ho enter
here." They stopped there, and Bradford gave her a set of keys. "My
responsibilities end at this door, Your Excellency. Enforcement
Service personnel from the Detention Center are responsible for caring
for the prisoners and cleaning up after you; the first is done at
midday, and they are on call for the other. Now that you have assumed
your duties, no one else will enter except by your order or with your
permission."

"What about record films of the interrogations?"

"That is handled by the Palace security monitors, Excellency."

"Fine. What about spare keys?"

"There is a set for the Enforcement personnel I mentioned."

"We'll need three more, then. One each for Captain Odeon and
Lieutenant Bain, and one for anyone else in the team."

"I will see to it. By Your Excellency's leave?"

"Granted."

The keys were marked; Cortin had no trouble finding the one for the
main entrance, or for the cellblock. She'd wait for Mike before taking
any of them to the suite, but she could make a preliminary evaluation
and pick her first subject.

The block held twenty cells, four of them, as Brady had said, flagged
as having occupants. She didn't get beyond the second one, though.
Its occupant startled her at first--she hadn't thought of him since
leaving New Denver months ago--then she chuckled and turned on the
cell's speaker. "Powell--I would've thought you, of all people,
would've avoided Enforcement troopers."

Startled, the young man stared at the one-way glass in the door. "Uh
. . . Captain Cortin?"

"Colonel, now--but it's me, yes. What're you doing in custody again,
much less at Harmony Lodge?"

Powell managed a tentative smile. "Congratulations, Colonel." Then it
faded, and his shoulders slumped. "You won't believe me--they didn't,
at the Center, so they sent me here for the High King's Inquisitor."
To Cortin's astonishment, she saw the beginnings of hope in his face,
and his eyes brightened. "That's not-- You're not--?"

"It is, and I am."

"Oh, thank God! They said the King's Inquisitor would have
truthsense--please, let me talk to you!"

Cortin hesitated. He certainly sounded sincere enough, but he'd been
conditioned once; possibly he had been re-conditioned, this time to
kill whoever turned out to be King's Inquisitor. On the other hand,
that Brother had said Shannon had put her off limits, and Powell had
submitted to her will once; he'd do so again easily. So she was
unlo