As much as he wanted to push her away, he could not. She was addictive and his only solace came from seeing that she seemed equally ensnared. They both knew that it could only lead to their mutual self-destruction, yet they laughed in the face of coming disaster. It was as if the paradoxes heightened the pleasure and the futility of it all made them hunger even more.

Then, as the bandits prepared for another raid, she began to distance herself from him in order to concentrate on the tasks they faced. He knew that the rejection was only temporary—she had said as much in words and deeds—but the hurt still surprised him. All this time I've been wanting to be free of her because, deep down, I really do hate her, yet the separation is eating me alive.

In an attempt to reestablish control over his emotions, Nelson descended to the deepest level of the main building, and headed for the corridor and doors that had caused him trouble on the eve of the Deia raid. If I visualize her and get a shock, maybe I can start my own crude form of aversion therapy.He smiled at the thought and turned the corner.

He braced for a shock, but none came. Instead he felt his head expanding like some cartoon character sucking on a compressed air hose. It grew larger and larger, with the world he saw before him splitting into two parallel views, then shrinking away to pinpoints. Bright white light surrounded the black dots and he tried to shut his eyes against the glare, but it seemed to feed directly into the vision centers of his brain.

As if drawn back into a slingshot and then released, the twin vision pellets shot forward. They expanded and rushed at him. He tried to duck away as they sailed in, but no matter what he did, they never deviated from their course.

He felt himself hit the right rail on the treadmill, then the moving rubber ribbon pulled his feet out from under him. He fell and slipped off the treadmill to the side. What happened?As he struggled to free himself from the goggles and earphones, he heard a siren signaling a call to battle stations.

He tried to roll up to his feet, but his head swam in familiar waves of nausea. We jumped. We jumped into the next system. Where we are ?

As he lay on his back on the deck, the world stopped spinning. He tugged at his gloves and started to peel the markers off his body, but the siren died arid three tones sounded. Hearing them, he reached out and grabbed one of the treadmill posts. We're jumping again!

The universe blew up like a bubble, then exploded. At once Nelson Geist saw himself as a quark in some ultra-large molecule and also knew that molecule was but a tiny part of himself. Those sensations fed back and forth, reflecting each other like facing mirror images repeating ad infinitum.

The hatch leading into the Red Corsair's cabin swung open and she lurched into the room. She laughed aloud, then crossed to where he lay, and kneeled to kiss him full on the mouth. "It was wonderful, Nelson. Almost perfect!"

"What?"

"They were waiting for us at Great X. They could have had us, too, had they waited until we'd committed ourselves to a raid." She lifted her head, baring her throat, and laughed again. "Trust the Wolves to be overeager. When we appeared, they immediately issued a challenge. We jumped to our secondary destination and left them wondering where we had gone!"

She lowered her faced toward his again and the fire in her beautiful eyes inflamed him. "A narrow escape," he said.

She smiled devilishly. "On the razor's edge, Nelson. To come so close to annihilation and to dodge it so handily. To be at the brink of death and get a reprieve." She reached out her hand and helped him to a kneeling position opposite her. "There is only one thing that can make this day more perfect. Come with me and we shall both have it."

* * *

Chris saw the JumpShip icon vanish from the screen. "Where did it go?"

"They jumped again." Dan punched up a closed line to his JumpShip captain. "Janos, get your navigators working on where a ship could have jumped from here. Correlate that data with our list of probable targets."

"That will be a fairly long list, Colonel."

"I don't care. If we're still sitting here when they hit a target, there will be hell to pay. Our lithium-fusion batteries are at 100 percent, so we can make two jumps if we have to, right?"

"Affirmative. We hit two stars, so does the Bifrostand that Wolf ship. That's six out of thousands."

Chris nodded as Janos's statement sank in. A jump could take an FTL ship thirty light years in any direction, and the lithium-fusion batteries allowed each ship to store two jumps' worth of energy. Though the number of inhabited worlds within the jump range of Great X was limited to five, the number of uninhabited star systems approached triple digits, and the bandits could recharge their ship at any one of them.

"Colonel, it's not going to be an easy hunt. If they hit an inhabited world, we'll know and can react."

"True, Chris, but what if they take a week to recharge for one jump and go. That could put them beyond our range." Dan shook his head and punched up the communications officer. "Korliss, any clue as to why the bandits jumped out?"

"Nothing positive, sir, but I think they got a tight-beam message from the Wolves."

"Oh, really?" The surprised look on Dan's face melted into a deep scowl. "Lieutenant, do me the favor of getting Star Colonel Ward back in communication with me."

"Yes, sir."

Chris pointed to the screen's image of the system. "We have another ship in."

Dan nodded as the new icon flashed on the screen, then the whole system image vanished, to be replaced by Conal Ward's face. "Yes, Colonel Allard? What is it, I have to prepare for a jump."

"Oh, you do? And where would that be?"

"In pursuit of the bandits, of course."

"Of course." Dan's voice took on an edge that Chris had heard only once before and it gave him a start. "Star Colonel, we seem to have detected a broadcast from your ship to the bandits."

Conal nodded perfunctorily. "Yes."

"What would that have been, Star Colonel?"

"A standard combat inquiry, Colonel Allard. You must have gotten the same from the Smoke Jaguars on Luthien."

"We did indeed but we were not looking to ambush the Smoke Jaguars."

Conal's head came up. "Real warriors do not wait in ambush."

Dan snarled.

" Realwarriors follow orders."

"Another signal coming in, Colonel, from the new ship," announced Korliss' voice. "It's going to the Wolves, too."

"Split the screen." Dan continued to stare at Conal. "Understand these orders, Star Colonel—you stay where you are until Itell you where you are going."

"I take no orders from any mercenary!"

"Then you willtake them from me, Star Colonel," a new voice commanded as Phelan's face joined Conal's on the screen. "The ilKhan sends you greetings, Colonel Allard. We are here to destroy bandits and we will do whatever it takes to accomplish our mission."

26

Caledonia

Federated Commonwealth

10 July 3055

The assassin abandoned his Carlos Negron identity at Lamon. Ar the planet's space station union hall, he sent messages that ComStar would eventually carry to his confederates. All similarly worded, the messages said that he had met a woman and would be staying with her for a while on Lamon. He asked that communications be sent care of the union hall, where he would pick them up.