my pistol from my holster and shot Winslade. The smaller man went down in a smoking heap.

Armel directed the gun at me next. Blood dribbled from his injured hand, but his aim was steady enough.

“Whoa!” I said, putting up my palms and pretending to be surprised. “How did you get my weapon out of my holster?”

“You pressed it against my hand.”

“Did I really? That was a very stupid mistake.”

Armel’s eyes rolled as he thought about his predicament. “I didn’t actually expect it to fire. Don’t these things have biometric identifiers on them?”

“Uh… I must have forgotten to turn that on.”

Armel looked at me thoughtfully. “You set this up? I thank you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Maurice.”

“Of course not. But what am I to do now, McGill? Shoot my way out of this detention center?”

“I wouldn’t recommend that. There must be thirty guards on the other side of that door.”

Armel nodded. He had the face of a hunted animal. “All right, look, I’m leaving the ship now. I hadn’t planned on doing so yet, but this changes everything.”

“Uh… how’s that?”

“Winslade figured it out, fool. This entire thing was a trap. A way to start a border skirmish with the Skay.”

My heart sank. “You don’t say? That’s… uh… kind of a surprise.”

Armel’s mustache twitched on his face. “You thought you were saving an innocent man from torment, didn’t you? That is most kind, James. I won’t shoot you—unless you want me to.”

“Uh… no thanks.”

“Very well. You’ll find my engrams have been corrupted in the ship’s data core. They can revive me if they want to, but the Armel they produce will be a drooling idiot.”

“So… all this really was an elaborate trick?”

“Yes, but it was only partly successful. We’d hoped for more than one ship to come out here and attack. That would have been far superior.”

“There’s no attack coming on Earth, then? No rebellion? No army of angry misfits coming to Earth for vengeance?”

He laughed. “All of that is coming and more. You didn’t catch them today, but rebels still exist. You see, as I explained, the rebels can’t beat Earth fairly—but if your fleets are involved in a border war… the math tips, you see.”

Right then, the cell door creaked open. A hog-like crewman poked his head inside. “Say, are you guys going to take all day—holy shit!”

Armel shot him. He was a pretty good shot with my pistol, I have to say that.

Then, while I was watching the hog die on the deck, Armel shot me too, in the back of the head.

-41-

I was revived an hour or two later. Winslade was standing there waiting, looking as angry as a plucked owl.

“McGill?” he asked. “What the hell happened?”

“Aren’t there any recordings of what went on in that cell?”

He rolled his eyes. “No. That would defeat the point of a ‘private’ room, which is what I requested.”

“Oh, I get it. Well sir, I think old Armel is one tricky bastard. He got hold of your pistol, see—”

“It was your weapon they found in his hand.”

“Really? My mistake. Anyway, he shot you, then bragged a bit about how he was going to burn the Earth down to bedrock, then he shot me as well.”

Winslade licked his lips. His hair was kind of drippy, indicating he hadn’t been out of the oven for long himself. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say for yourself? You aided and abetted his escape, Centurion.”

“He got away?”

“No, of course not. He was killed in that chair. But I just checked the datacore. They can’t revive Armel again. Therefore, he has effectively escaped us.”

“Really? Damnation. That man is as slippery as an eel in an oil-slick.”

Winslade shook his head in disgust. A few greasy drops sprinkled the place. “Useless. You’re absolutely useless.”

He turned away and marched out of the chamber.

“Sir?” I called after him. “Where are you headed next?”

“Back to Drusus. That infernal meeting is still in progress.”

“Seriously?”

I followed him out of the revival chamber, hopping on one foot while I was struggling to dress myself. By the time we reached the meeting room, we both looked half-way presentable.

After a few polite knocks, Drusus himself opened the door. He waved us inside.

“Back so soon? Excellent.”

“Uh… why excellent, sir?” I asked.

Drusus frowned. “Because you wouldn’t dare come back here without having critical information gained from the prisoner—right?”

Winslade and I glanced at one another. Deciding that most of this was my fault, I decided to fess up and talk first. I explained how Armel pretty much admitted that he’d set things up, and then he’d gotten ahold of a weapon and shot us both.

Drusus’ hands were on his hips. “Who’s weapon?”

“That would be mine, sir.”

He shook his head at me and returned to the conference table. “It doesn’t matter now, anyway. We have to assume the Skay border guards are converging on our position. According to our best estimates, they’re only about half as fast as Dominus herself.”

I brightened. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”

“It would be,” Drusus admitted, “if we were trying to run—but we aren’t. We’ve got maybe ten days here at Green World before we have to take flight. We’re going to spend that time as wisely as possible.”

“How can we spend time wisely with no target?” Winslade asked.

“Something has come up,” Drusus said. “We’ve got a lead. It’s all centered on McGill’s travel data. McGill? Remember that island you found when you first teleported out here?”

“You mean the one with the Wur lab on it? Where Natasha died?”

“Who? Oh yes, I guess that’s right. Anyway, we’ve been checking everything you gave us. Didn’t you find it odd that Abigail arrived so quickly to

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