Ishikawa curled into a ball in the nestlike pod. He felt the hatch close over him; latches slid into their channels as Reckall spun the locking wheel. He wondered what expression Reckall’s face held, now that he had total power over his erstwhile enemy. And he wondered whether the armored giant that had shut him in the capsule was Reckall at all, or one of his empty drones.

Ishikawa heard a dull clunk. The ejection door mechanism; but it sounded wrong, and he didn’t feel a drop—only the chaotic buffeting of a dying machine on its way to some mountainside. The parachute status lamp was still red. He heard more ineffectual clunks; then silence.

Reckall has done all he can for me. Now it’s time for him to save himself. The mission to the Synod is well begun; they won’t need me any more.

Just when it seemed he had no regrets, one came to mind; lifting Carmen Samter’s lithe body from the floor during the hostage incident and holding her. If only …

He was rocked by a tremendous crash.