"It's nothing," I said, more sharply than I meant to. I felt rather than saw her start and felt like a complete haxer. Luckily, at that moment, one of the documents on the desk, a single sheet with a list handwritten on it, caught my eye. I grabbed it and examined it far more intently than I needed to. Uzume didn't say anything. An awkward silence descended. I stared at the handwritten document, aware that the longer I did, the more uncomfortable this moment got. I was saved by Mirabi's voice in my ear.

            "Erik? Receiving?"

            "Yes. Go ahead."

            "I had my back turned one second too long," said Mirabi. "The J.I girl's just slipped out."

_          _          _          _          _

I was so relieved that something had happened to interrupt the awkward moment that, at first, I didn't care what Isabel Chernobog might be doing. I stepped over to the door of Wei'To's office and touched the opening pad, turning around to tell Uzume to wait there as the door slid open. I was just in time to glimpse Chernobog walk past the doorway outside. She didn't notice me and only I just managed to stop myself speaking in time. Motioning for Uzume to wait, I stepped out into the corridor after her.

            Chernobog hadn't noticed me, because she was walking with her head down, gazing at a palmcom in her hands, moving it around and up and down in front of her, as if she was trying to find a signal on an old fashioned cellular telephone. She was so oblivious to everything else that she didn't notice me walking down the corridor behind her and placing one hand on her shoulder.

            "Miss Chernobog... OOMPH!"

            Surprising her turned out to have been a mistake. Chernobog reacted, without looking around, by instantly driving her elbow, full force, into my solar plexus. My body armour was designed primarily to protect me from laser fire and was flexible to allow free movement, which meant it wasn't particularly good at cushioning impacts. My legs buckled and I almost fell to my knees half-winded. I managed to grab her other shoulder and stopped myself going all the way down, but before I could get my balance, Chernobog grabbed both my wrists, drove her hips backwards into mine and threw me over her head with what had to be black belt-level Judo skills. I did the only thing I could, grabbing hold of her tunic and pulling, so that as I landed – slamming down flat on my back on the hard plastic floor – I took her with me and flipped her over with a throw of my own. She landed on top of me, her back against his chest, and we wrestled furiously, rolling sideways and one of our feet kicked the opening pad beside Zeus's office door. We rolled backwards into the room, heels, elbows and fists digging into each other, and crashed into the desk, knocking books and boardcoms to the floor.

            "Isabel!" said Megan Uzume, from the doorway.

            "Megan, run!" shouted Chernobog, attempting to get one hand under my helmet visor and into my eye, while trying to pound at my crotch with the other. "Get help! Get Midgard!"

            "It's me!" I shouted in her ear.

            "What?"

            She stopped struggling. I released her enough so she could look around. Her eyes went wide as she saw my helmet.

            "Oh, Gentle Darwin!"

            "Yes!" I said. My hip was going was to be bruised for weeks. We untangled ourselves and stood up. Zeus's office was the same size as Wei'To's but seemed smaller, mostly because there was so much more stuff crammed into it. All the walls had floor to ceiling shelves, laden with books and souvenirs and data crystal collections of his past documentary series. One shelf was entirely given over to his broadcasting awards and trophies, and there were old fashioned framed photographs everywhere, all showing the man himself in action in his documentaries.

            "I'm sorry," said Chernobog. "I didn't mean... That wasn't intentional..."

            "I could tell," I said, getting painfully to my feet. It wasn't just Judo. Chernobog was trained in other aspects of unarmed combat as well, including down-and-dirty, and she was well-trained enough that it had been sheer instinct. She'd felt my hand and reacted automatically without thinking. "You should have informed Officer Arjuna that you were leaving the room. What were you doing?"

            "I can't tell you," she said, looking away.

            Helmcom polygraph flashed up the reading it always gave for this statement; –100%. It wasn't that she couldn't tell me. It was either that she didn't want to or felt she shouldn't.

            "I see," I said. "Why can't you tell me?"

            "You don't need to know," said Chernobog.

            "I'm investigating a murder. I'll decide what I need to know," I said.

            "This has nothing whatsoever to do with it," said Chernobog. "You can be sure of that. It isn't related."

            "I can't be sure of anything if I don't know what it is," I said. Helmcom polygraph had given a 50%? query for that statement, meaning she was uncertain as well – or at least was considering the possibility – that it might be relevant. "What were you doing?"

            "I can't tell you, Detective."

            "Isabel, what's going on?" said Uzume.

            "If you don't want to be charged on suspicion of concealing evidence, Miss Chernobog," I said, picking up her palmcom, "you had better... What were you doing?"         

            I stared at the palmcom screen as I recognised the display on it. It was identical to one Mirabi's wristcom had displayed on the wallcom screen when she was running the elements scan. Chernobog had linked her palmcom into the university's life support system and was running an identical scan of her own. She had taken Jason Seth's idea of modifying a palmcom into a handheld scanner. But she was looking for a completely different set of elements than those that made up obsidian.

            "You'll never make it stick," said Chernobog. "I have connections."

            "Don't try and threaten me with your family's lawyers," I said, without looking up. "I've prosecuted Jupiter Nobilita members before."

            "Not my family," said Chernobog. "The I.I."

            That did get my attention. The I.I. – Imperia Intelligence – was the single most feared division of the Jupiter Imperia's government. A combination of intelligence agency, secret police force and praetorian guard to the imperial family, it was a key factor in how the Justinian emperors had stayed in power as long as they had. But almost as soon as she'd said it, I saw the gaping hole.

            "Nice try, Miss Chernobog," I said. "You're not I.I."

            "And how would you know?" said Chernobog

            "Because you're not old enough," I said. "I know for a fact the I.I. only recruits people with a minimum of four years military service."

            Chernobog's eyes narrowed in another glare.

            "Fine," she said. "I'm not an operative yet. But I will be."

            "You will?" said Megan Uzume, who clearly was finding this conversation even more bizarre than I was.

            "I've been pre-selected," said Chernobog. "Headhunted, you might say." She was trying to be defiant, but – underneath the tough exterior she was projecting – I could tell quickly that this was something she was proud of. "I showed all the right aptitudes. I've had my preliminary interviews and as soon as I've finished my education – and my military service – there'll be a position waiting for me."

            "I see," I said. "So you were trying to speed things up?"

            "No," said Chernobog. "I am trying to do my – future – job."

            "The Jupiter Imperia recognises ChronOps authority," I said. "That means, right here and now, that I outrank the I.I. And unless you want to be explaining to your future bosses how you got arrested, you can start..."

            "All right!" said Chernobog. "I got activated yesterday."

            "What do you mean by activated?" I said.

            "There's still a limit to what I can tell you," said Chernobog. "And you can't repeat any of this, Megan."

            "...OK," said Uzume.

            Chernobog paused for a moment, choosing her words.

            "A few days ago," she said. "Something happened on Io. Something – a certain item – went missing from the I.I's facilities. There is a... suggestion, that whoever took it might have come here. To Oxbridge Luna. I'm the only person the I.I. currently has here, so..."

            "...So they asked you to start work early," I said. I believed her. Even if her explanation hadn't come up at 95%+, it was exactly the kind of thing the I.I. would do. They could be tyrannical and borderline corrupt, but no one could ever accuse them of being slow or uncreative. If anything, they were famous for their ability to get things done with the Jupiter Imperia's sometimes limited resources. Oil rich it might be, but most of the revenue went straight into the bank accounts of the fief-holding families, who were always trying to find ways to pay less in taxes. "OK. What is this item?"

            "I can't tell you," said Chernobog.

            "But it includes these elements, I assume?" I said, holding up her palmcom.

            "Give me that!" said Chernobog, lunging for it. "Yes. Fine. But it's not dangerous. It's just a prototype. But if it is here, I'm going to find it."

"I see," I said. I glanced around Zeus's office, hoping we hadn't done too much damage. I paused as I noticed the titles of some of the books we'd knocked onto the floor. The Reign ofPharaoh Khufu. Russia in the Age of Ivan II. The Courts of Tudor England. "You should have informed us of this from the start, Miss Chernobog..."

"It's actually Lady Chernobog."

"You're not on Saturn right now," I said. Chernobog bristled as she realised I'd recognised her accent. She might be Jupiter Nobilita, but the fiefdoms on the moons of Saturn carried considerably less prestige than the moons of Jupiter. Even North Martians from the Imperia fiefdom there would look down their noses at Saturnians and some would even consider the asteroid-born Uzume the preferable next door neighbour.

"Fine," she said. "But we've both got work to do and we need to do it without interfering with each other. We might even be able to help each other."

"That's a generous offer, but no," I said. "I can't assist anyone who's currently a suspect in a murder investigation."