“Huh.” Kordas examined the precautions. “It must have been a time when spies and saboteurs were considered a fact of life. Looks like over time, as incidents grew fewer, the Empire’s leaders decided that defending against espionage so vigorously was an unneeded expense.” He shook his head. The more he saw of the Capital, the more he realized that the people, the organization, were all just like the City itself. Strong and powerful on the surface, but beneath the surface, cracked and shaking apart. “The City came to be considered impervious since the only spies who had ever attempted espionage against the Empire were all caught! There’s a twist of logic for you—‘since we’ve caught fewer and fewer spies, our enemies must have given up on trying,’” Kordas mused out loud. “And nobody could know whether it’s true or not. Still don’t. How do you find a truth out, when it’s about secrets?” He took a firm grip on one of the levers and nodded to the other side, where his companions stood ready. The trio withdrew the bars and dropped them levers-up into their receivers, and stood before the doorway of the Trap.

Star warned, “You may experience a kind of madness in here. Compulsion. It is unlikely to cause you bodily harm.”

“Bring it on,” proclaimed Beltran.

Kordas gave Beltran a sidelong look, wondering if this was bravado, the concussion, or the pain-drugs talking.

Or just maybe it’s Beltran. Kordas often forgot how young the man was.

Or maybe I’m just old.

Star pulled the doors open and stood aside for them.

They stepped onto an upper deck of a vast cube, filled with huge grids of iron chainlink forming an enclosed central area that hung down to its floor. Immediately, they felt a deadening in the air, as if sound was incapable of traveling far. Kordas looked around with an expression of confusion. As if from horselengths away, he heard Star say, “We are now inside an area impervious to scrying, and transmission of sound is subdued within its effective area, which encompasses the entirety of this chamber.”