Or am I just too picky? The first thing in her classified e-mail on her computer was a two hundred page rough draft of a preliminary report of their take-down of the Mundo Domini cells. The author was Dan Summers. The second was another e-mail from him announcing his resignation. She picked up the phone.

"So I make you write the report and you resign?"

Dan laughed heartily.

"No correlation. I'll get the report out, but I need you to check it. You'll have to write the one about the Frank Suarez chase. It was mostly your game anyway. And please leave out the part on how Jamie decked me."

As he was talking, she walked with her portable handset to his office.

"So, why the resignation?"

His back was turned, so he jumped at the question, hearing it both on his phone and at his back. He swung around.

"That was a dirty trick!"

"Well, I can't really see your face well enough on the phone to determine if you're lying to me. Why the resignation?"

"I've been meaning to do it for some time. I've been offered a job at UNSA. Head of security at the new spaceport they're building."

"Well now, you'll also have your pension, so you'll be rolling in dough." She wanted to give him a hug, but refrained. "I'll - we'll all miss you, damn it."