is conversation with the Count, then scowled, knowing
Audra wouldn't take it as aimed at her. "I'd try to get back to the
ship, but she'd anticipate that. I'm afraid we're stuck here until
either she decides on someone else as liaison, or I let myself be
turned into a Kin."

King looked thoughtful, hesitating before she spoke. "Cap . . . we
could all use a leave, and this isn't half bad."

Thompson chuckled, startled into real humor. "True, Audra. And we
won't get too many chances at living in a System Palace; pass the word
to take full advantage of it."

"Will do, Cap. Anything we should do when her Ladyship starts setting
Kins on you?"

"I don't think so," Thompson said, "unless you can arrange for someone
to be on hand to interrupt if things get touchy. They won't hurt me,
or even try to; from what I've read and been told, they can't. But . . .
Audra, I may need--well, protection from myself. I . . . it's hard
for me not to--"

King nodded understandingly. "They are tempting, aren't they? Cap, in
your position I wouldn't hesitate; I'd donate, and enjoy the hell out
of myself, even if it meant I'd have to stay here." She gestured to
the tapes she'd been studying. "This system is in the beginning of a
major social change, one that ought to be absolutely fascinating."

"I'm sure it would, if I shared your interest in sociology," Thompson
said drily. Audra was the team's socio spec, and kept trying to get
the rest as interested as she was. "But I'll be damned if I'll
voluntarily do anything to take myself off this team, or out of the
service."

"If you're given the choice, no. But--" King raised a cautionary
hand--"if the Count's as determined as you say, it may not be your choice.
They have something called projective empathy, according to these
tapes, and they can use it to make you feel anything they want you to
feel. Especially if it reinforces something you already feel a little."

"And I already want to donate. Yeah, I see what you mean. Her
Ladyship could have taken me already--and made me like it. I wonder
why she didn't." Another thought struck him, and he looked sharply at
his second-in-command. "Our hostess was a field agent, Audra. Were any
of these tapes waiting for you?"

King looked startled, then nodded. "Two of them, yes. And one answers
your question--they don't know how long the effects of the projective
empathy last. Which may mean they won't use it to infect or cha