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appeared that Lupo had neither friends nor loves. From the outside it seemed he did not believe he was missing anything.
    From the outside.
     
    Central Staff was of a magnitude in keeping with its mission. In the slowest hours of third shift, five hundred beings were on duty in Info Center, controlling the forces outside. Financing had come from the same sources as most personnel. Outsiders desperately wanted to break the Guardships' deathgrip on the Canon Web.
    Simon Tregesser managed one of his smiles. Valerena failed to appreciate a genius that got others to pay the freight and set them up to take the fall.
    Tregesser stared from an observation blister, watching the new ship. It would come to Central to have Guardship-grade shielding installed—and its ability to get back on the Web removed.
    When the Guardship came, no one would have the option of retreat.
     
    "Simon."
    Tregesser withdrew his attention from the gunship. "Yes, Lupo?"
    "One interesting datum did come in the intelligence packet."
    Tregesser waited.
    "
XII Fulminata
came off the Web at C. Payantica. It stayed only an hour, then climbed back on, presumably bound for Starbase Tulsa. This is the first sighting of
XII Fulminata
in sixteen years."
    "It couldn't be the easy way." Tregesser glared at the gunship.
XII Fulminata
! "Starbase is only a dozen anchor points from P. Jaksonica, isn't it?"
    "Yes."
    "It would suit the drama of the thing, wouldn't it?"
    "There's no cause to assume
XII Fulminata
will take the trail. But the possibility now exists."
    "Does that change anything?"
    "No.
XII Fulminata
carries no more firepower than any other Guardship."
    "It would be one of the crazy ones," Tregesser mused. There was no response. He rotated his chair.
    Lupo was headed back to work, satisfied that
XII Fulminata
's reputation would not stall the project.
    Tregesser snorted. He could not stop it if he wanted to.
     
    Simon Tregesser suffered one nagging worry. The reliability of the thing secreted down below. Its great value was an ability to know what was happening countless stars away. As promised, it had known when the bait's Traveler had broken off the Web at P. Jaksonica....
    It had delivered no news since.
    Tregesser was... concerned. As was the monster, he knew. It responded strangely when pressed. Something was wrong.
    He ought to get down and check. Lupo's news was not reassuring.
XII Fulminata
, indeed!
    He keyed a signal to Noah to ready the bell.
    Time to shed this damned toy, anyway. Nothing could make it comfortable.
     
    Lupo glanced up as Tregesser drifted into the lift to his hideaway. He blinked as though trying to clear smoke from his eyes. "Be back in a few minutes," he told his staffers. He activated his beeper and headed for the shipping docks.
    Valerena had asked to see him before she left.

— 11 —
    Five people were there with the serving robot: Third WatchMaster, the female soldier, Timmerbach, Magnahs, and Otten. Third WatchMaster stared at the deck and rummaged his mind for what he had done. Only Otten and Magnahs conversed.
    Hanaver Strate walked in, flashed a grin. "Everyone comfortable? Had refreshments?"
    Only the soldier had the nerve to respond. "Sir, what did we do?"
    WarAvocat looked baffled. Then, "I see. You're wrong. It's not disciplinary. I intend deploying you against whoever sent the krekelen to catch a Guardship's attention."
    "Sir? Someone sent it?"
    "So the Deified say. The krekelen was a telepathically linked communal beast originally. The isolated individual became a low-grade moron that could be programmed like a robot. Our krekelen was programmed to give itself away."
    "Isn't that a little unsubtle?"
    "Only fools would expect us not to be suspicious. Someone wants us to react. Probably to backtrack.
    "We have an advantage. Chance placed us here when the incident occurred. That puts us two and a half months ahead, that being optimum turnaround when a call goes out for a Guardship. Commander Haget, let's assess the I