With the efficiency of some nobleman's valet, Sergeant Kimura stripped me of all weapons and other harmful objects. He also took my belt and boots, clucking happily when he noticed the polymer blade in the bottom of one boot. He even smiled when I asked if I would get a receipt for the things he was taking.

I felt something like a prize bass as he led me through the 'Mech hangar toward the holding cells. The company from the 27th Dieron Regulars that Kurita had left to garrison Murchison had appropriated the facilities the Kell Hounds had left behind during our hasty retreat. When some of the Techs realized who I was, they called out thanks for the store of spare parts we'd left.

I grumbled and Sergeant Kimura beamed. He brought me to the first holding cell and opened the door. He shoved me in and I sprawled at Takara's feet. ‘Our Tai-sawill be back in two hours and will speak with you then.’ With a sinister laugh, he closed the door.

Takara glared at-me. ‘My home is destroyed, the Vatoare-out-for my blood because I didn't turn you over to them, and now the ISF have us!’ She pounded her fist against the gray wall of the cell. ‘Aside from that tiny vent and the locked door, there's no way in or out.’

Hauling myself up onto the lone bunk, I shrugged. ‘Sorry, we build cells to last.’

Takara snarled with frustration and paced diagonally across the cell. ‘I should have known! You're nothing but a disaster for me. The opium barge...this whole thing ...this cell...’

I shook my head. ‘Look, Little Dragon. I don't want to argue with you.’ I nodded at the door. ‘You heard what he said. We've got two hours before the ISF Colonel gets back. We'd best get started.’

She spun about, with fire in her eyes and her hands curled into claws as I unzipped my fatigues. ‘What are you doing?’ She backed to the wall and snarled, ‘This renketsudoes not give you the right!’

I frowned while fumbling with the knot in the drawstring waistband of my shorts. ‘Do you want to get out of here or not?’

The Little Dragon laughed sarcastically. ‘How will sleeping with you get me out of here? Aren't you going to tell me that we'll probably be dead in a couple of hours, so we might as well make the best of it now?’ She stared at me coldly, then her hands drifted to the fastenings of her jacket. ‘Two hours, huh? After you're done, we ought to have an hour and fifty minutes to kill.’

I shot her a nasty glance. ‘Do you mind?’ I reached down and teased up the corner of the plastic pseudo-flesh bandage on my lower abdomen. Foolishly, I ripped it free fast, hoping it wouldn't hurt. ‘Ouch!’

‘What are you doing?’ she said.

I peeled the flesh-colored plastic off an Allen wrench. ‘I'm getting us out of here. It's taken me two days to get captured by the ISF and put in here. Now it's time to follow the plan out to its conclusion ‘ I tossed her the Allen wrench and zipped up my pants. ‘Hid that just below the belt because no one thinks to frisk you there.’

I slid the bunk over to the corner, then stood on it Takara tossed back the octagonal piece of metal and I slipped it into the bolt that held a ceiling plate in place. ‘We figured the ISF would not do a magscan right off, but even if they did, I have a polymer wrench elsewhere on my person. I prefer metal because it doesn't break as easily.’

Arms folded. Takara narrowed her eyes and watched me. ‘Now it begins to make sense. The only reason you would have bumbled around in Akumashima the way you did was because you wanted to get caught. Why come to me?’

I shrugged as I tipped the ceiling plate and slid it up into the darkness above the cell. ‘Davion Intelligence suggested you'd be likely to turn me over to the ISF for the reward. I had to have the ISF capture me, or have someone else turn me in—they would be suspicious if I just surrendered. We knew they'd bring me to this facility, both to rub it in that I'd been captured and because the offworld ISF contingent would be stationed here. Those guys will do anything to get off the planet, and capturing me should be enough to earn them a transfer.’

I grabbed the edges of the hole and pulled myself up into the darkness. I kept my head down, remembering earlier, painful lessons about the chamber's low clearance. Kneeling at the edge of the hole, I peered down into the room. ‘Just move the bunk away from the corner and take my hand.’

Takara reluctantly followed my instructions and joined me in the darkness between the cell's ceiling and the floor above it I lowered the ceiling plate back into place and fastened It down, then turned on the low lights we'd installed in the secret room.

Takara lowered her voice. ‘What is going on? Was Hanako Aido a blind?’

I shook my head. ‘No. she's real and is carrying O'Dell's child. And his father does want her to join them. The only lie was that Kevin is dead. The battle reports say he is, but he's not. We would have taken her offworld when we evacuated. except that the whole thing was a sham. Our DropShip picked up our Mechs over by the Suigin Mine complex, right in the middle of a patrol. There was no reason for Hanako to be out there, so we had to leave her here or jeopardize our whole operation.’

‘Operation?’ The Little Dragon looked very cross.

I smiled to reassure her. ‘About six months ago. the Federated Suns and the Draconis Combine fought a monster battle on Halstead Station. What they fought over turned out to be a huge cache of Star League-vintage books. Davion forces came away with most of them, but they burned everything else,’

‘All that knowledge lost...’

I nodded. ‘We thought it was lost but it turns out that books don't burn that well. The ones on the surface of the pile were destroyed, but those deeper in were only singed. It was an ISF Colonel who discovered it He packed the surviving books into several crates and had them shipped to his new station.’

Takara grinned. ‘Murchison. The Colonel was our own Harrison Ukita. So your raid four months ago was to get the books.’

I nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yup. but Colonel Ukita had plenty of lead time to hide the books as we came in-system. We searched, but we couldn't find them. We knew Kurita would send a unit to drive us off this world, so we hatched this plot and fixed up these cells. We knew that if we retreated without a battle and left plenty of booty behind, the forces here wouldn't go out looking for trouble. In fact, as we evacuated the planet, the 27th Dieron Regulars sent everything but one UnionClass DropShip back to their JumpShip and left the system for the fight on Mallory's World.’

‘And in the six weeks you’ve been gone, the ISF Colonel Ukita has finally recovered the books,’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘You know this for a fact?’

‘Yes. He's put them in crates marked up like weapons and is storing them down in the Mech bay. Davion Intelligence has pictures. He'll load them on the DropShip Fukushusoon and send them offworld. He'll turn them over to the Dragon, or sell them to the highest bidder. The Kell Hounds are going to put in another appearance on Murchison to ensure that doesn't happen.’

Takara brushed her dark hair back from her shoulders. ‘How do you know he won't just hide them again? It takes a week to get from the jump point to this world.’

I shook my head. ‘That's if your ship comes in from the standard jump point over the solar pole. Janos Vandermeer, the Captain of the Kell Hounds JumpShip, knows everything there is to know about non-standard points,’

Takara concentrated. ‘You mean 'pirate points,' right?’

I smiled. ‘Yeah. Now that he's been here once before, Janos says that if he pops into the system at a point on the planetary plane, keeps the larger moon between Murchison and the DropShip, and lets the world's own orbit bring the planet to him. the Kell Hounds should arrive within two days of a signal going out,’