“I wasn’t climbing it,” Tom lied quickly. “I was smashing this huge spider and the clamp accidentally turned on and stuck me to the pole.”

Blackburn dragged him across the roof and shoved him down, by the door leading to the fifteenth floor. “You stay here. Sit. Don’t move.” There was a sort of dark fury in his voice.

Tom wasn’t pleased about sitting. It wasn’t dignified. He shoved himself up, but Blackburn’s heavy hand anchored on top of his head and manhandled him back down. “I said don’t move!”

Tom clenched his jaw and stayed on the ground.

“Thatta boy,” Blackburn said. “I’m going to talk to Ashwan. You—stay here by yourself, don’t talk to anyone, and ponder how stupid that was. Think of it as a time-out.”

“Time-out?” Tom blurted. “What am I, five?”

Blackburn laughed unpleasantly. “Color me astounded that you are even vaguely familiar with that term, Raines. But if I can’t pound some sense through your thick skull by treating you like the other trainees, then maybe I should try treating you like an undisciplined young child, which is exactly the way you’re acting. Would that work?”

“No!” Tom protested. “I’m fifteen.”

“Then prove to me you have the attention span of a fifteen-year-old and sit there.”

Simmering, Tom stayed there, until Blackburn seemed satisfied and his footsteps clanged away. But then Tom got to thinking, and he realized what must be going on: Blackburn was probably coming down hard on Vik. Maybe Vik had thought of some great excuse already? Tom knew he had to corroborate whatever story it was, so he eased himself to his feet and moved as quietly as he could back toward them, determined to hear what Vik said. He settled around the curve of the base of the pole, ears straining to pick out their conversation.

He caught Blackburn’s words. “. . . really think this is a good idea, Ashwan?”

“No, sir.”

“Oh, but it sounded like you did. After all, you were rooting him on, so show me what a brilliant idea this is. Climb the pole.”

Vik was silent a moment. “Sir?”

“I said climb it.”

Tom felt incredulous. That was not fair. Vik got to climb it? He leaned forward, and saw the wavering air in Vik’s location.Vik obviously wasn’t climbing.

“Let me guess: it looks awfully high now, doesn’t it, Ashwan? Let’s say you climbed it. This thing”—there was a waver of air, and then a ringing of exosuited knuckles clapping on the pole—“sends transmissions to vessels in the neutral zone around Earth. One communication with a ship while you’re climbing this, and the signal will short out the centrifugal clamps and maybe send a good old shock straight through all this metal into your neural processor. Tell me, still sound like a good idea?”

Vik sounded astonished. “No, sir.”