He laughed again, but this time it wasn't endo-induced. He shook his head. "You could have warned me about that," he said, nodding toward the field where the fires were set up, watching the flames dance against the darkness.

"Could have," she admitted. "But what fun would that be?"

"You, are an evil woman. I think if I was wise I would cut my losses now and head back to Second Earth." He returned his gaze to her face, met her eyes. "But what fun would that be?"

"None at all," she said. A few seconds later she glanced away, telling herself that it was just to make sure that Rick was staying fairly close to Snake-- he was-- and that Marjory was keeping a surreptitious eye on the other screws-- she was. And she'd already known they'd be doing their jobs. But if she hadn't directed her gaze elsewhere, she might well have ended up leaning closer, and she wouldn't have been able to blame it on the endo fires, either.

He cleared his throat. "The screws didn't take to the offer of sending Rick to help. Afraid they'll have to split the profits." Sophie had surprised him the most, but even Jewel had seemed hesitant at first. "They might have a different opinion after tonight-- not that it matters. What I decide, goes."

She nodded, aware of the fact that at least one of the screws' given reasoning could be a lie. Perhaps they were all only concerned about their payment, but there might also be something to hide. Even if Horse hadn't been injured, she would've offered to get one of her own people up there under the guise of making sure they left the planet sooner.

If the Lieutenant was concerned that she had an ulterior motive with this, he didn't show it. But then, she was sure he had his motivations, too. No sense in arguing over what they both already knew.

Then motion at a point high off the ground had her turning, alarmed for an instant as she automatically recalled all the problems with the Inako recently. The crossbreeds here weren't usually in the air at this point in the evening; by this time they'd spent enough time around the endo fires that they didn't want to risk a fall. If someone was in the air--

Once she saw what was going on, she called out. "Andy! Get down off the roof."

"C'mon, Rachel! It's fine; Kelli's up here, too!"

"So I see," she said, as she spotted the boy's sister crouching in the shadows. "Down."

She watched until the two of them were safely on the ground again, and then she smiled and shook her head.

"It's a tough job, isn't it?" Lieut asked. "Looking out for the best interests of people who don't appreciate it." He stood up, walked toward the building to look at the papers taped to the windows. They were paintings, done by children, by the looks of it. He realized Rachel was beside him. "School?" he asked.

"Yeah. For the older kids, anyway. Had to renovate another building for the younger ones after all the passengers arrived. It's also where we have the wildlife displays," she said, opening the door.

He stepped through it, waited as she lit a lantern and then followed her through a series of connecting rooms. The last contained the wildlife--everything he'd seen on paper, and then some. He approached the bloodtracker. Mounted on a pedestal, it faced him at eye level, its mouth open wide to reveal long fangs and a bright red tongue. "Nasty," he said, glancing Rachel's way.

"Very," she said. "I hear all of you got to see a live one the day of the meeting."

He nodded, then raised his eyes to the flying monster hanging over their heads. "Not sure I ever want to meet up with one of those." He cleared his throat, leaned back against one of the tables and stared at her. Gerard had not volunteered any information about this planet but Lieut had done his homework. The original colony had landed here 92 years ago. Half their number had been decimated by the native wildlife, and half of those left had fled back to Second Earth. Rachel's descendants had either been brave-- or stupid. Watching her now, he knew the former to be true.

He also knew something else-- there was more to this festival, to their being invited here than it appeared-- and it was time to address that. "Why have your brought me here, Rachel?" he asked softly. He moved closer, facing her, watching the flickering lamp light dance across the stars painted on her face. "Is it because you want to be alone with me-- or because you don't want me to see how closely my screws are being watched?"

She almost smiled. Though she'd told Rick and Marjory to be as surreptitious as possible, she'd known that he would probably notice. "Both."

He watched her face for another moment. She didn't blink. "Why?"

Just in case, she'd come up with a cover story to use if need be. She decided now not to use it. She could find out a thing or two from his reaction to the truth; might gain a valuable ally in this search. And if her instincts were incredibly far off and he was the one they were looking for--

Well, she'd deal with that if it happened, she thought, answering his question with another question. "How much do you know about the man who hired you?"

"Enough not to trust him as far as I could toss him," he said, anger burning his throat as he continued. "And enough to want to see him dead." He shook his head.

"Then you're not the only one," she told him. "One of the men who went on the rescue mission-- Logan Rourke-- was sent here by him, too. Addison Gerard apparently remembers this place fondly and wants someone to remind him of it," she muttered. "Hired Logan to bring him back a young female Inako. Turns out Logan couldn't go through with it . . . but he's worried Gerard's sent someone else to finish the job."

"And you think that someone is one of my screws or. . . myself." He laughed bitterly. "What better way to get information than to get close to the man in charge and--" he bit down on his anger. She wasn't really doing anything that he wouldn't have done himself, were he in the same position. In fact, he'd done something very much like it once-- and it had turned out to be the biggest mistake of his life. "How do you know it isn't me?"

"Technically, I suppose I don't," she said. "But I don't think that's the case. My instincts have been wrong before, but pretty rarely." Even with Logan, though he'd successfully deceived her in a way, she'd never fully trusted him. She'd known something was off, even if she hadn't been able to figure out exactly what.

Then she smiled wryly. "And if I'm going to try and manipulate a situation, I prefer to use tactics I'm sure will work. Honestly, I'm too out of practice with flirting to choose that one."

"Not that out of practice, obviously," he said, feeling the brunt his anger fade, but stepped away from her anyway. He moved to one of the walls, examined the life-sized guard depicted on a mural. He was firing a crossbow at a target. "I'll tell you why it isn't me," he said, turning to face her again. "I left the military eight years ago to take a job at PalTech Corporation. Personal security for one of the richest men on the three Earths. It involved a little more than what I'd bargained for. Gerard suspected one of his VP's was selling tech secrets to the competition. He wanted me to confirm his suspicions."

Rachel sighed. Judging from what she'd learned about Gerard. . . "And what did he want you to do if those suspicions were confirmed?"

"If I'd known, I never would have agreed to the job to begin with. But he covered all his bases, took me off payroll, made it look like I'd been fired for snooping around where I shouldn't have been. Said it would make the suspect more open to my 'advances.' I wasn't happy. I've got medals of honor and valor attached to my name. And it was a mark against the government I'd served. He said I wasn't to worry, once I'd brought him the evidence he needed, he'd go public, tell everyone I was undercover for him. I'd be a hero."

He paused there, paced the length of the mural, came back. "I brought him the evidence he wanted, demanded my life back. 'After you kill her,' he said."

And here was where she found out if her instincts were right or not, Rachel thought. The capability of taking a life, the willingness to do so, wasn't something that was easy to hide. A part of her wanted to prompt him into the answer she hoped to hear, say 'I take it you didn't do that?', but instead she remained silent as she watched his face.

"I've killed men in war," he said. "But never in cold blood, and never a woman. I told Gerard where to get off and I walked away. I thought that was the end of it." He laughed. "He just found someone else to do the job-- and framed me for it. I've been on a prison world for the past seven years, serving 20 for a murder I didn't commit. Six months ago the warder told me my sentence had been commuted by Gerard-- I was escorted to the Barge, where I got my orders. I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since. Looks like this is it."

"And that brings the possibility of him sending someone on a double mission up to a certainty," she said, not surprised to feel a tension headache coming on. "He's a nasty piece of work, but not stupid. Considering what he's done, he has to be counting on you not coming back."

He hadn't worked that out yet, but his own instincts told him she was right. "But he isn't counting on us, figuring out his game." He went to a window, peered throughout it. "And who ever it is out there working for him, is going to notice we've gone missing. You'd better call off Rick and your assistant. We can't let them know we might be on to them."

"On to them about what? They're being watched to make sure they don't start trouble and that no one starts trouble with them. After all, look what happened at the meeting." She smiled innocently. "Perfectly understandable precaution."

"Unless you're working for Addison Gerard and you're second guessing every little thing-- like why the commander has been in a dark building for an hour with the leader of this village. . ."

She couldn't help it; she grinned. "When in doubt, go for the simplest explanation," she said. Then she mussed up her hair and started toward the door.

He caught her before she could get all the way through it and pulled her to him. "And be as realistic as you can," he added, pinning her between the door jam and his body as he kissed her.

She'd intended the comment as more a joke than anything else-- something that would provide a plausible cover story if need be, and that was it. Hadn't really expected their teasing remarks to go at all further . . . they each had other things to concentrate on, and what she'd said about being out of practice was the truth.

Not that it was obvious in her actions. If she'd pictured something like this beforehand, she would've suspected that she would've initially pulled back out of simple surprise. Instead, she'd responded immediately, and the fact that they were in an open doorway wasn't providing much incentive for her to move away.

So much for fully knowing her own behavior. This, Rachel thought, was definitely going to complicate things.

He pulled away reluctantly, gave her a gentle nudge out onto the lane. "There," he told her. "Now that you look sufficiently flustered, we just need to see who noticed."

"Note to self, Rachel thought. 'Sufficiently fluster' him later.

"I'm guessing everyone will know within twenty minutes. Ten if my cousin is one of the ones who-- yep," she said, as she saw that Rick was giving her an amused smile. "Ten."