looked once more into those eyes, burnt the image of their warm intensity and bright intelligence into her brain, then pushed her out the door. And, with a swallow, returned to work.

Day 1,573 of the War: "This is preposterous!" Koul exclaimed.

Yes it was. Even Cheloi could see that. But it was her preposterous, so that made it all right.

Kodnell had left two days ago, taking Lith with him, and Cheloi had waited those two days before springing her trap. She had been watching the transport nets and knew the moment her aide set foot in the Five. Lith must have told the C-C rep a good story on the way down because she snagged a top-priority transport off-planet, cleared a lull in the storms and was away. Even Cheloi, as territory commander, didn't have the authority to endorse such a high-speed mode of flight. There was still the faint chance that Lith might be intercepted by the Perlim military and somehow sent back to Menon, but Cheloi was betting that her driver was smart enough to get off the military transport when it touched down at its first stop and make her own way back to the Fusion, regardless of the transit pa.s.ses she had in her possession.

"Which part are you referring to exactly, Koul?"

With Lith free and on her way home, Cheloi could get back to concentrating on the task at hand. She felt it again, that cool surge of power that settled in her, sharpening her senses and clearing her mind. Her doubts, her conscience, would come back later and haunt her. It always did. But for now, she was a highly-trained organic piece of weaponware with her target in sight.

"Putting Vanqill in charge of half the sectors is bad enough," Koul spat, "but putting his subordinate-a Senior Major-in charge of the other half is sheer madness."

They were back to their routine, she, Rumis and Koul sitting around the table in one of the smaller briefing rooms, as she prepared the orders for the major offensive.

"If you disagreed with the plan, you had a chance to object during our briefing with Rep Kodnell," she pointed out calmly.

"The plan at that time did not specify command by junior officers. This is not the way the Perlim operates."

He was correct. Which was why Cheloi had ensured Kodnell's orders were laser-proof before he left.

"And which way would you rather the Perlim operate, Koul?" she asked calmly. "The way it has done for the past several years? The entire Empire bogged down in one war on one atmospherically unstable planet?

"I'll admit that Kodnell may not have described the plan to such a level of detail but his orders were clear. I ran my plans regarding deployment and resource allocations with him before he left, and he's confident that the major objectives of the strategy can be achieved as I've ordered."

Her dark gaze drilled into his. "Koul, let me ask you this. Do you have confidence that this plan, as it stands, will achieve our major objectives?"

There was a slight risk he would say no. Cheloi could see the flaws herself. And Kodnell hadn't really agreed with what she was planning to put in place. That was an outright lie. But she made sure Koul saw her share a light breakfast in the canteen with the Rep before he departed, playing up her newfound camaraderie with the man who had made her life on Menon such a misery. She smiled at his jokes and even knocked her cup lightly against his before taking a sip. Hopefully, that convinced Koul that, rather than being in opposition, she and Kodnell were now bosom buddies, almost as if they'd been hatched from the same egg.

But was it enough?

If Koul used his brain instead of his eyes.... If he turned around and point-blank refused to carry out the madness she was about to unleash....