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to me,” the Marine snarled, leaning halfway into the car.
    “She doesn’t know,” Corwin said, putting some steel into his tone. “Why don’t you just call him and ask where he is?”
    The Marine muttered something under his breath. “Fine,” he said.
    And to Jody’s horror he reached in and grabbed her arm. “Come on—unbelt. You’re coming with us.”
    “She’ll do no such thing,” Thena snapped.
    “Absolutely not,” Corwin seconded, opening his door. “Who do you think—?”
    He broke off as the second Marine slammed the door closed again right in his face. “I said she’s coming with us,” the first Marine said. The fury that had been in his voice was gone, leaving a quiet coldness behind. “You want to appeal it, you’re welcome to come to the Dome and talk to Colonel Reivaro. But until her brother comes out of hiding, she’s ours.”
    “Okay, okay,” Jody said, her brain finally coming unstuck. She had no idea what might have happened to Lorne, but she had no particular problem with them taking her to the Dome for a few hours. That’s where she’d been headed anyway, and the Southern Cross wasn’t leaving Aventine until tomorrow.
    But at all costs she had to make sure they didn’t get hold of her recorder. “Fine. Let go a second, will you?”
    Silently, he released his grip on her arm. She turned halfway around in her seat, putting her back to him, and reached one hand down to the restraint release. As she did so, she slipped her other hand into her jacket, pulled out her recorder, and pushed it beneath the armrest. The restraints popped free, and she turned again and climbed out of the car. “But I really don’t know where he is,” she added, starting to close the door.
    But it was too late. Before the door could shut the Marine reached past her, caught the edge, and pulled it open again. “In that case, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” he said. Taking her arm again, he pulled her away from the car.
    And then reached in and retrieved the recorder from under the armrest. “Unless this is something you aren’t supposed to have,” he continued, holding it up to the streetlight and peering at it. “What is it?”
    “It’s mine,” Corwin said, again trying to open his door. “And unless you have a search and seizure order—”
    Once again, the other Marine simply shoved the door closed. “Come on,” the first said, dropping the reader into his pocket and pulling Jody toward their car. “The colonel will sort it out.”
    A minute later, they were back on the road, the two Marines in the front seat, Jody in the back.
    Her pulse thudding in her neck.
    There had to be a way out of this. She couldn’t let the Dominion get into her recorder and find the Qasama data.
    Blinking back tears of anger and frustration, she gazed out at the cityscape rolling past. They were fifteen minutes from the Dome, she estimated, maybe twenty if the Marines weren’t familiar with the tangle of streets and the ramps that fed into Cavendish Boulevard.
    She had that long to figure out what she was going to do.

CHAPTER THREE
    They had just taken the ramp onto Cavendish Boulevard and were heading for central Capitalia when Lorne first realized they’d picked up a tail. “Dad?” he said into his parents’ quiet front-seat conversation. “Don’t look now, but we’re being followed.”
    “I know,” his father said calmly. “The blue Savron two cars back with the overheating left headlight.”
    Lorne keyed his infrareds and eased a look over his shoulder. Sure enough, the Savron back there was showing extra heat around its left headlight.
    “Probably a couple of Gendreves’s people making sure I don’t leave town,” Paul added. “Just ignore them.”
    “I’d love to,” Lorne said. “Problem is, that’s not the car I was talking about.”
    Paul half turned, his forehead wrinkled in a frown. “It isn’t?”
    “Nope,” Lorne said. “Mine’s three cars back from it, a green