Crown of Slaves

that none of those women had any doubts, any longer, that if she wanted to Thandi Palane was quite capable of hammering them into dog food.

Superhumans or not. They'd still be dog food when she was done.

'Just joking, kaja,' apologized one of them.

Thandi uncrossed her arms and waved the apology away. 'Never mind, Lara. Man trouble indeed, as you say. But since when are men really worth troubling about?'

They grinned at her. Despite herself, Thandi had always liked those grins. At least, after a few sessions in the full-contact court-and several broken bones-had removed the underlying smirks. Those weren't the expressions worn by snakes and scorpions, after all.

'My very own half-tame wolf pack,' she murmured to herself. Then, struck by a thought, asked aloud: 'Is there such a word as 'wolfess'?'

* * *

As Lt. Commander Watanopognse had forseen, the Mesans staying in the Suds Emporium were even more disgruntled by the news of Zilwicki's arrival than the Solarians had been.

'They're a pack of wolves, Unser, what do you expect?' Haicheng Ringstorff motioned toward the closed door through which they'd come. 'Except wolves don't tell lies in their sleep. So…'

Ringstorff's lieutenant, George Lithgow, was already slouched in a chair. Ringstorff moved to another chair and did likewise. 'Are they telling the truth? How am I supposed to know? All I can tell you is that I certainly didn't order Stein scragged.'

Unser Diem glared down at his nominal subordinate. 'A poor choice of words, Haicheng. What the hell are you doing anyway, letting Scrags into Security? We've always been careful to keep them at arms' length.'

Ringstorff didn't quite sneer, but his facial expression made clear that he understood just as well as Diem did that his subordinate status was mostly fiction. Leaving aside a meaningless title, Ringstorff was essentially in charge of all Mesan security operations in and around Erewhonese space. He answered to Mesa's Council of Coordinators, not to any of the specific corporations represented on that council. And while Unser Diem's position as the Jessyk Combine's representative on Erewhon-roving troubleshooter would be a more precise term-meant he couldn't be openly ignored or shrugged off, his actual authority over Ringstorff was effectively nil. The more so since Ringstorff had Manpower's nod of approval, and Jessyk was in fact if not in name what amounted to a subsidiary of Manpower Unlimited. The ownership records were a closely held secret, of course, and the two corporations were officially unconnected. In practice, Jessyk served as a convenient way for Manpower to keep a large portion of its revenues hidden from public scrutiny.

'I don't much like it either, Unser. But in case you hadn't noticed'-here, his lip did curl a bit-'I'm not operating inside the Solarian League. Which means, on the good side, that I don't have to be as twitchy about appearances; but, on the bad side, means I have to take what I can get. You know as well as I do that most of the security contractors on Mesa won't sign up for extended duty outside League territory or the Silesian Confederacy. Sure as hell not after that fiasco we had with Gauntlet.'

Diem made a face, and slid into a chair across from Ringstorff. 'Yeah, I know. Still… Scrags, for God's sake! Word gets out…'

'Gets out to who?'demanded Ringstorff. 'We're far enough outside the League here that damn few people remember any of Earth's ancient history. The 'Final War' is just a phrase they pick up out of history textbooks in school. It doesn't mean anything to them, really, much less the details. There aren't more than a handful who'd even recognize the term 'Scrag' to begin with.'

He snorted sarcastically. 'The truth is that we're running a lot more of a risk by having Masadans on our payroll. Those fanatics have pissed off people in this neck of the galaxy-and not more than a few years ago. Since it's the Masadans who want the Scrags, the only way to get rid of them is to get rid of the Masadans. Which-trust me!-I'd be glad to do in a heartbeat, if the Council tells me to. It was their idea to hire them in the first place, not mine.'

Diem scowled. He felt, as did the Council, that the services of the Masadans were too valuable to give up. The religious fanatics were willing to take on jobs that no regular security contractor would even look at. In the final analysis, the Masadans weren't mercenaries. Not exactly, at any rate.

Which was also why Ringstorff had argued against hiring them, of course. The Masadans were a double- edged sword, since their employer could never be quite certain when the zealots would step beyond the limits officially set for any operation. Which was a problem with which, in another guise, Ringstorff had recently had personal, painful experience in this very neck of the galaxy.

The whole thing was a mess. Diem rubbed his face and sighed. 'All right, fine. So tell me what you think. Who killed Stein? Or had him killed, I should say.'

Ringstorff shrugged. 'I have no idea. I sure didn't authorize it. Why would I? Stein's been squalling for decades, big deal. If it's hurt business any, nobody's ever noticed.'

'Who else, then?'

'How the hell should I know? It's a big galaxy! A self-righteous loudmouth like Stein makes enemies right and left-and he had half a century to pile them up. Could have been almost anybody.'

'We're getting blamed for it!'

Ringstorff sat up straight. 'Were you born yesterday? Mesa gets blamed for everything, Unser. And so what? If you want my opinion, it just adds to the romance of the planet. We're too useful to too many people with real power and influence for anyone to ever do anything. In the meantime, our reputation just draws more business our way.'

Diem glared at him and spoke through gritted teeth: 'For someone who's supposed to be a 'security expert,' you've got the brains of an insect. Somebody killed Stein, Ringstorff, and we're getting blamed for it. Has it ever occurred to you-even once!-that maybe that was the whole point of the exercise?'

Ringstorff's sneer was now open and full-spread. 'Stick to what you know, Diem. That kind of fancy maneuver doesn't exist outside the holovids. Security Rule Number One: Don't ascribe to clever conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity. Stein was killed because somebody finally blew their stack at the jerk. Good riddance. They'll put up some shrines and ten years from now nobody'll remember and we'll still be raking in the cash.'

Diem rose. 'There's no point in continuing this. I'll register my objection with the Council when I get back.'

Ringstorff shrugged. 'Do whatever you want.'

'Right. In the meantime, can I trust you to at least keep those wolves of yours on a leash?'

'For Christ sake, Diem, you were standing right there when I gave them the order! 'Nobody touches Anton Zilwicki. He's off limits.' And you heard them swear they wouldn't. Swear on their own God, too, when I insisted. That's one good thing about the maniacs. They won't break that oath.'

* * *

In the nearby common room of the suite in the Suds Emporium where Ringstorff's special security unit had retired after their meeting with the Security Chief and Diem, their leader paused the replay.

'Will you all recognize her?' he demanded.

A wave of nods went around the room. One of the Scrags who'd attached himself to the Masadans tossed his head in the direction of the door. 'Do we obey them?'

Gideon Templeton had been about to resume the recording, but the question caused him to delay. With some difficulty, he managed to keep a scowl off his face. Most of the new converts to the Church of Humanity Unchained (Defiant) still had a shaky grasp of theology. Gideon was honest enough to admit-in private, to himself, if no one else-that part of the problem lay in the fact that his sect of the church was a new one, founded by his father Ephraim not so many years earlier, after Ephraim had been forced to flee persecution on Masada itself. As a result, the doctrine of the new church was not always clear, since Ephraim had not spoken on all subjects before his death.

Still… fighting off the scowl was difficult. This question, after all, ought to be