sixty-five minutes, his comp whispered in his mind.
Galar sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. Heâd only slept a couple of hours, but it would have to do. He moved to make his sprawling bed with the precision drummed into him at the Vardonese Military Academy years before. One of the Outpostâs âbots could have done the job, but he considered picking up after himself an exercise in personal discipline.
Tlain had taught him that maintaining discipline was the only way to avoid pain.
Job done, he gave the room a quick scan. Dark, gleaming shelving ran along the wall opposite the window, a match for the bedâs heavy headboard and the wall panels that concealed his clothes and weapons. The shelves held mementoes from his temporal travelsâa few books bound in calfskin, beeswax candles in massive golden candlesticks, a rapier with an intricate basket hilt. Trids of his parents, one of him standing with them at his Vardonese Academy graduation. Baird, his Comanche Class Warlord father, tall and dark and massive, with the red and blue of a House Arvid tattoo spilling down his face. His mother, Alina, blond and lithe, with the build of a Samurai Class Warfem, the colors of Kasi House marking her cheek. They both looked so proud.
Heâd damned near destroyed them both. The son of the vice admiral of Vardonese Military Intelligence and one of its most decorated senior officers, played for a fool by a double agent. A scandal like that could have ended his parentsâ careers, as well as his own. It was a good thing Galar had managed to turn the situation around before it exploded in their collective faces.
It all began when a communications officer in the Vardonese Interstellar Fleet had attracted the interest of Galarâs superiors in military intelligence. Galar had been assigned to investigate whether the man was indeed selling information on ship movements to the Xerans.
Senior Femmat Agent Tlain Morey promptly volunteered her assistance. Since Galar had known her for yearsâthey worked in the same intelligence divisionâheâd gratefully accepted. Over the months that followed, heâd become entranced by the Femmatâs sensuality, beauty, and intelligence.
Luckily she wasnât as smart as either of them thought.
Three months later, Galar had the officer under surveillance when the spy met with Tlain one dark night in a city park. Theyâd acted so transparently suspicious, Galar had found himself hoping they were having an affair. After all, the Femmat knew Galar was watching the suspected spy in a variety of imagizer disguises. Why would she be so stupid?
Heâd later realized Tlain simply enjoyed the risk that he might be watching. Taunting him was all part of the fun.
Driven to discover the truth one way or another, Galar had cracked Tlainâs secret computer unit, kept hidden in a diamond bracelet. He would never forget the cold horror heâd felt as heâd read her matter-of-fact account of her espionage activities. Sheâd been working for the Xerans for years as a leader of the spy ring, which was even larger than Galar and his superiors had thought.
Sickened, heâd shot the file to headquarters and confronted her with the evidence before killing her in that last explosive confrontation.
Thus, instead of getting cashiered for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty, heâd received a commendation.
Yet Galar had known he could no longer serve in Vardonese Military Intelligence. He couldnât risk another mistake that might destroy his parentsâ careers, so heâd sought a post as an Enforcer in the Galactic Unionâs Temporal Enforcement Agency. Heâd spent the last decade working his way up the ranks.
Atoning for his gullibility.
As Galar strode along the labyrinth of corridors toward the main briefing hall, he downloaded the Outpostâs DNA results on the Xeran. Heâd be expected to present a report on