Doctor Meyers spun around and walked out the door in a huff, slamming it behind her.

  “I don’t understand her,” Cook said. “She should be pleading with us, not ranting. They’re in serious political trouble. They need our help.”

  Maddox had become thoughtful. “Prime Minister Hampton is the key, she said,” he told the admiral. “Sanders was an android and according to the brief I read, he initiated most of Hampton’s policies. Doctor Meyers also seems to believe she can manipulate the Prime Minister. Perhaps that’s the answer. An android faction and whomever Meyers represents believe they can manipulate Commonwealth policy and Star Watch through Hampton. He is our weak link.”

  “Hampton is the chief authority of both the Commonwealth and Star Watch,” Cook said.

  Maddox began to pace. “Sir,” he said, a moment later, “I suggest you insert a better security team around the Prime Minister. Enemy agents have and will try again to manipulate Hampton. Either that, or make sure someone else becomes Prime Minister.”

  Cook said nothing.

  “I also think General Torres isn’t up to the task of running Intelligence,” Maddox said.

  Cook raised his head. “Last I looked, I was still in charge of Star Watch, young man.”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, unaffected, “you need Mary O’Hara back.”

  Cook snorted. “While I resent you giving me unasked for advice, I already know that. She has your devious bent of mind. It’s hurting us that she’s sitting on the sidelines.”

  “Intelligence needs a devious chief, not a man easily seduced and manipulated by sex like Torres.”

  Cook shook his head. “My hands are tied with O’Hara. I can’t bring her back. She’s been compromised.”

  “Perhaps, then, you can take a leaf from Hampton’s playbook.”

  “Meaning what?” asked Cook.

  “Create a conduit to O’Hara.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “Major Stokes would be the best candidate for the job,” Maddox said. “Have Mary O’Hara work through him.”

  “Now see here, Captain,” Cook said. “You are a junior officer with delusions of grandeur. While I appreciate your timely intervention with Sanders and your harsh but clever handling of Lisa Meyers, the senior officers and I run Star Watch, not you.”

  “Yes, sir,” Maddox said. “My pardon, sir.”

  “General Torres stays for now.”

  Maddox said nothing.

  “Perhaps he showed poor judgment indulging himself with Meyers—”

  “If she were an enemy Intelligence officer, she might have blackmailed him. Isn’t Torres married, sir?”

  “Damn it, man. What did I just say?”

  “That you were thinking about using Major Stokes as a conduit for Mary O’Hara.”

  Cook stared at Maddox and finally shook his white-haired head. “This is a fine mess, a fine mess, indeed. We’ve beaten back the Swarm menace and taken care of the Yon-Soths and have even militarily corralled the New Men in the Beyond. Now, we have these damned androids and whomever Lisa Meyers represents and a hardline faction of New Men using Strand infiltrators that plague us worse than malaria-carrying mosquitoes.”

  “It’s hard to get a handle on this one,” Maddox agreed.

  Cook drummed his fingers on the table. “You said something earlier…what was it?”

  Maddox waited.

  “Oh, right, I remember. You said Meyers had her tentacles in Star Watch. That’s what this mess feels like. It isn’t just a single threat, but a serious of smaller threats that add up to a many-tentacled monster.”

  Maddox stared at the admiral before saying, “That is an interesting metaphor, sir.”

  “Now explain, would you, how you knew to come back here and shoot the chief Prime Ministerial advisor with a knockout dart.”

  “I thought I already did that, sir.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “Oh.”

  “Quit stalling, Captain. How did you know about Sanders, especially know about him far out in the Barnes System?”

  “Well, sir, it goes something like this…”

  -10-

  The rumor regarding a Strand clone awakening in a comet laboratory in the Barnes System proved to be a false trail. But the crew of Victory did find a hidden android base inside a comet that flew through the Barnes System. The base was much like the comet Builder station that had given them the polygonal stone, the one that had proven so important last mission.

  Unfortunately, the androids in the Barnes System had vacated the comet base before Victory arrived, cleaning out the many chambers. During an intense search, Riker found what was presumably a mislaid computer. Ludendorff hacked the computer, accidently tripping a failsafe which erased most of the memory. The professor managed to save enough data, however, to give them a clue about an underwater complex in the Nils Ocean on the terrestrial and Earthlike Barnes III.

  Several days later, while scanning from Victory while in orbit around Barnes III, Ludendorff and Galyan found evidence of a deep-water complex. The complex was in the middle of the Nils Ocean, several kilometers deep. Maddox descended from orbit and used a special submersible that Keith piloted underwater. They broke into the complex and found several dead New Men whose heads had been fried with electrical equipment that Ludendorff said had been formerly installed in their craniums.

  “You mean put into their brains?” Cook asked.

  “Yes,” Maddox said.

  “Was it the kind of equipment Strand used to use to control the New Men?”

  “We wondered the same thing. But we didn’t have enough remains to know.”

  “Did you find anything else?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said, as he proceeded to explain.

  In the underwater complex, in another chamber, was an android trying to slip away in a mini-sub. Sergeant Riker reached him first, using an android-dropping weapon, disabling the mechanical man.

  They rushed the android upstairs to Victory. There, Ludendorff salvaged part of the thing’s memories, although the android self-destructed. Amazingly, one memory had to do with candidate Hampton and an android infiltrator ready to slip into Star Watch if Hampton should win.

  “This was a precise memory?” asked Cook.

  Maddox paused before saying, “Professor Ludendorff is a Methuselah Man.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “Ludendorff has a complex mind and thus sees complexities much easier than most.”

  “Meaning what?” asked Cook. “Please get to the point, Captain.”

  “The professor pieced together seemingly unrelated clues from sketchy android memories. They informed Ludendorff that you in particular were in danger.”

  “Me?” Cook said.

  “That’s why I rushed here. Without you leading Star Watch, sir…”

  “Oh, confound it, Captain. I’m a man like any other. I put my pants on one leg at a time. I’m not that unique.”

  “No one holds the Commonwealth’s trust more than you, sir. We never did figure out who controlled the underwater complex, Strand, Drakos possibly, androids or someone else. Maybe this is a team effort.”

  “Explain that,” Cook said.

  “It’s Ludendorff’s idea. Throughout the years, we’ve broken many conspiracies and defeated various invasion attempts. Perhaps the remnants of these groups have joined forces in order to construct a…a many-tentacled monster.”

  “That’s the professor’s phrase?”

  “It is. That’s why you’re using it earlier surprised me.”

  Cook tilted his head. “One man is weak? Many become strong?”

  “Something like that.”

  Cook stared at his hands. He stared for some time before looking up. “If this is a group effort—many of our enemies working together—it might be more difficult to stop. There isn’t a single leader to take out, but many component parts, many leaders, as it were.”

  “Unless Lord Drakos is orchestrating the entire operation,” Maddox said. “He grabbed Strand’s former operatives. Maybe Drakos has gathered these other broken pieces to help him build a stronger unit.”

  “Do you believe Drakos has done that?”

  “I’m not ready to make that judgment yet, sir.”

  “No gut instincts to guide you?”

  “I leave such things to immediate problems,” Maddox said.

  “Let me ask you a question,” Cook said. “First, Ludendorff appears to have come to some definite conclusions.”

  “I would agree to that.”

  “Doesn’t that strike you as premature?”

  Maddox inhaled through his nostrils, saying nothing.

  “Ah,” Cook said. “I’m onto something, aren’t I?”

  Maddox shrugged.

  “Come, come, Captain. Tell me your premonition, because I think I have the same one.”

  “The professor is a Methuselah Man,” Maddox said slowly. “Strand is a Methuselah Man. The Emperor has Strand prisoner, but in some manner, Drakos has tapped into Strand’s grand scheme or schemes.”

  “From what we’ve seen in the past, Strand has many irons still waiting to heat.”

  “That fits Strand’s personality—Mister Contingency Plan.”

  “You should have killed him when you had the chance and saved us a world of headaches,” Cook complained.

  “Letting Strand live as a New Man prisoner was the price for cementing the New Men’s help against the original Swarm invasion.”

  “True enough,” Cook said. “But back to my point. Ludendorff must know Strand’s mind better than anyone else.”

  “That seems reasonable.”

  “Could Ludendorff secretly being trying to help Strand?”

  “By throwing us off Strand’s trail with the idea that others are also involved?”

  Cook nodded.

  “I don’t think so, sir.”

  “Do you trust Ludendorff?”

  “Not fully,” Maddox admitted.

  Admiral Cook looked away, staring at a wall.

  “Even if there are others allied with Drakos,” Maddox said, “it’s clear he inherited many of Strand’s…hidden irons, as you put it.”

  Cook nodded without turning around.

  Maddox grew quiet then, waiting.

  Finally, the admiral faced him. “Who controls Lisa Meyers, do you think?”

  “I would dearly like to investigate her and find out.”

  Cook grinned suddenly. “You don’t care for her threat, do you?”

  “No,” Maddox said flatly.

  “I wouldn’t either. Hmm… you’ve given me a lot to digest, Captain. General Torres is frightened and angry with you. Hampton…I don’t know about the Prime Minister. Maybe you should investigate him.”

  “That could be tricky, sir, but advisable.”

  The Lord High Admiral rubbed his chin before glancing at Maddox. “Your darting so many people has made a mess of things.”

  “I might not have reached you and Sanders in time if I hadn’t darted people, sir.”

  “What do you think the android would have done to me if he’d had more time?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Cook put both hands on the table, finally nodding. “I’m giving you the Bill Sanders android. Have Ludendorff tear it down and tell me what Sanders could have done to me. I’ll soothe Torres and Stokes. They both want your scalp. We’ll wait and see what Hampton does next, if anything.”

  “Yes, sir,” Maddox said.

  “I hope I don’t have to tell you that prying into Doctor Meyers’ background will be full of traps that could bring down the two of us.”

  Maddox shook his head. “I’ll deny you ever told me anything about her, sir.”

  Cook stared at him. “Maybe that’s for the best,” the admiral said, quietly.

  “Then perhaps I should leave, sir, go back to Victory. The sooner I get started…”

  Cook scraped his chair back as he stood. He approached Maddox and stuck out his right hand.

  Maddox gripped it.

  The Lord High Admiral clapped Maddox on the shoulder. “Good work, son. I appreciate what you did and the risks you took to do it. I don’t know about O’Hara, whether we can get her reinstalled as the Iron Lady. But I do know one thing, she would be proud of you.”

  Maddox felt a slight flush creep up his neck.

  “Now, get to work,” Cook said. “I want to get to the bottom of this as fast as possible. Whatever else happens, we have to make sure we don’t slide into another war with the New Men.”

  -11-

  Nine hours later, Maddox groaned as his wife Meta shook him awake.

  The captain lay naked in his bed in his cabin aboard Victory, having slept hard for five of the last nine hours.

  Meta wore a bathrobe, with a towel wound around her blonde hair. “Are you awake?” she asked, as she knelt on the bed.

  Maddox grinned up at her. She was a voluptuous beauty, a modified woman from the Rouen Colony. Growing up in the 2-G environment had made Meta much stronger than an ordinary woman.

  The cloth belt only partly kept the bathrobe closed. Maddox tugged at the belt so the bathrobe opened all the way.

  “Not now,” Meta said, although she was smiling. “The Lord High Admiral just sent an urgent message. He has to speak to you.”

  “In person?” asked Maddox.

  “On a secure line,” she said.

  Maddox released the belt and sat up. “What now?”

  “He said it’s about Doctor Meyers, the Prime Minister and the android Ludendorff is fiddling with.”

  “Right,” Maddox said.

  Before the five-hour sleep, he’d been up for forty-nine hours. He felt better but could have slept longer. “I’ll take the call in here,” he said.

  Meta shook her head. “Cook said to use the long-range communicator.”

  “Oh,” Maddox said. “Right. No one will be able to hack into that. Is there anything to eat or some coffee?”

  “I’ll get you some. But I think you’d better hurry. It sounded urgent.”

  Maddox slid off the bed and headed for the shower. He still felt a little groggy and figured it was time to be one hundred percent. A hot shower, coffee and some eggs would get him going. Then—

  “Go,” he told Meta. “If this is urgent, it must mean the Prime Minister is applying pressure. It’s what I would do if my butt were on the line. What are you waiting for?” he asked.

  Meta tied the cloth belt around her waist and dashed for the hatch, running barefoot.

  ***

  Maddox’s hair was still wet and his uniform slightly damp in places as he set an empty coffee cup on the table beside the long-range communicator. The bulky device was in a special room deep inside Victory.

  “Maddox here,” Maddox said as he spoke into a microphone.

  “What took you so long?” Cook said from the other end.

  “I’m here now,” Maddox said. He seldom apologized about anything.

  “The Prime Minister wants his android back,” Cook said without further preamble.

  “You spoke to him personally?”

  “That’s doesn’t make any difference,” Cook said. “He’s angry, and he wants that android. He’s given me fifteen minutes to get it headed to him in Stockholm. Make that three minutes now. You’ve already used up twelve precious minutes doing whatever you’ve been doing.”

  “Did you speak to him personally?” Maddox asked.

  “I saw his face on a screen as he made his demand.”

  “He looked angry?”

  “What are you getting at?” Cook demanded.

  “I’m assessing the situation, sir. Why did the Prime Minister wait nine hours to demand that you give him the android?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Perhaps that’s how long it took Meyers to speak to him.”

  “Speak or convince?” Cook asked.

  “That is an excellent point, sir. What is the media saying about the Sanders assassination attempt?”

  “Nothing,” Cook said.

  “But that’s incredible,” Maddox declared.

  “Now, see here,” Cook said. “I’m the head of Star Watch. That includes the head of Intelligence.”

  “No one doubts that, sir.”

  “There’s been a change in plans,” Cook said. “I’ve decided not to advertise the assassination attempt.”

  Maddox pursed his lips and refrained from commenting, although he wondered who had convinced Cook to hold off.

  “Meyers had a point before,” Cook said. “If the media learns about the attempt—did Sanders really attempt to kill me? You charged in and he—well, you shot him first, Captain.”

  “Sir, Sanders came to your office to arrest you. He brought a pack of CGMS officers. He backed off because of the gun you aimed at him. Why did he have an executive writ to arrest you?”

  “To arrest is quite different from an assassination attempt. Can we prove he wanted to kill me? But that’s not even the point. The Prime Minister’s time limit is almost up.”

  “Forget about the limit,” Maddox said. “The Prime Minister is applying pressure, nothing more. He’s making demands because you have him scared.”

  “You can’t know that. It sounds to me as if he’s going to have my head.”

  “Sir, we need to find out why he wants the android.”

  “You had nine hours already to figure that out. You should know by now.”

  “I need to speak to Ludendorff.”

  Lord High Admiral Cook swore over the long-range communicator. “My aide has just informed me that I have received another call from the Prime Minister’s Office. The message states that he is debating sending another delegation to arrest me for murdering Sanders.”

  “He won’t do that. You have the upper hand in this, sir.”

  “I don’t know that I do. Stokes believes we made a strategic error letting Meyers go.”

  “Is it Major Stokes’ advice to keep the Sanders attack secret?”

  “There was no attack.”

  “You’re wrong, sir. Tell the Prime Minister you’re considering going to the media. Tell him you’re already in contact with certain Great Council members. You’re seeking their advice. Back him off by threatening to expose this entire sordid—”