nock on his door. "Enter," he called.

The door opened, and a man in black and silver livery bowed to him.
"My Lady Count's compliments, Captain Thompson. She invites you to her
office to discuss your mission; if you will come with me?"

Thompson nodded shortly, and followed the man to an office whose open
door was flanked by a pair of System Security officers. He entered,
and the door closed behind him as he came to attention facing the woman
standing behind the desk. "Captain Jase Thompson, my Lady Count."

"You may be seated, Captain." The Count gestured to a comfortable-looking
leather armchair, and took her own seat as Thompson sat. "Now--you came
here to investigate a report of rioting, did you not?"

"You know I did, my Lady."

"And what will your report to His Majesty say?"

"That no intervention is required, of course."

"No, Captain, it will not." Count Nilssun smiled, and Thompson found
himself admiring her fangs, with an uncomfortable certainty that she
knew what he was thinking. "Since you are head of an E-Team, I'm sure
you saw at least part of yesterday's `Narvon Tonight,' and read the
spaceport newsjournals while you were waiting for your test results. I
hope you weren't too distressed at finding yourself susceptible."

"Not overly, my Lady." She'd been IntelDiv, all right, Thompson
thought. E-Team, yes, but he'd be willing to bet she'd been a field
agent before that--and that she'd set up the interview with her Chief
of Detectives and had a complete set of journals waiting for him.
She'd know better than to try misleading him, with her background, but
Thompson could understand her setting things up to let him get
information without too much effort. And something in the information
she'd arranged for him would tell him why she said his report would ask
for some kind of intervention.

He was starting to enjoy himself. This was the sort of puzzle IntelDiv
people liked to set up for each other, and it let him be sure there was
nothing seriously wrong. "Let me see. You couldn't have known I'm
susceptible to the pseudo-virus, since this is the only system that
tests for that, which means it has no bearing."

"Correct."

"Okay." Thompson thought back. "The journals were a pretty
straight-forward account, so you probably set them up just to give me
background. The key has to be the interview, then." He saw her nod
slightly, and concentrated. "The Empire can't do much about your