s for personal expenses, you'll be interested to know that
Strike Force personnel get a 50% hazardous-duty bonus. Which, believe
me, you'll earn!"

There was a mixture of laughter and good-natured complaining, in which
Cortin and Odeon joined. Yes, they all knew they'd earn any hazard
bonuses; you didn't go into something called Special Operations, much
less into a Strike Force, for the safety of it. On the other hand,
Cortin thought, they got the chance to go after Brothers with almost no
limitations; that seemed fair enough to her, and it sounded like the
rest agreed.

"That's about it for now, then, though of course you'll get daily
updates on anthing we find out about the Brothers," Bradford said.
"This is my primary duty, so I'll be in the area most of the time; if
you have questions, or just want to talk, I'll be available."

* * * * *

Cortin was uncertain what to do after the briefing. Part of her said
to read the records and start picking her troops; the other part said
to find herself another Brother to question. After some internal
debate, she went with the first alternative; her fellow Inquisitors had
told her they'd get any information she might be interested in to her,
as soon as possible after they'd gotten it, so she could start picking
her team without worrying that she'd miss something she should know.

With that decided, she and Mike went to the Academy area that had been
set up for such record study and interviews. She groaned when she saw
the masses of personnel folders she'd be expected to go
through--paperwork had never been her strong point--but she grabbed a
handful, sighing. "You, too, Mike," she said. "We may not be able to
tell who we do want from these, but we ought to be able to pick the
ones we don't."

"Right." Odeon didn't like paperwork any better than she did, but he
did know as well as she how inevitable it was. "Anything in
particular, or just someone we could both work with?"

"I think it'll be good enough if we get someone we can work with,"
Cortin said. "Manage that, and we can go from there. Just look for
good strong motivations, because where we're likely to be going after
Brothers, we'll sure be earning our bonuses."

By the end of the afternoon, the two of them had gone through about a
third of the records, finding a medic and a communications specialist
they definitely wanted, as well as several that looked promising if an
inter