I was awoken the next morning by the house computer system. "Property line alert! A craft has crossed the property line on a direct path for the house."

I jumped out of bed. "Is there a visual available?"

"Affirmative," the system said, and brought up a holo-view of the vehicle.

I moved to the holo-view and used my hands to zoom in on the hover car. The red hair gave her away. Lizell was coming for a visit, and the look on her face was one of anger. I laughed.

As I moved to get dressed, the computer spoke again. "Property line alert! A craft has crossed the property line on a direct path for the house."

"You already told me about it."

"This is a second vehicle, sir."

My head snapped around and I finished pulling up my trousers. "Show me."

The holo-view showed a black hovercar this time. Zooming in, I saw that there were four men in black suits.

I thumbed the com panel to intercom mode. "All droids proceed to safe holes and remain until contacted by me."

I quickly dressed and headed to the front door. I waited until I heard Lizell ring the bell. Then, as quickly as I could, I opened the door and yanked her inside.

"What the fuck!", she yelled at the top of her lungs, her green eyes ablaze.

"You stupid fool, why couldn't you just leave it alone!"

"I went to the recruiter and he looked for the record. He couldn't find it so he went back through his files from years ago. He found the record number from where he had noted it when he originally entered it. Imagine my surprise when the name attached to the record was Drake Daemon."

"Imagine your surprise when those men following you put a rail round through your head. You stupid fool. You have put your life in danger. You have put my life in danger. You have put every person on this planet in danger!" I shouted. Furious this time, I slam my fist into the wall.

Lizell gulped, the fire in her eyes calming a bit. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Let me explain something to you." I said, looking her straight in the eye. "I am an ex-Praetorian. Those men will stop at nothing to kill me and you. They will kill anyone and everyone who gets in their way."

"You're a what?"

"A Praetorian Guardsman. I tried to retire, and now that is gone because of you."

"You were a Praetorian Guardsman? You mean you were an imperial bodyguard?"

"Yes, you fool. I told you to leave it alone. I told you they deleted the file to protect the soldier."

"What have I done? Oh, God! I am so sorry!"

"That is going to be a lot of comfort to the people who die because of you." I grabbed her arm and moved to the com panel. I thumbed it to life and entered Robert's identity code. Then I entered another text message. "Burning blanket."

I hit the send button. Immediately after I sent the message, the status changed from "active" to "Satellite acquisition failure".

"Fuck!", I screamed, as I slammed my fist into the wall next to the panel. "We are cut off!"

I started dragging her towards the hidden stairs down to the closest gun room. As I turned the corner, rail slugs started ripping into the front room. Glass and plaster flew like shrapnel. I pressed the hidden identity plate and the door popped open. "Get in there and stay down!"

I followed her down the stairs as she ran in front of me. The door closed behind me. Once at the bottom of the stairs, I started to pull out weapons. I tossed Lizell a fully charged rail pistol. "If anyone comes down those stairs that is not me you are to kill them. Do not hesitate! They will kill you."

I started to strip off my casual clothes and change into the black and gray of the Praetorian Guard. Once my boots were on my feet I started putting on weapons. Four Vibe knives went in each side of my belt. Another four Vibe knives went in each boot. Four more Vibe knives went into a hanger on my back. A rail pistol went on each hip. Then on my back went a set of old earth style swords. Over the top of those went a compact sniper rifle. Then, in my lower back, I placed a pair of old fashioned semi-automatic pistols. On each wrist, I placed a band filled with little throwing spikes. On my chest, I hung a high cyclic rate machine rail pistol. Then I hung straps with extra magazines and power cells on myself.

I turned towards the back of the gun safe and looked at the shaken woman standing before me. "Stay here and stay alive. I will identify myself when I come into the room."