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gaze.

Chapter 6
    ‘EXPECTING SOMEONE?’ THE GENERAL’S VOICE IS MILD.
    Way too mild.
    And Aptitude has her back to him. So she misses the anger in his eyes. ‘There’s a gyrobike,’ she says. ‘Coming through the hills.’
    In three steps the general stands beside her.
    ‘An Icefeld 38.’
    The Wolf’s eyes must be augmented to see that distance. He glances back. ‘Your regiment uses Icefelds,’ he says, looking at me. ‘Don’t they?’
    ‘Most regiments use Icefelds.’
    ‘Perhaps your general wants a word.’
    Aptitude opens her mouth to disagree. It’s all Debro can do not to tell her to keep it shut. But she doesn’t want to draw General Luc’s attention. Mind you, there’s no need. He’s seen for himself.
    ‘Or are you expecting someone?’ he asks, voice silky.
    Aptitude blushes.
    About the worst thing she can do.
    Six months she lived in Farlight at Golden Memories. That’s my bar below Calinda Gap. Yet every street smart we taught her vanishes the moment she finds herself home. Even now, she can’t smell trouble brewing.
    ‘Who are you expecting?’
    ‘Vijay Jaxx,’ Aptitude says. ‘Well, not Vijay himself. He’s off-planet. But he said he’d be sending—’
    ‘A message?’
    Aptitude’s blushing again.
    ‘A little present? Some love token?’
    General Luc is grinning. Like this is the funniest thing he’s heard.
    ‘Your beloved is the son of the man who wants to kill Sven?’
    ‘Wants to—?’ Aptitude is so busy being shocked by the bit about General Jaxx wanting me dead that she misses his reference to Vijay as her beloved. I don’t. The Wolf and I are unequal in rank, birth and wealth. But we share one habit. We use words sparingly.
    When Aptitude doesn’t deny it, something goes flat behind the general’s grey eyes. ‘So,’ he says. ‘This is what your mother didn’t mention. Your heart belongs to Colonel Vijay Jaxx, hero of the battle for Hekati?’
    Aptitude stares at the tiles.
    ‘Well?’
    She nods.
    ‘And his heart belongs to you?’
    This time she looks up. ‘Yes,’ she says, walking straight into his trap. ‘My heart is his. And his is mine.’ She sounds about twelve, and in need of a good slap.
    Debro puts her head in her hands.
    ‘Mine is his and his is mine . . .’ Sweeping Debro’s daughter a low bow, General Luc says, ‘In that case, it would be my pleasure to deliver it to you . . . On a plate.’ A second later, he disappears.
    *
    I’m out of my seat when Anton grabs me. Breaking his grip, I flip him round and slam him into a wall.
    ‘Sven.’
    ‘Sorry . . .’
    Debro nods towards Anton. She’s right; he’s the one I should be apologizing to. Hauling him up from the tiles, I check he’s steady on his feet.
    ‘That was a pretty good block.’
    Anton smiles ruefully. When he puts a hand to his mouth his fingers come away bloody. ‘Not good enough,’ he says.
    Debro is looking between me, Anton’s split lip and her daughter’s face which is frozen in shock as she finally realizes what General Luc intends.
    Her look is one I will never forget.
    Debro’s a liberal. People like her believe everything can be made right if only you talk nicely or understand what the other person wants.
    People like me know that’s shit.
    You make the rules. If someone doesn’t like them, you break that person or they break you. I saw the darkness in the Wolf’s eyes. He’s going to do exactly what he promised. Deliver Vijay’s heart to Aptitude.
    Unless one of us stops him. And that has to be me.
    ‘Sven,’ says Debro, when I yank the gun from my belt.
    For once I ignore her.
    My SIG-37 wakes instantly. This just proves it can when it wants.
    Beneath us, doors grind open as General Luc’s combat car exits from Palazzo Wildeside. Damn thing’s wolf grey. A long hood and short trunk, a turret like an upturned cup.
    Looks like someone smashed the cup and glued it back with the missing pieces replaced by bombproof glass. Seems no logic to what shape or