"You're giving up on using the political approach to Old Earth?"

"It may have some value as an adjunct to military moves," he said, "but I can't stake my mission on it."

"Pre-emption would certainly save a lot of lives," she said.

"It would also keep Old Earth's assets and resources whole," he said. "That'll be important when we move there and cut off contact with the Younger Worlds—but Hal Mayne will have something to say about it, too, unless I can show him there's no hope for his side."

He stopped, seeing that Toni's attention had shifted inward. Messages from the staff were relayed to her ears by bone conduction from her wristpad, and she sometimes appeared distracted as she listened to a report.

"The Marshal's on his way up," she said.

Bleys rose, heading for the door.

"No," Toni said. "I know you're eager to get started, but you should follow protocol—you're still the First Elder, and he should come to you."

"I know, I know," Bleys said. "Sometimes the rules—well, anyway, what do you suggest? I want to see him quickly."

"Go into the room beyond the conference room," she said. "I'll meet him and bring his party there, and you can come in right after they sit down . . . you fret too much; having to wait for superiors is part of their lives, and they'll feel more comfortable if you don't blur the lines of authority they've always lived by."

"All right," Bleys said. "I'll come in from the far door as soon as he arrives, then—he's a good man and I don't want to make him wait."

"You don't want to make yourself wait, either," she said. He left.

The Marshal, a middle-aged man in the black uniform of the Friendly Worlds' professional military force, was still on his feet when Bleys entered the conference room. Beside him, Toni silently raised an eyebrow as she traded glances with Bleys.

"Marshal, it's good to see you again," Bleys said. "I thought you were bringing some of your staff?"

"They're waiting outside," the Marshal said. He looked tired, Bleys thought; his normally round, calm face seemed to be lined and pale.

"I have something I wanted to report to the First Elder in private," the Marshal went on, not looking at Toni.

"Proceed, please," Bleys said, looking directly into the Marshal's pale blue eyes.

"It shames me," the Marshal said, "but I must report that our security has been breached."

"Details, please, Marshal," Bleys said. The officer reached into a small pocket below the waistline of his uniform tunic, to pull out a small case. He handed it to Bleys.

"Details are on this chip," he said. "Shall I summarize?"

"Please."

"It appears that a small, fast vessel managed to enter New Earth's space without being observed," the Marshal said. "I have to report we didn't notice it until it left—which it did by shifting out while still in atmosphere. We were unable to stop it."

"Shifting in the atmosphere?" Bleys said. "That suggests a Dorsai vessel, does it not?"

"I think so, First Elder." The Marshal's face displayed pain.

"Have you any idea what it was doing here?"

"Analyses of the sensors at four training facilities, the Colon shipyard, and seven armament manufactories have revealed anomalous readings," the Marshal said. "Our technician-analysts say the readings are the sort of traces one might get if someone were using personal suppressor fields while infiltrating the facilities."

"So someone came in," Bleys said. "And presumably out. To look? Was there any sabotage?"

"None."

"What's the time frame?"

"The twelve incursions occurred over a sixteen-day period," the Marshal said. "We're still checking the sensor logs from other installations."

"What's your personal reading on this, Marshal?" Bleys asked. The skin around the older man's eyes relaxed a little, and his face regained its normal calmness.

"An intelligence mission, First Elder," he said. "I agree," Bleys said, nodding. The room was quiet for a moment, as Bleys thought. Then he nodded. "Thank you, Marshal," he said.

"I wish to apologize, First Elder—" the Marshal began; but Bleys cut him off.

"Accepted, Marshal," he said. "I'm sure your people will be more alert in the future." "You may count on it."

"I'll review your data later," Bleys continued, handing the chip to Toni. "For the moment, shall we proceed with more routine matters?"

The Marshal agreed, and turned as if about to summon his staff from outside.

"Make it a priority to keep me informed of any further developments," Bleys added. "Let me know immediately about any developments, even if I'm off-planet."

"I'll have courier ships standing by at all times," the Marshal said.

"I have an idea," Bleys said, "that may allow faster communications between us."

"First Elder?"

"We'll go through the details when your staff are here," Bleys said. "The basic idea is to set up a line of ships—a sort of chain— that will maintain station at points between New Earth and Association, each with a pre-calculated shift already set up to take it to the position of the next vessel in the chain."

"I believe I see," the Marshal said, his face interested. "Each ship can jump and pass its message to the ship waiting at its arrival point—which can then jump as soon as it gets the message." He paused, thinking. "It could get a report from me to you in a day or less.

"Yes," Bleys said. "It'll take a lot of ships and men, but if it works it'll be worth setting up similar chains between all the worlds."

"This could revolutionize everything," the Marshal said. He was smiling, clearly beyond his earlier embarrassment.

"Shall we bring your staff in, then?"

The Marshal turned, but Toni was already moving to the door.

After the Marshal left, Bleys and Toni returned to the lounge, where Bleys activated a security bubble. Toni watched the bubble expand about them without commenting.

"We'll have to try to use the bubble more," Bleys said. "I should have expected an intelligence-gathering effort."

"You're pretty sure it's the Dorsai, aren't you?" Toni said. "You wanted to know what they were up to, and this may be it."

"Only part of it," Bleys said thoughtfully. "I wonder..." His words trailed off into silence.

"What?" she said at last.

"There's no way to tell," he said, "but I can't help wondering if Hal Mayne might be out there."

"Mayne himself?" she said. "That doesn't seem likely, does it? He's not a Dorsai and doesn't have either the espionage experience or the ship-handling skills the Marshal described—and besides, it's a dangerous job; would he risk his loss to his side, that way?"

"He's not averse to risk if the reward is there," Bleys said. "He's important to his side, yes, but I'm sure he believes it can and will continue without him. And you're forgetting he's allied with the Dorsai—he doesn't have to be the one doing the driving."

"That's true," she said.

"Forget that for the moment," Bleys said. "We need to get alarms off right away to all our people, warning them to expect similar espionage; so while I draft the messages, would you please line up ships to carry them?"

"I already started that while we were in the meeting," she said. "I'll get back on that right now."

"One more thing," he said: "we need to send a message to Old Earth, too—to Dahno. If you're willing, I'd like it to be a note directly from you."

"Are you asking me to be an intermediary?"

"Yes," Bleys said. "He's always respected you; I'm hoping he'll be open enough to you to enter into regular contact."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Let me explain the situation as I see it, and then you decide how you'd approach it," Bleys said. "Whether Mayne himself is out there, or not, we're not going to be able to prevent the information that we're mobilizing from getting back to the Final Encyclopedia. That might just tip Old Earth against us. So I'd like you to find a way to tell Dahno that war is now inevitable, and he has to decide which side he's on."

"You'll have to have a meeting, won't you?" "I'd prefer the idea come from him."

"Maybe I can plant the idea somehow," she said. "But then he'll have to get back to us about it, won't he?"

"Yes," Bleys said, "and probably more than once; he won't come around to this all at once. What I'm going to suggest is that you go to Cassida—it's the closest of the Younger Worlds to Old Earth— and stay available to negotiate with him, using as many back-and-forth ships as it takes, until he comes around."

"Where will you be?"

"Out on the other Worlds again," he said. "There's still work to be done, and I want to check in on how each of our groups reacts to that intelligence ship—I can't let the mention of Dorsai affect their thinking."

"Where do you want to meet Dahno?"

"He'll understand I won't be willing to come to Old Earth," Bleys said, "and he'll fall into a comfortable pattern of trying to find a compromise."

"He won't be willing to come back to the Younger Worlds," she said.

"That's right," he said. "Mars might be a compromise he could accept."

"Won't he be suspicious if I suggest that?"

"That's why you won't suggest it. When he brings up the idea of a meeting, you veto Old Earth and suggest Holmstead." "On Venus?"

"Yes," Bleys said. "No one in their right mind wants to spend time there, so it's sparsely populated; he'll believe I'm interested in it as a place we can be relatively unobserved."

"He won't want to go there, and will offer an alternative location."

"I think so," Bleys said. "In fact, I'd guess he'll suggest Luna— Old Earth's moon—which of course I'll refuse; and so we'll settle on Mars." He smiled a little.

"That brings up another thing we need to do," he said. "By the time you start negotiating about a location for a meeting, he'll already have decided where he wants to go, and he'll be sending people in ahead of time to set up his security. We need to do the same, and if we move soon, we'll be there first."

"We need to speak with Henry, then," Toni said.

"Yes," Bleys said. "In fact, I think I want him to lead this group personally."

"Will he be willing to be so far away from you?" "I think I can bring him around," Bleys said. "Particularly when I point out he'd be ensuring my safety."

"I believe I understand," Henry said. The three of them were huddled within the security bubble again, and Bleys had laid out the security problems a meeting with Dahno on Mars would entail.

"I suggest you take only Soldiers who are new to our service since Dahno left," Bleys said. "He won't recognize them if he happens to see them."

"While true," Henry said, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Oh?"

"Will he not find it suspicious if he arrives and sees no Soldiers?" Henry asked. He shook his head. "It might well scare him away. I'll take some Soldiers he'll know, along with some he won't know. The ones he knows can be out in the open, while the others will remain in the deeper background."

"Do you have people among the new Soldiers who can be trusted with a mission like this?"

"With time to prepare them, yes," Henry said. "On the whole the newer Soldiers tend to be younger and less experienced, and often have the attitude problems of youth, but we weed out those who don't respect their elders. We can do much if we get them to Mars enough ahead of time to settle them into their surroundings and their tasks—and I'll be there, of course."

"But Dahno would recognize you, too," Toni pointed out.

"Of course he will," Henry said. "But he won't think of me as an assassin; my presence will be reassuring to him, which will facilitate your discussions."

"That's a very good point, Uncle," Bleys said.

"Do we know where we should be set up, on Mars?" Henry asked. "We can't bring enough people to have you covered on an entire planet."

"You won't need to," Bleys said. "Dahno won't be willing to go far from his ship, so we can concentrate on areas in the close vicinity of landing pads."

"To cut down on the risk of an ambush," Toni said, "he'll want a place with a lot of people around."

"How many Soldiers can you spare for this duty, Uncle?" Bleys asked.

"I'll want to leave some covering you," Henry said. "Probably under Carl's command. I think I can do that comfortably and still bring about sixty to Mars."

"All right," Bleys said. "That would allow you to spread your people out and get them in place in anywhere from six to ten ports— shall we pick the eleven largest pads and then eliminate the largest one, simply because it's too obvious?"

"That widens the chance that Dahno will pick a place we already have people in," Toni said.

"And one he'll have people in, too," Bleys said.

CHAPTER 41

Centuries after it had become the first planet to undergo a terraforming process, Mars was still not a place most people found comfortable. The planet's small size and distance from its star meant it would always remain colder and darker than any of the worlds that had been terraformed under other stars. The dreariness of the cold darkness was emphasized, for Martians, by the sight, in their night sky, of the light that was their nearest neighbor and the place for which their bodies were best suited, Old Earth.

It was Bleys' first trip to this planet; and now he sat at his desk in Favored of God's lounge, watching a wide-angle view of the Martian twilight as it crept across the pad just outside Mirage. He had never had any reason to make the tedious trip to this out-of-the-way planet—more inaccessible than ever, right now, since Mars was on the opposite side of its star from Old Earth.

Most of humankind felt much the same way.

Mars had loomed large in human imaginations in the days when travel there was impossible; its light was bright in the only night sky mankind had. That time had vanished the day Mars became a place no longer out of reach.

Bleys had read samples of some of the speculations people had written about Mars during that long pre-space flight time. It was no surprise that most of them had been wildly implausible; what surprised him was the amazing variety of dreams human imaginations had been able to craft out of virtually nothing—he continued to find himself disappointed at the human ability to ignore facts in favor of something, anything, that could make one feel good.

He had also been surprised the first time he ran across a reference to Mars as the "Red Planet." The rocks and dust that lent the planet that descriptive name were now largely out of sight, the dust bound by ground cover and the rocks nestling under scraggly variform evergreen bushes and trees.

Still, as he looked across the landing pad he could see occasional eddies of orange dust, that had somehow escaped the clutches of the binding vegetation, swirling in the cold wind of dusk.

A portion of the front facade of the port that serviced Mirage protruded into the left edge of his screen; he could have panned the view to take in more of those buildings, but he had no desire to do so. He preferred to watch the open space where Dahno's ship would soon be landing.

That ship had been waiting in Mars orbit when Favored arrived, something Bleys had insisted on, and once the brothers made contact they had negotiated their way to an agreement to land on this small pad and find a way to have their discussion—a negotiation Bleys suspected succeeded only because both sides had people already in place.

Henry, who had been waiting in Barsoom for the decision on where the meeting would take place, made it to Mirage before Favored touched down. Calling from the port, he had strongly suggested Bleys leave the ship immediately and move into the spaceport buildings, or even into the town. Dahno, Henry pointed out, arriving last and coming down from space, would have an easy shot at destroying Favored of God from above, if he so chose—no one was going to assume that Dahno's ship was unarmed.

"How could he do something like that and hope to get away with it?" Bleys replied. "This is Old Earth's space, and he couldn't hope to go back to that planet without it being known, well before he got there, what he had done."

"There are ways," Toni said; speaking for the first time since their arrival on the surface; she had been somber throughout the trip, but Bleys had no idea what had brought that mood on.

On the screen, Henry nodded. "He could be sending some third ship down," he suggested. "He couldn't be blamed for what happens down here if he's still in orbit at the time."

"That might explain why he's taken so long to follow us down," Toni added.

"I suppose so," Bleys said. "But remember, Dahno is cautious above all else. I can tell you with absolute certainty that when he thought about doing something like that—and I'm sure he thought about it—he also realized I'd be unlikely to remain in Favored waiting for him ... in fact, it's probably the last place he expects me to be, just now. So it's the safest possible place for me."

"And if Dahno has people watching from the port, to tell him you haven't left the ship?" Toni asked.

"That's why I had two of the techs rent a shuttle and take it over the horizon, right after we landed," Bleys said.

Toni subsided in the face of Bleys' logic, but there was still a small frown line between her eyebrows. Henry, in the screen, nodded thoughtfully; and then signed off, intending to review his Soldiers' preparations and positioning.

That had been more than half an hour ago.

Mars' star was now on the horizon behind the port buildings, just out of Bleys' view, and the sky in his screen was shading itself to a dark, almost metallic indigo color that managed to suggest coldness without actually being the black of space. Stars were already showing, in the darker edge of that sky.

"There's a ship approaching," Toni's voice said. After Henry had signed off she had moved to the communications room; these were the first words he had heard from her since that time.

—And there it was, suddenly!

The ship was not as large as Favored of God, and was shaped a little differently—a more flattened cylinder. Like Favored, it was largely a silver color, polished to a mirror finish; but it was painted in a few places, with letters, numbers, and other markings Bleys could not make out.

The ship seemed to be moving slowly, almost hovering and drifting into its place; and yet it had seemed to appear out of nowhere, so swiftly had it dropped from above. He supposed that meant it had a very experienced driver, one of those who could make everything about shiphandling seem effortless.

He wondered if Dahno had hired a Dorsai. It was possible, he supposed, although his intelligence people had been telling him for some time that the Dorsai were going back to their planet.

For the first time he wondered whether Dahno might have told the Dorsai this would be a good place to take action directly at their major enemy. He felt a breath of coldness, but shook it off—Toni had always insisted the Dorsai would never stoop to assassination.

Bleys put no faith in the likelihood that people in trouble would remain true to their principles. However, he thought the Dorsai had to realize that assassinating a foreign dignitary in Old Earth's space would cause more trouble than they might want to handle.

The ship was down now, nestling almost softly onto the resilient pad surface. And in almost the same moment, Toni's voice came over Favored’s intercom.

"We've received a message from Dahno," she said. "He says he's just landed and wants to know where to go to meet you."

"Tell him to meet me in the bar on the main concourse," Bleys said. "We'll decide where to go from there ... oh, and tell him to dress warmly, and to bring oxygen."

Bleys was perched on a tall stool at the bar of the Seven Came Back Tavern when his half-brother loomed in the broad, open doorway. Bleys had known Dahno was on his way, because a series of alert-looking individuals had been drifting through and past the bar for the last five minutes.

From halfway across the room, it seemed obvious that Dahno was angry. Most of the bar's few patrons noticed it quickly, and, prudently respecting the huge size of the newcomer, moved quietly away.

"I'm not as angry as I look," Dahno said, as he took the second stool over from Bleys—one that was just around the curve of the bar. "You've seen this act before." He punched the control pad before him for a drink while waving away the bartender. At this late hour there were few people about to patronize the port services, and the bartender was happy to be left alone with her entertainment console.

"Hello, Toni," Dahno continued. He smiled cheerily. Bleys thought his brother had put on a little more weight.

"It's good to see you again, Dahno," Toni said. She was smiling, too.

"It's good to be seen," Dahno replied; and reached for the drink rising from the interior of the bar. Then he snorted, looking back to Toni's puzzled face.

"Sorry," he said. "That's a very old Earth joke."

"You didn't look as if you were in a joking mood," Toni said.

"No doubt," Dahno said. "I like the privacy people tend to give me when they think I'm angry." He turned his eyes to his brother.

"With just a little more work, we'd have privacy to talk right here," he said. "My people can bring in an inhibitor field generator."

"Aren't they illegal here?" Toni asked. Dahno shrugged.

"I can set up a HUSH field," Bleys said. "But I'm not comfortable about depending on that for the important subjects. You have to know, from my mention of oxygen, that I wasn't planning to talk in this place."

"I know," Dahno said. "But it's cold out there!" He grinned, a little savagely.

"And how do I know who else might be out in the dark?" he added. "I saw some familiar faces in the concourse as I walked over here."

"I figured you wouldn't feel comfortable unless you saw a few Soldiers," Bleys said. "But I guess you don't trust me, brother? I've never tried to harm you in any way, you know that."

"Turn on the field and I'll admit it," Dahno said. "I've learned you weren't behind the people who were stalking me on Earth."

"I don't know anything about that," Bleys said. "I do know you were behind the police who came after me."

"You're right," Dahno said. "I guess I owe you an apology." He grimaced.

"I lost my head," he went on. "You know I've done that before, under stress. My people stopped several attempts on my life, and one was a staff person from the Freiland organization. I thought maybe you'd sent him after me."

"I didn't."

"I realized later it made no sense; but at the time I was angry— all right, and I wasn't thinking well."

"What did you tell the police that would send them after me?"

"They got an anonymous tip that the person in your room might know something about the killings at the Mayne estate."

"They reacted like that to an anonymous tip relating to a years-old case, with no corroboration?"

"Well, maybe they had a little corroboration," Dahno said.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember, I was the one who called in people to clean up after the killings," Dahno said. "I'd made some contacts on Earth before you ever joined me, as part of my efforts to get sources of information on all the planets, and on that trip I had time to renew acquaintances."

"Your acquaintances must be pretty versatile people," Toni said.

"Like every planet, Earth has an underworld," Dahno said. "Some of them aren't just simple thugs, but successful businessmen looking for information that can give them an edge."

"You've been working with them again, I assume," Bleys asked.

"Yes," Dahno said. "In fact, some of their people are out there in the concourse ... I haven't had enough time to recruit and train dependable Soldiers of my own."

"What was that 'corroboration' you gave the police?"

"I told them where they could find the pistols used in the killings, along with a few small things from the Estate. It was enough to make the authorities think there might be something more to learn in your room."

"You were targeting me that long ago?" Bleys asked.

"Not at all," Dahno said.

"Then why did you set up something that could link the killings to mer

Dahno's face reddened, but he said nothing.

"I have a hard time believing you were really that stupid, brother," Bleys said at last. "Didn't it occur to you that if they connected me to the killings, you'd be connected, too?"

"I know, I know," Dahno said, his voice rising. "It was stupid; I didn't think it out until later, that leading the police to you had to lead them to me, too. But I thought you were out to get rid of me."

He's overplaying his role, Bleys thought.

"Anyway, the police never got to you," Dahno said. "The room was sanitized before they arrived. They only found four people sleeping off a messy party."

"So you knew where I was and you wanted to show me you could have had me taken in, if you'd wanted."

"I just wanted to warn you off," Dahno said. "I thought you should know I wouldn't let you get rid of me without a fight."

"Did you really believe you could manipulate my attitude toward you?"

"It's past, brother," Dahno said. "Let it go. I made a mistake, and I know you never tried to harm me. The way I was looking at it, when our ways parted, the situation changed."

"I don't think we should say any more here," Bleys said.

"I suppose that's so."

"We have to decide on someplace to go," Bleys said. "I don't suppose you'd be comfortable with coming back to Favored?"

"I don't think so," Dahno said, a grim sort of smile appearing on his face. "But I have an idea how we can pick a place, if you'll go along with it."

Bleys only looked at his half-brother, waiting.

"Call Henry in here," Dahno said.

Dahno's smile seemed genuine as he greeted Henry; in fact, Bleys was sure it was genuine—as far as it went. But that did not mean there was not something else under it.

Bleys gave them time to catch up; but finally he broke in.

"You asked for Uncle Henry for a reason, brother—what is it?"

"Ah, yes," Dahno said. He smiled, and turned back to Henry.

"Uncle, we've been trying to decide on a safe place to have a long talk. I asked Bleys to call you here because I want you to pick our place."

"Me, Dahno?" Henry said. "Why would you ask me?"

"Because I can trust you, Uncle," Dahno said. "If you tell me a place is safe for me, I'll believe you." He looked back at Bleys. "Unless you have an objection, brother?"

"No," Bleys said. He was uneasy, but there was no other option.

"I'm not sure I like this," Henry said. His eyes turned to his other nephew. "Bleys?"

"I have nothing better to suggest, Uncle," Bleys said. "Can you think of a place nearby?"

"I'm sure Uncle Henry hasn't been here long enough to really know this port," Dahno cut in. "Why don't we all leave this bar together and talk a walk along the concourse, until Henry sees a place he might want to suggest?"

Still troubled, Bleys agreed.

CHAPTER 42

"There," Henry said, nodding to indicate an old-fashioned sign ahead of them on the left. Moving along the concourse, they had bypassed numerous business establishments before Henry made his choice. A cloud of alert individuals were doing their best to follow them unobtrusively. "A church?" Dahno asked.

"A chapel, rather," Henry said. "I am familiar with these places. They serve no single faith, but simply provide calm and quiet for anyone with an inclination to commune quietly with the Lord. It will likely be unoccupied at this hour."

After both sides had swept the chapel with security scanners, the four of them entered, accompanied by two bodyguards from each side; and those individuals stared as Bleys activated the blue security bubble that would keep them—or anyone else—from hearing his conversation with Dahno. Toni and Henry were included in the bubble.

"All right, brother," Dahno said immediately, "this is as secure as we can get. But nothing lasts forever, so why don't we get to it?"

"Fine," Bleys said. "What did you want to talk about?"

Dahno grinned.

"Come now, brother," he said. "Did you really believe you could fool me into thinking this meeting was my idea? I knew perfectly well you were behind everything Toni sent me."

"Then why did you come?"

"Because I'm sure it's better for both of us if we come to an agreement," Dahno said. "All right, I'll start: you said earlier I could retire and you'd leave me alone."

"I meant it," Bleys said. "I still do. But now I have to be convinced you really mean what you say."

"Well," Dahno replied, "you must be aware my organization has continued to work, for your plan to divide and paralyze Earth— doesn't that count for something?"

"I don't know your reasons for that," Bleys said. He felt a coldness in him, that seemed to wall him off from the situation, and from his companions; it was as if he were looking at them from a distance. "It's not enough to convince me."

"If we don't come to a truce," Dahno said, "I'm in a good position. You can't damage my position on Earth without exposing your plan to manipulate that planet's people into leaving you a free hand in the Younger Worlds—that information would unite the planet against you."

He stopped, abruptly, eyeing his brother. Then he spoke again, more softly:

"Something's happened, hasn't it? What is it?"

Bleys looked at him for a long moment.

"The timetable's been accelerated," he said finally.

"Timetable?" Something dawned in Dahno's eyes.

"War?" he asked. "Are you saying—"

"Yes," Bleys said.

"I thought you believed that was far off—"

"It was," Bleys said. "But Hal Mayne's been out in the Younger Worlds, and he's accomplished a lot more than I thought possible."

"Mayne again?" Dahno said. "What could he have done that would require you to go to war?"

"He's got the Exotics and the Dorsai committed to helping him," Bleys said. "And he's obtained proof of our mobilization."

"Which he'll use to pull Earth into his camp."

"Don't you think that would happen?"

"It might," Dahno admitted. "I still think my people can paralyze the planet's decision-making processes indefinitely."

"Can they?" Bleys asked. "My understanding is that Rukh Tamani has been very effective in countering your propaganda."

"She's done some damage," Dahno said. "She just appeared out of nowhere, and people listen to her. She's as good as anyone we've got."

"Hal Mayne sent her," Bleys said.

"He did? I guess you were more right about him than I was," Dahno said. But his nod was more decisive than the resignation in his words, and his jaw firmed.

"Tamani's been winning some popular support," he said, "but she can't match our influence with the real decision makers all around the planet."

"Are you sure?" Bleys said. "Anyone you've got in your pocket can be turned around if she gets enough popular support—they'd have to follow along just to keep their positions."

"She won't be getting any more support, though," Dahno said.

"What've you planned?" Bleys asked—but his mind had already leaped to a guess.

"It's already done," Dahno said. "We should get the word any minute—consider it my gift."

"Dahno—" Henry began, a disturbed tone in his voice; Toni's words cut over his.

"Do you mean you've sent someone to kill her?" she said.

"You fool!" Bleys said. His voice was soft but vehement, and the anger in it shocked him; the number of times he had displayed so much emotion could be counted on one hand.

Where is this coming from? His memory of the woman he had seen on that bleak Harmony afternoon rose in his mind.

The other three in the bubble were staring at him.

"Don't you understand what you've done?" he said. He was trying to keep his voice low, but his breath was hot in his nostrils. "Assassination gives her words more credibility that she could have earned in years of preaching!"

As he was speaking, Bleys' mind registered that John Colville, one of the Soldiers outside the bubble, was waving his arms, trying to get their attention. Henry, following Bleys' eyes, saw that Colville was holding one arm up and pointing at his wristpad. Beside him, his comrade, Steve Foster, was keeping his attention firmly on Dahno's two bodyguards, who were standing against a wall, shifting nervously. One had his own wristpad up to his lips and was speaking into it.

"That'll be the news!" Dahno said.