This is good in theory, save for three things. In general, household staff will be in and out of hotel rooms on a nearly random basis, whether delivering things or lifting things. They won’t look for, notice or replace an errant thread. Spies, on the other hand, will look for those things and will make sure they’re back in place so there will be no warning at all.

The third thing was what confronted me. My door was standing wide open. There wasn’t a housekeeping cart in sight, which did send up little alarm signals for me. It seemed pretty obvious that whoever had opened my room had no desire to hide this fact, which meant this visit was benign or the individual was beyond being disciplined.

In this case, it was both.

As I came through the door and the narrow hallway with the bathroom to the left, the first I saw of him was his legs. They were long and thick, which was in keeping with the rest of him. I’d seen hams smaller than his upper arms. He rose from the chair and it groaned in relief. He towered over me by a good eighteen centimeters and likely was carrying twice my weight. Looking at him I wondered if he weren’t a Clan Elemental, bred for size and strength, shucked out of his powered armor.

His voice came deep and powerful, despite the long trip the words had to make to escape his chest. “Drop the packages, turn around, hands against the wall. You’ve done this before.”

I tossed the bags onto the bed and, apparently, this was not exactly in keeping with his instructions, or I wasn’t complying with the rest of them fast enough. He reached me very quickly, grabbed me up under the armpits, spun me around like a child, then gave me a little toss against the wall. I’d have rebounded from it and landed on the bed, but a big hand in the middle of my back jammed me against the wallpaper which, this close up, appeared to have weathered long years of service rather well.

He patted me down very professionally, checking all those places where a holdout blaster or a titanium throwing dart might be hidden. Once he’d finished, his left hand snaked up and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and pitched me backward onto the bed. My landing scattered bags. I lay there looking up at this giant with his balled fists planted on his hips.

“I am Colonel Nicodemus Niemeyer. I command the Capital District’s Public Safety Department. We are not the Constabulary. My people answer to me and I answer to Count Hector. He likes my work. A lot. We deal with the problems they are not equipped to handle.”

I raised my hands. “I believe…”

“…I have you mistaken for someone else?” The man’s deep blue eyes became angry slits, and the thick white mustache he wore quivered. “Though you are here, I shall assume you are not a fool, and you will do me the same courtesy. ComStar may not be functioning well, but I review with interest criminal cases. We are very diligent here in logging the names and identification numbers of those who cause trouble. You, Sam Donelly, are such a person. What is the purpose of your visit to Basalt?”

Lowering my hands, I slid myself back on the bed and leaned against the headboard. “You don’t want me to take you for a fool, then live up to your end of the bargain. This is The Republic. I don’t have to answer that question or any other without advice of counsel. That said, I’m here to enjoy Basalt’s scenic beauty.”

“Then you will be remembering the key rules to your wilderness adventure. Leave everything as you found it. Don’t disturb the native life. Stay on the paths and don’t go wandering because it could be dangerous out there.”

I listened to his words and watched him standing there, and I found it easy to imagine Commander Reis adopting the same pose and saying the same things. The main difference was that with Reis it would have been posturing, backed by empty threats. Niemeyer was what Reis would have aspired to be, but never could become without a steel spine insert and a gallon of neurons being poured into his skull.

I wanted to like the man, but until I knew the political lay of the land, he was one of those dangers waiting for me in the wilderness.

“I’ll do my best to remember that.”

“Good. Now, this is the part of the conversation we’ve never had. I know why you’re here. I know why all of you are here, and I won’t have it on my planet. If trouble erupts and I know you did it, I’m not going to worry about proof beyond a reasonable doubt. If I bring you in and book you on charges, I face hours of paperwork, months in court, and I hate that. If I burn the back of your skull off with a laser and leave you out there for the nibblers, I file one missing persons report and I’m done. I already have yours filled out, in fact.”

“Oh, transmit the file to my ex-wife. She’ll be a big fan of your work.”

His expression soured and the white brush-cut hair on his head actually seemed to bristle. “You’ve been down this road before, Donelly, and you’ve danced around disaster somehow, but your luck runs out here. I’m going to be especially watchful of you because you’re smarter than the others.”

“Smart enough to stay out of trouble, Colonel.”

“You better be, Donelly. I’ve got enough trouble dealing with problems native to my world here. The last thing I need is more mercenary thugs making life here difficult. I’ve not always subscribed to the idea that the only good mercenary was a dead one, but the concept is growing on me.”

“I’ll be no trouble at all, Colonel.”

“Next time, try it with more feeling, moron.” He snorted. “You’re not as smart as you think you are. You’ll fall.”

“You’ll be there to catch me?”

“I’ll be there to make sure you don’t get back up.” His expression tightened. “Basalt is a peaceful world. It has been that way, off and on, for centuries. Even during the civil war we kept things quiet. Reforms were painless and we’ve done well. I’m not letting that change now. And you tell your boss that he can think himself immune to my touch, but he’s not.”

I almost tossed off another denial, but nodded instead. “If the opportunity arises, I’ll pass your message along. I won’t be bringing you a reply.”

He considered for a moment, then nodded. “You can just go home, you know. You can head back out on the Somerset. I’ll get money to cover your passage.”

“Offers like that will gut your tourist trade.”

“I don’t want my world gutted.”

“You’ve made that clear.” I rose from the bed. “I appreciate your stopping by. Don’t hesitate to come again. I look forward to seeing you.”

“Yeah, sure. You won’t like it when you don’t see me, Donelly. Staying, you’re being stupid.” He started for the door, then looked back over his shoulder at me. “Don’t go all the way to idiocy, because it’s a fatal disease around here.”

Manville, Capital District

Basalt

Prefecture IV, Republic of the Sphere

29 January 3133

Niemeyer’s visit, though brief, was enough to focus me on an important part of my job, and the reason I’d arrived early. I needed to scan the local political situation to see if I could figure out what the teams were and where Handy was going to have me work. Niemeyer was clearly one faction, though exactly how strong and how aligned I had yet to figure out. Clearly if he were warning folks off and even offering to pay them to leave, he hadn’t yet made the transition to outlaw that his threats suggested. While I had no doubt he could murder me and leave me in the wilderness for the nibblers to get, telling me he would do it and actually doing it were worlds apart.