Turning to the guard, Eberly said, “You can go now. I’ll take charge here.”

The guard touched his right hand to his forehead in a sloppy salute, then headed toward the stairs.

“Holly, I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Eberly said as he stepped into the sitting room and looked around. “Where’s Professor Wilmot?”

“Asleep,” she replied. “I’ll get him.”

Wilmot came into the room, wearing the same fuzzy robe. Otherwise he looked normal, wide awake. Not a hair out of place. His face, though, was set in an expression that Holly had never seen on the old man before: wariness, apprehension, almost fear.

“May I sit down?” Eberly asked politely.

“I imagine you can do anything you bloody well like,” said Wilmot, irritably.

Instead of sitting, though, Eberly took an oblong black box from his tunic pocket and swung it across the room in a full circle, then swept it up and down, from ceiling to floor and back again.

“What’re you doing?” Holly asked.

“Exterminating bugs,” said Eberly. “Making certain our conversation isn’t overheard by anyone else.”

Wilmot bristled. “You’ve had my quarters bugged for some time, haven’t you?”

“That was Vyborg’s doing,” Eberly lied smoothly, “not mine.”

“Indeed.”

“I want to get this all straightened out before there’s any more violence,” Eberly said as he finally sat in the nearer of the two armchairs.

“So do I,” said Holly.

Wilmot sank slowly into the armchair facing Eberly. Holly went to the sofa. She sat down and tucked her feet under her, feeling almost like a little mouse trying to make herself seem as small and invisible as possible.

“You’re in danger, Holly. Kananga wants to execute you.”

“What do you intend to do about it?” Wilmot demanded.

“I need your help,” Eberly replied.

“My help? What do you expect me to do?”

“In eighteen hours or so I’ll be the elected head of the new government,” said Eberly. “Until then you are still the director of this community, sir.”

“I’m under house arrest and threatened with scandal,” Wilmot grumbled. “What power do I have?”

“If you ordered those guards away, they would obey you.”

“Would they?”

Eberly nodded. “Yes, providing I second your command.”

“I see.”

Holly swiveled her attention from Eberly to Wilmot and back again. Scandal? she wondered. House arrest? What’s going on between these two?

She said to Eberly, “Kananga killed Don Diego, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“And he wants to kill me.”

“He certainly does.”

“How are you going to stop him?”

“By arresting him,” Eberly said, without hesitation. But his face looked worried, doubtful.

“Suppose he doesn’t want to be arrested?” Wilmot said. “He’s the chief of the security forces, after all.”

“That’s where you come in, sir. You still have the legal power and the moral authority to command the security officers.”

“Moral authority,” Wilmot mumbled.

“We’ll need to arrest Morgenthau and Vyborg as well. They were parties to Kananga’s crime.”

“Easier said than done. If Kananga wants to resist, I’ll warrant most of the security force will follow his lead, not mine.”

Holly said, “But the security force is only about three dozen men and women.”

“That’s a dozen for each of us,” Wilmot pointed out.

“Yes,” said Holly. “But there are ten thousand other men and women in this habitat.”

ELECTION DAY

Kananga looked at his wristwatch, then up at the apartment building. He’d been waiting out in the street with a half-dozen of his best people for nearly an hour.

“I don’t think she’s coming out, sir,” said the team’s leader. “We could go in and get her.”

“No,” Kananga barked. “Wait.”

He yanked his handheld from his tunic pocket and called for Eberly.

“What’s going on?” he demanded as soon as Eberly’s face appeared on the miniature screen.

“Miss Lane is going to stay here in Professor Wilmot’s quarters for the time being,” Eberly said smoothly.

“What? That’s not acceptable.”

“She’ll remain here until after the election is finished. We don’t want to have anything disturb the voting.”

“I don’t see why—”

“I’ve made my decision,” Eberly snapped. “You can post guards around the area. She’s not going anywhere.”

His image winked out, leaving Kananga staring angrily at a blank screen.

“What do we do now?” the team leader asked him.

Kananga glared at her. “You stay here. If she tries to leave the building, arrest her.”

“And you, sir?”

“I’m going to try to get a few hours’ sleep,” he said, stalking off toward his own quarters.

The phone woke Kris Cardenas. She sat up groggily and called out, “No outgoing video.” Glancing at Gaeta sleeping peacefully beside her, she thought that the man could probably snooze through the end of the world.

Holly’s face appeared at the foot of the bed. “Kris, are you there?”

“Holly!” Cardenas cried. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m in Professor Wilmot’s apartment, upstairs from you. Can you come up here right away?”

Cardenas saw that it was a few minutes past seven A.M. “There’s a couple of security goons outside my door, Holly. They won’t—”

“That’s okay. They’ll let you come up here. Professor Wilmot’s already spoken to them.”

Oswaldo Yañez woke bright and cheerful. He heard his wife in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. He showered and brushed his teeth, whistling to himself as he dressed.

Breakfast was waiting for him on the kitchen table, steaming hot and looking delicious. He kissed her lightly on the forehead and said, “Before I eat, I must do my duty as a citizen.”

He called to the computer as he sat across the table from Estela.

“Who will you vote for?” she asked.

Grinning, he replied, “The secrecy of the ballot is sacred, my darling.”

“I voted for Eberly. He makes more sense than the others.”

Yañez’s jaw dropped open. “You voted? Already?”

“Of course. As soon as I awoke.”

Yañez felt all the excitement of the day drain out of him. He wanted to be the first to vote. It was unfair of his wife to sneak in ahead of him. Then he sighed. At least she voted for the right candidate.

“You’re really okay?” Cardenas asked as soon as she entered Wilmot’s apartment. Gaeta was right behind her, looking a little puzzled.

“I’m fine,” said Holly. Turning to Eberly and Wilmot, she said, “You know everybody, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

Gaeta fixed Eberly with a pugnacious stare. “What’s the idea of cooping us up in the apartment? What’s going on?”

“We are trying to save Miss Lane’s neck,” Eberly said.

“Yes,” Wilmot added. “We want to avoid violence, but there are certain steps we must take.”

Holly told them what she had planned, and what she needed them to do.

Cardenas blinked, once she understood. “Posse comitatus?” she asked, unbelieving.

Gaeta broke into a nervous laugh. “Holy Mother, you mean a posse, like in the old westerns?”

“It won’t work,” Cardenas said. “These people are too independent to form a posse just because you ask them to. They’ll want to know why and how. They’ll refuse to serve.”

“I was wondering about them myself,” said Wilmot.

Eberly smiled, though. “They’ll do it. They merely need a bit of persuasion.”

After a few hours of sleep, Kananga stormed into Eberly’s apartment. “What are you doing? We agreed that the Lane woman would be put into my custody.”

Sitting bleary-eyed at his desk, watching the three sets of numbers from the early voting returns, Eberly said, “I’ve been up all night, working on your problem.”

“My problem? She’s your problem, too. I want her delivered to me immediately.”

Eberly said blandly, “She will be. Don’t get upset.”