Hale was at his desk. On the screen, the recording of Gabriel's fight with those older boys played over and over. Hale killed the display. "Mr. Gabriel," Hale said. He did not offer the boy a seat, or ask what he could do for him; Hale considered the fine leather chairs in front of his desk to be decorative, and he did not particularly care what this boy thought Hale could do for him. And Hale was not one to engage in empty pleasantries.

Nor, apparently, was Gabriel. "Why are you doing this to us?"

Hale didn't smile. He never smiled either. But he wanted to. "Doing what, exactly, Mr. Gabriel?"

"We are good soldiers. Some of the best you have. We didn't want this AIT, but we had it slumped on our shoulders, and we haven't been allowed to transfer out, which is against regulation. At every turn you've made our lives a living hell; for the past six months we've been pushed harder than any of these other soldiers, we've more than proven that we can do this, and you still keep trying to break us down. If you don't want us here, then let us transfer. We'd leave happily and never look back, and then we wouldn't be your problem anymore."

Hale regarded the boy for a few moments. Apart from conversations with Solenis, which Gabriel did not even know that Hale could hear, he'd never before heard the boy say so much at one time. "I think you misunderstand the situation, Mr. Gabriel."

"Bullshit I do," Gabriel said. "Sol was in trouble today and you were just going to let them do what they would with her. You were going to let them, when it was within your power to stop them at any time. And in the showers, when Rabin attacked me, there were no consequences. On the surface, when he tried to kill me, nothing. You're trying to get us killed."

"You would like me to babysit you, Mr. Gabriel? In the real world there will be no one to save you. Get used to it."

"This isn't about training."

"You know perfectly well what this is about. Your father is a traitor. By all rights you should never have been admitted into Battle School. The only reason you were admitted is because Major Bryant's guilty conscience wanted to place you where, he believed, you would belong, and in his misguided sense of duty, had you sent up to the Battle School. Ever since there have been those that wanted you gone, and your modus operandi didn't win you any supporters. You acted like a spy, and that made a lot of people nervous, you see. Especially since much of the time between the crash and your placement in your first foster home is unknown to us. For all we know, you were located by your father during that time and given the mission of learning all you could about Battle and Command Schools before returning home, fully trained and ready to aid his cause. For all we know, your disappearance during your Earthside leave was a means of delivering the intel you'd already collected to his associates. For the past ten years you have been behaving in a highly suspicious and questionable fashion, and it is only Major Bryant and his friends in high places that have kept you from being iced a dozen times over."

"Then why not have me placed in a low-security AIT? Put us in the Support AIT and see to it that we staff a survey ship far, far away from Earth after we graduate. We'd go willingly."

"So you say. But you two are natural spies, and you might have friends with the opposition waiting to help you disappear once your next Earthside leave rolls around. However, the IF has the jurisdiction to keep active surveillance on any student that left Command School out of the Special Operations AIT. Because the men that wrote that section were fools, they did not allow for surveillance of students that trained in Scorpion and then transferred. Therefore, my only option is to keep you in my AIT, so that you can be watched once you leave, while at the same time doing my very best to see to it that you ice out as soon as possible, so that when you go you take as little training as possible."

Gabriel was silent.

"Now, it is unfortunate that Ms. Solenis had to be tangled up in all this. She always was a highly promising student, and many believe that she could have made quite a leader if she'd not voluntarily isolated herself with you. It is a shame to sacrifice such a promising student, but because it has become quite clear that her loyalty is not to the IF, we have little choice. Because we expect the two of you to walk after graduation, it mattered little to me what AIT we placed her in; we already had the authority to watch you, and it seemed that her talents were going to be wasted no matter where we placed her, if she would not be using them for us after graduation. I allowed her to be placed here with you against my better judgment; you have Major Bryant to thank. But, realize that it is because of you, and your association with her, that she is being blacklisted along with you. I will make you both miserable, I will break you down and crumble you to dust, and you can lay awake at night knowing that every hardship she endures, she endures because of you. Think about that, Gabriel, when she collapses into your arms at the end of the day after having been pushed well beyond her physical limits. Remember that all you have to do to end her suffering, and your own, is quit. I know you'll remember that."

This time Gabriel did speak. "You son of a bitch."

"Possibly." Hale leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk. "I do not like you, Mister Gabriel. I do not like you at all. I did not like your father, and I did not trust him even before he was discovered to be a traitor. I have a sense for traitors, Mister Gabriel. And I know what you are. You don't care about the IF, and you don't care about duty, or honor, or justice. You care only about yourself and Ms. Solenis, and that means that all the enemy has to do to make a traitor of you is either make it worth your while to choose them over us, or endanger Ms. Solenis. Then you will do what they say, and we both know it. You are every bit the traitor your father was, whether you have committed your first crime or not, and I will see to it that you are watched as you take your final breaths. The IF has long arms and countless eyes, Mr. Gabriel. When you leave this place, and they approach you -- and they will -- you remember that. Because we can take things from you also. If we believe you might actually be a threat to us, we will eliminate you if we can, or the one whom you care about most in the world if we can not. Now. Do yourself a favor. Leave this office, and go tell Ms. Solenis what was said here, today, and then save yourselves all the time and trouble, and just stop trying. This next semester will go very quickly, if you are resigned to your fate. Believe me, I can make it last for eternity if I want it to. You are not strong enough to survive my course if I don't want you to, Mr. Gabriel. I've not even started placing pressure on you. I can deny all food and sleep for as long as I choose. I can deny you access to the showers and bathrooms. I can place you and Ms. Solenis in separate cells, and enforce lockdowns every night to ensure that you don't go sneaking off to that room of yours -- and yes, Mr. Gabriel, I know all about that. I can have that room sealed off, Mr. Gabriel. I can have it filled with pressure sealant, and everything in it incinerated. All the maps, the blanket, the stools, the chess pieces; they continue to exist because I allow them to. Everything you have been allowed, I can take away. Do as I say, and you can go home. You can go back to Earth, you and Ms. Solenis, and live out the rest of your lives in peace. I have absolute power in my Quad, and I can make life as pleasant or as hellish as I choose. The decision, ultimately, is yours, Mr. Gabriel. Good day."

Gabriel did not reply. He stared at Hale for a moment, his face untroubled, and then turned and left.

Hale activated the display again, watching the fight loop endlessly. It was several moments before he realized that he was unnerved, and several more before he figured out why.

That look. On the display, Gabriel's face was as blank as always. But his eyes . . . they burned.

And Hale had seen that flash of fire, just briefly, in Gabriel's eyes, just before he turned and left.