For a moment he studied my face. "May I at least ask you to think it over?" he said. "Feel free to drop by my compartment if you'd like more details." He glanced around. "With more privacy, I can be a bit more open."

"We'll see," I said noncommittally.

"Please do," he said, finally standing up. "Compartment eleven. Drop in anytime."

With another nod at Bayta, he returned his chair to the other table and made his way through the room to the corridor bordering the dining area. Turning left, he disappeared toward the first-class car in front of us and the compartment car beyond that. "His compartment's right across from yours," I commented to Bayta, finally slicing off a piece of pili. "Handy."

"I wonder if that's a coincidence," she said, scooping up a bite of her own meal. "What do you think?"

"About Smith? Or about Smith's offer?"

"Either. Both."

I shrugged. "He personally is probably legit. His little transaction is more doubtful. Either way, it's kind of irrelevant."

"Why?" she countered. "If it is a genuine offer, it might be a good cover for us."

I took another bite, mulling it over. She had a point. The Modhri homeland had been destroyed, but the Modhri himself was unfortunately still very much alive.

It was, without a doubt, the most bizarre enemy anyone had ever faced. The Modhri was technically a single entity, a group mind composed of the telepathically linked polyps that lived in the decorative and highly prized Modhran coral. He'd been created as a last-ditch weapon of the Shonkla-raa, a vicious race of conquerors, during the last stages of a revolt that had wiped them out sixteen hundred years ago.

Unfortunately, the Shonkla-raa's little fifth column weapon hadn't died with them. The Modhri had remained dormant for centuries, until the coral had been rediscovered and the Modhri inadvertently unleashed on the galaxy. Before the Spiders and their secretive Chahwyn masters had finally tumbled to his existence, he'd gotten his claws firmly planted in the power centers of most of the Twelve Empires served by the Quadrail system.