World's End

Page 176

219

JOAN D. VINGE

smallest infraction leaned forward across his desk, willing Ossidge to yield--

Ossidge nodded. "All right, Inspector. Because it's you who's asking. I wouldn't do it normally, but since it's you . ." He released the prisoners. He started for the door.

"Thank you, Ossidge," Gundhalinu murmured, surprised, until he remembered why the note of near-awe hung in his sergeant's voice.

Ossidge turned, "I just want to say something, Inspector I think it's a rare piece, how you've come back to the force ... I mean, considering you're about the biggest hero--"

"This is the only place I want to be, right now," Gundhalinu said gently, cutting him off. "This uniform feels

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better than it has for a long time." He smiled, but it was not the smile he would have liked.

Ossidge smiled, too, for the first time that Gundhalinu could remember. He saluted, and left the room.

Gundhalinu waited as the two prisoners slowly removed their helmets. He saw their faces clearly for the first time, and they saw his. Their faces registered a play of emotions so extreme that it almost struck him funny.

"You--?" "BZ!" The voices of his brothers merged into a cacophony of disbelief.

He sat motionless behind his desk, saying nothing.

They looked like the brothers he remembered, again-- clean, healed, civilized even though they wore prison coveralls. But he no longer trusted his eyes. "Hello, HK

. . . SB."

HK dropped to his knees in front of the desk. "BZ, by all our ancestors, I never meant for it to happen! Thank the gods you're alive--" He covered his face with his hands. "I don't understand

... I don't understand what happened."

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"The hell you didn't," SB muttered. "You were count 220