There were considerations of honor here, and Nolan did not want to make false accusations. But he had not mastered the indirect complexities of the gulden tongue, and so he plunged right in. “Cerisa fired you,” he said bluntly, “because she thought you had associations with Jex Zanlan. And I’m here because I hope you do.”

Colt did not look angry; he looked incredibly amused. “And if I do? You expect me to admit this to you and tell you all about our rebel meetings?”

Nolan shook his head. “I want to tell you something, and give you something, and I want you to pass them both along to Jex.”

“And I’m sure the son of the chief of Geldricht would be interested in any message you have for him,” Colt said in a silky voice.

“Jex is dying,” Nolan said flatly.

Colt raised his eyebrows and leaned against the doorframe. “And how would you know this? Have you even laid eyes on the man?”

“First he had a cough, nothing too bad. Then a severe cough. Now he’s exhausted, and growing weaker every day, but the cough is gone. Have you read the papers? Have you heard about the new gulden virus that’s spreading in from Geldricht? The hospitals are aware of it. Has he seen a doctor?”

“The doctor said his symptoms were not those of this mysterious virus.”

Nolan nodded impatiently. “That’s because he’s gone through the first three or four phases. He’s in the final phase now—it doesn’t look anything like the first few. It doesn’t matter. It’s a disease that can only be treated up to a certain point, and he’s crossed it. They wouldn’t have released him unless they were sure he was beyond the power of the drugs to cure.”

“How do you know this?” Colt demanded.

“Because I have studied the disease and the drug.”

“It’s new—a few weeks old. You cannot have learned much.”

Nolan smiled grimly. “I learned it all in a day. There’s not much to know about it, except it is fatal to gulden, if untreated, and it was created by Cerisa Daylen.”

Now shock made all Colt’s features go slack. “Created by—”

Nolan nodded. “Manufactured. Specifically. To kill. The gulden.”

In the space of seconds, Colt had assimilated the information, recovered from stupefaction, and grown calculating and cold. “You can’t prove this,” he said.

Nolan shook his head. “I can’t. But you know Cerisa, and you know me, and I think you will believe me.”

“Oh, I do. I am determining now how to kill her.”

Nolan shook his head. “Let her live until I see her,” he said. “For, trust me, her life is about to become worthless.”

Now Colt looked amazed and stared down at Nolan as if he had never seen this particular indigo before. “You? What would you do to her?”