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Miguel’s advance was put on hold as the door opened and a woman stepped outside Not just any woman Her The blonde from earlier Everyone froze for the space of a heartbeat, and then, with impossible speed, she suddenly put herself between Justin and the Jessups, her stance protective and dangerous A fighter’s stance Huan’s words came back to him: She’s military, whoever she is She made no other moves, but there was a tension in her that said she was a lioness that could strike at any nus conversationally, lionesses do all the hile lions sit around

"Stay back," she told Justin, her words verifying that she was indeed Gemman There were only a few inches between them, and he became acutely aware of the neck and shoulders he’d admired earlier, as well as the way the silk wrapped her body A feard strands of hair blew around her face, and the faintest whiff of what smelled like apple blossoms drifted over him

The Jessups recovered themselves, and Paolo smirked "Nice trade," he said "You fucked one of our woet one of yours If you’re lucky, we’ll leave you conscious to watch"

The others laughed, and Paolo, with death in his eyes, took two steps forward Unfortunately for hiot any farther

CHAPTER 3

A FEW LESS PROBLEMS

Whatever lingering hopes Mae had clung to of finding glory in Panan to thwart an assassination atte to cause an assassination Instead, all of her elite training and y would be used to accompany a couple of bureaucrats from the Ministry of Internal Security on their trip to retrieve an exiled servitor

Neither of them had impressed Mae very much The woman, with the unfortunate name of Cornelia Kimora, was a supervisor in Internal Security’s SCI division: Sect and Cult Investigation She was in her fifties, with bobbed hair dyed an orange-ish color that bore a disturbing rese Cornelia as beige, and she had one of the coldest personalities Mae had ever encountered--which was saying so At least in the Nordic caste, that kind of cool and supercilious attitude was usually paired with the ability to put on a s face and act like you cared Cornelia possessed no such niceties and made her indifference clear to the world

Her coe but had a scattered and ly so--attitude That enthusiasher title than her in Internal Security, rind her teeth His bubbliness was a little over-the-top, but at least he was always polite to Mae

Cornelia and Francis also held wildly different views of their task, which ht the trip was a waste of time and was clearly opposed to their objective Francis, on the other hand, could barely contain his excitement as they drew closer and closer to their destination

"I’ forward to this," he told Cornelia at one point She looked up frorimace and waited impatiently for hi ti," corrected Cornelia "And don’t confuse the ith the man"

Francis looked pleasantly surprised at the clarification "Oh? I’d think they’re one and the same"

"Hardly" Cornelia snorted unattractively "Just wait until you meet him"

"He’s brilliant," Francis insisted