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gained from them.”
    Leeth whickered again. “You always were more liberal in your views about such things.”
    “But was it not you who used to tell me that the more you knew, the better? That knowledge was the sharpest fang?”
    “I have missed our discussions, Sister. I would not have chosen the path you did, and I have wished more than once that you had taken a different one, but
zevot krut
.”
    “Yes, often life
is
hard. I cannot complain; many have it worse than I.”
    There came a short pause. “I have duties. We will speak again, assuming we survive our days.”
    “I shall endeavor to do so,” Kay said. “And offer hopes you will do the same.”
    “Sister.”
    “Sister.”
    After Leeth was gone, Kay was somewhat surprised at the emotions that had roiled up within her during their short meeting. Leeth had been the brightest light of their litter, always faster, sharper, more ambitious than the rest of them. That she became a Shadow had been no surprise. She always had a rigor in all her activities and a keen sense of justice. The
Sena
could not expect more from one of its own than Leeth brought to the job, for even in that august body, she was above reproach.
    That she came to see her tainted sibling? Nobody would lift a lip in her direction. Certainly not if they knew what was good for them.
Sena
were restricted from offering Challenges, save for most special circumstances. They were exempt from
any
.
    It was the talk of Jak that had stirred her, even more than the loss of her siblings and parents. Death claimed all, there was no point denying that. But Jak was still alive. She had, she’d thought, put all that behind her, let it go. So she had thought.
    Having Leeth as a resource would likely prove beneficial. The gnawing little pest in the back of her mind had increased its activity. If this disease was not a natural phenomenon, then somebody had unleashed it upon The People for reasons that would need be discovered in order to determine who had done it, and from them, how it could be stopped.
    When you hunted, there were several ways you might proceed to take unseen prey. You could follow a trail; you could circle around and try to get ahead of it, to intercept it; you could guess where it might go and get there first and wait. You could use bait or a lure. Any might work, but determining which was the fastest and surest was the quest. Dull hunters went hungry. Really dull ones got themselves killed.
    Sometimes, prey would outwit even the fastest and sharpest hunter and escape. It happened.
    But she was not going to let that happen this time.

FOUR
    Cutter leaned back in his chair and considered the problem. It wasn’t really that much of one, relatively speaking. They had a pretty good idea of who the opposition was, and it was a matter of tracking them down and having a spirited discussion with them.
    Sometimes, it would take guns. Sometimes lawyers, sometimes money. TotalMart had them out here to kick ass, but if he determined that buying off the opposition was cheaper? The runners would write a transfer and pay the toll, and Cutter and his troops could move along to another job.
    Corporate liked that about CFI, that they would make the report even if it meant they put themselves out of work. So far, that had always resulted in more jobs being offered in short order, and he was good with that. Sometimes a win was decisive, and sometimes it came from packing up and walking away. Nature of the biz.
    Jo and Gunny and Gramps would poke around and figure out what was what, and when they did, then there would come a battle plan. Meanwhile, they had enough seasoned troops to guard the root shipments. Industrial espionage was doubtless on the table, and processing sites being sabotaged, local growers being kidnapped, and the like might still happen. CFI had already started offering classes to local bodyguards and their expertise to any police agencies who might want it.
    CFI had been down this road a few