Late that afternoon, at the overlord's palace, Captain Tikri had just finished going through the reports from all the guard lieutenants when Lady Sarai stepped into his office.

The guard lieutenant, rolling on the pavement toward cover, aimed his nerve disruptor at the distraught man.

Saudi press reports last week said four men in their 30's had been arrested trying to breach the northern border near Hafr al Batan, while a national guard lieutenant who deserted to join the jihad had died in a suicide operation in Iraq.

I hung up the phone and the guard lieutenant, grinning evilly, handed me a set of lieutenant's bars.

"If you'll just put your hands on this identiplate, please, sir," a guard lieutenant prompted.

Rand went over to it, glancing at the name of the guard lieutenant sitting there.

The guard lieutenant fell silent.

The last glimpse Todd had of his best friend was Hrriss, standing too quietly between a guard lieutenant and Hrrestan.

Brother Yuli's job was to work duty spells with one of the three guard lieutenants, a coarse thick man called Dravog, who walked as if he were crushing beetles and spoke as if he were chewing them.

The cargo lighter pivoted and roared away as the guard lieutenant shook his head.