Tears trickled down Gateau's face, and her eyes were sick.
"That's why Alley won't talk to 'spooks,' Tannis. Not even to me. She doesn't trust us."
"I trust you, sir," Alicia said very quietly. "I know how you fought it—and I know I only got off as lightly as I did because of you."
"That's crap, Alley," Sir Arthur replied. "They wouldn't have dared push it in the end—not when they'd have had to explain why they were breaking one of the three living holders of the Banner of Terra.
"Maybe. But it doesn't change anything, sir. I would have forgiven them anything but letting Watts live—letting him keep his honor by purging the record. My people deserved better than that."
"They did, and I couldn't give it to them. We live in an imperfect universe, and all we can do is the best we can. But that's the real reason they sent me clear out here in person. Countess Miller's read the sealed records. She knows how you feel and why, but she's been instructed by His Majesty himself to discover how you managed to survive and evaded all of our sensors. I am directed to inform you that this matter has been given Crown priority, that I speak with the Emperor's own voice, as your personal liege. No doubt the intent is to duplicate the capability in other personnel, but there is also an element of fear. The unknown has that effect even today, and they're determined t0 get to the bottom of it. I would ... greatly prefer to be able to tell them myself, Alley."
His eyes were almost pleading, and she looked away. He still wanted to shield her. Wanted to protect her from those less wary of her wounds or what their questions might cost her. But what could she do? If she told him the absolute, literal truth, he'd never believe her.
"Little One," the voice in her mind was soft, "I like this man. He has the taste of honor."
"He is honor," she replied bitterly. "That's why they gave him this assignment. Because he'll do what his oath to the Emperor demands, however much he may hate himself for it."
"What will you tell him?"
"I don't want to lie to him—I don't even know if I could make myself try, and he'd spot it in a minute if I did."
"Then do not," Tisiphone suggested. "Tell him what he asks."
"Are you out of your mind?! He'll think I'm crazy!"
"Precisely."
Alicia blinked. She actually hadn't considered this possibility when she decided to maintain her semblance of insanity. She should have realized she would be forced to confront the Cadre and her past directly, but the old wound had been too deep for her to consider all its implications, and she'd never guessed the Emperor himself might insist on probing the matter.
But suppose she told Keita the whole story? He had a built-in lie detector no hardware could match. He'd know she was telling the truth ... as she believed it, at any rate. What would he do with her then?
What his orders dictated, of course. He'd return her to Soissons for further investigation—and, no doubt, treatment for her insanity. That might even be good, since the sector capital would be a much more practical base from which to begin her own search for the pirates. But because he would know she was far, far over the edge, he'd also do what the book demanded and shut down her augmentation through Tannis's overrides.
"And if he does?" Tisiphone had followed her internal debate. "We have already determined I can reactivate it any time I choose, and would it not aid our escape if they believe your augmentation is useless?"
Alicia looked back up and met Keita's pain-filled gaze. She couldn't tell them everything. Even if they didn't believe in Tisiphone, they might be alarmed enough to take precautions against the Fury's ability to read thoughts and handle her augmentation. But if she cut off, say, with the day Tannis had arrived, before they'd begun their experiments... .
"All right, Uncle Arthur," she sighed. "You won't believe me, but I'll tell you exactly where I was and how I got there."
Chapter Seven
"I think you are in trouble, Little One," Tisiphone observed as Major Gateau's left leg scythed viciously for Alicia's ankles.
She levitated above its arc, and her own foot lashed out. Tannis never saw it coming, but the moves and counters, action and reaction, were part of them both, as automatic as sneezing on dust. She fell away from the lack, robbing it of its power, and slammed a wrist up under Alicia's ankle. Alicia fell to the mat as Tannis landed on her own shoulder blades and flowed into a backward somersault. She tucked and rolled until her toes touched the mat and dug in—then straightened her knees explosively and catapulted back toward Alicia in a ferocious charge. Alicia had rolled sideways and bounced up herself, but she was still off-center when the major reached her. Arms snaked about one another, hands flashed and parried in a flickering blur, and then Tannis was leaning forward, one leg bent, the other in full extension, while Alicia cartwheeled through the air with a squawk of dismay. She hit the mat with a mighty thud, flat on her belly and tried to roll upright, only to grunt in anguish as a knee drove into her spine, a hand cupped the back of her head, and a forearm of iron pressed into her throat.
"How about it, Sarge?" Tannis panted in a disgustingly pleased tone.
"Yes, Little One," Tisiphone asked interestedly, "how about it?"
"Oh, shut up!" Alicia snapped back, and went limp with a groan.
"Uncle," she said.
"Damn, that feels good." Gateau's grin sparkled, and she rose, then leaned forward to help Alicia to her feet.
"For one of us," Alicia muttered, massaging the small of her back cautiously. She and Tannis wore light protective gear and sparring mittens—no mere precaution but a necessity when drop commandos practiced full-contact— but every bone and sinew ached.
"Out of shape, that's your problem," the major jibed. "You used to take me three falls out of five, and now you're letting a pill-pusher throw you around the salle? Dear me, whatever would Sergeant Delacroix say?"
"Nothing. He'd just take both us uppity bitches round to the advanced class and lay us out cold."
"Ah, for the good old days!" Tannis sighed, and Alicia chuckled. Learning to do that again hadn't been easy. The last few weeks had been bad, not shattering but drably depressing, for her senses were dull and dead, deprived of the needle-sharp acuity of her sensory boosters. Those boosters had been a part of her for so long she felt maimed without them.
She knew her friend had shut down her own augmentation to make their sparring even. Not, she admitted, with another groan, that Tannis any longer needed the edge her hardware might have given her. She stood barely one hundred sixty-five centimeters to Alicia's own one-eightythree, but her home world boasted a gravity thirty percent greater than Earth's, and there were no noncombatant drop commandos. Medics were medics first but only first, and Tannis had spent the last five years keeping her edge in workouts just like this one. Alicia hadn't. In fact, the mind boggled at how any of Mathison's citizenry would have reacted to an invitation to an all-out bout.