Shadowplay

CELL 4

The thin wiry man was pacing about the command center with the furious energy of a fruiting tornado as he listened to the reports coming in from assorted sources.

"Kwantawiyal lost them, he's been disciplined and is hot to go after them, we have promised him a bounty for each head if he brings them in alive. There is nothing in writing, so that is no problem."

"A patrolboat on the Kinosipa is about an hour overdue with its call-in. Five kanaweh crewing it, Wisake no Wohtin, the Ni-sec. A slug, him, been disciplined so often he's worn a rut in the Cage. But you-know-who's his Uncle. We have attempted to establish contact, but we haven't been able to raise him. Since he was in the grid, seems likely his continued silence is directly connected with the explosion that occured just before dawn at the Iskota Estate. The flit that exploded was reduced to shards as we reported-earlier, but we did manage to locate a section of the drive pod with a serial number. We ran it through the Log. It's legit. Flit's registered to one Napechiko, a Kawa In a twoboat fish village named Wanshin, about thirty Iskals north of Aina'iril. It's a junker he rents out to whoever comes up with the price, the last one being a gutter-bait go-between of even less worth than the flit, guess who. E-heh. One Kwantawiyal. Tests are still being made, but it is becoming clear that there was nothing organic in the flit when it blew. It Is possible, therefore, that the patrol came across the fugitives and was killed by them. The Ni-sec being our favorite slug Wiseacre, there's not much doubt of it. Most likely those terrorists have taken control of the boat and are using it to escape the search grid. We are combing both riverbanks for evidence this happened. So far there is no result from that investigation.