“I doubt that.”

“I’m not suggesting a Spacer did it. In fact, an android brought me to the Lin Ru.”

The woman looked as if she’d tasted a lemon. “We neither use nor condone the use of androids.”

“I am aware of that.”

The woman spoke with growing distaste. “Is the android presently in the embassy?”

“In one of the basement kitchens,” Maddox said. “You’ll find two of them, both dysfunctional.”

Her head twitched in the negative. “I do not care for the direction of your allegations. In fact, by saying androids brought you to the Lin Ru you slur the embassy. That suggests this is a setup. I will have to inform the ambassador’s secretary.”

“As you wish,” Maddox said.

“You are unnaturally calm. You must not be aware of the penalty for assaulting a Spacer in a ship. It is death by asphyxiation. But since we are not in space, death by any other means will suffice.”

“I understand, but I did not assault Taren Lucas. He assaulted me and I defended myself. His own treachery killed…er, incapacitated him.”

She sneered. “The evidence tells a different story.”

“Examine the video.”

She shook her head. “There is none to examine, as we do not allow recording equipment on our premises.”

Maddox shook his head at Murphy’s Law in action. The one thing he’d believed Lucas had told truthfully ended up being a lie. It figured.

“By the authority invested in me as the Provost Officer on the bridge, in this case, in the embassy,” the woman said, “I declare you guilty.”

“I appeal your verdict,” Maddox said.

“And I reject your appeal.” She raised the projac, putting pressure on the trigger.

Maddox realized she planned to kill him on the spot. The knowledge almost froze him. Instead, he shouted, trying to startle her.

She flinched. Then, her arm stiffened as she retargeted.

The delay allowed Maddox time to remember the knife tucked behind his back. He reached there, grabbed the handle and flung the kitchen utensil at her gun, hoping to knock it out of her hand. At the same time, he threw himself to the side, rolling.

The projac fired. A bolt of power sizzled, singeing the right top shoulder of Maddox’s uniform.

The spinning knife reached her, the tip entering the back of her hand in a nearly perfect throw. She cried out in pain, dropping the projac.

Maddox was already on his feet again.

“Restrain him!” she shouted, clutching her injured hand with the knife still sticking in the flesh.

The sentries came at Maddox. He towered over them and had to outweigh both combined.

Maddox shouted again, lashed with his left foot, sweeping the feet out from the first sentry. Maddox twirled martial-arts style, hopped onto his other foot and leg-lashed the second sentry. It catapulted the man so he crashed over a bed and disappeared from view onto the other side.