“Yeah, that’s why we like it here. No competition.” I spitted him with a harsh stare of my own. “You know what I don’t like about you? You’re incompetent, don’t want to believe it, and just charismatic enough to make good men and women believe what you say about yourself. You got your people killed out there, and you’re going to pin it on me.”

“Oh, so that’s what this was about then, is it?” Reis began to chuckle, sending a wobble from navel to jowls and back. “This is a GGF conspiracy to discredit me and get me removed. Well, it won’t work, mister, not a bit of it!”

His face had gotten purple as he worked himself up, and spittle flecked white at the corners of his mouth. His right hand had appeared so he could jab a finger at me. I was fairly well convinced the next jab would be with a fistful of fingers and though I had made fun of him, I had no doubt that a clout from him would rattle my teeth something fierce.

Which is when she appeared.

I heard the door open and Reis’ face went from fury to beneficence in a nanosecond. He straightened up and smiled. “My lady, I thought…”

She spoke before I could see her, since Commander Bloat was blocking the mirror, but that voice came cool and soothing in contrast to his rasping rage. “Your technique is illuminative, Commander, and I merely thought I might reciprocate by demonstrating some of the interrogation techniques we use on Terra.”

Yes, the word Terra did send ice water trickling through my guts. The only folks who come from Terra to a backwater like Helen are Republic folks, which meant this was The Republic Knight Leary had been talking about. Her intervention here meant things were serious—as in well above Reis’ pay grade.

She walked past me on the left and casually dropped a bottle of cold water into my lap. I’d not expected that and had to scramble to catch it before it hit the floor. I did, then pressed it to the back of my neck as I looked up at her. It was a long way to look, but well worth the effort.

You’ve already gotten she was tall, and you can add slender to that. Great shoulders, too, tapering down into a narrow waist, a gentle flare of hips and seriously long legs that weren’t hurt by her wearing knee-high riding boots. She wore them much better than Reis. The rest of her outfit, from black leather skirt to dark blue blouse and black blazer, looked sharp enough to distance her light-years from the reality that was Helen.

She had a creamy complexion, which combined with her straight black hair and emerald eyes to make one believe in the supernatural. She moved easily, almost casually, but I could read purpose in her steps. The way she’d dropped the bottle had been simple, but I knew it was a test.

I smiled. “I wanted water. How’d you know?”

She smiled and parts of me started to melt. “I know your type, Mr. Donelly.”

“You can call me Sam.”

“Well, Mr. Donelly, I am Janella Lakewood.”

Reis cut her off. “That’s Lady Janella Lakewood. She’s a Republic Knight.”

“Really?” I gave him a wry smile. “There once was a fair Lady Knight…”

The Constabulary commander’s cuff snapped my head around. “How dare you speak to her like that?”

Lakewood held a hand up. “Commander, please. Mr. Donelly never would have finished that limerick, would you, Mr. Donelly?”

“Whose smile was so very tight…”

The second cuff hit my cheek hard enough that I cut the inside of my mouth and was bleeding. I spat on the floor. “You want to hear more? I’ve worked up some variations.”

Lakewood raised her chin and those green eyes bored right through me. “Perhaps I misjudged you, Mr. Donelly.”

“You don’t know my type after all, then?”

“Oh, I know it, and know it very well. Yours is the type that comes to a bad ending, very bad.” She let her voice get all husky and, if not for the tone, I could have listened to her for hours. “You’re on the brink of making a decision, Mr. Donelly. On one hand you can help us here and we will help you. On the other, you will make enemies and we will be forced to destroy you.”

Reis slammed a fist into his meaty hand to emphasize that point.

I probed my cheek with my tongue. “Reis has got it all wrong. I have nothing to do with the GGF or PADSU.”

She shook her head. “Last night PADSU confederates of yours entered a bar where they intended to pass you information in the form of an info-disk, but you contrived an altercation to get them out of there.”

“That’s his story, but that’s not the truth.”

“Then why don’t you give me a truth that makes sense?”

I blinked at her. “‘Makes sense?’ You mean you buy Reis’ story that I was helping the GGF up there on the mountain?”

“It reads well, Mr. Donelly. You’re in league with them. You incapacitate another of your coworkers so jobs shift around guaranteeing you’ll be alone. GGF comes and blows up your ’Mech, hampering ARU efforts to log. You continue to feed GGF info, and no one would believe they had you on the inside since you assaulted that one member. How much are they paying you?”

“Don’t you know? GGF is doing it for the Mottled Lemur. Liberation for our furry little brothers.” I raised the bottle of water in a salute and snatched my hand back down before Reis could take a swipe at it. I snorted and a couple of things suddenly made sense to me. “Oh, that’s rich. You’re incredible, the both of you.”

She shook her head. “Please, Mr. Donelly, enlighten me.”

My eyes narrowed. “You have the spies going the wrong way, m’lady. If it weren’t for inside information, there’s no way Commander Credulity here could have had his people in place to pick off the GGF. And, furthermore, since my assignment was new this morning, and the extension of the deadline for the restraining order was new, oh, yeah, that’s great. The constabulary’s insider tips Reis to my fight with a PADSU member and GGF vowing revenge. Reis calls the judge, gets the deadline extended, then someone, probably you, m’lady, since Reis doesn’t have the juice to do it, calls someone at ARU and gets them to hang me out there with a work assignment. You used me as bait!”

Reis began to chuckle in that sort of superior way that told me I was right, but Lakewood cut him off before he could lord all the details over me. “Interesting speculation, Mr. Donelly. You think well on your feet. Well enough to manufacture a dozen different explanations for how things went down. The fact remains that people died and your efforts prevented Commander Reis from apprehending suspects. Moreover, you entered a crime scene and destroyed evidence.”

I pressed the bottle to my cheek. “Destroyed enough evidence that you can’t charge me with anything, right?”

She hesitated for just long enough to tell me I’d called her bluff.

Reis, undaunted by the obvious, snarled. “Oh, we have more than enough to put you away for a long time, Donelly, and in a hole so deep you’ll only see the sun at high noon.” He’d have continued, but someone knocked at the door and he went to answer it.

I looked up at her. “You want to try to push it, or just retreat now and avoid looking stupid?”

“Believe it or not, Mr. Donelly, I’d like to help you.”

“Geez, that has to be the first time that’s ever been said to bait.”

A hint of sympathy entered her voice. “Mr. Donelly, if you cooperate, things can go well for you…”

“Yeah? Got another hit team you want me to go trolling for? To Hell with you and Lord Leviathan there. Charge me with a crime or let me go home.”

Reis began to chuckle again. Think of that superior laugh with another track of malevolence laid in counterpoint to it. It sounded like an asthmatic frog in heat.

“Oh, you’re free to go, Donelly, but don’t go far.”

“I’ll just be going back to work.”

“No, you won’t.” Reis came back into my sight holding a little noteputer. “It’s a message for you from ARU headquarters. Your taking that ’Mech into that fight goes against company policy. You scanned the file and signed off on it. You’re fired.”