"I'm afraid not--that I don't know, I mean. But I'd think one would; it's the kind the Raidmaster would want to lead, either in person or by proxy." "Good enough; I'll report it as a possible, then." She smiled at the young man. "I'm afraid I'm not as good at this type of questioning as I should be, Charles; I'd like to call in a friend for it. Will you talk to him as well as you have been to me?" "Of course, if that's what you want." "Good." Cortin went to her desk and picked up the black phone, asked Brady to come escort a guest, then turned her attention back to Powell. "You've been a lot of help already, Charles, and I'm sure you'll be a lot more--but have you given any thought to what you'll do when you've given us all the information you have?" The young man shrugged. "A little, but it depended on someone believing me. Like I said, I'd like to go to work for you, if I could." Cortin nodded; she'd definitely be questioning Mike next! "Think about it some more, talk to my men--then if you're sure that's really what you want, I'll see what I can do. For now, go with Matthew; he should be at the main door shortly." When Powell left, Cortin turned to Odeon. "All right, Mike, give! Last time I saw him, I revolted and terrified him--now he's like a puppy eager for my approval, and I swear he has a crush on you. Why and how?" To her astonishment, Odeon looked abashed. "Uh . . . Ivan had an experimental drug he wanted to try, just to see how thorough a conditioning was possible and how much trouble it'd be. Well, you'd already set up a program for our young friend, so Ivan figured he might as well work on him. He outranks us--outranked you, then--so we went along." Cortin nodded; they'd had no choice, and Ivan had been polite enough not to tell her he'd modified her intentions. "It looks like the conditioning was complete, all right--but how permanent?" "Till he dies, Ivan says, or till he's put through the same type of conditioning again, which Ivan doesn't think is possible anywhere outside a Detention Center. So if you take him on, it'll be for good." "I don't see that you left me any choice," Cortin said with resigned amusement. "Kicking him out with conditioning like that would be like . . . kicking a puppy, I suppose. Though I have no idea what I'll be able to do with him!" She paused, frowning. Joining the Brotherhood of Freedom, or any other terrorist group, meant automatic excommunication, and she didn't care to make her people associate with an excommunicate. "I don't suppose you also saw to his spiritual welfare, by any chance?" "Of course we did, and not by chance," Odeon said. "Better than that, though we blocked the memory in case you turned him down. Uh--" "Don't tell me," Cortin said, half-grinning. "You enlisted him and put him on the team."