“Chlorine,” Illuyank muttered.

“We’ll be able to sterilize the Runner boils right out of existence now,” Lewis said. “If we’d only known . . .”

“A nasty way to learn,” someone behind them said.

And someone else said: “It’ll be a long wait.”

“Waiting’s that way,” Illuyank said. “Think how long you live if you’re always waiting.”

It was an insightful comment, deeper than anything Lewis had ever expected from Illuyank. And it meant that Illuyank would have to be shifted to a tour of duty Colonyside. He saw too much, deduced too much. That could not be permitted. First, though, they had to get out of here. But there was no way out except into the Runner-contaminated open areas of the Redoubt. The chlorine would make that possible . . . in time.

“Can we get a message to Murdoch?” Lewis asked.

“Emergency transmitter only,” Illuyank said.

“Send him the emergency shut-down signal. No one comes in here until we’ve cleaned up. It wouldn’t do to have anyone see what’s happened and . . .” Lewis directed a loaded look at Illuyank.

Illuyank nodded, and provided Lewis with the perfect opening for what had to be done. “Someone should go Colonyside, though, and see that they understand.”

“That had better be you,” Lewis said. “Make sure they don’t try to explain anything to The Boss shipside. That’s my job.”

“Right.”

“Don’t tell them any more than you have to. And . . . while you’re there, try to circulate in the Colony—everything normal, routine. Accept the usual assignments . . .”

“And try to find out if word of this . . .” Illuyank glanced at the sensor screens “. . . has leaked out.”

“Good man.”

And Lewis thought: Too good.

Chapter 14

Just as a technician learns to use his tools, you can be taught to use other people to create whatever you desire. This becomes more potent when you can create the special person for your special purpose.

—Morgan Oakes, The Diaries

LEGATA HAMILL knew groundside was to be their permanent home eventually, but she did not like these courier jobs on which Oakes sent her. There was a sense of power in them, though; no denying it. Her pass (often just an identifying look at her by a guard) admitted her anywhere. She was an arm of Morgan Oakes. She knew what they saw when they looked at her: a small woman with pale skin and ebon hair, a figure almost lush in its femininity. They saw a woman The Boss wanted and who, because of that, was powerful and dangerous.

Every inspection trip she took for Oakes created tension.

This time she was to inspect Lab One at Colony. And all of it would be on holo to make a full record for Oakes to review.

“Penetrate it,” Oakes had said.

The way he said “penetrate” had distinctly sexual overtones.

She had never been into the Lab One depths before and that alone piqued her curiosity. Lewis had a trusted minion here, Sy Murdoch. She was to meet Murdoch. Usually, Lewis was to be found in the shiny plasteel environs of the lab which was entered via a triple-lock system at the end of a long tunnel. Not today. Lewis was out of communication. A strange way of putting it; and there was no doubt that Oakes was disturbed by this development.