nds again.
"Then I may be able to get rid of these Hell-marks. Can you understand
that?"

"I think so--and God help me, I couldn't blame you if you did go after
them on your own. But I'd still have to help hunt you down." Odeon
was less positive of that than he made himself sound, though. He
wasn't at all certain he'd be able to, even if not doing it meant he'd
share her outlawry--if the thought of hunting her was upsetting, the
idea of actually harming her was revolting. Worse than revolting,
really--impossible was more like it.

The sudden awareness of that stunned him. He hadn't realized he felt
so strongly about her! He shouldn't; no one in Special Ops should have
any more than professional respect for another person. There most
emphatically should not be anything like that strong a feeling! It was
almost like--no. He was too professional to love anyone, especially a
fellow officer, however many times he might have shared a bed with him
or her.

On the other hand, what else could it be? He'd have no objection to
hunting down Wolf Corbett, say, if it were necessary--and Wolf had been
on his team the longest of any, almost a year now, and was the closest
friend other than Joanie that he had.

He sent up a quick prayer for guidance, and felt an immediate sense of
reassurance. He did love Joanie, and it was all right . . . but she
didn't love him yet, so there was no reason to burden her with the
knowledge of his feelings.

"Is something wrong, Mike?" Cortin's voice brought him back to the
present. "You look like you ate something that's disagreeing with you."

"No, I'm fine. It's your problems we should be worrying about now,
anyway." Odeon made himself smile. "Let's assume you make it into
this classified project, and that it's something that'll let you at the
Brothers."

"We might as well," Cortin said, shifting position slightly. "The
first thing is to get off these drugs. The sooner I learn to cope with
what's happened, the sooner I can get to work. I need to get my
strength back, hone up my hand-to-hand combat, and do some serious
study of interrogation techniques. I'm okay at first-stage, but
Brothers don't break that easily; I'm going to have to be more than
just good, at all three stages. Especially third. Will you help me?"

"Of course." That was his Joanie, all right, Odeon thought proudly.
No crying or self-pity for her; instead, a plan that would let her
accomplish what she