Etta turned away, lifted a hand slowly, and she pointed. I followed the gesture to a tram. It was the very same tram I’d died twice to make payments on.

  Etta was pointing at the trunk.

  -16-

  “Damnation, girl!” I boomed, and she shushed me.

  Etta looked contrite, and I knew it wasn’t an act, but that wasn’t really good enough. Not today.

  I bent down a little, so I could whisper harshly to her, the way a zillion parents have done with their children in public since time began.

  “You went and murdered your boss? Seriously? Just to stop us from having a date?”

  “I didn’t know how else to stop her. There are cameras everywhere in Central. I couldn’t even make a threat. I had to make my move fast.”

  That was how Etta’s mind worked. She was like a wolf, not a dog. Dogs liked to bark before they bit. They’d get all worked up and carry on. They do that way to let strangers know they’re not wanted. They’re all about warning people off.

  But a real predator, a real killer, operates differently. They don’t warn the victim. They use stealth, duplicity—anything to make the kill.

  That’s how Etta was. Like I said, she wasn’t entirely civilized, not even to this very day. No one around her on a daily basis would know it, because she hid her true nature—but I was her father. I knew her better than anyone.

  “She’s in the trunk of your tram?” I demanded. “Are you crazy?”

  “Shhh! I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “Come on,” I growled, and I climbed into the driver’s seat.

  Swerving into traffic, I got a few honks and flipped the honkers off without a glance.

  “Where are we going?” Etta asked.

  “I can’t believe you did this, girl. After all the work I’ve done to teach you how to live with regular people.”

  “I know Daddy, I’m sorry. But Floramel… she’s kind of a bitch, did you know that?”

  “She’s your boss. All bosses are irritating. That’s how it works.”

  “Yeah…”

  We drove through the city, swerving this way and that until we were in the quieter part of town. I’d taken a zigzagging route on purpose to see if we were being followed. I didn’t think we were.

  “Where are we going?” Etta asked again.

  “Out of town. Up into the eastern heights.”

  “Where the rich people live?”

  “Yep.”

  I drove on, while Etta apologized and tried to explain. She said she hadn’t had a choice, as Floramel was hell-bent on recruiting me for the job. She might even have been willing to sleep with me to get me to do it. That tidbit raised my eyebrows. I hadn’t thought Floramel operated that way—but then she’d been a director now for quite a while. Such people tended to get dogmatic.

  “What are we going to do with the body?” Etta asked again.

  “We’re going to get her a new one, that’s what.”

  “How?”

  “You’ve cost me tonight. You’ve really cost me. Here now, this is where you get out and take the train home. I’ll send your tram home on autopilot later.”

  “I’m sorry Daddy—but don’t take the mission, okay?”

  “I promise.”

  She got out, and I drove up the dark hills into the nicest of neighborhoods. Up here was where Turov lived.

  I parked out front and thumbed the bell like I was selling robot cleaners. At last, Galina answered.

  “What do you want, McGill?” she asked in a sour tone.

  That was disappointing. She’d been all hot on me just the other day, but now, she seemed to be having second thoughts.

  “Uh…” I said. “I thought maybe we could talk.”

  “Tonight? I don’t think so.”

  “Come on, Galina. I didn’t—”

  Her front door popped open. She’d been right on the other side, watching me through the cameras and stewing.

  “Are you saying you didn’t start chasing skirts the second I was busy? That you didn’t take that lab-haunting whore of yours to dinner tonight instead of me?”

  My eyes blinked twice in surprise. Then they narrowed. “Are you having drones or spies follow me again? I thought we were over that.”

  “No, I didn’t. I merely examined your tapper activity.”

  “You can do that?”

  She shrugged. “I’m in your chain of command. There have been updates, recently, to your tapper software. Didn’t you see the new privacy polices?”

  “I don’t read those things. I—”

  “Of course you don’t. People shouldn’t be so surprised if they don’t read what they’re agreeing to.”

  “It was like twenty pages long!”

  She shrugged again and studied the hardwood floor of her house. Her arms were crossed tightly, but it wasn’t cold out.

  “Anyway,” I said, “I didn’t have any date with Floramel. In fact… I found her dead.” Galina’s head snapped up to look at me in surprise. “You killed her?”

  “Nope. I just found her dead. I will swear on a stack of bibles and pass ten lie-detector tests on that point.”

  “No one will ever believe you.”

  “That’s right,” I said. “That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I need help.”

  She looked down again. Honest-to-God I thought she was going to slam the door in my face. I couldn’t even have blamed her for it.

  But she didn’t. She heaved a real big sigh instead.

  “All right. We’ll dump the body, and I’ll arrange a quiet revival.” Her finger came up into my face then. “But you owe me after this, James McGill. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.”

  Galina put a plan into action that clearly had been executed before. She rode in the tram with me back to Central, where we slid into a quiet entrance in the back of the building on the alleyways.

  There, in what amounted to a garbage dump, a stack of credits were exchanged and a wrapped-up package was taken out of my trunk by a pair of grunting men. They tipped their hats to us. After a bit of fooling with scanners, they tossed the body into a furnace.

  After that, I sent the car home and accompanied Galina to the nearest designated Blue Deck. A pair of bio specialists were on hand, waiting.

  “Special order?” asked the first guy.

  “Yes. Here’s the code.” Galina touched her tapper to the bio flunky’s and data was transferred.

  “Okay, the files check out,” he flicked his eyes and a finger toward me. “This is the recycle, right?”

  “No, no, you idiot,” Galina said. “Why would I recycle him? I’d leave him permed if I had the chance.”

  The specialist chuckled and walked away, shaking his head. “Give me forty-five minutes.”

  “For what I’m paying you? I’ll give you half an hour.”

  The specialist jabbed his thumb back toward the revival chamber, where I knew a sweating, shivering bio-machine was hard at work giving birth to whoever needed it. “But I’ve got—”

  “Dump your current grow,” Turov interrupted. “I’m not waiting around for two losers to be reborn.”

  Shaking his head, the bio specialist finally agreed, and we took uncomfortable seats in the waiting area. A long silence reigned for the next ten minutes or so. Finally, Galina broke the spell.

  “A report just came in on my tapper,” she said. “The bio-people at the dumping station did a quick scan. They say Floramel’s body showed signs of bludgeoning—how did she anger you so greatly?”

  She looked at me with honest concern. I didn’t know what to say. My well of lies was usually brimming over, but today, I was running dry. Maybe that was because I was covering for someone else.

  “I don’t know what happened,” I lied. “I just found her dead and panicked.”

  “Three improbabilities in so few words... but all right. I’ll let you have your secrets. We all have our secrets.”

  “True.”

  Another ten minutes went by, and these seemed even longer than before. Finally, she stood up. “I’m leaving. You will come to my place tonight, and I will tell you how you are going to repay this debt.”

  “Uh… okay.”

  Galina left, and I waited it out. After the thirty minutes were gone, plus another ten for the examination and release, Floramel came staggering out of the door.

  “She’s all yours, hero,” the bio specialist said, shaking his head at me. Even he seemed a little reproachful.

  Did everyone think I’d accidentally beat her to death? That was just grand.

  “James?” Floramel asked. She was unsteady on her feet, so I let her lean on my arm. “What happened?”

  “There was an accident of some kind,” I said. “They didn’t want to revive you right off, but I pulled some strings.”

  She looked at me with wide eyes. I could tell right off that she, of all people, believed me. “You did?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I didn’t want to miss our dinner date—but it’s kind of late for that now.”

  “Take me home, will you?”

  I did, and I tucked her into bed. She grabbed my hand as I tried to walk out.

  “I want you to do a mission for me,” she said. “Will you do it? The job pays very well.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t need money. Not anymore, Floramel. You’ll have to get someone else.”

  She threw the covers back on her bed. “Spend the night,” she said.

  For a moment, I stood there, indecisive. Women have an evil power over a man like me. We just can’t pass up such invitations. It’s not fair, really. We’re too easily manipulated.

  But I held firm. I didn’t want to take advantage of her, and I didn’t want to ditch my promise to Galina or to Etta.

  Finally, I shook my head. “You can’t go recruiting that way. It’s not right. You’ve changed, girl.”

  She frowned and looked down. Then she covered up. “So have you.” I gave her a chaste kiss on the head and left.

  -17-

  After spending the night at Galina’s place, I got an early-morning buzz on my tapper. “One of your subordinates has been lost in action,” I read aloud.

  Alarmed, I looked at the time. “Ten-thirty?!”

  I dashed for the shower. Galina was nowhere to be found, and I assumed she’d left early for Central. I soon was riding in an aircab toward that looming building.

  On the way, I looked into the details of the tapper report that had awakened me. Ghost Specialist Cooper had been reported lost while on special assignment. He was classified as missing in action and therefore ineligible for revival.

  “Cooper? Shit…”

  He’d taken the money.

  That thought came to me, and it wouldn’t leave. He must have been their second choice. I don’t mind telling you that I was kind of pissed about the whole thing.

  When I got to Central, I confronted Floramel first. “How could you?” I demanded. “How could I what? Bludgeon myself to death? I’ve been curious about that all morning.”

  “Uh… no, no, no… I’m talking about Cooper.”

  “The Ghost Specialist? Very regrettable.”

  She didn’t sound like she gave two shits, so I walked up and put my hands on her shoulders. That got her attention. For Rogue Worlders, when you initiated physical contact, you were either intending to murder them or make love to them.

  “Is this how events began yesterday?” she asked me. “I can’t recall the details of my demise.”

  I dropped my hands from her like she was on fire. “Why’d you want to send me so badly? Why’d you send anyone if you knew it was going to end with a perming?”

  She looked troubled. “I had no choice. Hegemony demanded a volunteer be found. I tried to recruit you first because you’ve survived such things before. You were my only hope for a successful mission. Remember all the earliest teleport missions? I read up on your file. You always came back, even when no one else did. Even when it seemed impossible.”

  I thought that over. I had made it home during those early missions, it was true. Back then everyone else had died, but that was because I’d had a Galactic Key in my possession. Floramel didn’t know about that. The device had allowed me to manipulate the teleport suits like no one else could. Perhaps Floramel had thought I could pull off the impossible again.

  But… Cooper. I felt bad about that. He’d gone in my place, and I doubt he’d understood the risks, or even gotten laid by Floramel. He’d just wanted the money.

  “No one told him the real odds, did they?” I asked.

  Floramel looked evasive. That was a new look for her. She was generally very forthright.

  “The mission was vital,” she said. “It had to be performed by someone. When we invade the target world, the lost soldier can be recovered.”

  “When? You mean if we invade, and that only counts if we find his remains.”

  Floramel looked down at the deck. She lowered her voice. “All right,” she said. “We’ve both done something wrong this week. I will forgive you, if you will forgive me. Neither of us should mention these events again.”

  Again, I was floored. Floramel was becoming more like an Earther, meaning tricky and deceitful. Maybe running a government lab for so long had changed her.

  Thinking over her offer, I decided I didn’t like it. Essentially, I was confessing to her murder. On the other hand, she just wanted to put the whole thing behind us, and this would clear the decks for Etta.

  “All right,” I told her, “but eventually I’ll prove to you that I had nothing to do with your death last night.”

  She put a hand up. “Please, no more lies.”

  “No lies. That’s a promise.”

  She shrugged, and she didn’t meet my gaze. I could tell she didn’t believe me. I suppose, when a man bends the truth as often as I do, this sort of moment had to be expected now and again.

  Normally, I would have immediately ratted on the real perpetrator, but I couldn’t because it was my daughter. Heaving a deep breath, I forced a smile, touched her arm lightly and walked away. She flinched a little, but not much. Maybe she did still have a thing for me. We’d slept together now and then over the years, and even though there was plenty of bad blood between us, we still had an attraction.

  Hitting the elevators, I met up with Etta in the lobby. She looked furtive. “Thanks Daddy,” she said, giving me a quick hug.

  “Lunch today?”

  She shook her head. “I’m working through lunch. We’ve got to go over some data.”

  I figured she was talking about data from Cooper’s suicide mission. My face soured a little. “All right. Next time.”

  I left that dank dungeon under Central and headed up to Legion Varus’ offices. That’s where Galina held court as our tribune. It wasn’t such-a-much. There were no ornate doors with gold reliefs. Instead, there was the faded red wolf’s head of Varus on a circular emblem stamped on the doors. I opened them and walked in.

  Gary was on hand, watching a ballgame. He looked at me with surprise, but without much interest.

  “Don’t see you on the roster today, McGill,” he said.

  “The roster for what?”

  He smirked. “The meeting you apparently weren’t invited to.”

  I looked toward the inner doors. One led to Galina’s office. The second led to the conference room. I chose the second door.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you,” Gary cautioned me.

  I put my hand on the touchpad.

  Gary shrugged and turned back to his game. “It’s your funeral.”

  “Whose in there?”

  “Brass. All brass.”

  Damn. I sighed and moved to the waiting area. Gary smirked again, and I spent forty-five good minutes playing Boy Scout.

  It wasn’t like me to play by the rules. But this was important. I had to do things right for Cooper’s sake. He’d been screwed over and permed, and it was partly my fault the way I saw it. As he was under my direct command, I had to try to get him un-permed.

  When the meeting broke up, I got to see that Gary was right. A parade of serious brass walked out. Among them were both Drusus and Wurtenberger, both top ten praetors.

  Galina came out last of all. She was all smiles and nods and ass-kissing to the brass.

  When they were gone, however, she whirled to face me. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

  “Well… I’m waiting to see you, sir.”

  Her eyes darkened. Sure, we’d just spent the night together making loud love, but that wasn’t any reason to hang around together at the office. Galina and I generally kept our relationship on the down-low by not parading together in public places. People knew we were a thing, but if you didn’t rub it in their faces, they tended to ignore it.

  Finally, with a twitch of her head, she indicated that I should follow her. I got up and headed for her office door, but she went into the conference room instead. I followed.

  “Uh…” I said, looking around. The walls were all lit up with star charts. The holo-table projected a big image of a strange-looking world. It was greenish—black laced with green.

  “This is it,” Galina said. “Varus has a new target. It sucks just as badly as every world they send us to. Possibly it’s worse than average.”

  I stared at it. “Tau Orionis?”

  Her head snapped up. “How did you know that?”

  “Just a lucky guess. I’ve been taking online astronomy courses, you know.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me, not believing a word of my lie. “No one can keep a secret in this building… but yes, that is Tau Orionis. We will board our new ship and journey there.”

  “New ship? Is it the same class as Legate?”

  Everyone in Varus had loved old Legate. That transport was a fine vessel, built to take thousands of troops to the stars in relative comfort.

  Galina shook her pretty head. “No, sadly. We’ve been assigned to the newly commissioned Berlin.”

  “But Berlin was destroyed too,” I complained. “Worse, it was a battlecruiser to begin with.”

  “We’ve modified a Rigellian ship we captured. Remember those vessels? This one has armor-piercing guns.”