"It's, I took it before our relationship progressed very far."

"Relationship," Va repeated. "At least you've gifted me that much." Her last words were so soft, Laisen had to strain to hear them.

There seemed nothing more to say, so they sat in silence for a while. After many long minutes, Va rose. She hesitated for a moment, as if wanting to add something. In the end, she turned around and left without a word.

Laisen let out the sigh that had been building through the entire rueful conversation.

She would be back down to her usual height soon. That would be a relief, even though she was almost used to avoiding low doorways by now. Her skin would be darkened from its current burnt cream tone to its more natural pigmentation. Her hair and eye colour would also be adjusted and the excess weight jettisoned. Everything that characterised Kyn Behn would be erased.

Except what she had just inflicted.

She might not know exactly what Va Prie was going through, but she knew its rough shape and pinp.r.i.c.k texture and she never wanted to be there again.

Ever.

Always be the one doing the leaving. The other way was for victims. And Laisen knew she wasn't one of those.

Chapter Nine.

Day 1,520 of the War: Lith was hiding out in her quarters.

Cheloi-the Colonel, she corrected hastily-and Rumis were at a meeting with Twol in Yellow sector. To the Colonel's chagrin, remembering her comment about the accommodations in Yellow sector, they were only due back early the following morning. Lith had been expecting to drive both senior officers to their meeting and was both surprised and relieved when Twol indicated he would send his own driver. The young man was on another errand and it would be an easy detour to pick them up.

That gave her time to think about her original mission.

No it didn't, she conceded, her mind a stubborn blank.

While she tried to cram ridiculous a.s.sa.s.sination scenarios in her head, most of them evaporated during the quiet hours and she was left with little else but l.u.s.t and the craving of a murderer's hands and lips on her body.

"I don't care," she muttered. "It's only physical. Nothing more." But knew it for the untruth that it was.

She wanted to hate Cheloi Sie, wanted to use that anger to power a ruthlessness that would enable her to kill the Colonel. But she couldn't. She was an abject failure. How Nils would laugh when he found out. She was the perfect agent in the perfect position, ultimately unable to pull the trigger.

All she wanted now was to run as far away from Menon and the Empire as she could. But how? In all their exultant planning, Nils had never touched on exactly what Lith was supposed to do after she managed to eliminate the Senior Colonel. It was yet another example of his callowness and her own gullibility. Only one thing was sure. Her mission was over. She wouldn't do it. She couldn't do it. Her best strategy was to take the Colonel up on her offer of a transfer, get off planet and figure something out from there.

At that moment, her intercom chirped. Later, when she was safely home and away from the war, Lith would wonder whether her fancy that the quick tone sounded angry was some kind of premonition. She frowned and walked to the door, not expecting anybody.

She pressed the access b.u.t.ton and restrained a jump as the door slid open.

Colonel Koul Grakal-Ski.

His grey eyes moved up her figure, from waist to hair, and Lith stilled the impulse to zip up her tunic completely. At the moment, only her throat and the top of her black undervest were visible but, in the presence of a predator like Grakal-Ski, she felt stripped down and naked.

"Colonel, what a surprise." She strove to keep her voice low and even.

He nodded. "May I come in?"

She wanted to refuse him. There was something in his expression, a smug watchfulness, that she didn't like.

"Of course." She moved to one side.

Grakal-Ski strolled in, making a show of looking around. His gaze swept past the neatly made-up bed and a.s.sortment of cards, pins and b.u.t.tons on the bureau. It skimmed across to the wardrobe, the door-thankfully!-closed.

"How are you settling in?" he asked, swinging his gaze back to her.

"Er, fine. Thank you."

She couldn't forget that it was Grakal-Ski who had physically transported her to the Nineteen, presenting her to the Senior-Colonel as a deal already done. At the time, it had seemed a serendipitous meeting. But Lith was swiftly coming to the conclusion that, where the pale-skinned Colonel was concerned, there was no such thing as chance. There was something about the way he moved around her room, a leashed economy, that told her he was about to spring a trap.

"Your detailed records finally came through from Central Control," he said, sauntering over to her desk. He used his fingers to casually probe the flimsies and e-pads that lay haphazardly on the smooth surface. Lith watched his hand as if hypnotised, trying to quell the feeling of violation as he touched her belongings. What did he want?

"They take time, these records," he continued. "People come and go. Transfers, promotions, deaths."

Lith's skin suddenly felt cold, a phantom icy chill blasting her body. Was there something wrong with her paperwork? But she'd been a.s.sured that everything was fine. Nils promised her that everything would pa.s.s a double-level audit.

Grakal-Ski kept walking around, as if slowly working off an excess of energy. Forcing Lith to watch him.

"Promotions. That's an interesting topic.I almost got a promotion, you know." He angled a look at her that she would have described as attractive on any other face. An expression that was playful and a bit humorous. "I was after command of this territory but it went to Colonel Sie. Then she had an unfortunate driving accident and I thought it was in my grasp again, but she survived. She's a very lucky woman. Intelligent too, although I'm sure you've already noticed that."

Why did Lith feel she was wading into quicksand? "Colonel"

"When I transferred you to the Nineteen, I wasn't thinking much beyond unsettling her. Making a move she hadn't antic.i.p.ated." He ran a finger along the closed door of her closet, a light delicate touch, not even looking at her. "I wasn't sure if it would work but it was worth a try. You see, all I needed was one action, one mistake, and command would be mine."

His gaze shifted and he stared at the wall for a moment. "I remember the morning you met the Colonel," he said, his voice light. "There seemed to be something, special in the air, didn't there?" He turned and arched a pale eyebrow at her. "It was the first time I'd ever seen the Senior Colonel so...fl.u.s.tered."

Why was he telling her this? It sounded sick and sordid coming from his mouth. "Colonel"

"But I'll give you both the highest marks. If you have been having an affair, you've been discreet about it. With no solid evidence, any complaint I lodged would only be the occasional whine of a thwarted man against one of the most decorated officers on the planet. I had reconciled myself to another loss. Until your transfer papers arrived."

He went back to the desk, brushing things aside to clear a s.p.a.ce then leaning against the blunt edge, watching her. His eyes were as sharp as blades.

"You say you come from Laeyek Omni B."

"That's right." Lith forced herself not to cross her arms or take on any defensive posture.

"And that you graduated with an advanced degree in Social Economics from the University of Jatsdohn nine years ago."

"Yes."

She remembered querying Nils about that as well. Wouldn't people wonder what she had done with her life in between graduating from university and volunteering for the Menon campaign? Nils disagreed. People in the Empire often moved around, he told her, dallying in one occupation after another. This was especially true of the professional cla.s.ses. Perlim apparatchiks and their children could afford to waste years chasing dead ends.

"I read through your academic transcript. You're a very apt student," he commended, then lifted a finger. "There's only one thing that bothers me." He paused, spinning the moment out. Lith forgot to breathe. "The university at Jatsdohn didn't start teaching that course until six years ago."

Lith's stomach roiled, sending bile into her clenched mouth. She swallowed acid and couldn't help an abortive glance to the doorway. The colonel noticed the instinctive move and a thin smile curved his lips.

"Make one move towards that door," he told her coldly, "and I'll cut you down in a second."

She believed him.

"It was a masterful forgery," he continued. "In fact, if I didn't have a nephew studying in the neighbouring province, I wouldn't have even questioned it. And then, after that little incident at Bul-Guymem, I began finding out lots of other interesting things."

She moved, only a twitch of her muscles, but it was enough. Koul crossed the floor in two angry strides, grabbing the collar of her uniform until it bunched in his left hand and pushing her against the wall as he twisted the material.

"You're Fusion," he hissed. "Don't think I don't know it."

The cloth of her tunic pressed against Lith's throat, cutting off part of her air supply. She wanted to cough and breathe at the same time, and felt the rigidity of Grakal-Ski's knuckles behind the scratchy softness of the material.

"Why were you sent here?" he demanded. "Are you on a covert mission to sabotage the Menon campaign?"

He was half-right but Lith didn't know how to answer. Then she felt something else, hard and inexorable, pushing under her ribcage. In one smooth motion, Grakal-Ski had withdrawn a weapon with his free hand and was pointing its barrel up into her torso. Lith tried not to think of how many of her vital organs were in its line of fire.

"Who sent you?" he hissed. "Was it the Fusion's Higher Convergence? Their military intelligence section?"

Still half-choking, Lith shook her head.

The colonel's eyes narrowed. "But you are from the Fusion?"

She nodded in one jerky movement.

He was silent, his jaw working, while he thought through her answers. His grip never wavered.

"What is your mission?"

"Kill...," she gasped.

"Who? Me?" His grip tightened once more and Lith saw a red haze in front of her eyes. She thought her head would explode. A loud pounding thumped through her skull.

Lith shook her head. "Colonel...Sie...."

The two hoa.r.s.e words had a magical effect on Koul. He widened his eyes and a slight smile curved his lips. With a nonchalant twist, he abruptly let go of her throat although the blaster was still jabbing into her flesh. She sagged against the wall.

"Why?" he asked, but his voice was a bit more relaxed now. "Why kill the Colonel?"

Lith wanted to stroke her throat, ma.s.sage away traces of the painful grip, but she didn't dare. Grakal-Ski might misinterpret the movement and blast her innards all over the subterranean ochre rock behind her.

"We think she's one of the most important," she coughed and the weapon's b.u.t.t stabbed into her, "important figures in the war. The Fusion won't do anything, won't interfere."

"'We'?" The blaster's barrel pressed further.

"We're a small group. We believe in more direct Fusion dialogue," she coughed again, "with other systems."

"More interference, you mean," he growled.

"We've tried several times to speak to the Lower Convergence about this," she said, naming one of the Fusion's two legislative a.s.semblies, "but they refused to table our pet.i.tion."

Grakal-Ski relaxed momentarily and Lith pushed her advantage, her tone changing from desperation to explanation. "Each appeal was met with refusal. A-a group of us finally decided that the only thing to do was take direct action."

"Come to Menon IV and do your own dirty work, you mean." His eyes, pale and glittering, watched her intently.

"I really do come from Laeyek Omni B," Lith continued, her voice quick but still hoa.r.s.e. "I wasn't lying about that. But it's at the edge of Perlim s.p.a.ce. When I was young, my parents left the planet to make a new life in the Fusion. But they still taught me the Perlim tongue. I can speak it fluently."

"And that's why you were chosen?"

She nodded.

"And who are you people, if you're not part of the Fusion government?" The barrel of his weapon prodded her again.

"Originally we were part of the Free-Perlim Council. But," Lith lifted her hand cautiously and rubbed her throat, "they did nothing. I belong to a splinter of the main group."

"And does the Fusion know about you?"

Lith shook her head slowly. They would have shut them down in moments if they had. That was the beauty of the strategy, Nils told her. They were small enough not to be noticed and smart enough to figure out that all it took was one carefully placed person at the right moment to achieve their goal. Stop the campaign, save the planet, and start the downfall of the Perlim Empire.

"So how were you planning to kill the Colonel?"

"Iwe didn't know. I was just supposed to wait for an ideal opportunity." He looked puzzled. "To use my initiative," she added.

"That seems rather foolish. What if I hadn't toured Blue sector the day we met?"

"I had already put in for a transfer to the Nineteen's general staff before Commander Mazhin was killed."

"And did you kill him?"

Lith's eyes widened with shock. "No!"

Koul regarded her coolly. "If it frightens your Fusion sensibilities to kill someone less important in order to further a mission, how can you possibly kill the Colonel?"

"Ththat's different. Commander Mazhin wasn't in charge of the most important territory in the campaign. Colonel Sie is."

"I see."

He hesitated for another second then put away his weapon with a practised move. When he walked back to the desk, showing her his back, Lith knew she had found an unlikely ally.

"Then you and I are in agreement," he said. "We would both like to see the Senior Colonel out of the war."

Lith let the wall take her weight as the full import of his words. .h.i.t her. Grakal-Ski as an ally? For a mission she had already given up as impossible? She had already created several excuses to feed Nils. The opportunity never came up. The Colonel was too well guarded. Everyone within HQ walked around armed.

Knowing her previous sincerity, he'd believe her and probably come up with another half-baked plan to deliver the galaxy from the Perlim Empire. One he could act upon himself. There might be many contradictions and suppositions floating around her at the moment, but Lith was firmly of the mind that her ties with Nils were at an end. He just didn't know it yet.