Mal looked up at the sleek lines of the Morell and squinted slightly. “You sure you can do this, xiao nu ?”

River nodded, one dark strand of hair falling from its confines and across her face. “Yes. I’ve already disabled the automatic tracking system – the difficult part will be convincing the Cortex that he is where we say he is when the ship takes off.”

“But you can do it.”

“Yes.” She gazed at him. “Do you need glasses?”

“What?”

“You’re squinting.”

Mal made the effort to smooth the lines between his eyes. “No, I don’t. Just got a headache coming on.”

“Brain tumour?”

“Frey.”

“Ah.”

Freya had been almost incandescent with rage when she walked into the clearing to find Mal and Zoe standing over the recently and very deceased Randall Lecomb …

Just a few minutes before her entrance Lecomb was still twitching, but the big cat had begun to feed.

“You think he’s dead, sir?”

“I kinda hope so.”

“Now what?” Zoe asked, peering around one of the huge erratic boulders. “Or were you planning on negotiating?”

Mal shot her a glance that should have turned her to stone, but it merely slid from her own personal armour. Instead he pulled his comunit from his pocket. “I was actually planning taking a leaf out of your own book from a few weeks back.”

“So you were planning, sir?”

The stone should have melted this time, but he spoke into the small device. “Hank, bring the shuttle.”

“What? Why? Jayne brought Molly, and I was just taking her home –”

“This first.”

“What’s that noise?”

“Just do it. Lock on my comm and fly low. Make a lot of noise.”

“Okay, Mal.”

“Do you think this is a good idea, sir?” Zoe’s voice could have dried up an ocean.

“You got a better plan? Over and above us shooting the cat?” He glanced around the rock at the flattened head and thick skull, blood dripping from its jaws. “That is, if we could. Remember that time on … where was it?”

“Oberon.” Zoe remembered. That time they’d got the b