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portal from the corridor leading back to the receiving room.
    “Mydra…oh, Lord Whaler.” With a flip of her long red hair back over her shoulder, she finished, “Your escort has arrived.”
    “Thank you.”
    Nathaniel swung the genuine black gorhide folder containing his official credentials under his arm and marched across the staff office to follow Heather, bunching the pale green gloves in his left hand to give the impression he was clutching them tightly.
    He reached the reception area right behind Heather.
    “Tenhutt!” snapped the squad leader. Four Imperial Marines in their formal red tunics and gold trousers stiffened even straighter.
    “Lord Whaler, sir?” questioned the leader, who couldn’t have been as old as most of the first year Ecolitans Nathaniel had been training less than two standard months earlier.
    “The very same I am.”
    “Yes, sir. Would you please, sir, please allow us to escort you to your audience with the Emperor?”
    “Honored I would be.”
    From that, Nathaniel decided he was the one to lead the parade and marched out.
    The Imperial Marines, caught by his sudden departure, slipped into quick-step and fell in behind him before he was ten meters down the corridor to the drop shaft.
    Not too bad, he decided. But he wondered how they would have held up in the outback of Trezenia.
    Nathaniel marched right into the high speed drop lane without hesitation. The four Marines angled themselves into a hollow square above him, allowing each to cover a quarter of the shaft.
    They carried stunners, and each wore a belt commpak.
    Two electrocougars waited in the private concourse. The first was crimson and displayed the Accord flag on a staff over the left front wheel panel. The second car was, surprisingly, a dull brown.
    One of the escorts held the rear door of the crimson vehicle open for the Ecolitan. After seeing him seated and closing the door, the Marine eased into the front seat across from the driver, a woman Marine. Belatedly, on noting the driver, Nathaniel realized that at least one of his escorts had been female.
    The squad leader and the other two escorts used the brown car to follow his into the tunnel.
    “How often this do you do?”
    “About eighty systems with Legations here, I’m told,” answered the nondriving Marine. “I’m new, three weeks here. This is my second assignment for escort duty. Some of the other teams have had five or six in the past month.”
    “Just for diplomats seeing the Emperor?”
    “No, sir. All sorts of functions—parties, reviews. You name it, and we’re on call.”
    The driver glanced at the escort Marine. The young man stopped talking.
    “Many functions and reviews there are then?”
    “I really don’t know about that, sir.”
    “What after this duty will you do?”
    “That’s up to the assignment branch, sir.”
    “No desire for other duty have you?”
    “Whatever the Service needs, sir, that’s where I’ll be.”
    Nathaniel leaned back into the cushions. Information wasn’t likely to be any more forthcoming.
    He recalled the map he’d called up on his console. The Imperial Court had been placed on the high plain east of the main part of the underground city and towers, while the Port of Entry was to the south.
    Had he been the Emperor who’d set it up, Nathaniel would have put the court and palace in the hills to the west.
    As the tunnel car swept up from the depths into the concourse of the Imperial Palace, Nathaniel leaned forward to get a better look.
    Fully fifteen different tunnels merged into the entry area, though he could see only two other limousines.
    When the electrocougar glided to a stop, the escort snapped out of the front seat and had the rear door open for Nathaniel instantly. The other three squad members were formed up and waiting before Nathaniel’s black-booted foot touched the golden tiles.
    A red-coated woman, a striking figure with black hair, black eyes, and a deeply tanned face, stood at the head of