Now, the morning after, guilt was starting to creep back. Maybe he should have shown some restraint, some consideration for the innocent bystanders trying to fling themselves clear-though a deeper rationality knew full well that he had had to cover Araminta’s escape. The fate of the Commonwealth had hung on that moment, determining which faction would grab her. Perhaps that was why he’d fought so ruthlessly: He knew he had to succeed. The alternative was too horrific to consider-or allow.

Certainly Tomansio and Beckia had shown a measure of respect that had been absent before. He just wished he’d earned it some other way.

Their borrowed capsule left the Ellezelin forces base in the docks and curved around to cruise above the Cairns, heading for the big single-span bridge.

“Somebody must have got her,” Beckia said; it had almost become a mantra. After they all got clear from the fight in Bodant Park, they’d spent the rest of the night helping Liatris search for the elusive Second Dreamer. Her disappearance was partially their own fault; Liatris had killed every sensor within five kilometers of the park. They’d been so desperate for her to get away that the measure was justified at the time; what surprised them again was how well she’d done it. Their search hadn’t produced the slightest indication where she’d gone since she’d run away from Oscar in the park. On the plus side, no one else who was hunting her (and there were still five functional teams that Liatris had discovered) had found her, either.

“Living Dream hasn’t,” Tomansio said calmly. “That’s what we focus on. Until we confirm her situation, we continue the mission. Right, Oscar?”

“Right.” He saw her face again, that brief moment of connection when the startled, frightened girl had stared into him with frantic eyes. She’d seemed so fragile. How on Earth did she ever stay ahead of everyone? Yet he of all people should know that extraordinary situations so often kindled equally remarkable behavior.

“Any luck with the image review?” Beckia asked.

“No” was Liatris’s curt answer. With Araminta dropping out of sight, their technology expert had launched a search through old sensor recordings to see if they could find how she’d arrived at Bodant Park. The Welcome Team had been analyzing data from every public sensor in the city, trying to track her. Liatris (and the rival agent teams) had glitched the input to their semisentients, sending them off on wild-goose chases. But it was a telling point that none of their own scrutineers had managed to spot her during the day, not even approaching Bodant Park. The first anyone had determined her location was when her outraged thoughts burst into the gaiafield at the sight of her apartments going up in flame. As yet nobody had worked out how she’d managed to conceal herself. Whatever method she’d used, it had proved equally effective in spiriting her away during the height of the fight.

So now Oscar and his team were falling back on two things. One, she would call him on the code he’d given her, possibly out of gratitude or maybe from sheer pragmatism. Two, they were following leads like a professional police detective. Paula would be proud, he thought with a private smile.

Despite a barrage of urgent anonymous warnings, the Welcome Team had arrested most of Araminta’s family, with the notable exception of the redoubtable Cressida, who had pulled a vanishing act equal to Araminta’s. They’d all been brought to the Colwyn City docks for “questioning.” Liatris said Living Dream was bringing in more skilled teams from Ellezelin to perform memory reads.

That just left them Araminta’s friends in the city, though, with the exception of Cressida, she didn’t seem to have many. Which was strange, Oscar thought. She was a very attractive young woman, free and independent. That would normally imply a big social group. So far Liatris had uncovered very few, though a building supply wholesaler called Mr. Bovey was a promising lead. They were due to pay him a discreet visit right after their first appointment.

Tomansio steered the capsule away from the river and over the city’s Coredna district. They landed on a pad at the end of a street and stepped out. The houses here were all made out of drycoral, single-story and small; their little gardens were either immaculately maintained or home to piles of rubbish and ancient furniture. It was one of the poorer areas in the city. All three of them stared at the Ellezelin forces capsule parked at the far end of the street.

“En garde,” Tomansio said quietly.

They were all dressed in a simple tunic of the occupying forces, not armor. Oscar brought his biononics up to full readiness. Defensive energy currents and his integral force field could snap on with a millisecond’s warning. He hoped that would be enough. As the three of them walked down the street, he ran a field scan on the capsule up ahead. It was inert, empty.

“Assigned to squad FIK67,” Liatris told them when they relayed the serial number to him. “Currently on city boundary enforcement duty.”

“Oh, crap,” Oscar muttered as they drew near the house they wanted. His field scan had picked up someone with biononics inside. Whoever they were, they also had their energy currents in readiness mode. “Accelerator?”

“Darwinist,” Beckia decided.

“Separatist,” Tomansio said.

“I’ll take a piece of that action,” Liatris said. “Put me down for the Conservatives.”

Tomansio walked up to the aluminum front door and knocked. They waited tensely as footsteps sounded. The door opened to reveal a shortish, harassed-looking woman wearing a dark blue house robe.

“Yes?” she asked.

Oscar recognized Tandra from the employment file Liatris had extracted out of Nik’s management net.

“We’d like to ask you some questions,” Tomansio said.

Tandra rolled her eyes. “Not another lot. What do you want to ask?”

“May we come in, please?” Oscar asked.

“I thought you Living Dream sods didn’t bother asking.”

“Nonetheless, ma’am, we’d like to come in.”

“Fine!” Tandra grunted and pushed the door fully open. She stomped off down the small hall inside. “Come and join the party. One of your lot’s already here.”

Oscar exchanged a nervous glance with the others and followed Tandra inside. He reached the small lounge and stopped dead, emitting a potent burst of shock into the gaiafield. The woman with active biononics was sitting on the couch with a happy twin on either side of her. She wore an immaculately cut major’s uniform and wore it well, the epitome of a career officer. Martyn was bending down to offer her a cup of coffee.

“Hello, Oscar.” The Cat smiled. “Long time, no see. So what have you been up to for the last thousand years?”

He let out a rueful sigh. Come on, you knew this would happen at some point. “I was in suspension, where you should be.”

“Bored with it,” the Cat said. She glanced at Tomansio and Beckia. Oscar had never seen the Knights Guardian so taken aback; they were even more startled than he was. “My people,” the Cat said mockingly. “Welcome.”

“I’m afraid not,” Tomansio said. “We are working for Oscar.”

“Surely I override that. I created you.”

“They have conviction in their principles,” Oscar said mildly. “Something to do with strength …”

The Cat gave a delighted laugh. “I always did like you.”

“What is this?” Martyn asked, looking from the Cat to Oscar. “I thought you people were all the same.”

“Oh, we are,” the Cat said.

“We are not,” Oscar countered forcefully.

“Mixal, Freddy,” Tandra called. “Come here.”

The Cat’s smile was joyous as her hold around both children tightened. “I like the twins,” she said mildly.

Martyn started forward as Mixal and Freddy began to twist about in her unyielding grip. Tomansio intercepted him fast, restraining him. “Don’t move,” he growled.