“It’s very simple,” Oma said, “if I or any Archer officers say the trigger phrase, stop and report back, you will stop what you are doing and you will present yourself at this office. You will then wait without further movement until I have acknowledged you. Is that clear?”

Tennal opened his mouth to say he didn’t really need Surit to have a kill switch, but Surit just said colorlessly, “Yes, I understand.”

“He’s a Rank One,” Tennal said. It was almost impossible to even write a Rank One, let alone start laying compulsions. “You’re going to find it bloody difficult to—”

Oma wrote Surit.

The architect command came from her like a sunburst. Tennal’s vision flooded with white. He could generally sense architect commands even if they were directed at someone else: they felt like a tendril of light, a flashlight beam. This was a supernova. It wasn’t even aimed at him, and yet the glare was so bright that Tennal couldn’t see. This was why Oma had looked like a furnace to his reader senses. She was stronger than Surit.

How was that possible? Tennal had never met someone as strong as her in his life. The white inferno in his eyes grew brighter and brighter. It was painful to look at. Tennal could feel a buzzing sensation in the back of his neck like crawling insects.

Then, like a vent puncturing the pressure, the sensation collapsed. The dazzling light disappeared. As Tennal’s vision cleared, he saw Surit with his head in his hands.

Tennal couldn’t say, Surit, are you all right? His hands gripped the edge of the desk.

Surit slowly and painfully raised his head. “Command acknowledged.”

There was a long silence. Then: “Good,” Oma said. “Dismissed.”

“Can I have a word with him?” Tennal said, hastily pushing himself away from the desk. He remembered at the last moment that he shouldn’t look too concerned, so he reached into the simmering resentment that hadn’t gone away since he first crossed the threshold of a military ship, and let a flash of malice show. “In private. Unfinished business.”

Oma looked at him, but she seemed to buy it. Nobody had ever looked at Tennal and had a problem assigning his motives to low-level malevolence. She turned to Surit. “Captain Halkana is now under the protection of Archer Division. If you write him, even once, I will exile you to a mining ship for the rest of your life. Clear?”

“Clear,” Surit said, almost inaudibly. His shoulders were still hunched.

Tennal followed him into the corridor outside, where the two rankers were waiting to escort Surit back to detention. He grabbed Surit by the shoulder, waved the rankers back, and pulled him down the corridor. He shouldn’t have been able to move Surit, but Surit stumbled after him as if he wasn’t even thinking.