Soon, Maddox found himself wandering through dark hallways. He hadn’t used the slanting metal corridor the first android had taken him through. That seemed unwise even if it was the most direct path back to the surface and street. He was sure something would be guarding that way. Instead, he crept through narrower passageways, trying to find a different, hopefully unguarded exit.

So far, the halls were empty and most of the doors locked. The open ones led into closets. The gun was back in its holster but useless for the moment without bullets. Maddox kept a short, sturdy cutting knife beside his right leg.

He wrestled with the problem of why someone would send an android after him. Did it have anything to do with the smugglers he’d been playing cards with in Woo Tower?

The captain suspected it might.

If so, what did that tell him? The most logical answer was that someone off-planet wished to speak with him. That implied the enemy. Before the last voyage aboard Starship Victory, the enemy had been monolithic. Everyone on Earth had known them as the New Men. Since defeating the alien Destroyer, the New Men had fractured into the Throne World New Men, those with sympathies toward humanity and the New Men working closely with Strand. Strand was what Maddox had come to think of as a greater Methuselah Man. In the Commonwealth, the Methuselah People had taken longevity treatments, none of them older than several hundred years. Strand was something much older and more dangerous because the alien and unknown Builders were behind him.

The situation had become increasingly complex.

Professor Ludendorff was another of the greater Methuselah Men, lost in the Xerxes System with its mysterious silver pyramid.

Maddox halted, cocking his head. He heard …

There it was again. A man blew his nose. He doubted a woman would blow her nose that forcefully. Should he retreat or advance?

The captain stood in the gloom, debating with himself.

It had been some time since he and his crew had defeated the alien Destroyer. The vast ship had transported itself into the core of the Sun, where the terrific energies had obliterated the killing machine. Before that had happened, however, the deadly machine had annihilated the New Arabia System, the heart of the Wahhabi Caliphate along with the majority of the caliphate’s fleet.

That had slashed regular humanity’s remaining space power by a quarter to a third. If nothing else, the Destroyer had done the Throne World’s work for them. Star Watch had halted the New Men’s invasion armada over two years ago now. The Commonwealth had taken staggering losses before that.

Maddox lurched in the direction of the nose-blower. The sound indicated regular people, not more androids. The captain moved like a stalking tiger, with energy coiled in his limbs and cool concentration shining in his eyes.

He wanted to be able to report to the Iron Lady more information than simply, “I evaded capture, Ma’am.”