Owajima smiled slowly at that. Very well, he would take all possible precautions, though he no longer believed they would be necessary. Nevan DarLeras had a powerful and trained Talent, something "Vance DarLowrie" had shown no traces of--so he was not using either that or Ranger Losinj's position to simplify his mission. An exercise of some sort, then--security, in all probability. If true, it could be proven easily, Owajima thought, and he would have the pleasure of meeting his predecessor. * * * * * Nevan enjoyed both the cookies and the talk, though he kept an eye on the time and didn't let himself relax too much. Owajima was alerted now, and field agents tended to have a rather violent reaction to someone stalking them for unknown purposes. Nevan couldn't blame them; he'd reacted the same way when one of his net had warned him someone was on his trail. About the best such a pursuer could expect, unless @ was able to ambush the agent first, was that the agent wanted information enough to use a non-lethal form of attack or defense--until @ learned enough to satisfy @'s curiosity, at least. But Nevan was able to put the hazards of his mission in the back of his mind while he caught up on news from home. His first son, with the lady Dallas, was doing well in his warrior training, though both he and his half-brother--Nevan's with the lady Morna, who looked more than a little smug, telling him--were giving Sean and Ellen fits trying to keep up. Nevan couldn't help laughing; Sean and Ellen had fostered him, too, and he remembered how good they were--and how frustrated Sean got--with a child-warrior's hyperactivity. Other news was almost as interesting to him, if less personal: the warrior Leslie had broken his leg in war games with the Combat Division Marines stationed at Shangri-La Base, and the clan had been asked to train more assault-lander pilots. The hour was all too short, but Nevan didn't let himself stretch his visit beyond that point. He left the destroyer after a final promise to Morna that he would get off the meds as soon as he could, then made his way through even thicker crowds to his rented car. He spent the drive back to his ship going over his options. Things didn't look quite as unpromising as they had earlier, even though it still seemed that he would have to go back to Terra for a fresh start. This time, he reminded himself, at least the start wouldn't be from zero; he had a name and a reputation to work with, and a few days to dig out some background would give him more data.