Matt gave a ghost of a grin. No more pictures of Cat Corrigan in the society holos. That would be a switch!
“We do have a promise, however, that she’ll testify — if it becomes necessary.”
That made Matt grow more serious. “What’s going to happen to Rob Falk?” he asked.
Now it was the captain’s turn to shrug. “He’s in custody, under continuous observation so he won’t…do anything to himself. Certainly, he’ll have to face a psych evaluation. The tech people here tell me he truly is a genius. But he planned some pretty terrible things—”
“And did a few — including murder,” Matt finished grimly.
Captain Winters didn’t disagree. He simply started talking about another subject. “I think the Federal Government is going to start taking more of an interest in these ring-town gangs. They’re a problem for other cities besides Washington.”
“And that will probably be the only visible result of everything that happened,” Matt said.
“After State, the Justice department, and a couple of other agencies — including Net Force — are done, I suppose so.” Winters looked at Matt. “Were you expecting a medal?”
“No!” Matt said, surprised.
“Then look at it this way. You helped avoid a four-way international incident, saved a lot of people from some very rough treatment at the hands of the Buzzards…and kept some very nasty technology out of some very dirty hands. Unfortunately, only a handful of people will know what you did to avert a major disaster.”
“And in return, I get a chance to bust my butt in advanced training,” Matt said.
Captain Winters nodded. “The best possible punishment for success — it’s the Net Force way. You got a problem with that, Hunter?”
Matt found a slow grin creeping across his face. He shrugged. “I guess I can live with it, Captain,” he said.