But none of her growing anger was in the sultry look she turned up to him. “You must have been lost, sweetcakes. Spaceport is clear on the other side of the city. Do you really want to wait that long?”

He almost crushed her ribs in answer. “After you will come to see my ship.”

“I’m likely to be too worn out,” she said meaningfully, “but we’ll see.”

He must have decided that was the best he would get for now, for he nodded and started off in the direction she’d indicated. She could breathe again-and wondered just how she would take him out. Six feet of confident, arrogant, amorous, strong warrior. Her Frimera technique might be her best bet. He wouldn’t even see it coming.

And he didn’t. When they reached Rourk’s apartment and she palmed the identilock, which fortunately had her prints on file, Tedra had one arm already around her warrior’s neck. It was just a matter of moving her fingers into place and applying the pressure while he was distracted with the door opening.

Only he didn’t go down immediately. He even turned to look at her, and for about four seconds her body went cold with fear. But then he did begin to slump forward, finally to crash onto the floor. So it just took a little longer on someone his size. Those thick neck muscles, probably. Stars, what a scare! But not nearly as much as the scare she gave poor Rourk, showing up at his door with a Sha-Ka’ari warrior in tow.

Chapter Three

“What do you mean you don’t want to kill him?” Rourk practically shouted.

“I don’t know,” Tedra answered with a sigh. “He told me his name on the way here. If he hadn’t told me his name-”

“Tedra!”

“Well, the man had his hands all over me and I didn’t half mind it. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for something like that to happen?”

Hearing that, he simply stared at her. Of all the times for Tedra De Arr to remember that she was a woman, why did it have to be now? For years he had been trying to set her up with one man or another, and all she ever did was challenge them, beat them, then never mention their names again.

He knew her problem. They’d been close friends for nearly five years, so he couldn’t help but know her problem. And truth to tell, he sympathized with it. He wouldn’t feel comfortable himself, filing for double occupancy with a woman who he knew could demolish him in a matter of moments if he ever got her riled. Sex-sharers did fight occasionally. It was inevitable. A man would not like knowing that he could end up seriously injured or dead if his partner lost her head. Tedra didn’t like knowing it any better. She was waiting for the man she couldn’t walk all over to come along. She’d been waiting a long time.

“You’re not seriously considering… consorting with the enemy, are you?”

She snorted. “I brought him down, didn’t I? He didn’t stand a chance.” But there were those four seconds when she had thought the Frimera technique had failed. And there were those feelings that had come up out of nowhere when Kowan had stopped just before they reached Rourk’s and kissed her. Damned warrior. What’d he have to kiss her for? “I just don’t feel like killing him, all right?” she fairly growled, not used to feeling this way.

“All right, all right,” Rourk agreed quickly, anything to get that growl out of her voice. For a moment he stared at the warrior they’d dragged across the room and propped up against a chair. “There are other ways, of course-agents that could make him totally forget his last twenty-four hours, but I don’t have access-”

“Martha does.”

Rourk whirled around, his face brightening. “That’s right, she does, doesn’t she? I keep forgetting she’s a Mock II. Stars, Tedra, do you know there are only three Mock II’s on the planet? That you got one, and in payment of a bet-”

“Garr never reneges, and he accepted the stakes. But she didn’t cost him too much, just the suspension of all import taxes on Morrilian goods for one year.”

He chuckled, running a hand through his bright red hair.

“Not much, huh, when Morrilian silk costs a fortune? Well, that solves the problem of your friend there. Come to think of it, Martha can probably get into Records easier than Slaker can. Do you have a linkup with you?”

“Yes, but do you mean to say we’ve been sitting here jawing when my future’s still up in the air?”

“He would have had it cracked by tonight, and it’ll take a day or so to get your ship supplied and-”

“You’ve got me a ship already?”

He shook his head. “We’ve got to get you on record as a pilot with Explorations first before we can request a ship for you.” He waved a hand when she started to interrupt again. “Never mind. Send Martha to Slaker’s console and let him take care of the incidentals while I tell you what we know so far.”

She did, but of course Martha had to know why first. There was a short discussion over who was boss and who had to do what she was told to do, with Rourk laughing his head off listening to it, before Martha connected with Slaker’s computer, likely shocking the hell out of him since he had no idea she was coming.

Sometimes Tedra’s top-of-the-line, ultramodern, free-thinking computer was more trouble than it was worth. Hell, most times. She’d had to go through testing just to get it, so it could be programmed to be compatible with her temperament. Naturally, she’d been shocked to find the thing would frequently argue with her, deliberately annoy and provoke her. What had happened to compatible? But she had finally realized those arguments were likely what she needed, an outlet for the stress from her job, since she didn’t use Stress Clinics like everyone else, and had been honest about it in her testing.

Tedra turned now, waited for Rourk to wind down from his chuckling, then demanded, “So tell me, how did the Sha-Ka’ari do it? How did they get through Security to Garr? What weapons did they use?”

Rourk sobered completely at the reminder. “Those swords and-”

“Don’t give me that! They couldn’t get near a Sec with no more than swords, and you know it.”

“If you’ll let me tell it, then you’ll know that that’s just what they did. Their swords and shields are made of some kind of steel we’ve never come across before, not that we have much use for steel anymore. It’s called Toreno, and only their armorers know the secret of producing it. It was there in Records for anyone who cared to look. Crad Ce Moerr must have looked, before he left the planet in disgrace. Nothing can penetrate this Toreno steel, Tedra. Everything Security fired at them bounced right off their shields.”

Tedra sat back in her chair, feeling a certain deflation. That easy? No secret weapons, no brilliant strategy, just shields to hide behind. And then she squirmed in her chair. It was her Security unit that had been defeated.

“So the weapons were useless. But Sec l’s don’t need weapons,” she reminded Rourk. “The day I can’t dance my way around a sword, I’ll retire, so how-”

“Don’t get defensive now. Have you really looked at one of their swords? The things are at least four feet long, not to mention double-bladed. And you’re forgetting the shields, which are even longer. Add to that the strength of those giants, their longer arm reach on top of the sword length, the narrow space to fight in, and lastly, that although you’d like it to be otherwise, no one in your unit is quite as good as you are.”

He didn’t say it, but it was there for her to realize, that she wouldn’t have had much chance to do any better. She could picture it, having every blow or kick she threw being met by a farden piece of metal, every technique she knew becoming as useless as the weapons.

Her body slumped a little lower in the chair. “How do we fight something like that? How do we get our planet back, Rourk?”