Mirsky leaned toward her, elbows on his knees, hands clasped. "I am tired of disputes," he said. "I have the calm of a dead man, Miss Hoffman. I'm afraid I unsettle some of my comrades."

"You keep saying you were killed. That doesn't make sense, General."

"Perhaps not. But it is true. I do not remember everything. But I remember I was shot in the head. Pogodin tells me they—" He held up his hands. "You can deduce who killed me. Half my head." He waved his hand away from the right half of his skull. "Killed, and then I was brought back to life again. I am thankful I was unarmed, or I might be where Belozersky, Vielgorsky and Yazykov are even now."

"And where is that?"

"I'm not positive," Mirsky said. "In detention, perhaps. It seems Thistledown City still has the means to carry out its own law."

"I thought that might be what happened. That means Thistledown City is still capable of making decisions and judgments, and acting on them."

"We must watch our behavior there, no?" Mirsky suggested.

Hoffman nodded and returned to the agenda. One by one, within forty-five minutes, all the items were covered, negotiated and agreed to.

"It's been a pleasure," Mirsky said, standing and offering her his hand. Hoffman shook it firmly and he escorted them to the truck.

"What about the gallows?" Wallace asked as they backtracked anti-spinward to the zero compound. "What are we going to make of that?"

"No more Mr. Nice Guy," Hoffman suggested idly. "Maybe it's just a warning."

"He's spooky," Wallace said.

Hoffman agreed. "Very," she said.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Chapter Fifty-Five

From their quarters in Axis Nader, the five were taken by Suli Ram Kikura and the Frant to the flaw passage, around which the cylindrical precinct rotated. Their transportation was an empty shaft three kilometers long; their fall was similar to a ride in the apartment building elevator in Thistledown City, and therefore—mercifully—not too unexpected.

Carrolson enjoyed it the least of them; she had a distinct fear of precipices; not of heights per se, but of edges. She managed, however, with both Lanier's and Ram Kikura's encouragement. "I'm not a goddamned old woman," she said resentfully as they fell.

The flaw passage was a half-kilometer-wide pipe through the Axis City, with the singularity at its center. Hundreds of thousands of citizens lined the walls and floated in clutching, roiling yet very coordinated clusters along their path. Ram Kikura and the Frant conferred with the passage engineer, a female homorph who, like Olmy, was also self-contained and lacked nostrils.