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sage, that’d have to be — and stick ‘em on a little bitty escort? To go to Seti space? C’mon. You send a special envoy to the Seti, you send a damn flotilla in with ‘em, not an escort. No, you mark my words, sir, he’s here to Spy on us and this proves it. “

Dupaynil could not tell through the audio link which of his taps had been found, but he wished ardently that be had not planted it, whatever it was. Once again he had out-smarted himself, as he had with Sassinak. Never underesti-mate the enemy and be damned sure you know who the enemy is; a very basic rule he had somehow violated.

He felt a trickle of sweat run down his ribs. Sassinak had been dumped in an evac pod, rescued by the combined efforts of Wefts and a Ssli. He had no Wefts or Ssli to back him up; he would have to figure this out himself.

“You’re sure he hasn’t got the good stuff out of comp

“Pretty sure.” The mate’s voice was even grimmer.

•:; “Security’s got good tools, though. Give him all the

y;; time between here and Seti space, and he’ll have not

only the basics but enough to mind-fry the lot of us, all

·        the way up to Lady Luisa herself. “

••?     Dupaynil almost forgot his fear. Lady Luisa? Luisa

•; Paraden? He had always been able to put two and two together and find more interesting things than four. ^.Now he felt an almost physical jolt as his mind con-JKttected everything he’d ever heard or seen; including all ‘l-ithe information Sassinak had gathered. |i;   As bright as a diagram projected on the screen of a %4lrategy meeting, all connections marked out in glowing ‘X;*ed or yellow . . . Luisa to Randolph, who had ample jpeason to loathe Sassinak. That had been Randolph vengeance, through his aunt’s henchman, a washed Fleet officer once held captive on the same outpost as an orphan girl.  Dupaynil spared a to pity that doomed lieutenant: Sassinak never , even if she learned the whole story. Luisa would do something that potentially dangerous just for idolph, though. It must have been vengeance for

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