Lylunda Elang rode the shuttle along the linktube that led to Marrat’s Agency node, contriving to look bored and mildly stupid, as if she were a low-level worker in an office like the one she was planning to visit. She was short and broad across the shoulders and to her sorrow across the hips as well, with a round guileless face that had proved its worth more than once. The neat small waist she was proud of, she’d concealed under a loose tunic that hung in soft gray folds from the elaborate tucks of the smocking, the looseness concealing the Taalav crystal taped beneath her left breast. She’d brushed in temporary coloring to hide the white streaks at her temples, pulled her coarse; springy hair into a tight bun that tugged up her eyebrows and gave her a look of continual astonishment.