In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V-ARC Read Online Free PDF

said. “Still, it’s something.”
    “What did this Dulcis McKinley look like?” Michael asked.
    “She was about a handspan taller than I am,” Judith said, gesturing, “and very slim. Fair hair, pale skin, light eyes—blue or gray, I think. She wore her hair short, almost shaved at the back of her neck. In spite of this, there was nothing at all mannish about her appearance. Her lips were full, and I remember admiring her cheekbones. Very high and elegant.”
    “Short hair isn’t exactly in fashion right now,” Todd said with the air of one who had been using his leave to make a detailed examination of women who were not Navy personnel. “The one set of professions where short hair remains perennially popular are those where you regularly don a vac suit or related gear. Hair gets in the way.”
    Michael nodded, running a hand over his own tightly curled crop. “Okay. So possible space-side service.”
    He’d carried in his minicomp, since he’d been planning to show Judith and Ruth pictures of some of the places he’d been since he sent his last letter. Now he pulled it out. “I’m going to check on that name,” he said.
    “Is that wise?” Judith asked. “Someone might have set telltales to warn them of just such an inquiry.”
    “Actually,” Michael said, “given the situation, it would make less sense if you didn’t make just such a query. Let me use your comp. They may not bother to check registration numbers, but I would…”
    The search did not lead them to their target, but it did turn up an interesting bit of trivia. Dulcis McKinley was the name of a secondary character in Hearts Aloft, a romantic comedy that had been popular about fifteen T-years before.
    “That’s why the name sounded familiar!” Todd said. “My sister had a crush on the male lead and for weeks she kept downloading the damn thing and watching it on the biggest display we had. I think I knew every line.”
    “Not useful now,” Michael said, “but it might turn out to be. Now…”
    He turned to Judith. “Why don’t you and Todd see if you can generate a computer reconstruction of Dulcis McKinley?”
    “And you?” Todd said.
    “First, I’m going to set up some jamming fields so no one can tell what we’re doing here.”
    “Won’t someone notice?” Judith said anxiously.
    “Not if I’m careful,” Michael said. “The Navy has been training me to be extraordinarily good at getting information out of both people and machines without their being aware of my interest. The same goes for setting up diversions. If someone snoops here, they’ll find about the right level of jamming. Beneath that they’ll get traces of agitated talking, weeping, et cetera.”
    “Vincent, I want you to see what you can do about tracking vehicles,” Michael went on, “the woman from Human Services got here somehow, and Ruth didn’t leave here by magic. I know you have access to satellite records of traffic patterns. Can you make an excuse to look at those that surround this area?”
    Vincent was looking almost animated. “I can do better than that. I can get records for this entire tower and both of its neighbors. This entire neighborhood is under full-time surveillance.”
    Michael cocked an eyebrow, and his bodyguard shook his head. “We didn’t have anything to do with it, Your Highness. I only know because it’s part of my job to check about things like that before I let you go somewhere, but they’re there, all right.”
    Dinah was letting herself in as he spoke, a cup of milk in one hand. She shut the door carefully behind her and said, as if answering a question, “That’s right. When we first came here, many of the women were nervous about predatory males. That was foolishness, but we did have some problems with a few curiosity seekers. The cameras were set up then, and they’ve stayed.”
    “Inertia,” Michael said, “can be useful.”
    Vincent already had his minicomp out. “My request should go through