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main part of the trap.
    And as she dropped the comm with a little extra force in the center of the rectangle, the entire structure collapsed, the tangle of mesh dropping down and resolving itself into the sides and bottom of a deep box. Simultaneously, the screen that had been sitting next to the box flipped over onto the top, forming a lid and sealing the comm inside. "And presto—one trapped test animal," Jody said, gesturing at the enclosed comm like a magician concluding her act.
    "Very neat," Geoff said approvingly. "You come up with this yourself?"
    "Hardly," Jody said. "The basic design's been around for centuries. My main contribution is here."
    She pointed to the mesh on the sides and bottom of the cage. "Note the little cylindrical free-spinning tubes around each of the main mesh wires. That means that, instead of the animal just lying there, highly annoyed and using every claw and tooth it's got to try to tear through the mesh—"
    "I get it," Freylan spoke up suddenly. "If you make the mesh wide enough and the hole deep enough, when it lands its legs will slide on the rollers and go straight through so that it ends up lying on the mesh on its belly."
    "Exactly," Jody said. "For most of the animals we'll be looking at, that'll immediately put their claws out of action."
    "And even if it manages to chew through the lid, it still won't be able to climb out," Geoff said. " Very neat."
    "Thank you," Jody said. "And of course, the lifting bars let us pick the whole thing up like a sedan chair and trot it back to the lab without having to open the cage out in the open, risking those same aforementioned claws and teeth."
    "Amen to that." Geoff grinned at Freylan. "See, buddy? Let that be a lesson to you. When you hire the best, you get the best."
    "Thank you kindly," Jody said, inclining her head. And pretending to believe him.
    But she knew better. Her ability with animal traps wasn't the reason Geoff had insisted on hiring her. Neither were her newly minted college degrees in animal physiology and management. No, Geoff had something else entirely in mind.
    But it wouldn't do to bring it up. Not here. Not in front of courteous, earnest, naive Freylan. If this worked out, the three of them would be spending a good deal of time together on the hell world that was Caelian, and there was no point in revealing to him the full depths of his buddy's deviousness.
    "So how long will it take you to build a full-sized one?" Geoff asked. "Wait a second—hold that thought," he interrupted himself, pulling out his comm. "This could be it." He clicked it open. "Hello?"
    Listening to his end of the conversation with half an ear, Jody unfastened the lid on her trap and retrieved her comm. She put it away, then pushed the bottom and sides up again, fastening the bottom with the quick-release hooks that had held it in place until it was sprung.
    "You really want to do this?" Freylan asked quietly at her side.
    She frowned at him. "What do you mean?"
    "Caelian," he said, his dark, earnest eyes boring into her face. "I know everyone calls it a hell world. But most of them just say that just because everyone else says it. They don't really know what they're talking about. But I do. My uncle spent eight months there a few years ago, and it nearly killed him."
    "You and Geoff are going," Jody reminded him. "Assuming you get permission, that is." She nodded toward Geoff and his quiet conversation.
    "Yeah, but Geoff and I are crazy," Freylan said, an uncertain smile briefly touching his lips. "You aren't. So why do you want to go with us?"
    Jody looked over at Geoff, who was now pacing the room the way he always did in the midst of deep comm conversations. "There are just over three thousand Cobras on Aventine," she said. "Roughly one for every four hundred people. You know how many Cobras there are on Caelian?"
    Freylan huffed. "Some ungodly number, probably."
    "Seven hundred," Jody told him. "That's one for every six settlers. When people say