Maxwell kept quiet for the majority of the meeting with the XCD official. He tried to put himself in the XCD's shoes, tried to work out exactly what their interest in the Panthers was, and he frankly found himself feeling suspicious.

Certain words were still marching through the old cop's head: [i]"...been been monitoring the Preying Panthers since the incident at Cradle Headquarters."[/i] Why? If the XCD was going to dismiss the Panthers' lackluster performance over the last several months, why were they paying attention to the Panthers at all? Why study a group and not take into account the results of that study? The whole scene was fishy.

Kat's outburst, Lang's response, and XCD Colonel's unfettered decision to recruit the Panthers in spite of such behavior outright baffled Maxwell. The expenditure in training a private security organization to do one's dirty work had "plausible deniability" written all over it, and such circumstances didn't bode well for the Panthers. Maxwell didn't like it.

He kept a steely, hard-to-read expression nevertheless, realizing just what the payout for working for the XCD's military could be. The contract seemed plenty lucrative, and useful contacts could be made from this, too...

"If there are no further questions," said Bentz, "I'll let Colonel Leung be on his way."

"What's the contract's duration?" Maxwell asked suddenly, folding his arms over his chest. "What sort of supervision are we getting? What kind of operations are we being trained for?"

[i]What's the catch?[/i] Maxwell wanted to ask outright, but he decided against it. There had been enough abrasiveness on the deck for one day.

[i]Think about[/i] that[i] later,[/i] Maxwell reminded himself. [i]Tackle problems one at a time.[/i]