CHAPTER TEN

     Nag'sharath, or Nora MacPherson III, as she called
herself, stood in her office at the top of the great tower
and looked contentedly out the window.  In front of her,
beneath a sparse scattering of clouds, spread the city of
Batyra.  Nora's gaze was not directed toward the city,
however.  Nora looked up, toward the stars.
     They weren't visible, of course.  It being daytime, the
sky was a brilliant blue.  Nonetheless, Nora could sense the
stars behind it and, more importantly, the more than two
thousand inhabited planets that orbited them.  Two thousand
planets in a loose confederation known as the United
Galactica.  A confederation that had no idea what was about
to hit it.
     Today was the day, the day on which seventy years of
analysis and planning, of plotting and scheming, was finally
going to come to a head.  Nora had spent most of the last
century gaining ultimate, secret control of almost all the
UG's major corporations.  Now she would order all those
corporations to commit suicide in her name.
     With the members of the UG Securities and Exchange
Commission held incommunicado in her offices, nothing would
be capable of stopping the apocalyptic market crash that
would follow.  By the end of the day, all her corporations
would cease to exist.  All other corporations who had
invested heavily in them would soon follow as their assets
vanished like so much mist.
     The UG's money supply would be cut in half.
Unemployment would skyrocket as companies began dropping like
flies.  The crime rate would go through the roof, until even
the vaunted Worlds Welfare Work Association would be
powerless to stop it.  Very few would be able to afford their
services, anyway.  Before too long, the 3WA would follow the
corporations into oblivion.
     Planetary governments would become insolvent, unable to
pay debts owed to other worlds.  As people on those other
worlds began to starve, interplanetary civil wars would be
inevitable.  Wars which MacPherson Armaments, one of the few
corporations not slated for death today, would gladly
encourage by selling low-cost weapons to both sides.  Thus
would begin the final death of the United Galactica, as the
entire galactic society decended into chaos.
     Nora expected the entire process to take fifty, maybe
sixty years, during which time she would remain vigilant
against the rise of any organization or individual attempting
to piece everything back together.
     Once the society had been destroyed, she would begin to
take control, planet by planet.  At this point, she might
begin to use her powers in earnest, creating a demonic army.
But then again, it would be exciting to see how far she could
get without it.  So exciting.
     When it was over, she would restablish demonic rule in
the entire galaxy.  The terror of those few years on one
single, pathetic world eons ago would be nothing set next to
what she would accomplish.  Demon and human alike would tell
stories and sing songs of her for millennia.  She would no
longer be a demon.  She would be a goddess.
     Nora felt warm and giddy as she contemplated the
struggle ahead of her, a struggle that would take at least a
century.  Struggle was what she lived for, what drove her
forward.  The thought of a terrifying battle that would span
galaxies and centuries caused an involutary shudder of
pleasure to pulse through the body she wore.
     <The Crystal Knights were the best thing ever to happen
to us,> Nora thought with a little laugh.  Before the Knights
appeared, the demons had had no real opposition, and thus no
purpose in their lives.  Nora remembered the ecstasy she, or
rather Nag'sharath, had felt when it had learned of the
Knights existence.  At last, some amusement!
     Unfortunately, the Knights had proven too amusing, and
had won the damn war.  Since then, Nag'sharath had been
awoken time and time again, each time to do battle with the
same single Crystal Knight, Tarc Meridian.  It had been fun
at first, but the battle was too much the same every time,
much too short, and Nag always lost.  Eventually, it became
completely sick of the self-righteous little twerp.
     Nora was so happy that she had found a way to break the
cycle.  It was amusing to see the frustration on Tarc's face
as he realized that the rules had changed, that he was near-
powerless against Evil when it didn't wear the face of a
mystical demon.
     Tarc and his two partners were safely imprisoned on an
island, far away.  They were powerless to stop her, even if
they knew how.  In less than a day, the galaxy would be on an
unstoppable course toward chaos.
     Maybe... Maybe she'd let him go.  Yes, let him go on
some abandoned planet hundreds of light-years from anything,
and dare him to come after her.  Eventually, he would, and
they would have it out.  Only this time, the battle would not
be some piddling little contest to keep her from becoming
established on one or two disgusting little planets.  No,
this time the conflict would be epic, a lone Crystal Knight
against a demon with ultimate power.
     The thought of carrying on with the knowledge that Tarc
was out there somewhere, searching for her, ready to justify
her existence with his crystal sword, was intoxicating.
Nora's breath rang in her ears as she contemplated such a
future.
     Nora yelped and opened her eyes.  Looking down, she saw
that her hand had strayed to between her legs.  She shook her
head and took a deep breath.
     Nora cursed, cursed her body for its damned physical
responses to everything, cursed herself for fantasizing about
straying from her plan.  Of course she wasn't going to let
Tarc go.  As soon as the market crash was safely on course,
she'd make the force-field around the island airtight and gas
the whole place.  Tarc, she'd retrieve and put back into
cryo-stasis, the other two she'd just kill.  Kept alive, Tarc
couldn't reincarnate and fetch the others.  Tarc and his Game
Eternal would be over forever.
     Close, her aide, entered the room.  "Ms. MacPherson?
They're ready for you in the conference room."
     Nora, once again the picture of professional composure,
nodded and followed Close out of her office.  Minutes later,
she entered the conference room, where ten stodigily-dressed
old people, six men and four women, awaited.  "Ladies and
gentlemen," she said, beaming a smile that could have charmed
the last centicredit piece out of the pocket of a vagrant, "I
suppose you're wondering why I called you here."

     Kei marveled at how far she'd come in the last week.
When they had discovered the _Lewis_and_Clark_ and its single
passenger who had claimed to be the last Crystal Knight, she
had quite naturally thought he was mad.  Now her boss,
Francis Goulet, had turned up, claiming to be Guruk, the
powerful sorceror who had been Efera's mentor, and Kei
thought it made perfect sense.  Besides, the glowing scrying-
sphere the man was manifesting in front of him tended to lend
credence to his claim.
     Still, the body's new personality wasn't helping it get
along with Kei any better.  The two of them were involved in
an argument that was getting more heated by the second.
     "You can't be serious!" Kei yelled.  "We've been
planning for days now, and you want to throw it all away?!"
     "Nag'sharath is a mystical being," Guruk calmly replied.
"It must be fought on a mystical level."
     "Haven't you been listening to anything we told you?!
It's not like that anymore!  That kind of approach won't
work!"
     "Actually," said Tarc. "I have to agree with Guruk.  His
added power changes the situation considerably."
     "What?" asked Kei.  She sounded hurt.
     "I just think that, in the light of this new
development, we should rethink--"
     "I don't believe I'm hearing this," said Kei.  "Tarc, we
worked on this plan all day and all night since we got off
the island.  It all fits together.  It'll work!  And now you
want to toss it and come up with a new one, just because this
jerk shows up?"
     Yuri spoke up.  "I gotta side with Kei, Tarc.  We've put
too much effort into this plan not to use it.  Besides, I
don't think we have the time.  Look."  She pointed at the
scrying sphere, whuch had been had been tracking MacPherson's
movements.  She was currently addressing the officials of the
UG Securities and Exchange Commission, giving a boring
lecture on the expansion of the UG and its effect on the
economy.  Yuri continued, "The stock market opens in three
hours.  Kei's distraction is set for only a little bit before
that.  There's no time to come up with something different."
     Guruk shook his head.  "You still don't understand.  You
have no choice.  Your plan is doomed to failure, as it
attacks her on a purely physical level."
     "I keep telling you, your precious demon has sworn off
magic!" Kei shouted, slamming her fist onto a nightstand.
"We have to do the same, or we play right into her hands!"
     "The Game Eternal is a mystical game," said Tarc.  "That
is the way it is played.  That is the way it will always be
played.  Tampering with it is foolish."
     "Ah," said Kei, sneering.  "Of course.  I should've
known.  You don't want to use our plan because it doesn't let
you play the role of the heroic mystical knight.  You just
can't live without your glorious, climactic `confrontation',
can you?  If you don't get to strike Nag'sharath down with
your fabled crystal sword, you don't want to play, is that
it?"
     Tarc was silent.  He seemed unable to look Kei in the
eye.
     "Well, screw it!!" Kei yelled.  "And screw the both of
you, too!  I'm leaving!"
     Yuri's head snapped around.  "Kei?"
     "I'll carry out the plan myself, if I have to.  It might
not work, but goddamnit, if I have to die, I'm gonna die as
Kei of the Lovely Angels, not Jiliora of fucking Muaarl!!"
     "D-die?" stammered Yuri.
     "Oh no," whispered Tarc, staring at Kei.
     "Yes, Tarc, I know," said Kei.  She picked up her gun,
utility belt, and a large satchel and headed for the door.
     "Jiliora, WAIT!" shouted Tarc, desperately.
     Kei stopped, turned, and gave him a glare that could
have melted steel.
     "I... I meant `Kei'," Tarc whispered.
     "No, you didn't," Kei muttered.  She stomped out,
slamming the door as hard as she could.
     "I'd better go after her," said Yuri.  She took off an
earring and tossed it to Tarc.  "Use this if you need to get
in touch with us."  Yuri left the room and went running after
her partner.
     For a long time, the room was silent.  Tarc just stood
there, staring at the place Kei had been.
     Finally, Guruk said, "You still love her, don't you?"
     "More than you can possibly imagine," Tarc quietly
replied.
     "She's not the same woman, Tarc.  Unlike you, she hasn't
had the totem of a crystal sword to hold her to her identity
through the millenia.  She's had scores of lifetimes to
change, and she has."
     Tarc slowly shook his head.  "At her center, she's still
the woman I love.  I can feel it.  She can as well.  And now
that she realizes how many times I've had to sacrifice her
life..."
     "You must force yourself to forget about her.  It will
only--"
     "Please," Tarc interrupted, holding up a hand, "you
don't have to remind me of the dangers of compromising my
purity.  But it still hurts."

     Kei was already in the car when Yuri finally caught up
to her.  "Kei, waaaaaaait!!"
     "Hop in!" Kei said, gunning the engine.
     Yuri jumped into her seat as the car started to move.
She sat in her seat panting.  "Where...  where are we going."
     "Phase one, Yuri."
     "Right."  Yuri rummaged through the satchel and started
getting into costume.  It was amazing what a ten-thousand-
credit debit card could get you in this town.

     "Um, Mr. Close, the reporters are here to see you."
     Close blinked and spoke to the woman on his intercom
screen.  "What reporters?"
     "They say they have an appointment to interview you
about the _Lewis_and_Clark_."
     Close blinked again.  The interplanetary newsmedia
weren't even supposed to be aware of the _Lewis_and_Clark_'s
whereabouts yet.  Had MacPherson's vaunted media control
failed?  Not likely.  Reporters who stuck their noses in the
wrong places on Platonia tended to end up dead.
     And yet, if the media had indeed gotten out of control
at this critical juncture, and he did nothing about it,
MacPherson wasn't likely to be pleased.  He decided to at
least talk to them.  The moment he set foot outside his
office, he knew he'd made the wrong decision.
     "Ah!  There's the man of the hour now!" said a smiling
Yuri, dressed in a reporter's jumpsuit and wielding a
microphone.  Behind her, Kei aimed a camera at his face.
     Close quickly turned to his secretary.  "Ms. Tsugawa, I
want you to--"
     "Oh, please!" Kei interrupted.  "Don't start talking
yet.  There's some very special tape in this camera, and I
wouldn't want have to start... (ahem) shooting... early."
     Close stared at her.  She grinned back, and flicked a
switch on the side of the camera.
     Close swallowed.  "I'll, uh... Let's find a quiet place
to talk, shall we?"
     "Excellent!" beamed Yuri.
     They walked into the hallway outside.  "Whatever it is
you're planning, you won't get away with it."
     "We're already partway there," said Kei.  "March."

     On the elevator, Kei and Yuri took turns slipping out of
the jumpsuits, revealing uniforms underneath, while the other
held a gun on Close, a gun which, unlike the camera, really
*was* capable of killing someone.
     "Okay, big boy," said Kei, "we need to know a few
things.  One, where exactly is the room where MacPherson is
addressing the market officials?  Two, where can we find a
remote security terminal?  Three, what's your access code?"
     Close laughed out loud.  "If you really think I'm going
to tell you any of that, then you're even more incompetant
than the media makes you out to be!"
     Yuri reached into the satchel and began rummaging
around.  "Oh, we're pretty sure you'll tell us.  Ah!"  She
pulled out a medical injector.  "Gee, I sure hope I
remembered the formula right."  Before he could object, she
reached over and jammed the injector into Close's arm.

     Fifteen sublevels down, the elevator finally slowed to a
halt.  Kei had a look around.  "Looks abandoned."
     "Oh, it is, it is!" exclaimed Close, a goofy grin on his
face.  "This level will only be activated in the event of a
massive assault which renders the surface unlivable!  It's
EMP-hardened and completely radiation proof!"
     "Just show us where the terminal is," said Yuri.
     "Certainly, certainly!  Right over there, next to the
black cylinder!  Is there anything else you'd like to know?
I'm so pleased to be of service!"
     "No, that will be all.  Why don't you just sit down over
there and pass out?"
     "Great idea!" said Close, enthusiastically.  "In fact, I
haven't heard such a good idea in uhhhhh..."  Close slumped
onto the floor, unconscious.
     Yuri jacked into the terminal, plugging the interface
cable into the socket behind her ear.  She entered the access
code and called up a menu of tower security functions.
     Kei opened the satchel and pulled out a hyperspace
transmitter, the same they had used to contact Goulet.  It
had a carrying strap, which she slung over her shoulder.
"I'd better be on my way," she said.  "You have the schedule
down, right?"
     "To the second.  You better hurry it up if you don't
want to be behind."
     "You sure you'll be okay?"
     "Close will be out for hours.  Besides, he's a wimp.
Don't worry about me, nobody'll even know I'm down here.  And
I'll be in constant contact through our comlinks, so it's
not like you're leaving me."
     <Yes, it is,> Kei thought.  She looked at Yuri
uncertainly.  The visions she'd experienced of past lives,
lives lost in the eternal struggle between Tarc Meridian and
Nag'sharath, were still with her.  This could be the last
time she'd ever see Yuri.  Shouldn't she say something?
     "Kei?"
     No, Kei thought.  What was there to say?  Besides, it
wasn't the Game Eternal anymore, it was the Lovely Angels
versus a crazy woman who wanted to crash the stock market.
     "You're right, Yuri, I'd better get my ass in gear." Kei
walked back into the elevator.
     "Kei?" said Yuri.
     Kei looked back at her friend.
     "Good luck."
     "Thanks."  Kei smiled one last time, before the doors
closed and sealed her off.

     "And so," said Nora, pointing to the viewscreen behind
her with a laserpoint for emphasis, "if we extend the cycle
to a twenty-year period, we find a clear migration of the
areas of concentrated production towards the outlying
regions."
     The officials nodded their comprehension.  They actually
seemed to be interested as well, which amazed Nora.  It was
taking all her concentration to stay focused herself.
     As Nora took a deep breath, preparing for the next
volley of tedium, a shrill beeping came from a com panel.
Nora apologized to her guests, walked to a corner and pulled
a personal communicator from her pocket.  "Yes, what is it?
I'm in the middle of a--".  Nora stopped in mid-sentence,
stunned.  "How?  Where?"  The communicator told her.  "I'll
call you back from my office."
     "Is there a problem?" asked one of the officials, a
balding man with glasses.
     "Yes, but I'm sure it will be taken care of shortly.  I
need to leave you for a few minutes."  The door slid open.
Nora walked out and talked to the suited muscleman in
sunglasses standing guard outside.  "Something is very wrong,
Therian.  Under no circumstances are you to allow anyone into
this room.  This is of the utmost importance.  I can't trust
it to one of my standard guards.  Do you understand?"
     Therian nodded.

     "Kei, you've got two more guards about thirty meters in
front of you."
     Kei cursed and flattened against the wall.  "Damn, this
place is like a military base!"
     "Parts of it are.  You're just gonna have to take
another route."
     "There *are* no other routes, Yuri!  We've exhausted
them all!"
     "Jeez, you're right."  At her post in the sub-basement,
Yuri looked over a map of the area Kei was exploring.  Kei
was right; she was completely blocked off.  MacPherson must
have anticipated what they were about to try.
     Kei unholstered her gun.  "There's nothing else for it.
I'm just gonna have to fight my way through."
     "While you're carrying that transmitter on your
shoulder?  Get real!"
     "You got a better idea?"
     "As a matter of fact, I do.  Gimme a moment."  Yuri
tapped a few keys and hoped the guards didn't have orders to
stay at their posts even if the tower started crumbling
around them.
     Around Kei, alarm claxons sounded.  "Oh, shit, I've been
marked!"
     "Stay put, Kei!  It's not you!"  Sure enough, the guards
began running away from her, toward the other side of the
station.
     "What the hell did you just do?" Kei asked, staring
after them.
     "I simulated a firebomb going off on the other side of
the tower.  It's not gonna fool them for long, of course, so
you better get your butt through and cover your tracks as
fast as you can."
     "Got it!"  Kei ran over to where the nearest guard had
been stationed, in front of a grate leading to the
ventilation system.  "Good old ventilation shafts.  You can
always count on them."  She put her gun on narrow beam and
began cutting through the bolts.

     "Well, then get it there!  I am not having my capital
city destroyed just because you can't get a tractor ship
there in time."  Nora pounded the desk in frustration.  There
was less than an hour remaining before her masterstroke, and
the _Lewis_and _Clark_, the ship she herself had brought
here, was about to crash on the city.  It couldn't be a
coincidence.  In fact, what was left of the real Nora
MacPherson *knew* it wasn't.  The ship simply wasn't capable
of spontaneously piloting itself.
     If worse came to worst, and the tractor ship couldn't
stop it, she'd authorize a missle strike to destroy it, but
that raised the problem of debris falling on Batyra,
especially the debris from the ship's nuclear engines.  It
would be a horrible mess to deal with when she had the least
time to spare.
     Nora wondered.  She checked mentally.  No, she hadn't
failed to keep the force field intact.  Tarc and his pals
were still safely imprisoned on the island.  Whoever was
responsible for this, it couldn't be them.

     "Oof!" said Kei as she fell from a vent in the ceiling
and landed in an unglamorous heap on the floor.
     "Who are you?" asked one of the officials.
     "I must say, this is highly irregular." said another.
     "Heh, heh.  Yeah, I guess it is," Kei said, getting to
her feet.  "But then, that's me.  `Irregular' is my middle
name."
     The officials stared at her.
     "That's a joke.  Don't you guys have a sense of humor?"
Kei looked around at the officials, all of whom were wearing
business suits and dour expressions.  "I forgot, you're
bureaucrats.  Of course you don't."
     Kei placed the transmitter on the table and got about
the business of setting it up.  "Okay, folks, here's the
story.  Your friend Nora MacPherson is crazy.  In a couple of
minutes, she's going to force nearly every major corporation
in the UG to dump all their stock on the market at once." She
finished the set up procedure and trained the visual pick-up
down the table.  "You guys need to call the stock market and
shut it down before that can happen.  I've got this
transmitter ready to go.  All you have to do is--"
     "Say, don't I know you?" said one of the men who still
had some gray hair.
     "Yes," said another, nodding. "She's one of those two
girls who are always on the news.  What do they call
themselves?"
     "The Dirty Pair!"
     "Ah, yes, that's it."
     "Oh, dear," said a woman, raising a wrinkled hand to her
lips.  "Does this mean we're all going to die?"
     Kei stared at the table, trying desperately to keep her
temper under control.  "If you would listen to me, I need you
to--"
     "Well, yes," interrupted an official, "but you see,
there's a problem with that."
     "Yes, of course," said his colleague.  "We can't simply
shut down the market every time a redhead falls through the
ceiling and tells us to.  Why, it's against procedure!"
     "Kei, what's going on?" asked Yuri through Kei's
earring.
     "Nothing," Kei replied.  She was furious at herself for
having failed to see this coming.  People with guns she could
deal with.  Idiots in suits weren't as easy.
     She forced herself to be calm.  "Gentleman, ladies.  As
I told you, if you don't shut the market down, every major
corporation is going to start selling itself off and
everything is going to crash."
     "Mm," said one of the bald ones.  "And you have proof of
this?"
     "Well I--"
     The old woman shook her head.  "Why would they do such a
thing?  Mass corporate suicide?  I find that very hard to
believe."
     "I'll explain," said Kei.  Then she remembered to check
her watch, and discarded the official explanation in favor of
a more succinct one.  She pulled her gun.  "You see, I have a
gun, and if you don't shut down the goddamn market right now,
I'm going to start blasting everything in sight!  Isn't that
simple?"
     The officials all gulped at once.  One spoke up.  "I
think, in light of this young lady's rather eloquent
argument, we should put the question to a vote."
     "You have five seconds," snarled Kei.
     The vote was unanimous.

     Across Batyra's sky streaked the _Lewis_and_Clark_,
glowing brighter with every passing moment, a shooting star
in the middle of the day.  Soon it was painful to look at, so
nobody did, which was a good thing, since it meant that when
it would explode less than a minute later, no one would lose
their vision.

     Kei shut off the transmitter.  The order to suspend
trading had been reported received.  Kei couldn't remember
the last time she had felt this good.  Certainly it must have
been before they found that stupid ship.  "Thank you for your
cooperation," she said with a smile.  "You won't regret it."
     "Since it saved out lives," said one man, "I already
don't regret it."
     "Well, I better be on my way." Kei prepared to jump back
into the vent.  Then she remembered.  "BRACE YOURSELVES!"
     The officials looked on, dumbfounded, as Kei curled into
a ball.  The lights went out.  One of them recognized what
she was doing, put two and two together, went pale, and
started to do the same himself.  The others just stared.
     There was a low, rumbling noise.  The noise quickly grew
louder.  Then, suddenly, the room tilted, and everything in
the room, including the people, were thrown violently against
the back wall, then against the front.

     Nora took deep breaths, trying to regain some semblence
of calm.  Her office was almost at the very top of the tower,
so when the explosion hit it, it had tilted almost ninety
degrees, both ways, three times.  The explosion blew out the
office window and she nearly had been thrown through it.  She
had survived by grabbing ahold of her desk, which was fused
to the floor, but two of its legs had broken loose during the
ordeal.  If the rocking had lasted any longer, she and the
desk would both have been thrown several kilometers to the
ground.
     As she calmed, she felt that something was wrong,
missing, as if she had forgotten something.  She leapt to her
feet.  The island force field!  She checked.  Sure enough,
she'd let it drop.  She put it back up, but now there was no
way to tell if Tarc and the others were still trapped there.
     Still, there was nothing they could do now, was there?
Or was there?  Nora decided there was no harm in checking.
She tapped the terminal on the desk.  It had been knocked out
by the EMP, of course.  Backup systems would soon be
available from selected terminals, but she wasn't that
patient.  Utilizing the mystical link between the computer
core and her own brain, she established a hyperspace comlink
to the stock market's trading network and asked for the
latest quotes.  The computer replied that trading had been
suspended for the day.
     Nora sank to the floor, stunned.  She needed to think
fast, if she was to salvage anything.
     As she disengaged from the computer, she noticed a
familiar process.  Close was accessing security functions.
During a crisis like this, his place was at her side, not at
a computer terminal.  She sent him an angry message and
kicked him off.

     Kei uncurled, nursing the bruises from her own
collisions with the walls.  "Damn.  I definitely overdid it
with that distraction."  The room was dark.  She squinted,
but it was useless; there were no windows anywhere nearby to
let in any ambient light.
     She began to feel her way around.  She found pieces of
the transmitter.  That didn't bother her.  Thanks to the
electomagnetic pulse from the explosion, it was worthless
anyway.  She elicited a yelp of pain from one of the
officials when she touched his leg.  <Oh god,> she thought,
<what if I *killed* some of them?>
     "Is everyone okay?" she asked.  There was a chorus of
mumbles and groans.  It sounded like the right number of
people, but she couldn't be sure.  "Look, will someone call a
roll?"
     Someone cleared his throat, said who he was and began
calling names.  Everyone answered but "Davidson".  Someone
else spoke up.  "There's someone next to me who's
unconscious, but breathing."
     Kei sighed in relief.  "Then that's everyone.  Sit
tight, and I'll go get some help."  Kei was crawling toward
where she thought the door was when a large hand grabbed her
by the collar of her uniform and lifted her off the floor.
     Kei stared into dimly two glowing eyes.  "Vhat ah hyu
doing heah?"
     Kei grimaced.  Only MacPherson's goons had accents that
bad.  If this one was as powerful as the last two she and
Yuri had faced, she was in big trouble.
     "Excuse me, sir?" said one of the officials.  "Could we
trouble you for some assistance?  Some of us are in need of
medical attention, you see, and..."
     Therian ignored him and walked out, carrying a
struggling Kei.

     "Kei?  Kei, are you there?  Are you okay?"  Yuri
repeatedly tapped her communicater earring but got no
response.  Yuri decided Kei's comm was almost certainly
fried.  When the pulse had hit, even the lights in Yuri's
supposedly EMP-hardened chamber had flickered.
     A message came on the screen.  "CLOSE, GET THE HELL OFF
THE SYSTEM AND GET YOUR ASS UP HERE!  I'M IN TROUBLE!"  It
took less than a second for Yuri to realize what was coming
next and grab the interface cable leading to her head.  It
was too late, nevertheless.  Before Yuri could pull the cable
loose, a flashbomb went off in her head.  Yuri's poor brain,
still recovering from the near-disastrous cyberhacking three
days ago, couldn't take it.  She slid off her chair onto the
floor, unconscious.
     Behind her, Close stirred.

     "What do you mean, you CAN'T reopen the market?!" Nora
screamed at the market officials.
     Unwilling to wait any longer, Nora had restablished
connection with the computer and had brought the back-up
power system on-line.  The first thing she did was connect to
the comscreen in the meeting room where the officials were
being held, the same screen she had been using for her
presentation.  The screen in her office showed what a mess
the room had become in her absence.  The officials were
bruised, bloody, and disheveled.  One was even unconscious.
Still, they somehow maintained their composure, as if they
simply didn't know how to lose it.
     "Well, it's regulations, you see," said one, pushing his
cracked glasses back up onto his nose.  "If the market is
closed, for any reason, it must remain closed for one
business day while the reason for its closing is
investigated.  If we just reopened it, the very same
situtation would continue that caused us to shut it down."
     "B-but, you *know* why it closed!  That little bitch
held a gun to your head!!"
     The man cleared his throat.  "Well, yes, of course.
However, there is the matter of the curious claim she made.
She seemed to believe that you had the means to make every
major corporation in the United Galactica dump all its stock
on the market at once, thus crashing it."
     Nora went pale.
     "Of course, I'm certain such a spurious claim can be
easily disproved.  Nevertheless, we would be remiss in our
duties if we did not investigate it.  Economic security, you
see.  So, please understand that--"
     Nora cut the connection.  She walked, as if in a trance,
to her desk.  The chair had flown out the window, so she just
slumped against it.
     Somehow the sorceress Efera had found a way to sneak
through her force field.  That, Nora could accept.  But how
could they have figured out what she was up to?  Sure, they
knew she was meeting the market people at the exact time she
had told Tarc the end was going to come.  She had even told
Tarc she was going to make the thing crash.  But she hadn't
told him how.
     The journalist.  Of course.  It had to have been him.
Somehow the bastard had communicated his data to the Dirty
Pair before he had been killed.  That was her error, then.
She should have seen that possibility, cut her losses and
ordered the girls killed immediately.
     A dozen courses of action passed through her mind, none
of which would work.  Her first inclination was to kill the
officials, but that would accomplish nothing.  The
investigation would continue regardless.  To stop it, and she
did have the clout to do so, would raise so many eyebrows
throughout the UG that a dozen independent investigations
would no doubt pop up, and she couldn't stop those.  You can
only kill so many reporters.
     The idea which followed naturally was to somehow mislead
the investigation.  That was nearly impossible.  Her
organization was so gigantic that there wasn't anything big
enough for it to hide behind.  And UG Investigation Bureau
officials were notoriously hard to bribe.
     Of course, she could take control of them all.  Call up
a few demonic allies, have them possess the investigation
team.  She dismissed that idea as soon as it occurred to her.
She had gotten as far as she had by abandoning magic.  To use
it now would destroy even what little she had left.
     There was a solution.  She was certain of it.  She just
needed time to think.
     Her thoughts were interrupted by a swishing sound behind
her and a bright flash of light.  She turned to see the last
person she wanted to see.
     Tarc Meridian held his crystal sword at the ready.  "The
time has come, Nag'sharath.  Engage me."

END CHAPTER ELEVEN