Kyle returned the smile. "Of course."

"Suffice it to say we're close."

"Good. Then I won't keep you." Kyle reached into his pocket for one of his business cards. "Let me give you my portable telecom number…"

"I have it," Ravenheart said.

He stopped searching. "Well, then, can I have yours?"

"Ms. Uljaken's got it. You can reach me directly at that number or through the command post we've established in the building's security office."

"That should make it easy."

"Good. Then everything's settled for now." Ravenheart turned and, much to Kyle's surprise, gestured her teammates toward a walkway that led along the patio and out of sight toward the building area. "I'll be in touch as soon as we learn anything further."

Ravenheart turned to follow the other two Knight Errant troopers away, but looked over her shoulder just before passing out of sight. "We should talk too," she said.

Kyle smiled. "We will."

She returned the smile and vanished around me corner.

"Where are they going?" he asked Hanna, who was walking quickly toward him. Behind her, Devress was scanning the patio area slowly. He seemed very intent on something.

"They arrived in a tilt-rotor. I presume they're going back to the helipad."

Kyle nodded, then called for Charlotte.

The spirit was instantly at his side, and had probably been waiting directly alongside him in astral space. "Watch them and make sure they all leave. Return to me if they don't go straight to the aircraft, and return to me if they depart in it."

"I will," Charlotte said as she vanished.

Kyle looked around the pool area. "Seeks-the-Moon?" he said.

Devress looked up. "Yes?" he said, his features and clothing melting, flowing against gravity into the form of Seeks-the-Moon.

"I'll be damned," said Kyle.

"Quiet possibly," agreed the spirit, "but I suspect your old friend Captain Ravenheart will be receiving her fitting punishment a few circles below your own."

"Oh?" said Kyle.

“You will, of course, find yourself head turned backward with the others of your kind in the seventh pouch of Malebolge," said the spirit, quoting Dante, "while she will be found three below you, in the tenth pouch, with the other liars."

"You think she lied to us?" asked Hanna.

"Nearly every word," Kyle said.

Hanna looked back and forth between Kyle and the spirit "How do you know?"

"Timing," said Kyle. "Everything she said here and the things we already know imply that Knight Errant was investigating the case long before the Truman family actively recruited them."

"I don't follow."

"We know Knight Errant bought out your previous security provider's contract about three months ago. Why?"

Hanna shrugged. "Prestige, market position. Any number of reasons."

"Three months ago was about the time Mitchell Truman first met Linda Hayward, or whoever she is."

"True, but I don't see how you can be sure there's a connection," Hanna told him.

"I also know that Knight Errant is throwing mega assets into the Chicago area. In fact they've been doing that for some time now. For about the past three months, to be exact"

They're gearing up to be a force in the Chicago market," Hanna told him. "They were very clear and direct about that."

Kyle shook his head. "Wrong kinds of assets. You don't move military-grade combat teams into a city if you only intend to beef up your image."

Hanna's eyes widened. "Military? You think that Captain Ravenheart and her people are military?"

"Knight Errant's equivalent, certainly."

A dull whine began to echo overhead, quickly building to a powerful roar of jet turbine engines. Seeks-the-Moon was a blur as he moved out of sight, passing through the patio doors and into the sanctuary of the condoplex. Over their heads, visible through the armored glass skylight, a Knight Errant tilt-wing cleared the building and began accelerating away quickly, its engines rotating into position for forward flight. It was going west.

"Heading to O'Hare," said Kyle.

Hanna nodded. "Ares has a small enclave out there. We understand that's where Knight Errant has its base."

Kyle turned as the patio doors slid open. Seeks-the-Moon stepped through, an odd smile on his face. Close behind came a sour-faced Daniel Truman, who stood watching the receding tilt-wing craft. At that moment, Charlotte also reappeared next to Kyle.

"Master," she said. "They all departed on the aircraft."

"Thank you, Charlotte. Resume your patrols." The spirit vanished.

"What kind of game do you think they're playing?" Truman asked him.

Kyle shrugged. "Truthfully, I'm not sure."

"But you agree something's going on?"

"Most definitely," Kyle said. “They obviously have their own agenda here. I'm just not sure what it is."

"Pardon me for saying so," said Hanna to them both, "but I still don't quite see why you're so sure Knight Errant is up to something."

"I've met Damien Knight twice, Hanna," Daniel Truman told her. "I could repeat to you verbatim all twelve words we've exchanged. Yes, my firm has some dealings with his. But the two of us? We aren't friends. Especially not the kind of friends who give the other a billion nuyen worth of help without being asked."

Kyle gasped. "A billion? What did they offer you?"

Truman smiled lightly. "They said if things got particularly unpleasant-and they subtly warned me they might-I might want to think about taking a vacation with my family off-planet."

"Off-planet?"

Truman nodded. "They offered me a free orbit-lift and luxury quarters on their Daedalus space station."

Kyle was nearly speechless. "That seems more than a little…"

"Yes, doesn't it?" Truman said. "Of course, they said that would be a worst-case option, but they wouldn't elaborate on what that worst case might be."

Kyle shook his head. "Knight Errant is up to something. Do you feel comfortable releasing them from your service?"

Truman frowned. "No… for better or for worse, they're the best at protecting me and my family. I think they have ulterior motives for doing so, but I don't think they wish my ill."

"I suspect you're right. Though I don't think we can assume they wouldn't be against sacrificing one of you to get whatever it is they want."

Truman's eyes were hard. "Like they might have done with Mitch."

Hanna's eyes widened. "I don't understand…"

"If they were watching him and my family for months," Truman said, "why didn't they step in and do something when Mitch got grabbed? Hell, they may even have known where he was."

"I don't think so," Kyle said. "Otherwise they'd have had no reason to be watching Melissa the night Mitch was found."

"They were watching Melissa?" Truman was obviously surprised. "Who the hell told you that?"

"It came up during the talk I had with Captain Ravenheart. The night Mitch was found, Melissa sneaked away to meet with him. She'd received a telecom call or some other contact that Knight Errant monitored from Mitch. I think they deliberately let her think she'd ducked them and then shadowed her. Mitch, however, never showed."

"You have proof of this?" Truman asked.

"Just circumstantial. Knight Errant was supposedly using ritual sorcery to trace her. They even had a ritual sample, which should have made it incredibly easy to track a nonmagically protected target like Melissa. It would have taken no more man the minimum time for the ritual-say an hour or two."

"But they said they didn't find her until she was back at the condoplex," Hanna said. "Nearly five hours later."

"Exactly," said Kyle.

"Goddamn them," said Daniel Truman, staring off in the direction of the long-gone tilt-rotor.

Seeks-the-Moon quietly stepped forward. "It would also seem that they have some information regarding the women-spirits."