He glanced at his desk top and scowled. "Time's up. You need to leave. Now."

"One more question. ",

Lanra glanced nervously at his desktop. "Quick."

"The guns, the assassins. I need a name, a supplier."

"Look at Kynig Parapoyos. Now you have to leave."

Mia tucked the disk inside her jacket and stood. She looked at Lanra an extra moment-an exchange of sympathies, a way of acknowledging a debt without saying anything -then hurried out of his office. running chameleon program, tactical parameters imitate severe motive impairment, isolate memory node to selective disclosure pending coded release, proceed to predetermined retrieval point, avoid undesignated humans, defensive protocols at minimum, corridor uninhabited, continuing continuing continuing, designated humans approaching, two, both armed, assuming wide field, defensive posture "I thought it was vaporized?"

"Well, it's tougher than we thought. Look at it, though-it hasn't worn well."

"Bogard, confirm command recognition, Agent Gambel." processing command recognition, partially impaired protocol, response limited, confirmed voice recognition "c-con-confirrrr-con-firm…"

"Oh, that's good, he'll love this. Listen to it."

"Knock it off. That device should have rendered it down to its component molecules. It's still walking around."

"I'm impressed. Can you imagine body armor made out of this stuff? Bogard, command imperative established, Agent Gambel and Agent Cupra. Confirm?"

"…con-firrrrm-ed…"

"Bogard, you will accompany us. We are your field retrieval. Confirmed?"

"… field… re-field-retrieve-field…"

"Confirm, Bogard."

"Con-firrrmed-field retrie-retrieval."

"Great. Come with us, now, Bogard. We're going to take you back to headquarters for debriefing."

"De-de-debrief-retrieve-rebrief-"

"This is going to be a nightmare."

"Just so long as what we see is what we get, I don't care. Bogard, come with us." command recognition confirmed, Cupra Gambel, initiate secondary protocol, conform to request "That's good, Bogard. Come with us. Everything will be just fine. We have a lot to talk about."