"I'm ready to go," Zane said.

"Two quick things," Bennett said to me. "I'm almost done printing most of the data files you were given when we came here, so you can have those in hard copy. I can't print the video and audio files, but I'll run them through a processor to get you transcripts."

"Okay, good," I said. "What was the second thing?"

"I went around the camp with a monitor like you asked and looked for wireless signals," Bennett said. Trujillo raised an eyebrow at this. "The monitor is solid state," Bennett said to him. "Doesn't send, only receives. Anyway, I think you should know there are three wireless devices still out there. And they're still transmitting."

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about," Jann Kranjic said.

For not the first time, I restrained the urge to punch Kranjic in the temple. "Do we really need to do this the hard way, Jann?" I said. "I'd like to pretend we're not twelve years old and that we're not having an 'am to, am not' sort of conversation."

"I turned over my PDA just like everyone else did," Kranjic said, and then motioned back to Beata, who was lying on her cot, a washcloth over her eyes. Beata was apparently prone to migraines. "And Beata turned in her PDA and her camera cap. You have everything we have."

I glanced over at Beata. "Well, Beata?" I said.

Beata raised the edge of her washcloth and looked over, wincing. Then she sighed and reapplied her washcloth. "Check his underwear," she said.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Beata," Kranjic said.

"His underwear," Beata said. "At least one pair has a pouch in the elastic that hides a small recorder. He's got a pin of the Umbrian flag that's an audio,"video input. He's probably got it on right now."

"You bitch," Kranjic said, subconsciously covering his pin. "You're fired."

"That's funny," Beata said, pressing the washcloth against her eyes. "We're a thousand light-years from anywhere, we have no chance of ever getting back to Umbria, you spend your days reciting overblown notes into your underwear for a book you'll never write, and I'm fired. Get a grip, Jann."

Kranjic stood to make a dramatic exit. "Jann," I said, and held out my hand. Jann snatched off his pin and pressed it into my palm.

"Want my underwear now?" He sneered.

"Keep the underwear," I said. "Just give me the recorder."

"Years from now, people are going to want to know the story of this colony," Kranjic said, as he fumbled with his underwear from inside his trousers. "They're going to want to know the story, and when they go looking for it, they're not going to find anything. And they're not going to find anything because its leaders spent their time censoring the only member of the press in the entire colony."

"Beata's a member of the press," I said.

"She's a camerawoman," Kranjic said, slapping over the recorder. "It's not the same thing."

"I'm not censoring you," I said. "I just can't allow you to jeopardize the colony. I'm going to take this recorder and have Jerry Bennett print you out a transcript of the notes, in very tiny type, because I don't want to waste paper. So you'll have these notes. And if you go find Savitri you can tell her I asked her to give you one of her notepads. One, Jann. She needs the rest for our work. Then if you need any more you can see what the Mennonites have to say about it."

"You want me to write out my notes," Kranjic said. "In longhand."

"It worked for Samuel Pepys," I said.

"You're assuming Jann knows how to write," Beata mumbled from her cot.

"Bitch," Kranjic said, and left the tent.

"It's a stormy marriage," Beata said laconically.

"Apparently," I said. "You want a divorce?"

"Depends," Beata said, raising her washcloth again. "Think your assistant would be up for a date?"

"In the entire time I've known her I haven't known her to date anyone," I said.

"So that's a 'no,'" Beata said.

"It's a 'hell if I know,'" I said.

"Hmmmm," Beata said, dropping the cloth back down. "Tempting. But 111 stay married for now. It irritates Jann. After all the irritation he's provided me over the years, it's nice to return the favor."

"Stormy marriage," I said.

"Apparently," Beata said.

"We must refuse," Hickory said to me. It and Dickory and I were in the Black Box. I figured that when I told the two Obin that they needed to give up their wireless consciousness implants, they should be allowed to be conscious to hear it.

"You've never refused an order of mine before," I said.

"None of your orders has ever violated our treaty," Hickory said. "Our treaty with the Colonial Union allows the two of us to be with Zoe. It also allows us to record those experiences and share them with other Obin. Ordering us to surrender our consciousness interferes with this. It violates our treaty."

"You could choose to surrender your implants," I said. "That would solve the problem."

"We would not choose to," Hickory said. "It would be an abdication of our responsibility to the other Obin."

"I could tell Zoe to tell you to give them up," I said. "I can't imagine you'd ignore her order."

Hickory and Dickory leaned in together for a moment, then leaned out again. "That would be distressful," Hickory said. I reflected that it was the first time I had ever heard that word provide such apocalyptic gravity

"You understand I have no desire to do this," I said. "But our orders from the Colonial Union are clear. We can't let anything provide easy evidence we're on this world. The Conclave will exterminate us. All of us, including, you two and Zoe."

"We have considered the possibility," Hickory said. "We believe the risk to be negligible."

"Remind me to show you a little video I have," I said.

"We have seen it," Hickory said. "It was provided to our government as well as yours."

"How can you see that and not see that the Conclave represents a threat to us?" I asked.

"We viewed the video carefully," Hickory said. "We believe the risk to be negligible."

"It's not your decision to make," I said.

"It is," Hickory said. "By our treaty."

"I am the legal authority on this planet," I said.

"You are," Hickory said. "But you may not abrogate a treaty for your convenience."

"Not getting an entire colony slaughtered is not a convenience," I said.

"Removing all wireless devices to avoid detection is a convenience," Hickory said.

"Why don't you ever talk?" I said to Dickory.

"I have yet to disagree with Hickory," Dickory said.

I stewed.

"We have a problem," I said. "I can't force you to surrender your implants, but I can't let you run around with them, either. Answer me this: Is it a violation of your treaty for me to require you to stay here, in this room, so long as I have Zoe visit you on a regular basis?"

Hickory thought about it. "No," it said. "It is not what we prefer."

"It's not what I prefer, either," I said. "But I don't think I have a choice."

Hickory and Dickory conferred again for several minutes. "This room is covered in wave-masking material," Hickory said. "Give us some. We can use use it to cover our devices and ourselves."

"We don't have any more right now," I said. "We need to make more. It might take some time."

"As long as you agree to this solution we will accommodate the production time," Hickory said. "During that time we will not use our implants outside this room, but you will ask Zoe' to visit us here."

"Fine," I said. "Thank you."

"You are welcome," Hickory said. "Maybe this will be for the best. Since we have been here, we have noticed she has not had as much time for us."

"She's being a teenager," I said. "New friends. New planet. New boyfriend."