“My question to you, Suharto, is not what PA would do if Kalico was dismissed. Kalico’s earned our respect. And she’d probably resign without causing a scene, because, damn her for a lunatic, she’s still got this fart-sucking loyalty to the Corporation. I want to know why you, soft meat and ignorant as you are, think you could run this colony?”

“It would take . . .”

“Tal?” a voice called.

Talina looked up, saw Kylee trotting toward her. “What’s up, Kylee?”

“You looking for Whitey?”

“You find him? Know where he’s at?”

“Caught a scent, faint, coming in from the south when I got out of the hospital. Anything out there they can get into?”

“Sczui farm is south of the moat.” She accessed her com. “Two Spot? Is Szong Sczui keeping an ear on the radio?”

“Should be. What have you got, Tal?”

“Give him a heads up. We think Whitey’s somewhere in his vicinity.”

“Roger that. Damn. If it wasn’t raining, we could put a drone up.”

“Yeah, I know.”

She turned to Kylee. “You said a faint scent?”

Kylee was looking back down the avenue to the south, her nose twitching. “Not strong, but good enough to identify the lineage.”

“Tal?” Two Spot said in her earpiece. “No answer from Sczui. What do you want me to do?”

“Not much you can, Two Spot. Just let Mishka, Miranda, and the rest know that Whitey’s out there in the night. We’ll see if we can track him in the morning. After the rain, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Roger that.”

Kylee was giving Cinque a curious inspection. “What’s with the pheromones?”

“Makes him attractive to women,” Talina replied as if Cinque weren’t there. “He’s supposed to be winning my confidence while he’s plying me for information.”

“Makes him smarter than Falise. Dek just put her more than two grand in debt before she finally figured out who he is.”

“Is that whiskey I smell on your breath?”

“How do you think I got Falise to drop her guard and betray her plans for the future?”

“Suck an ion,” Cinque muttered, irritated. “Who are you people?”

Talina said, “The ones who will either save your ass, Suharto, or let the quetzals eat it.”

Kylee stuck a thumb out, asking, “So, does the man in black, here, know that you’re in Derek Taglioni’s lineage?”

“Excuse me? Taglioni’s lineage? What’s that mean?”

“Guess he’s no smarter than Falise, huh?” Kylee cocked her head water streaming from the brim of her hat. “Think the Bad Bart character’s any better?”

“Don’t know,” Talina said. “He’s supposed to be the tricky one.”

Cinque threw his head back and laughed. “I’m turned loose in the midst of lunatics.”

“You sure you want the IG to appoint you as the new Supervisor?” Talina asked.