Dan smiled as he looked around with pleasure at the elegance and gaiety. I'll relax, put Justin out of my mind for the time being, and just try to enjoy myself. What could possibly go wrong?

Even as the words formed themselves in his mind, Dan felt doomed. Making her way through the crowd like an SRM with a hard lock onto its target, the Baroness de Gambier drove straight at him. He managed a weak smile, but it faded into puzzlement as Felicity pulled up short at the sight of someone slipping her hand through the crook of Dan's right arm.

Dan turned, half expecting to see his sister come to his rescue. "Jeana!" he gasped, at the same moment catching a whiff of the same spicy scent that she had worn back on Tharkad.

Jeana smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Come, Daniel. You owe me a dance." Taking his hand, she led him past a fuming Baroness and onto the dance floor.

As they moved to the music, Dan drew her close enough to whisper in her ear, "Thanks for the save."

Jeana laughed lightly. "Never like to see a friendly have to punch out."

Dan raised an eyebrow. That's MechWarrior jargon! But she can't be! She sure didn't look it at Tharkad, and the red gown she's got on now makes it hard to imagine her in a cooling vest and shorts.

Dan pulled back enough to look into her green eyes. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

Jeana shrugged. "I'm not sure. ComStar has so much going on for us. How about you?"

"I don't know," he said.

Jeana threw back her head and laughed. "Whatever it is, Dan, let's do it together."

27

ComStar First Circuit Compound

Hilton Head Island, North America, Terra

18 August 3028

Myndo Waterly clenched her fists so tightly that pain shot up her arms as her nails dug into her palms. This failure is unforgivable!She stared hard at the black-robed man kneeling on the inlaid star in the Primus's Chamber as though the heat of her gaze could melt him. "How can you tell us that you don't know how Colonel Wolf brought those swords into our Compound?"

The man looked up, directing his response to Julian Tiepolo. "Most exalted Primus, the Colonel's luggage went through screening twice, as did all the other guests' baggage." He looked down. "There was no mistake. Neither time did the swords appear on the scanning devices."

Tiepolo regarded the man with a benevolent expression. "You must understand, Jarlath, that we are most concerned about this incident. You did well in having your personnel offer to keep the blades for the Coordinator—I daresay he may not claim them when he leaves. But the matter of how they were smuggled onto our island is troubling."

Precentor Dieron's head came up. "It is more than troubling, Primus." She stabbed a finger at Jarlath. "This man directs ROM. He is the head of our security services, but he tells us there was no mistake. He maintains that the swords could not have been smuggled onto the island by Jaime Wolf, yet we all saw him pull those blades from the sack. Just yesterday, Jarlath reported that no one had smuggled weaponry into the island. How are we to believe him when he's been shown so emphatically to be wrong?"

Ulthar Everston shook his head. "Jarlath, in the wake of the events last evening, have the guest rooms been searched?"

The ROM chief nodded. "We have carefully gone through every chamber. We have recovered no weapon, yet we did gather a wealth of forensic samples, which we have forwarded to the laboratories for analysis."

"Don't try to evade the question, Jarlath!" snapped Precentor Dieron. She looked around the circle of Precentors surrounding the ROM chief. "Does it provide any of you with solace to know that your assassin dyes her hair or what his DNA sequence might be? No!" Myndo stared hard at Jarlath. "Your job is to maintain oursecurity."

Precentor Tharkad opened his hands. "Precentor Dieron, Jarlath and his ROM agents are keeping us secure." He smiled easily at the other members of the full First Circuit. "We have not been assaulted and neither has any of our guests."

Ah, the Primus speaks through his other mouth.Myndo calmly tucked some strands of her golden hair back behind her right ear. "Again you evade my point. ROM searches for weapons were meant to keep them off theisland. ROM failed. ROM surveillance of all meetings, covert and overt, was supposed to keep us informed. Again ROM fails."

The Primus raised his hand. "Surely, Precentor Dieron, you cannot lay the blame for that on Jarlath. How can he be responsible for the presence of devices that distort our own monitoring equipment?"

Myndo stared at the Primus in open amazement. "Isn't he? We know the devices originated in the New Avalon Institute of Science. Jarlath's ROM agents were ordered to infiltrate that institution from the day its doors opened, but they still haven't gotten anywhere. Had we but a hint of how those devices worked, we could have neutralized them. Now Davion has given them to Katrina Steiner so that her councils will be closed to us as well."

"But how has this compromised our security?" Ulthar said. "You know, Precentor, that we will learn of what happened in their secret councils when they send messages back to their subordinates."

Precentor Dieron shook her head. "And if they do not?"

Ulthar rubbed his hands together. "In time, we always find out what was said." He looked down at the ROM chief. "I would suggest, Jarlath, that you convey our distress to your people."

The Primus smiled at Precentor Tharkad, then addressed the other Precentors. "If there is no other . . ."

Precentor Dieron stepped toward the center of the circle. You do not escape that easily, Primus."I have other business." She glared at Jarlath. "You are dismissed."

Jarlath looked up at Tiepolo, whose curt nod gave him permission to leave. Myndo Waterly went to where the ROM chief had stood in the center of the inlaid star, but she refused to kneel. With her head held up defiantly, she waited for the chamber doors to close behind the ROM chief before speaking.

"I wish to know, Primus, your purpose in offering so insidious a message to the gathering last night." She raised her hands to include all of the First Circuit. "For years, we have heard you argue that binding different Houses together was a blind, a sham. You have steadfastly maintained that by playing one alliance off against another, we will retain control of man's destiny.

"Yet with this as your professed goal, you spoke to our guests of unity and a return to the solidarity of mankind. You offered a shining vision of what man had once been, then you portrayed this cursed marriage as the prime example of it. How can you justify this action?"

The Primus breathed in slowly, but neither the pain nor the fatigue completely left his face. In a voice so low that all had to strain to hear, he said, "Once again, Precentor Dieron, your distaste for diplomacy prevents your ability to understand." The Primus shook his head like a parent watching a foolish child. "How is it that a person of your wisdom cannot pierce the veil surrounding my true intent?"

Precentor Dieron trembled with rage. "Do not patronize me, Primus. I will not have it! I serve the Holy Word of Blake, not any man or organization. I know only what I heard last night, and I did not find it a message in keeping with our mission!" She turned to the other Precentors. "What I heard was the Primus placing the destiny of mankind in the hands of generals and political schemers, while offering ComStar as an example of what they could become if they tried."