"You calling me a lightweight again, Ashaya?" he said, his voice threaded through with amusement as well as a feline arrogance that said he knew he was the most dangerous creature in the room.

She got off the stool and made sure her severe black pants were sitting straight before picking up her suit jacket and slipping it on. "In this, yes. You're a physical creature - used to fighting with your body. I'm used to having only my mind as a defense."

"Then I guess you won't mind playing."

Having finished buttoning the jacket, she looked up. "On the contrary, I would prefer to live in a world where every word didn't have a double meaning." Where she wasn't constantly watching and waiting for a knife in the back. "It would considerably simplify my life."

She'd surprised him, she saw that at once. His eyes narrowed and he raised a hand ostensibly to straighten her lapel, the act holding a primitive edge that she "saw" with a rusty section of her brain this leopard alone seemed to awaken.

"That," he said, "would bore you, sugar. Straight and easy is not what you were born for."

He'd used an endearment, but his gaze was pure watchful cat. No, she didn't understand Dorian at all. "We'll have to agree to disagree on that point. It's time."

He dropped his hand from her lapel and she was discomfited to find she'd been clenching her stomach muscles so tightly they hurt. Another mistake. She attempted to relax - the producers of the show were heading her way. If the Psy Council didn't succeed in disrupting the feed, she'd soon be in living rooms and on billboards from here to Paris and beyond.

Though CTX, being a joint leopard-wolf communications company, was not the Psy media of choice, her broadcast would be picked up by enough rebellious Psy networks that the message would spread. After it was over, she knew full well she'd go to the top of the Council's hit list. But that was a future concern.

Right now, she had to lay the framework of a chaos that would disrupt everything in the Net, hiding the truth in the midst of lies - lies that would ensure Keenan's safety. That was the only thing that mattered.

She ignored the burst of activity in that now familiar primitive section of her brain. Dorian intrigued her to the depths of her being - she'd never met anyone so complex. He was light and shadow, savagery and charm, predatory fury and sniper calm. She found herself wondering what it would take for him to drop his guard, and allow a woman to see beyond the surface. Perhaps, in another life, she might've taken up the invitation to play his double-edged cat games, and discovered the answer. But in this life, she had no such choice.

"Ready, Ms. Aleine?" The producer had listening devices clipped to both his ears, but appeared to be focusing on her.

He was changeling, too, a leopard; handsome, she supposed, But he didn't awaken that primitive set of neurons the way Dorian did, didn't threaten to derail a plan she'd died to put into place. "Let's go." She began walking alongside him, very aware of Dorian's alert presence at her back. He didn't particularly like her, that much was obvious, but he wouldn't let her be assassinated. No, if this cat wanted to get rid of her, he'd do it himself.

Oddly reassured by the thought, she stepped in front of the camera, looked it straight in the eye, and waited for the signal to proceed.

"Three, two, one... we're live."

Dorian watched Ashaya's absolute stillness, her unfractured composure, and knew it for a lie.

It's the only way I know to protect him.

He'd been considering the implications of that unguarded statement ever since their arrival at the basement studio - it put her seemingly reckless broadcast in a whole new light. Somehow, some way, this was meant to help Keenan live a life free of fear.

Ashaya Aleine, he thought, was the most intricate of puzzles. The layers of deceit and truth only added to the challenge of her. It was tempting to push her until she surrendered, but sometimes in a hunt, you had to play nice. That thought in mind, he shifted so that he was in her line of sight. It was a silent promise of safety, of protection.

She understood, the knowledge betrayed by the barest flicker of an eyelash. And then she began to speak.

"My name is Ashaya Aleine. I'm a Gradient 9.9 M-Psy and the scientist formerly in charge of Protocol I, otherwise known as the Implant Protocol."

Her tone was cold enough to freeze summer rain. For the first time, he saw exactly how she'd survived detection in the PsyNet. It created an unexpected burst of pride in his gut - this woman was made of ice-fired steel. She might bend, but Ashaya Aleine would never, ever, break.

"The information I'm about to share is highly classified," she continued. "In doing so, I break my contract with the Council, but keep the one I made as a scientist - to pursue the truth."

In the PsyNet, a red alert blasted into the mind of every Councilor.

"While the theoretical research behind the Implant Protocol is common knowledge," Ashaya continued, "what is not widely known is that the Council is going ahead with the Protocol, in direct violation of its duty to consult the populace on matters of this scale.

"Silence itself took ten years of debate before it was implemented, and yet this implant, an implant that would enable the imposition of Silence on the biological level, turning many into one - in effect, creating a hive mind - is being railroaded through without even cursory consultation."

Across the country, across the world, power started failing in a relentless cascade. Entire towns, then cities, were blacked out as the Council shut down every one of its power providers.

"Not long ago, an attack on my lab put the development of the implant back to square one. But it can be rebuilt. I'm not the only scientist with the capacity to do the work."

Psy telekinetics were dispatched to cause "accidental" breakdowns in media outlets not under the Council's direct control, including the usually ignored highways of the Internet. The blackout continued to explode across the world in a violent wave. Then the satellites started to blink.

"This information is classified but has been the subject of widespread rumor." Ashaya paused. "But what I tell you next is known only to a select few. The Council-funded research on Protocol I speaks of absolute equality. That is a categorical lie. The implants were never intended to make us all the same. Their purpose is simple - to create a society of ciphers, slaves for whom obedience to the Council and its favored associates is a biological imperative."

Hackers - Psy, human, and changeling - worked furiously to reboot systems. They failed. Humans swore, changelings threw things, Psy began a rapid-fire telepathic "tree" to link to anyone who had a signal and could feed them the broadcast.

"However, while the implants remain a priority for the Council, after the rebels' successful attack on the original lab - when it became clear that they might possibly realize their aim of halting the Implant Protocol - the Council decided to widen the scope of my mandate."

Backup Internet servers hidden all over the world came online with a hum, hand-crank radios were unearthed from attics and basements, and the telepathic "tree" grew until still-functioning feeds were found in rural Russia, in the deep-sea station, Alaris, and in several tiny towns in New Zealand.

"The Omega Project existed before Protocol I, before most of us were born. It has always been a possible tool in the Council's arsenal. Three months ago, I was instructed to begin familiarizing myself with all data pertaining to Omega, as the dormant project would be reinitiated the instant the Protocol I was complete. The aim of the Omega Project - "

High above the earth, three seemingly long-dead satellites came to life, controlled by changelings and humans at a facility buried within the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Their sudden reemergence took everyone by surprise.

" - is to wipe out all spontaneous conception among the Psy."

Chapter 15

The hush that fell across the world was audible.

"The delivery system is meant to be a virus. The virus is intended to have a cure. That cure would be controlled by the Council. The result hardly needs to be stated - anyone who dared rebel would find their familial line discontinued."

Lights flickered around Ashaya, but she saw Dorian make a "keep going" gesture. It steadied her enough to continue. And why a cat who disliked her so openly should have that effect on her was not something she had the luxury to consider at this moment.

"As for my proof - in terms of the inequalities in Protocol I, that proof consists of thousands of bytes of data, including copies of orders bearing the Council seal. Some of that information is being streamed along with this feed - information that makes it clear the implants were to be made to different specifications. You, the masses, were destined to be nothing more than insects in a hive."

Those who still had the ability attempted to grab the data packets.

"As for the aims of the Omega Project, you have only my word, the word of a scientist with an unblemished record. If successfully manufactured, the virus would be a weapon, one intended to be used against us by our own Council. Now consider its potential as a weapon in the hands of those who hate the Psy."

She paused to let that sink in.

"Though Omega has never come close to completion, the scientists who worked on it over the years created a rich archive of data, data that may have included the genesis of a viral recipe. That data is now gone. I destroyed every byte of it in the weeks before I defected. The Omega Project is dead." Ashaya told the most dangerous lie of all with every ounce of cold conviction she could gather. "I don't ask that you believe every word I say. I don't even ask that you consider me anything but a traitor to our race. All I ask is that you think for yourself... and question your Council."

She stepped away from the microphone and toward the soft darkness that surrounded the cameras, and - even if she couldn't admit it anywhere but inside the walls of her mind - toward the dangerous safety of the man who stood there. Her bones felt oddly hollow, breakable. She wasn't certain she wouldn't fracture like so much glass.