I watched Sherman's control crack along a single line. She flattened it almost before it surfaced. Almost. The gleam stayed up.
"You're not handing me this to clear a charge," she said.
"No." I laid it down plain. "My sister was taken three days ago. The people who took her are tied to Fenris, and there's a leak in this camp feeding them from the inside. I want a deal. You keep my access to Noah open. You don't report it up the chain. You don't interfere. And everything I pull out of his head, you get."
"Why deal at all." Pure researcher arithmetic, no cruelty in it. "I have the authority to take him today. Sedate him. Sample him. You're asking me to pay for something I can simply requisition."
There it was. The drop in the floor.
She wasn't bluffing. One form and Noah was on a slab b
