Weldon heard Crocker step back into the cabin behind him, but he did not look up, did not look away from his watch duty. He had even limited the blinking of his eyes to once every five minutes.

“There were two communications,” Crocker reported.

“What do they say, Mr Crocker?” Weldon asked.

“The first,” Crocker said, “is an automated response to a tracker we programmed. Target Jayne Cobb was arrested three days ago on Fell Springs station. Charges were public drunkenness, disturbing of the peace, assaulting officers of the law, carrying concealed weapons. His bail was paid for by one Malcolm Reynolds one day ago.”

Weldon assessed the information, and calculated probabilities. “This suggests that we may have to wait for Serenity’s crew to return for longer than we anticipated. However, our profile clearly suggests that Captain Reynolds, at least, will still return to his ship.”

“I concur,” said Crocker.

“Then we will remain positioned here. The second communication?”

“An executive order from the home office. It appears we are no longer to report to chief secretary Cheng. There has been a restructuring at the upper levels of the Corporation.”

He frowned. Corporate restructuring usually resulted in a wide re-evaluation of current projects, redefining some long-term investments, erasing others. It was, unfortunately, highly inefficient.

“Mr Crocker,” he asked, “what of our directives?”

“They remain the same, for the moment,” the other man replied. “However, we are instructed to hold ourselves available for immediate debriefing.”

Neither of them said it, but it was clear. Their mission was about to be lost in Corporate bureaucracy. If that happened, there was no telling how long it would be before the importance of their assignment would be recognized once more, and the trail would once again have gone cold. Not to mention that the futures of his and Mr Crocker’s careers would be a far cry from the promotions they had been all been promised should they succeed in their assignment.

“If I may make a suggestio