"I'm sorry Jin was caught in my stunner nimbus, ma'am," Roic said to her.  "But I've found it's usually better to resolve these hostage situations as directly as I can.  Bad to let them spin out."

"This is a nightmare," she groaned.

Roic granted this with a nod, but said, "Cut short now, ma'am.  Raven will get Jin some synergine right away"—Roic rolled his eye compellingly at Raven—"and he won't even wake up with a headache."

Raven took the hint and scurried back to the recovery room for suitable supplies.

M'lord strolled up, possessed himself of the shock stick, and regarded their captive with a curious and thoughtful air, like a biologist planning out the dissection of a promising new specimen.

Oki regarded him back, bewildered.  "Who the hell are you people, anyway?"

"From your point of view," said m'lord, "I suppose we're your karma delivery service.  Why the devil didn't you and your buddy Hans run and keep on running when you had the chance, earlier today?  Yesterday, by now, I guess.  Why ever did you go back to your bosses?"

"We got families, you know."

M'lord's brows rose.  Had this not occurred to him before now, Roic wondered?  "If you didn't want to be a disgrace to them, you're about eighteen months too late, I think."

Oki rocked a bit.  "That, and the money."

M'lord brows went up a bit further.  Oki said defensively, "For the first time in my life, the money was good.  We bought a house."

Oki's was not exactly a world of riotous living, Roic suspected.  If NewEgypt's plant security hiring practices were any good, he'd probably been an honest man, before he'd been sucked down into this bog by his bosses.  Roic glanced at m'lord, prepared to give a hint and a nudge, but m'lord was on it already.

"It's not too late even now to limit your damages.  What's the local equivalent of turning Emperor's Witness around here, does anyone know?  They must have one."

"Prefecture's Evidence, I believe, m'lord," said Roic.

"I happen to have a good lawyer on retainer who can advise you, if you cooperate with me in a timely fashion," m'lord told their captive.  "That means, instantly."

Roic took the cue and a tighter grip on his stunner, staring along its length into Oki's eyes for emphasis.

"Where were you taking Leiber and Sato just now?" asked m'lord.  "Not for a walk, presumably."

"Akabane's waiting for us out front in the street with the van," mumbled Oki.

"The NewEgypt finance chief?  Alone?"

Oki wet his lips.  "It was just supposed to be Leiber, see."

M'lord's eyes lit.  "That one we want, Roic—in flagrante delicto and arrested on the premises, if possible.  An enemy's mistake is a tactical gift that must never be wasted."