“We’ll proceed with the Scadrians,” the Admiral said. “They will have recordings. We’ll find those far more reliable than accounts from a bunch of backwater peasants anyway. I have a feeling he’s one step ahead of us again. How does he do it?”

“Figure he’s just rightly scared.”

She didn’t reply. But as he left, two shades—with glowing red eyes, bearing the uniforms they’d been wearing when they’d died—joined him from the corners of the room. The Admiral needed no vocal command for them, and their movement meant she obviously wanted to be alone. Not even accompanied by the dead.

She did not like hearing that their prey had slipped away again. Truth hustled to the main chamber.

The Sunlit Man Epilouge