“Uh… a little more than that, I’m afraid.”

  I began to explain, and he didn’t like it. But as he had no other plan to complete his mission, he eventually broke down and agreed.

  Stepping up to the gateway posts that were standing at one end of the long, narrow Gray Deck, I saw them hum and snap. To me, these things always looked like colorful bug-zappers. As always, it took an effort of both will and self-delusion to step in-between those posts.

  Steeling myself, I walked between them and was instantly broken down into my component molecules. A moment later, I stepped out on Earth, inside Central.

  -52-

  It had been a long time since I’d visited Earth this way. I did it, off and on, for one emergency or another. The usual routine began the moment I arrived.

  “Halt! Identify yourself, Centurion!”

  A trough-load of hogs surrounded me. Most of them didn’t have their weapons out. They were clawing at their holsters and fumbling with the safeties.

  “Hell’s bells, hogs!” I called to them. “If I’d been in the killing mood, I could have waxed the lot of you with my morph-rifle right here.”

  I shook the gun at them, and they glowered back at me.

  “I repeat: identify yourself and state your business, Centurion,” their leader said. He was a fancy-looking hog with some brass on his sleeves. The insignia marked him as an adjunct—but he wasn’t a real officer. No hog guard, in my opinion, warranted that much respect.

  Still, he had been the first guy to draw his weapon. That impressed me, so I nodded to him and smiled.

  “I’m James McGill of Legion Varus. I’m here on orders from Tribune Winslade.”

  “Do you have those orders, sir?”

  As the hog had not yet offered up any kind of insult, I flicked my finger over my tapper. My orders, hastily tapped out by Winslade back aboard Berlin, flew across the room and landed on the hog’s tapper so he could read them.

  “Looks legit. We’ll escort you to the lobby, sir.”

  I proceeded to tell them I needed no escorts, but they didn’t listen. They tailed me up from Central’s version of Gray Deck to the street level. There, they left me on my own.

  Taking a moment to enjoy Earth’s sights and sounds, I walked outside. The day was warm and sunny. I immediately considered going out and getting myself some lunch in town.

  I took my first step in that direction, in fact, before I stopped myself and frowned. No… no, no. I couldn’t afford to go down that rabbit-hole of endless distractions. I was likely to end up in a bar, then at some lady’s apartment…

  “Manfred might be permed…” I said to myself. “Maybe he’s trying to scratch his way out of that tunnel like a rat in a cage right now.”

  With new-found determination, I did an about-face and marched back into Central. There were options, at this point. I could have gone to see Drusus, or Galina—but I didn’t want to do that. If they knew I was back on Earth, all kinds of uncomfortable questions would be asked. None of us wanted to hear those answers.

  Instead, I headed back down into the depths below Central. My clearance was good enough to get me down to about floor minus one hundred—then I got stopped.

  They had a checkpoint down there. You had to get off the original elevators, pass through a clearance center with full identity-scanning robots aiming guns at your face, then take another set of elevators down deeper into the lab complex.

  The trouble was I didn’t have those clearances. At times, I had been allowed down here, so my info was in the computers. Unfortunately, I was flagged as off-Earth, not performing a clandestine op for the labs. Some smarty-pants computer put those two things together and beeped “NO ADMITTANCE, PLEASE STAND BY”.

  Naturally, my instinct was either to bust past the robot, or to do a spin and head back to the elevators before some fresh pack of hogs showed up to irritate me further. Under normal circumstances, I would have chosen one of those two options.

  But this wasn’t a normal day. I needed to get past this toaster without sending up any alarms. Gritting my teeth, I lifted my tapper and contacted the only person I knew could help me—and who might actually do it.

  “Hey, baby-girl,” I said, giving Etta a broad grin. “Look who’s back in town! I was just in the neighborhood, and I thought I’d drop by to grab some lunch.”

  She frowned at me, and she blinked a few times. “Dad? Aren’t you off-world right now?”

  “That’s a funny story. I’ll tell you all about it, if you just come up to… checkpoint X-ray-five and tell this robot I’m harmless.”

  “You’re… you’re here? In Central? Checkpoint X-ray… that’s almost down to my level.”

  “Don’t I know it! What are the odds? I figured since—”

  “Dad, I’m working.”

  “I know, honey, I know. I’m working too.”

  I gave her a serious look, and she sighed. “I’ll be up in a minute. Don’t break anything, okay?”

  That was disrespectful, but I didn’t get angry. I pasted on a smile and waited for the brat. It took some nerve for her to act like I was burdening her with my poor judgment. Hadn’t I just covered for her, getting her out of a misdemeanor murder? That had taken some pull, and some imagination, and back then her emotional state had been just as frazzled as anything I’d ever seen.

  While I was waiting and stewing, an ugly, fat-assed hog showed up to give me a talking-to. Fortunately, before things got heated, Etta reached the scene. She showed her clearance, flicked me a visitor badge, then fast-talked the hog into settling down.

  “This isn’t regular procedure,” the hog complained. He looked like he’d never smiled in his life, nor had he ever smelled anything better than a summertime outhouse. “You can’t just give tours down here, I don’t care who you are.”

  “I know, I know,” Etta said, giving him the charming bullshit smile I would have given him in her shoes. “But he’s worked down here before. We’re looking at… a new mission assignment.”

  She gave him a meaningful look, and the hog checked his records. I had, in fact, volunteered and been paid for a few hellacious journeys into the dark that were associated with the casting project.

  “Hmm… it does say you’ve worked here… but also says you’re supposed to be off-world right now.”

  It was my turn to do some bullshitting, so I stepped right up. “That’s right, Veteran,” I said. “That’s the whole point, if you get my meaning. I’m supposed to be someplace else… in a hurry.”

  He peered at me for a few seconds, then he seemed to get it. This whole lab section was dedicated to clandestine teleportation experiments, after all.

  “Oh… I get it. All right, go on through. But you keep an eye on him, Missy. There are some strange notes in this man’s file.”

  Apparently, this dumbass hadn’t noted we had the same last name. I took no steps to enlighten him. When you get what you want, you don’t keep on talking, that was my motto.

  Smiling and brushing past his bulging gut, I followed Etta into an echoing passageway. Down this far underground, everything seemed to be quieter and more deserted. The place was kind of creepy, if you asked me.

  “Dad, what is this all about?” Etta hissed at me after we rounded the first corner and were beyond the sight of the staring, frowning hog.

  “Damn, was that guy fat or what?” I laughed. “What are they feeding the guards down here? You wouldn’t think sipping coffee all day and eating—”

  “Dad, come on. I got you through security, and now I want some answers.”

  “What? Can’t a father come visit his little girl without being suspected of the worst motives?”

  She was squinting at me, and it made me a little sad to see that. After all, a dozen years ago she would have bought anything I said. Her daddy had been perfect, and above reproach. Since those happy days, she’d learned there were often unsavory details hidden behind the story I represented to the world—about almost everything.

  “Come on, Dad. You’re freaking me out with this fast-talking routine. Have you killed somebody? Somebody important, I mean?”

  “Not for hours and hours,” I said truthfully. “Okay… listen, I’ll give you a hint… I need to use the casting machine.”

  That threw her for a loop. “What? Are you crazy? It’s not even online now, much less available for some military op.”

  “What if I had orders from the very top?”

  That slowed her down. “The top? You mean, like Drusus? I don’t know—I’d have to talk to Floramel about it.”

  “Uh… not quite that high.”

  I showed her the orders on my tapper, and she snorted rudely. “Winslade? He can’t approve anything down here! If he ordered you to dig a latrine, I’d question—”

  Lifting a hand, I tried to shush her. She backed away, instantly annoyed. She had a temper that was almost as bad as mine.

  “Look…” I began, and I tried to explain the situation. I naturally embellished and talked as if the lost legionnaires were girl scouts kidnapped in an alley.

  She listened, and she didn’t even roll her eyes much, but at the end, she sighed deeply. “I can’t do it. There’s no way. No one will approve this kind of op on short notice.”

  “Well… how about if we did it without approval?”

  Etta stared at me, and her mouth dropped open in surprise. It did me proud, seeing that. It had to be something in her daddy’s genes. Her mamma Della never reacted to anything with a sagging jaw. In fact, she hated to see me do it.

  “Are you kidding? I can’t just—”

  “Hey,” I said, “this is a family request. It’s a real emergency, I swear. A lot of good people are gone and technically permed. But if there’s no way you can do it, I’ll understand. Just say the word, and I’ll drop it, and I won’t even mention saving your ungrateful bacon and covering up that rage-kill on your boss.”

  “Shut up about that!”

  “Absolutely. It never happened. My word is my bond, and I never saw what you did to that girl when she—”

  She grabbed me, and I was surprised at the grip she had in those fingers. They dug into the skin of my bicep and there were claws at the end of all five.

  “Come on,” she said, “but if this costs me my job, I’m not living in Grandma’s farmhouse. You have to pay for my apartment for life, dammit.”

  “Uh… yeah, okay.”

  I was thinking about the money I’d made recently doing a few tricks for Abigail. She’d promised me five million credits a short while back. Maybe I’d need it after all.

  -53-

  Etta took me into a quiet sub-station. I’d expected to see a big, glowy ball of energy spinning and trying to escape its force field, but instead, it looked like a drab office.

  There was half a donut on the desk, so I ate that while she worked at her computer. After a few minutes, she turned around and shook her head.

  “I’ve looked up these coordinates, Dad… do you trust whoever gave them to you?”

  “Sure do.”

  “Well… they’re below the surface of a planet in the Tau Orionis system—do you realize that?”

  I blinked a few times stupidly. I didn’t think she’d be able to figure that out so fast. “That’s exactly right,” I said, giving her my most reassuring smile.

  “That’s where Cooper vanished. He was permed, Dad.”

  She stared at me with hard eyes, and I realized my bullshit smile wouldn’t do the trick this time.

  “That’s exactly right,” I repeated. “But look, the coordinates are pretty far off from where Cooper landed. You see, he splashed down right in the middle of… uh… a special geological region. I’m not going there.”

  “You’re sure? The casting system didn’t work for Cooper. We got a few numbers back, but we couldn’t get full video.”

  “That was because of the collapsed matter,” I explained earnestly, pretending I knew what I was talking about. “Where I’m going, there’s none of that stuff.”

  She sighed and turned back around. “Okay, I’ve done all the math.” She waved toward a stack of numbers. They were jumping through hoops and parading in lines with funny squiggles that looked like musical notes or something.

  “Those numbers look good to me, honey. Let’s do it!”

  She handed me a chip, but she didn’t get up and lead the way to the lab. “There’s a problem—I can’t get you into the casting device. There’s lots of security, and you’re not on the list today. They won’t be fooled by any fast-talk. These guards don’t even have a sense of humor.”

  “Hmm…” I said, thinking that over. “Have you guys got a deep-link handy?”

  It was Etta’s turn to look surprised, but she led the way to a long-distance comms booth. I’d figured they must have a unit. After all, if you’re doing experimental transmissions to distant star systems, it only made sense that the staff would be able to talk to someone at the far end to find out if a given experiment had worked or not.

  Sitting in the booth and shooing her out, she frowned at me. “Don’t go calling any girlfriends, Dad. Every minute on this thing costs thousands of credits.”

  “Don’t you even worry about it!”

  After she left, I hooked my tapper to the deep-link and made a call. It took a few tries and lots of rings, but Abigail answered at last.

  “Hey, smart lady!” I began.

  “I don’t believe it... You’re calling to flirt over a deep-link? What are you even doing on Earth?”

  “Let’s make a deal,” I said. “You do me a favor without asking any more questions, and you can keep the millions of credits you owe me.”

  She thought that over. Her eyes lit up, but she was on guard. “What kind of favor?”

  I explained what I needed, and she snorted with amusement. “Is that all?” she asked sarcastically.

  “It surely is. I happen to know that you Clavers have agents below decks here at Central.”

  “And upon what would you base these bizarre suspicions?”

  I smiled. I’d gotten to know Abigail. She pretended like she was constantly dealt bad cards by the universe—but I knew better. She was dealing them to herself.

  “When you were a prisoner here at Central, do you recall how those two Rigellians appeared and tried to drag you away?”

  “I certainly do. You were instrumental in saving me, but this is hardly the time—”

  “Hold on,” I said. “Those two bears shouldn’t have been able to teleport in here—I checked. You realize, don’t you, that if they could do that, they might as well deliver an A-bomb into the midst of our complex. Central is shielded from stuff like that.”

  “Then the shield must have failed that day,” she said stubbornly. “As to your deal, I—”

  “Hold on, hold on,” I said. “Let’s follow this logical thread for a minute. If those bears didn’t teleport all the way out here from Rigel to kidnap you, then they must have popped in from somewhere closer. Right here in town, maybe. Or even from somewhere else inside Central. Am I right?”

  Abigail squirmed. “Is this some kind of blackmail, McGill? It’s really not necessary—and it’s not going to get you what you want.”

  “I just had another thought… maybe Claver-X doesn’t even know about this! Maybe this is your secret op.”

  She blinked at me. “What are you fantasizing about? If I dare to ask?”

  “I recall that recording of your voice, playing over and over, sobbing. It was placed to be conveniently found along with your DNA at Dark World. No one knows how that could have happened. No one—not even your countless brothers. But… what if you did all that to yourself?”

  She stared at me with a different look on her face. It was a new look, a wary look. “You’re talking crazy, McGill.”

  “Yeah, I sure am. I’m mentally challenged, and you can take that to the bank. But let’s talk about other things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like how I could forget about two bears coming in here to fake a kidnapping, or you setting up your own kin to feel guilty. All I need is a little help from your damned network.”

  “It isn’t doable. I’d have to burn valuable assets. I’m hanging up.”

  “You can do that. But you’ll be a few million credits poorer, and since I know about your power to penetrate our defenses at Central, I can’t very well stay silent. Maybe even more importantly, after I get done making calls on this deep-link machine, all your brothers are going to know what you did to wrap them around your little finger for the last decade. Damnation, girl! Everyone in this galaxy will be thinking of you as a traitor by midnight!”

  Abigail eyed me with distrust, the way a long-tailed cat stares at a rocking chair. “All right. Your baseless conspiracy theories might damage my reputation, I’ll admit. For the sake of our friendship, I’ll submit to this ham-handed blackmail—but don’t make a habit of it, McGill.”

  “Outstanding! Seems like we’ve come to an agreement. Now, hack into Central and put me down on some nerd’s day-planner. I need an appointment on the casting project agenda, pronto!”

  After a bit more threatening and cajoling, I got her to pull some strings. During this operation, the door to the booth cracked open and an exasperated Etta looked over my shoulder.

  “Daddy? You’re in here talking to some girl? Seriously?”

  “Uh…” I said.

  She put her hands on her hips and scowled at me just like her mother. “Where is she located? Did you know the Galactics tack on a surcharge if it’s over a hundred lightyears out?”

  “I think she’s local,” I lied. “Mars base, or something.”

  Both of them rolled their eyes at me, but I didn’t care. The wheels were finally rolling in my direction at last.

  I hung up on Abigail. By the time we got down to the next layer of security pukes, I was magically added to their list of personnel who were permitted to enter their holy sanctum. Down in the vaults, past all the yellow and black warning signs that said you weren’t supposed to eat anything in case it was radioactive or worse, I located and consumed a stale pizza. In the meantime, I watched as Etta input all her hieroglyphic calculations into the consoles. Then she made a hundred small adjustments to the projector machines that created whatever kind of plasma field controlled this lightning in a bottle. I was bored sick just watching her do it.