"Arkla, did you see it?" Milcan cried.

"What?"

"On the hand. The tattoo! It's a Brigadier!"

Growling under her breath, Teah chastised herself. She'd not expected to do anything more than follow Kya and, being relaxed in the familiar environment, had neglected to cover the insignia on the back of her right hand. It was a stupid rookie mistake. And one that might cost her life.

Aiming for the crouched figure behind the open vehicle door, Teah fired. The bullet deflected off the ground and came up underneath the frame. The man moved, exposing his head. She quickly finished the task then slid into the shelter of a nearby doorframe to reload, tracking the stilted movements of her quarry. Not including the wounded man, there were three more left. A flick of a switch on the side of her gun. The interior of the sight glowed. She stared into it, watching the red-blue shapes reveal themselves. A high-pitched ricochet. The bullet-chipped masonry near her head rained down. She pressed her back against the door and judged the distance to a nearby roof. Reholstering her weapon, she took a small canister from her belt and turned the dial on the top. The green light confirmed its setting. With a hand shading her eyes, she tossed it into the center of the street.

A spewed a string of epithets as a bright white flash filled the passageway.

Springing from cover, she jumped on a crate then to a shoddy awning. By the time she made the roof, bullets were spraying in various directions as the panicked men below searched for her.

She hunched down beside the narrow, foot-and-a-half wall surrounding the claylike roof of the structure, and again drew her gun. Carefully, she leaned over the wall, sighting the first target.

A slow squeeze of the trigger.

The man stood, gurgled for a moment beside his startled comrade, the one she'd injured earlier, then fell.

"She's on the roof!"

There was a sudden shifting of bodies.

She did the same.

Now at the other corner of the roof, she took aim, almost bored with the easy shot the elevation provided.

Her target slumped to the ground.

Searching for the last man, she suddenly froze as a hard metal object pressed against the base of her skull.

"Get up..."

"I can't," she answered.

"Why?"

"I have to finish this."

"What? Murdering those men?"

Teah leaned into the scope, looking for the telltale sign of body heat, and hoping she could buy enough time to figure out how she was going to get out of this one. A bead of sweat trickled down her neck. "Look, this'll take only a minute. If you let me finish, then we'll do our thing, okay?"

"Pull that trigger and I'll do the same."

"Fine ... but I really don't think you want to do that."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, because if that was the case, I'd already be dead."

It was a gamble, but in her position, risk was all she had.

"Fine. But the bounties are mine."

The corner of her mouth curled in victory even if the trigger felt stiff under her finger as the remaining slaver's impatience did him in.

Teah carefully lowered her gun to the dirty rooftop.

"Happy?" he asked.

No, she wasn't, for she hated killing and always had, but it made little difference now.

"Yeah, sure," she lied. "Like I said, I just had a little business to finish. You understand, don't you?"

Keeping her hands visible, she stood, her back to him.

"Commander Teahalandra Valtamise, acting upon a officially recorded warrant for seizure, you are hereby under arrest for the crime of sedition and for the performance of a multitude of subversive and treacherous acts. Anything you say can be used against you in your trial before the High Council."

The words flitted through her mind like an ancient memory as she stared out across the rooftops, watching the light purple streaks dance across the horizon to announce the coming dawn. A random patterning of shooting stars flickered then faded.

"Well ... hello, Ryker."

A long silence then a muttered curse.

Teah chuckled. "Been quite a while. How many years?"

"Almost eight." A pause, then back to business. "I want you to remove your weaponry."

She smiled slightly. "That may take some time."

"I can wait."

"Fine." She untied her mantle. It fell to the roof, revealing the sleek black uniform underneath. "So, may I ask how you found me?"

"Trust me, I didn't plan on it. I had a lead on that bunch down there, for there's a DOA bounty out on most of them, and when they started shouting something about a Brigadier, thought I'd better check it out." He snorted. "Ironic, isn't it?"

"To say the least." Teah's fingertips rested on her belt buckle. "You know you don't have to do this. You could just let me go."

"No, I can't."

Her belt fell with a dull thud.

She turned to face him. "No one would know the difference."

"I would. Now put your hands out ... and no funny stuff."

A broad smile escaped. "Who, me?"

"I mean it. I don't want to have to do this the hard way."

"One question then."

"Fine."

"You alone?"

When the subtle shift in his expression betrayed him, she lunged, brushing aside the barrel of the gun and catching him by the front of his uniform to push him off balance.... but it wasn't enough.

He trapped her wrist, twisted it sharply, and pinned it behind her.

Snarling, she grabbed his forearm with her free hand to hold the barrel of the gun away as the two wrestled for control of the weapon however the struggle didn't last long for when Ryker unexpectedly fell forward, trapping her to the clay-like surface with his weight, the move gained him the advantage.

"Dammit, Valtamise," Ryker said, breathlessly. "I said I didn't want to do this the hard way."