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briefcase, he pulled out the stack of files and handed them over. Apostoleris
took the top one off and flipped through its pages. He opened the second
briefly, then reached for a tape and slid it into the reader. The screen lit
up, and Galway found himself looking at a room containing several cots. Lying
on the cots or moving among them were half a dozen black-clad men.
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"Recognize any of them?" Apostoleris asked.
Galway leaned forward slightly. "I'd say that, from left to right, you've got
Dawis Hawking, Freeman
Vale, James Novak, and Mordecai. The big one lying down is probably either
Charles Kwon or
Kelly O'Hara, and the one at far right is Alain Rienzi, from Earth."
"Very good. Except that Rienzi's going by the name Allen Caine here. That name
ring any bells?"
Galway considered, then shook his head. "Where did you get the tape?"
"One of our spies," Apostoleris said shortly, changing tapes. "All right, now,
what about these?"
This one was audio, and Galway listened to the four voices in growing
fascination as he realized what it was. "Leader One is Comsquare Damon Lathe,"
he told them. "Leader Two is Kwon, and
Spotter One is Rafe Skyler. I'm not sure about the other one." He looked at
Eakins. "This the raid they just pulled?"
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The Blackcollar
"Yes and no," the colonel said. "One of them Leader One, we think slid down a
line to Henslowe
Prison, came in the roof door, and damn near got into the records room two
floors down before escaping. But the rest of their operation never
materialized. We're still not sure whether it was real or just a feint."
Galway was still struggling with the first part. "He got in and out? Weren't
there guards ?"
"Of course there were," Apostoleris snapped. "He demolished eighteen of them
along the way six of them dead."
"Oh." Galway winced inwardly; but mixed in with the sympathetic pain was a
tiny nugget of personal vindication. At least he wasn't the only one who'd
underestimated the blackcollars.
"Never mind that for now." Apostoleris tapped the files. "This everything
you've got on them?"
Galway nodded. "I'll warn you that the personal information "
"Is worthless. I don't care about that. What I really want is whatever old
pictures you've got."
Galway understood. "There's a chronological set near the end of each file,
taken three years apart."
Apostoleris shuffled through the first file until he located the photos.
"Damn. Face covered up by beard on most of these. You should've ordered him to
shave."
"On what grounds? They weren't criminals they'd received a complete amnesty
when they surrendered."
Apostoleris's response was a snort. Gathering up the files, he headed for the
door. "I guess it's better than nothing. I'll be back in a minute."
The door closed behind him, and Galway looked over at Eakins, wondering what
to say.
Surprisingly, the colonel chuckled. "Fearsome, isn't he? Don't worry, he'll
cool off when things are under control again."
"That's good to know. I thought he was mad at me personally." He nodded toward
the door. "I'm not sure how much those photos would have helped even if they
hadn't been wearing beards. Going back to normal Idunine dosages after so long
won't bring them back to exactly the same facial structures."
"I know. So does the prefect. But he's worried enough to take anything at this
point."
"Are you? Worried, I mean."
Eakins's face was grim. "An hour and a half ago we had three of your
blackcollars trapped like lizards in an ice pit. They escaped, broke into the
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medium-security area called the Strip, broke back out of it; and then, having
gotten completely clear, came back in and tried to get to Henslowe's records
before escaping for good. You bet
I'm worried." He pulled the tape of the raid from the
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The Blackcollar machine and put it on the pile. "Look, Prefect "
" 'Galway' will do, Colonel. You heard what Prefect Apostoleris said."
A quick smile. "Okay, Galway. Look, we didn't just bring you here to play
escort to those files. Your blackcollars went to an incredible amount of
trouble to get here ditto and a half for this Caine. We need to know why."
"Can't your spies tell you? I assumed you had the underground fairly well
infiltrated."
"Oh, we do. We've got agents from one end of Radix to the other. But so far
all we know is that
Lathe wants to bring together all the old veterans of the TDE Star Force. At
the moment they're all locked in Henslowe, which is probably why he went there
today."
"I wondered about that...." Galway pondered. "I don't know what to tell you.
They broke into the archives on Plinry and recorded sections of six tapes we
know which parts but not what they needed them for. Everything else they did,
I think, was just designed to get them their freighter and
Corsair."
Eakins sat up straighter. "They took a Corsair too?"
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