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might have been awarrioress as well, many years have slipped under that bridge and I seriouslydoubt she’s stayed in shape or kept up on the advances in fighting. You shoulddefeat her easily.”

“But as Gabe said, listen to your hellion.It will not allow you to do anything foolish, believe me,” Bakari commented.

“Have you ever witnessed Ailyn fashioningclothing?” Leveche asked.

“Rearranging molecules?” she countered.

Leveche nodded. “Aye. You will be able todo it too but it takes a great deal of energy for such things. Don’t do itunless you have the time to recharge that energy. It can weaken you at thewrong time. Do you understand?”

“I think so.”

“While you are engaging her, she mightshift into animal form,” Leveche told her. “Let her but don’t be tempted to dothe same in order to duel with her. That will have taken a lot of energy and itwill have weakened her. Maintain your human shape. Understood?”

“Aye.”

“You can’t kill her when she’s in lupineform but you can break her back, her neck and disable her to the point that shewill be forced to change back to human form. As soon as she does, take thekilling blow,” Leveche said.

“Which is?”

“Take her head,” Bakari said. “That’s theonly way you’ll be sure to kill her. Her head must be separated from her bodyand the juvenile queen growing in her burned to a crisp. Otherwise, she canrejuvenate.”

“The head has to come off and thebody—especially the parasite—must be flash fried,” Leveche stressed. He reachedinto his pants pocket and took out a phospho gun and laid it on the table.“This is an X-54 Magnum DC and it has the most takedown power of any weaponavailable from Fleet Command. Its range is fifteen feet with a pulse dischargeof eight hundred amps to get your opponent’s attention. A sustained directdischarge of two thousand amps to break the initial resistance of the skin andcause instantaneous unconsciousness takes roughly five seconds. If you aredealing with a human, that is lethal but with a Reaper, it will only put herdown long enough for you to take the killing blow.”

“With this,” Bakari said, and slid anobsidian dagger beside the phospho gun.

“After you’ve taken her head, hike the ampsup on the gun to the SDD range again and incinerate the body. That’ll takeabout ten to twenty seconds. Watch for the parasite. It will try to scrambleaway and hide,” Leveche warned.

The vid-com chimed and Bakari answered.“Aye?”

“Breva just informed us the LRC onRiezell-Nine is powering up. Looks like they’re getting ready to skip,” Quinnreported. He grinned. “Queen Polemusa wanted me to inform you that you’d bestget back up to the bridge. We may need to activate the Maze as soon as we’re inrange so I can shut down that ship.”

“Damn,” Bakari barked. “All right. We’re onour way.”

“And FYI,” Quinn said, “that LRC has beenprogrammed for an Éilvéiseach.”

“They’re going after the money in Ailyn’sinheritance account,” Shanee said, her eyes blazing.

No one on the bridge said it but theimplication was on each of their minds. If his mother and brother were headedfor an Éilvéiseach, they had somehow extracted both a signatureand the password from Ailyn. It did not bear thinking on for too long how thathad been accomplished.

* * * * *

He knew he was alone. His Reaper sensestold him as much. He had come out of Transition in a remarkably short span oftime and that concerned him but not enough to worry about right then. Hismother and the others were on the ship and they were leaving him behind and hehad to find the Sustenance and tenerse Cean had told him would be there.

Weakly he rolled over and managed to pull himselfup by leaning heavily against the slick titanium walls. He was naked anddefenseless, without the energy to form clothing on his trembling body. It washard to walk for his vision was wavering, the floor undulating beneath him likerolling waves. The motion made him sick to his stomach and increased theheadache that threatened to make his temples explode. He didn’t think thevisual disturbance was a residual effect of the ghoret toxin but he didn’t knowfor sure.

With his shoulder sliding along the wall,he went out into the corridor and tried to regulate his bearings to what heremembered of R-9 when he and the others had been set free. He had wanderedabout the facility, unable to believe the size of it since his world had beenrelegated to his small cell for all those years. He was so thirsty his tonguewas sticking to the roof of his mouth and trembling so violently fromwithdrawal it was hard to think.

Propped against a doorway, he tried tolocate in his mind where the main lab was in relation to where he was standing.He wasn’t sure and his mind was a jumble of acute pain and his body burning,itching from lack of the narcotic.

“Think, Ailyn,” he said aloud. “Think.”

He was fairly sure the main lab was behindhim so he forced his body around, expending even more energy that was waningfast. Sluggishly putting one foot ahead of the other, he began moving in thatdirection. His breathing was slow and labored, his lungs feeling singed fromthe high heat of his body.

He stopped and listened and thought heheard the sound of a refrigeration unit kicking in. He concentrated on thehumming noise and was reassured he was going in the right direction. As hepassed one of the rooms he saw a jumpsuit hanging on a peg and paused. Thoughhis body was fevered, he was so cold his teeth were clicking together. Thejumpsuit would help to warm him so he dredged up enough strength to detour intothe room and drag the garment from the peg. It took him a long time to get iton and it was a bit too tight for him but it helped to block out the cold.

The lights had been left on in what hethought must be the lab and the brightness spilling out into the corridor fromits open door began to hurt his sensitive eyes the closer he got to it. He wassquinting against the glare but when he reached the room,