There was a disturbance above the garden steps, on a level with Tennal’s head. Visible currents gathered around a tiny area of empty air, coin-sized. The miniature stitch in space opened to a small, pale swirl. Like an eye.

Another one materialized and opened behind Surit’s head. Then another, and another. Dozens of ghostly eyes opened and fixed themselves on Tennal and Surit and Zin. Tennal glanced hurriedly behind them and could see the eyes opening in the corridor as well, and outside, even over the roof.

LOCATED.

LOCATED.

Surit sat up straight, because you could take the soldier out of the crisis, but you couldn’t take the 98 percent Crisis Response test grade out of the soldier. “What is going on?”

As if in answer, one of the eyelike swirls exploded into a round light-screen that was, under the circumstances, shockingly human. There was a person in it.

The person had the featureless, colorless eye shield that meant they were from the Resolution.

“A xeno projection event was detected in this area,” the person said. Their accent was one Tennal couldn’t place, from some Resolution planet he had probably never even heard of. “Remnant abuse is a violation of the Resolution treaty. Your planetary authority has been contacted. Do not attempt to leave local space.”

“Well,” Tennal said, after a moment of absolute silence. “It looks like we fucked up in an even more creative way than I thought.”

CHAPTER 33

Tennal absolutely adored being decanted into a full Resolution inquest seven hours after he had stopped a civil war.

It had been deep into the night before he and Zin had managed to get away from the Legislator’s Residence. One of the coin-sized eyes followed each of them, floating behind like an invisible leash. The army had admitted Surit to a hospital, where last time Tennal had seen him, he’d been looking less like a wrung-out cloth who’d bled his life force out into deep space and more like a human who needed some rehydration sachets. He had an eye hovering beside his bed as well.

Surit smiled when Tennal came in. And before that, hours ago, Surit had kissed him in an abandoned office in the Codifier Halls. Tennal still wasn’t sure what to do with that.

Tennal hadn’t come through all this to abandon Surit in a hospital and was considering sleeping in a chair when Surit fixed him with his most officer-type look and said, “You haven’t been called until morning. The rest of our unit has lodgings. Go to bed, Tennal.”