She touched his ankle. "Look, there's a police station. Should we…?" Hayden wasn't inclined to trust the constabulary, but today might be a good time to make an exception. He grunted and they jumped in that direction. "He's gaining on us."

"Wants to keep us from getting to the station, maybe?" Hayden didn't look around, but redoubled his efforts to get to the building, which was a cube built of stone and rust-streaked iron. "He's right behind us!"

Hayden looked back, and hissed with shock: he recognized this man. He had been one of the two who had doused the Rook's crewmen with kerosene. Now he was only yards back, moving with great easy bounds between the buildings and carefully not looking at Hayden or Aubri.

The police station was just on the other side of a great crumbling apartment held together by rope and stretched burlap—but they weren't going to make it. "Fuck it," said Hayden; he grabbed the corner of the building and stopped himself. Then he reached for his sword.

The pirate dove toward him, but passed a good ten feet away, still looking the other way. "What the—" Hayden and Aubri watched in disbelief as their follower sailed on through empty air; with no ropes to catch and change course, he had only one possible destination.

"I don't believe it," said Aubri as the pirate disappeared into the funnel-shaped entrance of the police station. "What do you suppose that means?"

"I think I know exactly what it means," said Hayden as the entrance suddenly boiled with uniformed officers wearing powerful foot-fins. Somewhere behind the building he heard jets whining into life.

"We've got to get back to the bike!"

Aubri sat perched on the side of the apartment, staring at the cloud of oncoming policemen. "But what's—"

"He's working with them! Aubri, come on!"

"Oh, I think you'll find it's too late for that," said a familiar voice behind them.

Hayden spun around.

Captain Dentius stood on the building, not fifteen feet away. He was flanked by two policemen, and he looked very pleased with himself. "Hello again," he said in his grating voice. "It's always a pleasure to run into former clients… especially when you've got unfinished business with them."

"Bastard!" Hayden's anger finally had a focus. It was with some-thing like joy that he drew his sword and leaped at the man, ignoring the policemen.

He spun until he was going feetfirst and nearly managed to put his blade through the captain's throat, but Dentius ducked out of the way at the last moment. The policemen couldn't react before Hay den planted both boots on Dentius's chest and kicked hard. He sailed back to Aubri with extra momentum on his side. "Come on!"

She took his hand and they careened around the corner. Angry shouts followed.

"I can't believe you just did that!" she shouted. A gunshot sounded very close by, and here came the police bikes, a black swarm emerging from behind the police station.

"Take the initiative and you turn bad odds around," laughed Hayden. "First thing they teach you in pirate school!"

"Apparently Dentius skipped that class. Now what do we do?" They were trapped on the plain of the apartment block, with men closing in on all sides. There was just one obvious direction to go; Hayden smashed the wooden filigree of a window with his sword, and Aubri climbed in ahead of him as the police yelled at them to stop.

They found themselves in a strange apartment shaped like the cells of a wasp's nest. Shouts erupted from the half-dressed couple in the nearby bed-nest. Their limbs grotesquely long and curving, they looked like spiders as they reached out for any handy objects to throw at the intruders.

"Sorry!" Hayden and Aubri ducked past as policemen and pirates crammed into the window behind them.

Out in the tubelike hall, Hayden saw doors opening in both directions. The shouting and shots had alerted the whole building; He and Aubri went as quickly as they could from rope-hold to rope-hold but in seconds all the doors were open, and the citizen of Gehellen poured into the air around them.

"THAT'S A PRINT from the second dynastic era of Keppery," said the courtier helpfully, indicating the garish splash of lime-green and beige plastered like an insult on the banquet hall's wall. Venera was about when she noticed what was happening near the doors.

"Excuse me." She sought out her husband, who was placidly sipping his fourth glass of wine next to Reiss. Gravity was taking its toll on them both. Venera leaned close and snapped, "They're locking us in."

"Wonderful news, dear," said Reiss obliviously. "The government of Gehellen has agreed to grant shore leave to your shipmates. Why, I believe if we visit the postern window over there we might even be able to see them disembarking."

Chaison was staring over Venera's shoulder with a puzzled expression on his face. "I do believe you're right, dear. And who are those people who just came in?"

Without glancing around, Venera said, "Compact, nondescript faces, no expressions, efficient movements, simple clothing?"

"Why yes, how did you—"

"Father bought a few of those from Falcon Formation, if I recall. They're secret policemen, love, you wouldn't recognize them because of your appalling lack of education in certain areas." She kept the smile on her face—in truth, it was no more false now than it had been ten minutes ago. "We're about to be arrested, I believe, and our men are being herded off the ships."

Ambassador Reiss sputtered. "They can't do—" 

"Think of something, fast," hissed Venera as she heard someone with slow confident steps approaching from behind. "Excuse me," said a voice that might have been stamped out of the same press as Carrier's.

Venera looked into Chaison's eyes, and saw something she'd never seen before—he was furious in some silent and calculated way that he'd never shown her.They had been separated during the battle with the pirates but she had heard he'd shot some men from the Rook's hangar. The leader who had done that was not the man she bickered with over dinner, who gave in so easily on domestic matters that it drove her to distraction. She'd hoped to meet that man someday, but under better circumstances.

Chaison Fanning was about to kill someone. Venera realized that it was time for her to get out of his way. She began to step to the side, saw his eyes widen, and felt a hand descend on her shoulder—

—And then a concussion sent her to her knees as stone and glass cascaded over her like water.

She looked up, blinking away dust, to see Chaison leaping over her as though she were a discarded chair in some bar brawl. A familiar roar filled the banquet hall, its presence here such a shocking violation of the order of things that it froze Venera in place for a moment. She whirled, one hand still on the grit-spalled floor, and saw indistinct figures struggling in a tunnel of spiraling dust. The stink of burning kerosene filled the air.

"Come on!" Hayden Griffin reached out of the cloud. His grim face and jacket's torn shoulder blazed into perfect clarity in a shaft of Candesce's light. Just as she moved to take his hand, however, he spun around and the sword in his other hand flashed a blur over her head. Someone screamed in the white opacity of dust that surrounded him.

"Officers to me!"That was Chaison's voice. A pistol shot startled Venera into standing up. Aubri Mahallan appeared, smoking weapon in her hand. "Sir, it's a trap," Griffin was telling Chaison. "Dentius got here ahead of us. He must have cut a deal with Gehellen for part of the treasure."

"Details later," said Chaison. "Officers, to me! We have to get back to the ships!"

Venera looked up. There was a jagged hole in the wall where the intricate stone and stained-glass rose window had been. "Ah," she said to no one in particular. "But what—?"