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. Wearily, she leaned against the console. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. You see," she said quickly, forestailing Xris, "a day after we'd been on board Athena, Amadi from the bureau arrived. He had a closed-door session with the captain. He called me in, asked me what I'd seen, what I'd heard. I told him and then I said I wanted one thing from him, one thing only. I wanted Armstrong.
"Amadi said I could have him. It would mean going undercover, infiltrating the Hung. I agreed. You were in a coma, Xris. They'd amputated your left leg, your left ann.
They told me they could keep you alive, but you'd be more machine than man. The decision would be up to Marjorie.
"I said good-bye to you there, on Athena, and I left with Amadi. As we were leaving, I saw the Athena hit Vigilance with a plasma fusion torpedo. The ship was vaporized, nothing left. The families were told that the Vigilance had been struck by an asteroid. No survivors, bodies never recovered. That may be on Athena's log, but again it may not. The captain may have been told to forget she'd ever seen Vigilance, you, or me. The bureau was a pretty powerful force in those days."
"All very convenient for you, isn't it, old friend?" Xris said, chewing on the end of a twist. "Records expunged. Armstrong dead. I supposed that was your work?"
Slowly, she shook her head. "I was a little too late. His own people took him out
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