At that, Tirdal finally betrayed action, stepping forward to shake hands. “I greet you, Dagger. I’m sure we can work together.” His voice was sonorous and deep and his grip solid as Dagger took it. Then it was more than solid, a strong, crushing grasp, accompanied by a violet and cyan stare that locked with his eyes and seemed to look through them into the brain behind.

Dagger pressed down on the hand, hard. Besides being a multiplanet-classed shot he was one of the strongest men on a team of very strong men. But he couldn’t budge the Darhel’s grip. After a moment he felt the Darhel start to press down and it was like having his hand in the grip of a mechanical press. After a moment’s struggle his face finally betrayed a flicker of pain and the Darhel, smiling again, faintly, released the pressure.

Dagger didn’t betray any surprise outwardly, despite what he felt inside at Tirdal’s disturbing presence and strength. “Yeah, no problem,” he muttered, trying not to shake his hand in reaction to the pain.

“I look forward to working with you,” Tirdal said with a nod, his vertical-pupilled eyes never leaving the face of the sniper.

The others shook hands and introduced themselves. Tirdal nodded to each in turn, saying almost nothing else.

Chapter 2

The premission briefing bore no shattering surprises. There was fuzzy vid from a probe flyby, with scientific data on geology and meteorology, botany and zoology. They were fuzzy because the probe was the size of a basketball and had whisked through at meteoric velocities, then done a datadump; anything larger or less covert would have given away the fact that someone was interested in the system.

Mission gear was listed, some as required, some optional. Another list had forbidden items.