“As you probably know, I have checked your dueling machine quite thoroughly via tri-di for the past two weeks. I can find nothing wrong with it.”
Massan shrugged. “Perhaps you should have checked the machine on Szamo instead.”
“The Szamo Confederation? Their dueling machine?”
“Yes. This morning, Kanus’ assassin killed a man in it.”
“He won another duel,” Leoh said.
“You do not understand,” Massan said grimly. “Major Odal’s opponent—an industrialist who had spoken out against Kanus—was actually killed in the dueling machine. The man is deadi”
One of the advantages of being Commander in Chief of the Star Watch, the old man thought to himself, is that you can visit any planet in the Commonwealth.
He stood at the top of the hill and looked out over the grassy tableland of Kenya. This was the land of his birth, Earth was his home worldThe Star Watch’s official headquarters was in the heart of a star cluster much closer to the center of the Commonwealth, but Earth was the place the Commander wanted most to see as he grew older and wearier.
An aide, who had been following the Commander at a respectful distance, suddenly intruded himself in the old man’s reverie.
“Sir, a message for you.”
The Commander scowled at the young officer. “Didn’t I give express orders that I was not to be disturbed?”
The officer, slim and stiff in his black-and-silver uniform, replied, “Your chief of staff passed the message on to you, sir. It’s from Dr. Leoh of Carinae University. Personal and urgent, sir.”
The old man grumbled to himself, but nodded. The ide placed a small crystalline sphere on the grass before the Commander. The air above the sphere started to vibrate and glow.