you. But I would like you to know that we view this infraction as a very grave cir¬cumstance."
"You're right. It was stupid." Time to knuckle under, he thought. "Let me formally apologize to the project man¬agement, here and now. It was a grave lapse of judgment on my part."
"Yuri Andreevich, I must say I'm astonished," the elder Androv finally spoke up. "I had no idea you would ever take it into your head to do something like this, to violate a formal test sequence."
He smiled weakly. "I just . . . well, I always like to try and expand the envelope a little, see what a new bird's got in her."
And, he told himself, I did. Just now. I found out two things. First, I can evade the bastards' tracking stations by switching off the transponder, then going "on the deck." I can defeat their network and disappear. I needed to find out if it could be done and now I have. Great! Ikeda's other little slip merely confirms what I'd begun to suspect. This fucking plane is designed to—
"Major Androv, this unacceptable behavior must not be repeated." Ikeda's eyes were filled with anger and his tone carried an unmistakable edge of threat. "Do you under¬stand? Never. This project has far too much at stake to jeopardize it by going outside stipulated procedure."
"I understand." Yuri bowed his head.
"Do you?" The project director's voice rose, uncharacteristically. "If any such reckless action is ever repeated, I warn you now that there will be