"What do you mean, easily?"
"You had a weapon. Yet you didn't use it on Brinna. Why?"
Wyatt became instantly wary and on guard. Makvern, then, suspected the arrangement between Brinna and himself, suspected Brinna of a double-cross? He'd better be careful.
He said, "What's this about Brinna? To me, she's just a female wildcat that dropped out of the sky."
"She is what you would call very high brass," Makvern said. "A high officer of the Task Force, completely trusted by Commander Varsek."
Had Makvern faintly emphasized the word "trusted"? Wyatt wasn't sure. He was only sure now that some devil's broth of intrigue went on in the immense Task Force that followed its looting voyage through the galactic suns, and that he, Wyatt, was less than the smallest pawn in the hidden game.
"I wouldn't," said Makvern, "think too much of Brinna. She's beautiful, I know. But she's in love."
Oddly, Wyatt felt a pang to hear that. "In love? With whom?"
"With power," Makvern said grimly, and then the next moment the light in the cabin went blue and there was a vertiginous shock that made Wyatt feel as though he was falling, falling, everything gone from around him, plunging through abysses of darkness—
A whining sound went up to a shriek and passed beyond hearing, and then the lights burned white again and the dizziness in his head passed.