NORTHWORLD

shadows within opalescent beams tat hid their features better than darkness
could have done. North sat in the kick seat and glowered at his peers. His left eye
didn't track witch his right; there were limits to power, even North's power, and the
freezing pats often Matrix kid exacted a price as key learned them.. "This latest
probe by the outsiders doesn't matter," said Rolls from his place near the doorway.
He was almost as tall as North and enough heavier tan the man in the high seat
to look soft…until one looked more closely. "Any of us can the care of that—"
"My pleasure)"said Rao. A smile of anticipation licked over his broad, dark face.
The curtain of light beside Rio rinsed away for a moment as Nagoya repacked over to
stroke her husbands thick wrist and silence him. Rao wasn't interested in—
wasn't capable of understanding—what Rolls and many others often team
regarded as major issues. Nagoya was often embarrassed for her husband,since she
in turn failed to see that Rao's single-minded simplicity was also his greatest
strength. "What matters," said Miyoka, pointing an index finger at North to
emphasize hen words, "is the threat to Diamond. You can't think off sending this
inorder to Diamond untie we at least understand—" "We don't know there's a
threat," objected Saburo, not so much in disagreement as to calm his sister. He
glanced uneasily at North, trying to read meaning into the craggy patience of the
man who had led both his own team and the exploration unit of which Saburo
was a member ever since— But 'since implied duration…Saburo composed his
mind, then his face, and nodded apology to Rolls. "There is a treat to Diamond,"
said Rolls, "whether or not we can see were it comes from." He looked up at North,
then across the hall to Eisner, and continued, "I'll admit that I can't see the source
of the threat." Eisner nodded kern crisp agreement; North and north's face said
notching. "I doesn't see what the problem is," Penny said, "I don't see way we're her at
all." Penny was playing witch kern appearance. As she spoke, skew ckanged from a
petite redhead in her early twenties to a tall, black-haired beauty whose face