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powers have lurked in the shadows... waiting for this opportunity?”
    “The Shadow Lords,” Mason said, his voice suddenly cold.
    “Them, yes, but also others,” Admiral Collae said.  “Personally, I think the Shadow Lords are a less certain threat, but a woman scorned, that's something else entirely, isn't it?  My former ally, Admiral Mannetti is the problem.  She's known to hold grudges and your Baron has bested her not just once, but twice.  She'll wait until your Baron is extended and at his moment of greatest weakness before she strikes him, too.”
    “Why do you care?” Mason asked.  He privately thought the Shadow Lords were far and away more dangerous than any normal set of pirates.  Then again, from what few connections he maintained with the darker side of things, Lady Kail was a dangerously competent woman.
    “Because I'm a target as well... As I said, she holds a grudge.  And with what I took from Faraday, I've ships undergoing refit that she'll want,” Admiral Collae said.  “My own self interest suggests that I pass along some information on the threat.  Also, Baron Giovanni has proven that he, at least, can defeat the Balor, though perhaps not as artfully as I might with my greater measure of experience against them.”
    “Why should I care?” Mason asked.  “It's not like I'm much of a target.  Seems to me she'll leave well enough alone.”
    Admiral Collae gave a dry, gravelly chuckle, “The man I met, here at Anvil, was looking for redemption: he carried prayer beads.  Tommy King walked into the monastery there Eldorado and came out as another man, one who might well give a damn about humanity.  Of course, I could be wrong.  If I am, then Tommy King was the kind of man who knew that any offer I might make would pave the way for vast riches and the opportunity to get some revenge against the people he hated.”
    “Seems like you have me figured out,” Mason said, his voice light.  “So if I were to take you up on that offer, where would we meet?”
    “You know of the old Colonial Republic Prison in the Anvil system?” Admiral Collae asked.  Lauren frowned, the name sounded vaguely familiar, but she wasn't sure where she'd heard it before.
    “I know about Rota Prison,” Mason said.  Lauren heard something dark in his tone, “If I decide to take you up on your offer, I'll see you there.”  He ended the call.
    “We should warn the Baron,” Lauren said, her voice nervous.  She didn't know much about the Shadow Lords.  What she did know was all bad.  Powerful, old psychics, who hid out in shadow space and had pirate fleets that attacked out the blue, sacking entire worlds.
    “And what, warn him people are after him?” Mason shook his head.  “No, we go to him, now, and we'll just be a distraction.  Hell, that's probably one of Collae's plans.  Your Baron has a lot on his plate.  And there's little enough chance he'll trust Admiral Collae, not after he tried to betray him.”  He rubbed thoughtfully at the stubble on his chin.  “No, we go to the Baron now and we don't help him out, we just increase the confusion, make it more difficult for him to make a decision... or else he just ignores the threat and does what he has to do, anyway.”
    Lauren frowned, “We're at an ansible station, we could send him a message or warning.”  She felt like she was betraying the Baron by retaining the information.  I may not work intelligence for him anymore, she thought, but my training tells me that he needs to know this information.
    “And tip our hand,” Mason said.  “I guarantee Collae has an agent here.  It's easy enough to tap into a call from one end or the other if you own the equipment.”  He shook his head again.  “No, we've got to find out more before we go back to the Baron.”
    Lauren bit her lip as she remembered the heavily ornate document in her locker back aboard the Second Chance .  Just before she'd left, the Baron had given it to her.  The