“I’m sure I don’t know what’s on those wretched black things. I try not to look!”

“Do you know where she’d shop?”

“Decent shops are closed at this hour!”

“Judy, she’s not going to go to Hampton’s, for God’s sake. Do you know any of the shops the kids go to?”

“ No,I don’t know those places!”

“I want my breakfast,” he concluded, putting his temper on autopilot, just a steady low-key response she couldn’t ruffle. “In an hour, Ernst may have found something. At least he’ll be at the office. Meanwhile we’ll find out what she’s buying. She’s in a finite number of places. It’s not the apocalypse.”

He made his own breakfast while Judy hiked upstairs and went through the closet. As best she could figure, when she came down, it was a gray plain shirt and her makeup kit. Black pants, underwear, black three-strap shoes. Wonderfully descriptive. But Ernst had Kathy’s picture, by now, in the hands of every agency on the station, and the card number set to report to security on every use.

He hoped the Earth ship wasn’t tapping into station communications, and he feared it was. It wasn’t going to look good for him, with a daughter running wild in questionable areas of Outsider fringe society. But it couldn’t be helped what they heard.

He had half a cup of caff more. Judy was calling her mother, and the tears had started again. It was 0548h, and he decided it was a good time to go to the office. There was a chance, if Kathy was on the outs with her mother, she might call there to complain. He hoped she would.

“Stay here,” he said to Judy, putting on his coat. “In case she calls.”

“Where are you going?”

“I told you. To the office.”

She wasn’t happy. He didn’t listen to it. He headed for the door.

“I need you!” Judy yelled at him, and cried.

He couldn’t afford to listen. He left, wishing, not for the first time, that he dared actively shut down the ship’s probing into station’s communications, Earth sipping delicately and routinely at this and that tidbit of people’s lives whenever one of their ships docked. He didn’t dare prevent it, beyond the fact that the station’s automatic defenses and a battery of technicians routinely defended them against some of the best crackers working.

Dammit, this scandal would be a nice mouthful for station gossip.

But what could the Earth ambassador say about it to damn him with authorities on Earth? The governor has domestic troubles with his teenaged daughter? He wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last father in that situation.

He went to the office, not letting himself be distracted, confident that Kathy would use that card, sooner or later—as fast as she could get to a shop.

He didn’t use the phone. He reached the office. Ernst had made it in first.

“Any card use?”

“Not yet.”

“She’s still shopping, then. She goes by Mignette on the street. That’s M-i-g-n-e-t-t-e, I have no idea why Mignette and not Katherine, but she likes it.” He watched Ernst take notes. “Any news on Denny Ord and Mark Andrews?”

“Denny’s in jail for petty theft, still awaiting arraignment. The Andrews boy was sent home.”

“Marvelous! Theft? What in hell? No, don’t tell me. Let Ord loose and track both of them. I don’t care how. Hold it. Are they tapped?”

Ernst called up a record. “Yes.”

“Damn.” By no means respectable Earther boys. And tap traffic was a lot harder to follow. “Physical tail, then. Go ahead and let them go. Mark their ID cards and get a trace on them. If we’re unlucky they’ll reform and stay at home. But let’s just do this practically. She’ll turn up. Have we heard this morning from Mr. Gide?”

“Sleeping, we suppose. Dortland reports no output from that source for the last six hours.”

“Good. At least someone’s having a quiet night.”

“That reminds me. Young Mr. Stafford had a visitor last night. His sister, highly respected in the Trend. We were not able to monitor the conversation. We only observed the arrival and the departure. We’re sure the Chairman has other resources.”

“Probably actually none of our business, if he hasn’t run amok since. Make a note to ask Brazis if the sister is a security concern. Do we have a file on her?”

“She has associates with extremely troublesome contacts in petty crime and among the radicals, but that covers most of the Trend andMr. Stafford. She’s a Stylist, no less, very well respected.”

“I’m not concerned with Mr. Stafford until 0900h. If my daughter calls, put her straight through. Cup of caff. A sweet roll. Two. I need the energy. Get one for yourself.”

“Yes, sir.”

He walked into his office, and the office systems powered up. The anoles scrambled, startled by a sudden blaze of light. Their morning was starting early and the gods were annoyed.

Reaux sat down at his desk, head against his hands, eyes pressed against his palms. God, he hoped Brazis didn’t pull anything beyond what they’d agreed on.

He hoped Stafford was reliable. Considering what he was, he ought to be. But he didn’t like to hear he’d had a clandestine contact last night, when everything else was going wrong.

Ernst came in with the cup of caff and the rolls.

“Dortland is on the case himself,” Ernst said.

“Hell, no, I don’t want to divert Dortland. Tell him pay attention to Gide and delegate my daughter’s case. A teenaged girl, for God’s sake. Does it take the top end of station security a whole hour to find her?”

“I’ll tell him that, sir. Mark Andrews has supposedly gone home. We’re moving to verify that. Denny Ord is released. He’s bolted off to the lower levels, toward the Trend.”

Andrews had gotten cold feet. Ord had dived for cover in his chosen element. Had Kathy any way of getting that information? She had her phone. He knewhis daughter wasn’t tapped. And her phone would leave a record. But if she was with anyone, and he almost hoped she waswith someone who knew the district, it didn’t seem to be Andrews orOrd.

That was a new worry, all on its own.

Ernst left. He sipped a better cup of caff than he had at home. Judy’s damn dark roast.

They couldn’t afford Dortland distracted. If there was any question about Gide’s own legitimacy, they needed to know as much as they could find out. So did the Outsider government, which, if it wasn’t in on the matter from the beginning, could become difficult, with any hint of facts hidden from view.

He riffled through reports, chewing sweet roll, washing it down with caff. He had yet to hear anything that could justify Gide’s insinuations about the Project taps. And he reminded himself that this whole business of meeting with the youngest tap was Gide’s idea, not his, not Brazis’s.

So he at least was blameless in any confusion. He hoped he was. Could some future mission fault him, when Earth missions routinely declined to divulge the reasons for their inquiries?

There was nothing in the reports to create a governmental crisis.

On the other hand, if some utter fool back on Earth was trying to provoke a casus belli…

0714h.

“We have a credit card use,” Ernst came in to report, “and security is moving.”

“On?”

“Blunt,” Ernst said, not happily.

“Ord?”

“Heading in that direction. The credit card use was a public phone.”

She damned sure wasn’t phoning home. And she didn’t use her phone, clever girl. That she would call Ord, or someone who could contact Ord, wasn’t at all surprising.

“If we find her, sir?”

That was a leap of procedures he hadn’t made yet. What did he do with his daughter? Talk to her?

Talk wasn’t enough at the present juncture of events.

“Take her into physical custody and bring her back to my residence when you find her. Put her under house arrest, and watch the door.” He could only imagine what Judy would say about agents out front. And he was afraid Kathy wouldn’t go quietly. He flinched at the thought of handcuffs or taser. He didn’t want to ruin his relationship with his daughter. He didn’t want her hurt. But he didn’t want to expose his daughter’s youthful follies to Gide’s snoopery, or have them made an issue at a level of politics Kathy wasn’t ready to imagine.