“So you’re not feeling jealous anymore?”

  She frowned. “I don’t feel jealous about you. Never. That would be madness.”

  “Sure thing,” I said, just as if I believed her pretty, lying mouth.

  Galina began pacing around. She did that whenever she was thinking hard. I made myself comfortable on her couch.

  “It’s some kind of trick,” she said. “Some evil new game Claver is playing. It has to be. They came to you, and they showed you a girl, because they know you’re an idiot who follows his dick wherever it leads.”

  “Uh…”

  While she leaned her butt on her desk, I took the time to pour us two drinks—after all, she’d promised.

  I pushed a drink into her hand, and she considered it for a moment, then drank it and went back to staring at the vids on her desktop. I watched her and half-listened to her monologue. She was talking to herself, really.

  After a half-dozen paragraphs and replays of various elements of my adventure, she turned on me suddenly. “That’s correct, isn’t it?”

  “Huh? Oh… Hell yeah! Yeah, sure. You got that part right, I’m certain.”

  I had no idea what she’d been talking about, but this response seemed to please her, so she went back to farting around with the videos. She speculated broadly on Claver’s plans, and the possible evil motivations of Abigail. After a bit, I stopped listening to it altogether it.

  At last, she settled her ass down on the seat next to me and let me have her. She was distracted, but she did enjoy the proceedings.

  I’ll just say it was a damned good thing she’d had her office sound-proofed.

  -10-

  It was a day later that I was summoned upstairs again. As I was technically on active duty, I was sleeping and eating on Hegemony credits, living in their officer’s dorms and eating at their cafeteria. The food wasn’t half-bad, and there was always plenty of it.

  At breakfast, after I’d polished off one tray and dug into the second, I got a notice on my tapper. Unfortunately, I couldn’t disable such notifications while I was active, so they knew I got it, and the clock was running.

  “Meeting at 0800 hours, Praetor Drusus’ office,” I read aloud. “Frig…!”

  It was already a quarter to eight, and I would barely have time to make it with the way these elevators ran. I had to shovel what food I could into my mouth and trot for the exit. When I rammed my trays into the recycler, I got a sour look from the service people.

  “That’s wasteful, sir.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Summons.”

  I showed the lady the red text on my tapper.

  “Drusus?” she asked in amazement. “You’d better get a move on!”

  Waving over my shoulder, I left her and high-tailed it to the elevators. Less than fifteen minutes later, I walked calmly into Drusus’ office. Sure, I was actually out of breath and sweating a little, but I hid all that. I marched in like I hadn’t a care and took the seat they offered me at his over-sized conference table.

  Drusus glanced at his tapper. “On time for once. Well done, McGill.”

  Drusus really liked it when the trains ran on time. He always gave you a little less time than you needed, and when you met his schedule, you were praised. If you didn’t, you were scorned. It was a simple but effective way to get people to hustle.

  He waved his hand over the table like a wizard, and the illusion of a wooden tabletop vanished. It was replaced with a hologram of a standing Rigellian warrior. The meter-tall bear-dude seemed to be right there, looking around at us and blinking.

  “Gee-zus!” I said aloud, jumping a little in my seat.

  Drusus smiled. “Very realistic, isn’t it? The resolution on this new table is quite high.”

  “You can say that again, Praetor.” I leaned forward to peer at the devilish figure standing on the table. I was a little creeped out by it.

  The furry fighter stood in a combat-ready stance. He was wearing that typical fabric suit of tough material they all wore. The suit was light, but incredibly resilient. It wore like smart-cloth but could stop a high velocity round. In practice, Rigel’s soldiers were more mobile but still harder to kill than our heavies in reactive plate.

  “What’s the greatest difficulty you face in the field when combatting a soldier like this, McGill?”

  “Getting through that suit is the hard part. It takes a lot of firepower to penetrate.”

  “Exactly. Now, I’ll get to the point of this meeting. Why am I showing you this?”

  “Because the lab people have been running tests on the samples you brought back with you from the mission coordinates yesterday. Do you know what they found?”

  I tore my eyes away from the hologram and looked around the table. Everyone was silent, and they were all staring. They were staring at me.

  All of a sudden, I got it: They were all in cahoots. I didn’t know what they were on about, but I knew it might not go well for old James McGill, depending on how I answered their questions.

  “Uh…” I said. “I found a claw. Are you talking about that, sir?”

  Drusus nodded slowly. “In part.”

  He produced the claw and slid it onto the table. It clattered and rasped. We all stared at it. “This is a very unusual item. Do you know what the sharpest natural substance known to man is?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Glass. Broken glass is brittle, but it has the finest edge nature can achieve—and this claw is sharper. It’s also much harder.”

  I looked at it. We all did.

  Drusus then proceeded to throw up some molecular models showing the chains involved in the creating of that sharp edge. I couldn’t really follow it. I’d gotten a C in high school chemistry, and that was only because the teacher was being nice.

  After a long talk, he got back around to something interesting again. I was fooling with my tapper by then, I’d been poking at it in my lap while I pretended to listen.

  “McGill…? McGill!”

  “Uh… yes, Praetor! What’s the trouble?”

  Looking around again, I saw every eye was on me again.

  “Think carefully: have you got any knowledge that might shed light on this mystery?” I felt a tickling sensation under my arms. I was beginning to sweat, just a little.

  “Yeah, I sure do,” I lied. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I had one trick up my sleeve. “That place—that freaky world I found with the dead girl and the glass-armored monster—it was a dead Skay. A burned out hulk, which still has a tiny spark of life left in it.”

  Their eyes widened. “That’s quite a claim, Centurion,” Drusus said. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

  I’d just played my ace-in-the-hole. My only saving move. I’d never told Drusus or any of them I was going to find a dead Skay. Abigail had mentioned it, but I’d just called it an alien wreck—a tiny detail that could be overlooked by anyone.

  They were creatures of the Skay, strange constructs that operated like antibodies to rid the planet-sized beings of intruders.

  “It was that curved horizon,” I said with certainty. “It was like I was in a vast bowl, or crater. The roof was blown off, of course, but you could still tell. Then, after I met up with the defensive creature, I understood what I’d found. Remember, I’ve been inside the guts of a couple Skay before.”

  Drusus nodded slowly. “That’s very interesting, and I think it’s correct—”

  “It is?” demanded Turov suddenly. She seemed amazed.

  “Yes. It fits the data—but it isn’t really related to what we were discussing.”

  As I had no idea what he’d been talking about, I pressed on with my new change of subject.

  “But it does!” I argued. “You see, the claw, the creature, the dead Skay and Rigel. It all fits. Rigel is aligned with the Skay. They want to kick the Mogwa out of this province. They’re our real enemies.”

  Drusus peered at me for a moment. I was way out on a limb now, but I didn’t want to admit I hadn’t been listening. The truth was I’d been playing skee-ball on my arm. It was a popular pastime, and I’d gotten pretty good at it lately.

  Finally, Drusus nodded. “I think I get your point,” he said.

  Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d bluffed it through. That had been a tight one, as Drusus was nobody’s fool.

  “What is his point, exactly?” Turov demanded.

  I gave her a look that told her to shut up. What kind of a girlfriend was she if she undermined me at moments like this?

  Galina ignored my look and gave her attentions to Drusus instead.

  “Rigellian armor is something special,” Drusus said. “We all know that. We’ve captured their suits, but we’ve learned very little about them. All we are sure of is they must have some kind of unusual manufacturing technique we aren’t able to duplicate. It’s a critical tech advantage that their troops enjoy over ours in the field.”

  “Damn straight!” I said, slapping the table. The bear-warrior hologram looked at me and shimmered a little.

  “Our techs have been doing serious molecular analysis on this claw,” Drusus continued. “It’s been determined that the material used here is identical to that used to make Rigellian armor. We’re ready to make the connection back to the Skay. We’re certain they’re the original inventors of this technology. In short, McGill is right. He traveled to a dead Skay and brought back evidence linking it to Rigel.”

  I was all smiles. There’s nothing in this world quite so pleasantly buttery-smooth as being told your insights are right in a meeting of peers—especially when you have no actual idea what’s really going on.

  -11-

  The meeting went on and on after that. Pretty soon, I was stifling a yawn every minute or two. This brought a smirk to Winslade, who had just arrived with a message for Drusus.

  “Not getting enough sleep, hmm?” he asked me in a snotty tone. I looked at him, and I noticed he was casting amused glances at Turov as well.

  His little act didn’t upset me much. Sure, I’d slept with Galina recently. No harm in that, from my point of view. Such fraternization was frowned upon by the legions, but it wasn’t against regs.

  Galina, however, was actually pissed. “What are you doing in here anyway, Winslade?”

  He made a languid gesture toward Drusus, who was reading a private note from Hegemony on his tapper.

  Frowning, Drusus looked up at Winslade. “You got Wurtenberger to sign this? I’m impressed.”

  “Not at all, sir. I’m merely following orders. May I?”

  Drusus waved him toward an open chair.

  “Wait a moment,” Turov complained. “Winslade is joining this committee? These topics are… highly classified.”

  It was Winslade’s turn to anger. “With all due respect, Tribune, I’ve got every clearance you have. If anyone here is to be considered a security risk—”

  “It’s fine,” Drusus interrupted. “Let’s continue. Perhaps you can even be of help, Winslade.”

  “Ah… how so?”

  “Do you know anything about a super-tough substance? An alloy of titanium, silicon and carbon that’s laced with collapsed matter for strength?”

  Winslade looked confused. “That’s what this meeting is about? New types of armor?”

  “Yes, essentially.” Drusus briefly filled him in on the materials I’d found and how they related to the armored Rigellian soldiers.

  Winslade mused over it. “A link between Rigel and the Skay… not the first, and probably not the last. Intriguing. I would suggest we question Claver.”

  “How? No one even knows where he is.”

  Winslade’s smirk grew, and he eyed me again. “Some of us do. This gentleman to my left, for instance. I’ve heard that he recently met with representatives sent by the Clavers.”

  Drusus glanced at me in confusion. He shook his head. “Representatives? Claver no longer has a home planet. We wiped out his clones.”

  “Not so,” Winslade said, lifting a finger. “I’ve been doing some investigations of my own. Perhaps that’s why so many drones and spies have been watching me.”

  Drusus blinked a few times. That was a tell—anyone who plays poker would have caught it. Drusus knew Winslade was under surveillance.

  At about this very moment, I was beginning to get concerned. Winslade was in the mood to talk about things I didn’t want people to hear. First off, he clearly knew that I’d slept with Galina recently. Secondly, he seemed to know about Abigail and Claver-X. What was surprising about that was I’d only discussed their recent visit to my home with Galina.

  How could he know both these facts? That I’d spent the night with Galina and what I’d told her? The answer seemed obvious: he was spying on us. He’d done it before, actually. He’d once used a tiny spy drone that resembled a housefly to video us in a compromising situation.

  “You spied on us?” I demanded loudly. “Again?”

  About then, Galina caught on. She stood up and put her hand on the butt of her pistol. “You red-assed bastard!”

  Winslade jumped to his feet, and Drusus stood up as well.

  “Don’t kill him,” he said. He was eyeing Winslade with great disgust as well. “This new table is very hard to clean.”

  Winslade puffed his lips into a pout. He took a step back. “I can see that I’m not wanted here. I will report this hostility to Hegemony. Good luck to all of you… whatever your nefarious intentions may be.”

  He marched out, and no one called him back. Galina relaxed with difficulty. “You see that?” she hissed to Drusus. “I told you he isn’t trustworthy. We should perm him before he defects again. Who knows which of us he might take down with him this time around? It could be anyone here.”

  The group all looked from face to face, but most of them landed theirs eyes on me for some reason.

  “Uh…” I said, not quite sure why I was the next scapegoat in line. “Did I miss something?”

  “Maybe,” Drusus said, “or maybe you’re just playing us all for fools… again.”

  “Not so, sir!” I insisted. “I don’t know beans about this situation.”

  “What about getting a visit from a Claver? Did that happen or not?”

  I squirmed a little and glanced at Galina. She was the only one who knew, because I’d told her. There wasn’t any help at all in her face. Sensing that I was on my own, I decided to fess-up.

  “Yeah… all right. Two of the Clavers came to my house the other night.” There were gasps around the table.

  “But hold on! Hold on before you draw weapons and fire-squad me. They weren’t the kind of Clavers you’ve all seen before. They were new breeds. Renegades among their own kind who aren’t loved by anyone.”

  I proceeded to explain about the nature of Abigail and her ties to Claver-X. The group found the whole story fascinating, if a little disturbing.

  “How does this all connect to our present circumstances?” Drusus asked me.

  “That’s who that woman was—the body of the girl I found on the dead Skay. It was Abigail. Only she knows more about this special armor, and about how Rigel might be using it.”

  “Oh!” Galina said suddenly. “I get it now. You want us to revive this evil witch of yours, is that it?”

  I shrugged. “If you want to find out more about the armor, I guess you’ll have to.”

  Drusus thought hard for a moment, then nodded. “Call Blue Deck. Set up a priority-one revive.”

  Galina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She wouldn’t look at me. She’d always been the jealous type, even if she’d never admit it.

  -12-

  Abigail was revived within the hour. Afterward, she was allowed to recover and clean up—something I rarely got to do when I was summoned back from the dead.

  Instead of waiting for her, the meeting broke up, and I was told to stay at Central in case I was needed to help with the interrogation.

  Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that I felt an “interrogation” was overkill. Abigail might be a Claver relative, but she’d never been accused of a crime to the best of my knowledge.

  I wasn’t in charge of the situation, however, so I went down to the brig immediately to make sure she wasn’t abused. There, I waited for nearly an hour. The revive took about half that time, then the clean-up and transportation through Central took the rest.

  But before I even got a chance to glimpse Abigail, Galina showed up. She put her hands on her hips and glared at me the second she saw me.

  “Seriously?” she asked. “You’re sitting out in the waiting area like an expectant father?”

  “Drusus said he might need me.”

  “Since when were you so overeager?”

  I looked at her, and I had to do a little calculating. After all, Galina was my equivalent of a steady girlfriend, and we’d been involved in our own weird way for years. If she was getting seriously jealous, that wouldn’t be good for my future

  “You’re right,” I said, standing up and yawning. “I’m getting kind of hungry. I think I’ll go up to the commissary and find some grub.”

  She watched me closely. As I ambled toward the door, her glare softened to a frown.

  “If I see Drusus,” I called over my shoulder, “I’ll tell him you said it was okay to leave the area.”

  “You’ll do no such thing!” she responded. She was always worried about her rank, and kissing up to higher-ranked brass was her most tightly held policy. “Sit back down and shut up.”

  I flopped back onto the hard seat I’d just gotten up from and pretended to nod off. Galina sat down opposite me, but she didn’t talk my ear off. She was busy pecking at her tapper. She was probably working on something sneaky.

  When Graves showed up, he seemed mildly surprised to see both of us waiting there. “The prisoner has been moved to interrogation room five,” he said. “Generally, this sort of thing is done without senior officers being involved…” He looked pointedly at Turov.