For nearly a month he thought very little about work. Indeed, he had earned enough from the hit on the Archon that he'd never need to accept another assignment. That had, in fact, been his motivation for taking on the Archon's assassination, but as time went by, he began to feel the urge to work again. He was definitely enjoying his time as Chuck Grayson, but he was notChuck Grayson and the person he was neededanother job.

The same part of him that had urged caution at his slipping into the Grayson persona shifted and immediately began to argue that he should not look for a new job. The assassin realized that part of his urge came from all the theories concerning Melissa's death that were running wild. Everyone, from a mad florist to organized crime, to Kurita assassins to Recom-terrorists, had been credited with the kill—everyone except for him!That buffeted his ego, yet revealing his identity to soothe his bruised ego was a short road to ending up dead.

On the other hand he knew that performing another hit might give those in the know, the Intelligence Secretariat and other similar governmental bodies, enough clues to realize that a very good assassin was at work. Actually, he told himself, it wouldn't be the clues, but the lack of them that would key them to the fact that the Archon's assassin had struck again.

Ego overruling logic, and thumb covering the camera lens that would record his picture, he called a message drop from a payvis. He'd compiled an identification code based on the combined date, time, and temperature divided by a constant that only he and the computer at the other end of the line knew. He punched in that code, then hit two buttons on the visiphone console, feeding the computer the access number for the booth where he sat. He then severed the connection, looked at his chronometer, and waited.

If he had any messages, the computer would call back. He would have to enter a new check code and he would be given the message or be connected with one of his contacts who could give him details of any prospective employment. If no call came within five minutes, either he had no messages or it was not possible to make a connection with the other party wishing to speak with him.

He glanced at his chronometer, then read the public access newsbytes scrolling up on the idle screen. Kai Allard-Liao had successfully defended his title yet again. His string of victories had long since eclipsed the mark set by his father and even the one established by his father's mentor, Gray Noton. As with almost all the stories concerning the Solaris champion, the writer speculated that he might be leaving the Game World soon to pursue other endeavors.

When the visiphone suddenly bleated at him, he covered the camera before hitting a button to accept the call. A face appeared on the screen that he recognized as Kevin Chen—a contact who had gotten him one job in the Capellan Confederation that had turned out well. "A man wishes to speak with you. It will pay as well as your last job and offers some of the same perks without the same risks. A week?"

The assassin frowned. Jude and her group would be leaving in a week. In the past he would never have pushed a meeting back because of something like a final party with friends, but then he'd never really had friends before. It could wait. "Eight days."

"Done."

"Who will I be meeting?"

"Don't worry, he checks out."

"I worry. Who?"

Chen looked uneasy and dropped his voice to a whisper. "Fuh Teng."

"Message me details."

The assassin broke the connection and opened the door to the booth. Fuh Teng:He had been Kai Allard-Liao's manager ever since the warrior first came to Solaris, and had managed the family's stable of fighters on Solaris since his early partnership with Justin Allard. Whoever he wants dead will not be easy to kill.

The assassin smiled to himself and laughed in a way that would have made Chuck Grayson shiver. But with me doing the job, whoever it is will die well.

31

DropShip Tigress

Pirate Jump Point, Zanderij

Federated Commonwealth

20 August 3055

Knowing the Red Corsair was planning to jump soon, Nelson Geist did not fully seat the earphones for his journey into the computer-reality. He wanted to be able to hear the three-tone signal warning that jump was imminent beyond the sounds of the artificial world. When it came suddenly, he braced himself on the treadmill railing and moved his feet to the sides of the rubber tread.

He pulled off his helmet and hung it on the corner of the railing, then swung under and sat down on the ground. Hugging his knees to his chest, Nelson concentrated on breathing. In, out. Jumping isn'tthat bad.He screwed his eyes shut and felt his stomach lurch as the ship entered hyperspace.

The universe compacted itself into the size of a pin-head, which then seemed to lodge at the base of his skull. He saw visions of everything happening at once, as if time had been stripped away. In those visions he suddenly grasped the key to all of reality. For a single nanosecond he and the universe were one, and realization of that fact brought with it a glimmering of hope that he had not known since his capture.

Then the universe exploded back to its full dimensions and he felt pain as the explosion lasered up and down his spine. For the barest of moments he feared the ship had made a misjump and ended up in whatever ethereal limbo waited for starships with faulty jump drives. But opening his eyes he realized that all was well, and somewhere at the back of his mind, he caught and held on to a wisp of the hope he had discovered in the moment of the jump.

The whole Tigressremained eerily silent for a short time. Because of the near ambushes at Great X and Yeguas, Nelson knew that the Red Corsair was not going to commit her DropShips to a run on the fourth planet unless she could determine what threat, if any, the enemy could offer.

A solar system being a rather huge place, hiding a JumpShip or DropShips full of 'Mechs should have been a simple thing, but Nelson knew from his years as a warrior that it was not. Because gravity could rip a JumpShip to pieces as it entered or left a system, the ship had to be stationed either well above or well below the plane of the elliptic. That usually put it at either solar pole, but pirate points—little windows in the dynamic gravitational matrices near the planets and moons—made it possible to come in dangerously close to planets at certain times and at certain points.

The JumpShip Fire Rosehad come in at just one of those pirate points and that it had not jumped back out immediately meant the initial scan showed no danger. As seconds passed into infinity, Nelson steeled himself against the possible jolt of another jump. Not so soon,he pleaded silently because he knew that with another jump, despair would replace the hope he had glimpsed.

Klaxons rang through the ship and he heard the whirring clicks as the two OverlordClass DropShips pulled away from the Fire Rose.Nelson felt himself get heavy as the Tigressbegan accelerating away from the Rose,and as he struggled to his feet, he realized the Red Corsair meant to go in hot. We're pushing 1.5 gees. She wants to be in and out before the Wolves can react to a distress call from Zanderij.

* * *

Caitlin Kell keyed her radio as she saw DropShip separation on her secondary cockpit screen. "Raven Leader to Raven Flight, we have separation. ETA fifteen minutes." She punched another button on her console and switched over to the command frequency. "Vulture Leader, we have separation."