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desires made him an excellent lover, but it also created a lot of performance pressure.
    Jack shook his head. There were some things a man needed to do for himself, and pursuing the object of his affection was one of them.
    “You’re the one who has fallen for her,” he told his friend. “You need to do this for yourself. I know better than to get in the middle of someone else’s romance.”
    “All right, you two.” Norma pointed at the headphones and then up at the sky. “Nash, you’re supposed to be listening to the chatter from out there, not from in here.”
    Nash grunted but popped his headphones back on.
    Jack walked to the back of the room where Norma was flipping through the new data. “You shouldn’t give him such a hard time. He’s just a poor fool in love.”
    “I believe the fool part,” she said. “Besides, you’re a fine one to give advice. What’s happening in your love life?”
    He winced. “I’m still searching for the right woman.”
    “Happy hunting,” she said with a chuckle.
    “So what’s up?” he asked. “You said you have a message for me?”
    She nodded, but she was still preoccupied with her work. “That’s right. I wanted to let you know that Terrah is back. We got a short-range transmission from her yesterday. She says she had a nice visit with your mother, who sends her love. Terrah is busy right now, but either she or Damek will stop by as soon as they can.”
    This was good news. Terrah was one of Jack’s oldest friends—practically a sister—and she was a high-level precept like himself. His mother had mentored her, which is how they had met. Now Terrah was an established precept healer, and she had her own apprentice, Damek. Jack liked him too. Damek was one of those special young people who seemed to have been born with the wisdom of the ages.
    “That’s wonderful,” he told Norma. “I wish I could have gone with her to see Mom on Edalus. I’ve just been so—”
    “Busy,” Norma said, but she was talking about herself.
    With a last glance at the figures in her hand, she turned and darted down the hall to deliver her report. That was Norma—short and to the point. Jack knew her too well to be offended.
    “Bye, Norma,” he called to her back. “See you later, Norma. Thanks for stopping to talk to me, Norma.”
    She waved over her shoulder, and he could tell she was amused.
    The minute he stepped out the door, he ran into the superintendent of the compound, Walter Rigel. A thin, prematurely balding man, Walter managed to project an intimidating image with his angular features and piercing gaze. In a bygone era, he might have been a business tycoon.
    Walter was one of those people who feared the abilities of the precepts but worshipped them as some kind of all-powerful instrument. At heart, he was an honest man but a little too calculating. Jack didn’t have nearly as much respect for him as he’d had for Superintendent Kaplan. After the battle at Bok-10, Kaplan had been taken prisoner and tortured for days before being put to death. As far as they could tell, the man had never revealed a thing.
    “Hello, Walter.” Jack refused to call him Superintendent Rigel.
    The man was really the equivalent of a colonel, but their politicians shunned the use of military titles as part of a semantic war to further differentiate themselves from the Tetch.
    “I was looking for you,” Walter said. “Walk with me. I have something I want to discuss.”
    Normally, Jack might have given him a hard time for the hell of it, but he sensed the guy had big news. Walter was clearly excited, but he took his time to make certain they weren’t overheard. They walked down the central pathway of the compound, heading in the general direction of Walter’s office.
    “What do you have?” Jack asked.
    “Intel carriers,” Walter announced with satisfaction. “We intercepted them in transit early this morning. As you know, we’ve been keeping an eye on Algoron ever since their