l was better, even when physical things were the same."

"You do understand, then." Bain's look was full of relief and
something else she couldn't quite identify.

"Yes--and if this works, I want all of you to feel free to come to me.
Other duties permitting, I'll be more than happy to help keep up
morale." She grinned. "Rank doth have its responsibilities, a few of
them pleasant; a CO is expected to be available for counseling whenever
it's needed."

Bain chuckled. "'Counseling'--I like that. You may have the
best-counseled team in the entire Service, here shortly."

"Most counseled, anyway," Cortin said. "And while you're here, I've
been meaning to ask--if you don't mind talking about it, I'd like to
hear how you ended up in the Strike Force. Records are all very well,
but there's no feel to them."

"I'd rather not," Bain said slowly. "Fair's fair, though; Mike told us
all about how you got into this." He paused, clearly trying to
organize what he wanted to say.

Cortin had suspected Mike might have given them the details of her
background, probably because he'd thought it would somehow help her.
He'd be right, too, if it helped her get insight into her people. She
waited for Bain to speak.

"I come from a big family," he said at last. "Four sisters and a baby
brother, with me the only sterile in the bunch. I enlisted in
Enforcement, beccame a demolitions expert, got a recommendation to the
Academy and graduated about the middle of my class, put in for SO and
got it, made First about three years later. By that time, my baby
brother was in the Service too, a top-notch medic." He paused, and
Cortin saw tears in his eyes. "We weren't stationed together, but we
were close enough we got to see each other regularly. He loved his
work, would go out of his way to help anyone who needed it, wouldn't
hurt a fly--wouldn't carry a gun, even on a remote patrol. He had a
great family, wife and two kids with a third on the way, he and Betty
both hoping for eight or ten . . . He couldn't understand why I wanted
to be an Inquisitor, even though he knew someone had to do it--hell, he
couldn't understand why I went into demolition!--but I was his big
brother, so if I wanted it, he wanted it for me."

Bain paused. "I'm rambling--sorry. Anyway, about a week after I got
my Warrant, my team got called out to help search for survivors of a
terrorist ambush on a patrol. I heard the patrol that got hit was from
L