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Lathe, was his first instinctive guess; but another second's observation eliminated that possibility.
The man's walk showed none of a blackcollar's feline grace; his obvious glances to left and right were a far cry from the more subtle awareness of his surroundings that was the blackcollar norm.
Which meant it wasn't one of Kanai's teammates, either. And at this hour of the morning, it sure as hell wasn't a casual visitor.
He stepped to his room monitor, keyed for a center-walk view with light amplification. It would be another couple of seconds before the man would be close enough for a good look; reaching to his bedside, Kanai scooped up his robe and the nunchaku hidden under the pillow. Eyes on the monitor, he got the robe on... and swore under his breath.
The man walking up to his door was General Qui
The doorbell rang twice in close succession; impatience personified mechanically. Jamming his nunchaku into the robe sash, Kanai reset his alarms and headed for the door.
"General," he said coolly as he unlocked the reinforced panel and swung it open. "You're up rather early."
Qui
"Putting who up?"
"Don't play i
Kanai felt his stomach tighten, consciously relaxed it. "They're not here. Sorry to disappoint you."
Qui
"What business is it of yours what our clients want?" Kanai countered.
"Don't insult my intelligence, Kanai. These aren't ordinary money-slicers renting you to cut other money-slicers' throats—these are guerrilla soldiers who want to rekindle the war. If I were you, I'd be thinking about what something like that would do to my cozy arrangement here in Denver."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that if you and Bernhard rock the boat too hard it's going to sink with you aboard it."
Qui
"Perhaps," Kanai said as calmly as he could. "You might find it expensive to try and get more than just information, though."
"Sure we would—why else do you think we've put up with you this long? But we could do it, if we had to."
Kanai nodded. "All right, consider the point made. If that's all you came for, you can go now."
Qui
"Ever seen this man before?" he asked.
The blackcollar caught the photo, looked at it. "No. Should I have?"
"Name's Allen Caine. Has Lathe mentioned him to you?"
"Again, no. What's he done that has you so interested in him?"
"In other words, how much do we know? Forget it. But as long as we're on the subject of information, what exactly are you doing for Lathe and what's he paying for it?"
Kanai cocked an eyebrow. "As someone here just said, forget it. You've about worn out your welcome, Qui
Casually, the general looked around the room. "You've got a nice place, Kanai," he said. "A real nice place. A lot nicer than the interrogation cells in Athena; a damn sight nicer than a box underground."
He brought his gaze back to Kanai. "Take some good advice and stay away from Lathe."
"Or else?" Kanai said softly.
"Or else," Qui
—
"The cabin should be just over this next rise," the pilot told Galway, easing the small spotter craft between a pair of tall pines. "Sorry about the ground-scratching here, but I have to stay low because of the Ryqril base over to the south—their lasers recognize their own aircraft, but I've never gotten a really airtight guarantee that we get the same courtesy."
"Fine by me," Galway said, swallowing. "I'd just as soon show up unvaporized myself."
The pilot gri
To find that the term "cabin" hardly did the place justice. "Mansion" was a far more appropriate term—a single story, rustic-walled millionaire's hideaway. The lump in Galway's throat grew another size, and it was all he could do to keep from ordering the pilot to lift and get him the hell back to Athena where he belonged. But the aircraft was already crunching down onto the forest mat, and at the cabin doorway he could see the owner watching him.
He stepped out almost before the craft was fully stabilized, walking over to the cabin with artificial confidence. "I'm Jamus Galway," he identified himself as he approached the man. "I called from Athena this morning. You are Prefect Ivas Trendor...?"
"Former prefect," the older man said curtly. "Long since retired. Come in, Galway."
He led the way to a living room the size of Galway's entire Capstone apartment and gestured to a feather-plait couch. "This had better be as important as you claimed," he warned as he took a matching chair across a glow-pit from the couch. "I have even less interest in getting involved in Denver's Security programs than Qui
"No, sir, but as I mentioned this morning I'm essentially a free agent—"
"Which also thrills Qui
"Ah—I think that's a fair statement, sir. But I felt I had to see you because I've come across information that indicates you may be in danger."
Trendor's eyebrows lifted with polite skepticism. "You'll forgive me if I tell you that's ridiculous," he said. "Why would anyone want to hurt me?"
Galway shrugged uncomfortably. "I can't say for sure, sir. But I looked up the record of your tenure as Security prefect, and—well, it occurred to me that it might have made you some enemies."
Trendor's expression didn't change. "I make no apologies for what I did, Galway," he said coldly.
"Denver was at flashpoint—it could have gone up like a strat nuke practically overnight. I kept it together, and if it cost a few lives, so be it. Better to decapitate a few radical organizations than watch the whole thing go up in flames."
A slight shiver went up Galway's back. In principle he agreed... but the way Trendor said it made it sound decidedly cold-blooded. "Yes, sir," he said, allowing the older man to take that any way he wished. "The records certainly indicate you were successful in keeping the peace. But there may still be people who resent what you did back then."
"I suppose that's possible." Trendor shrugged. "Though I don't know why anyone would wait this long to do something about it."
"I don't know, either, sir... unless it's because the right people for the job have just arrived. I don't know if you've heard, but the reason I'm here on Earth is that an offworld blackcollar force has just arrived in Denver."
Trendor's eyes narrowed, and he seemed to sit up straighter in his seat. "I think you'd better start from the begi