"What's happened in the past week?" I asked. "Kill any more Ios?"
Ginger grimaced. "Naw. I shot the arm off one but I don't think he died. Ran into him in an alley in Ganymede City. Imagine that guy! He was trying to steal an air synthesizer I myself had just stolen."
The corridor led to the First Hall, a large vestibule bright with luminescent wall paint where eight tunnels branched off into separately hollowed-out caverns in the rocky guts of Callisto.
"I'm itching to get back into combat," I said. "What do you say we make a raid on the Io boys tomorrow?"
Ginger realized I was testing her loyalty. "I'd like nothing better," she responded heartily. "But of course we'll have to clear it with Naomi first."
I stopped abruptly. "Since when?"
"Well, Vera, she became leader the day after you fell."
"By whose authority?" I said indignantly.
"Don't play dumb recruit. You know our system. We had no way of knowing you'd return. Naomi and half a dozen others declared for title, and Naomi won out in a fair gang fight. Just like you did before her."
"So it seems we have two leaders now," I said, limbering my python whip.