"All different, yet six of a kind," he said. "None of you, by far, are hardened offenders of the law. The crimes you were convicted of were, how shall I put it, less than deliberately malicious." "Hah!" Brad's bitter snort curdled in his gullet. Xindral shrugged. His manner changed; tightened. He motioned toward the view tank. "Let's get on with it, Brad," he said. "There's a lot we need to cover." Chapter SIX Brad leaned back, drew his legs in and stretched them straight, heels to the deck. His eyes followed Ram to the dais and as he turned to face him. "You and your crew will start intensive training in intelligence operations using our most advanced methods. It will cover infiltration, interrogation, psychological defenses against psychic probes and other means that might be used to acquire information from you, under duress or otherwise. You will absorb intelligence countermeasures and counter-countermeasures, identification of military spacecraft and weapons used by both the UIPS and INOR, analysis of our military capabilities and those of our adversaries, covert communications through conventional, unconventional and spunnel channels, and other tricks of the trade. Your quick reaction reflexes will be enhanced through means that will not be apparent to you." "What does that last part mean?" "I'll get to it. First, your mission. Your escape from this Station has been arranged. The pieces are being moved into place. Your immediate destination is tanktown Coldfield on Planet Pluto." The view tank's image of Pluto expanded as did the gray-black contrasts of the planet's surface. A white light in a mottled area blinked, drawing Brad's momentary attention. His eyes returned to Ram. "Your initial field of operations is centered in Coldfield," Ram pointed to the light. "Where you go from there depends on the contacts you develop and how well you exploit each opportunity. The tank town has a permanent population of about fifty thousand plus about ten thousand transients. Mix with the transients for starters." "Get to the mission, Ram," Brad cut Xindral short. Ram sighed. "We've sent a succession of formal diplomatic missions to INOR," he said, "including a few to the renegades that now run Planet Pluto. We've asked them repeatedly to not interfere with the Slingshot program. We've emphasized to each INOR government that Slingshot is as important to them as it is to us. They're not listening. We're still pressing diplomatic means, meanwhile, our logistics is being disrupted by Pluto's President Narval's hoodlums." "How does this team fit in?" "If we send in a military force to sweep away these scoundrels, our action will be seen as an imperialist intrusion into the Outer Region. It will create such resentment among the governments out there that the Slingshot schedule cannot help but suffer serious harm. Getting INOR's cooperation will also become more difficult than ever.