Heineman adjusted the tuberider's roll and floated past Lanier. "Wait," Carrolson said. "What's that?"

The singularity ahead of the tuberider was no longer a shiny cylindrical surface. In intermittent pulses, it glowed orange and then white, like a hot steel wire.

"No rest for the wicked," Heineman said, replacing Lanier in the pilot's seat. He applied the tuberider clamps to the singularity to brake. The craft suddenly bucked and rolled violently, tossing Lanier and Farley against the storage rack and pinning them there until Heineman released the clamps.

"We're accelerating," Heineman shouted over the roaring shudder of the tuberider and airplane. "I'm not in control anymore."

Lanier slid toward the rear of the cabin, banging into seats with his arms and legs as he tried to grab hold of something. Farley clung to a seat tenaciously and struggled to swing around and sit in it.

The singularity now drew a long, steady red line down the middle of the plasma tube. Lanier strapped himself into a seat and reached across to help Farley climb into hers. Equipment bounced and fell to the rear, striking storage racks, bulkheads and other equipment.

"Can you reverse us?" Lanier shouted over the tumult.

"No way," Heineman answered. "If I clamp down, we start bucking. Thirty thousand and still accelerating." The tuberider rolled again and Lanier and Farley shielded themselves against another onslaught of rebounding memory block racks, test kits and coiled light cables.

"Forty," Heineman said a few moments later. "Fifty."

The radio crackled and chuffed and a genderless melodic voice began in mid-phrase:

"—violation of the Law of the Way. Your craft is in violation of the Law of the Way. Do not resist or your craft will be destroyed. You are under the direction of the Hexamon Nexus and will be removed from the flaw in six minutes. Do not attempt to either accelerate or decelerate."

The message ended with a soft burst of white noise.

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-One

Belozersky stood stiffly to the rear of Yazykov at the conference table, hands locked behind his back. Yazykov sat with his hands folded on the table. Hoffman looked over the demands and wrote out a quick translation on her slate for Gerhardt. Gerhardt read them quickly and shook his head.

"We reject your demands," Hoffman said flatly in Russian. She, too, had spent time in the third chamber library.

"These men are criminals," Yazykov said. "They have kidnapped one of our colleagues and hidden in one of the cities where we cannot find them."

"Whether that's true or not, we already agreed to separate governmental and judicial systems. We can't help you find these men without breaking our agreement."

"They are hiding in sectors dominated by your people," Belozersky said. "You yourself may be hiding them."

"If that's the case, then I've been told nothing about it," Hoffman said. "I doubt it."

"Surely you support our attempt to form a civilian government," Yazykov said.