The D'Troit warriors whose breath, weight and steel had overwhelmed him
had been summoned out of thin air. In recreating Shakatak, Roz had
drawn upon and fleshed out his deepest fears. And she had used the
same power to transform herself- in his eyes - into the Old One,
Clearwater and Brickman.
It was terrifying...
She stood up and offered him her hand. As they came face to face she
said, 'If I can do that to you - whom I love - just imagine what I can
do to our enemies..."
Cadillac nodded but said nothing.
They ate in silence and later, when their bodies came together in the
dark, he had not still uttered a word.
As he entered her, Roz whispered: 'I know what's going through your
mind. Relax." She locked her legs around the small of his back and
thrust upwards to meet him. 'What you can feel is not a figment of
your imagination. Trust me. This is for real!" And it was. Oh,
yes.
It was. It was ....
CHAPTER TWO
In the heart of the Federation, a thousand miles southwest of the
pine-forested slopes of the Laramie Mountains, Steve Brickman was busy
working both ends against the middle.
Six weeks after his promotion to captain and probationary membership of
the First Family, he still found it hard to believe his good fortune.
In Cloudlands the large overground estate where the First Family lived
in colonial-style splendour - Steve was now the acknowledged companion
and bed-mate of Franklynne Delano Jefferson, a close and favoured
relative of the President-General. And the liaison with Fran provided
him with an entree to the highest levels of the Family. The contacts
at this stage were purely social but they provided Steve with an
opportunity to make himself known and, above all, to be seen.
In eighteen action-packed months, he had risen from a workgang in the
A-Levels to the charmed inner circle at the top of the tree. And in
between, he had travelled further, seen things that others only dreamt
of, and had been involved in more violence and intrigue than most other
Trackers would meet in their entire lifetime - and he was still only
nineteen!
Up to a few short weeks ago, Steve had always figured he had only
