Hosato rippled to his feet and was at the boy’s side in an eye blink. “Are you all right, James?” he asked, lifting the youth by his armpits to aid his breathing.

All the while, he was cursing reflexes—his reflexes and his inattentiveness. To give himself away this early in the game.

“What happened?” demanded Sasha, standing beside them.

“He… he kicked me!” the boy gasped.

“Nonsense!” Hosato snapped indignantly. “The boy got overenthusiastic and ran into the corner of the table there. Knocked the wind out of him.”

“You said you wouldn’t use karate!” the boy whined accusingly, ignoring Hosato’s protest.

“I told you I don’t know any karate!”

“This can be settled easily enough,” Sasha interrupted. “Let’s see the replay on your cameras, Hayama.”

Her voice was casual, but her eyes were studying Hosato with soft suspicion.

“An excellent suggestion,” Hosato said, fishing the control box out of his tunic. “Suzi. Camera five. Display replay. One minute back.”

The view screen winked obediently to life, and two figures swam into focus. Hosato waited, poised, as James circled wide around one end of the pool table the boy darted forward Hosato floated lightly behind the table again James tried to change his course, slammed into the corner of the table, doubled over, and rolled off onto the floor…

“Interrupt, Suzi!” Hosato ordered.

The screen went dark again.

“You see. The boy just—”

A raucous buzzer went off in the robot.

“What was that?” Sasha demanded.

“The signal that five minutes is up. I forgot to cancel the timing order.”

Sasha ignored his answer and turned to the boy again. “Well, James. Was that what happened?”

The boy was still sitting on the floor staring thoughtfully at the dark view screen.

“Huh. Oh. Yeah, Sasha. I forgot about the cameras. I was just trying to get out of taking fencing lessons.”