Previously, in Stormbreak: Waiting for the meeting to start, Mac has gone into the plaza park in Valladolid to read a paperback book. He is interrupted by a visitor and looks up to find his boss there. They're now sitting together on a park bench…

"It isn't a bad place," the boss began, smiling out into the park. "For a forward station, I mean."

"No, sir. It's pretty nice." For a hot, windy, humid, flat, arid excuse for someplace that couldn't decide if it was a desert or an equatorial tropical heat sink. But, except for the weather…

"We chose it, of course, for its strategic location, not for its cosmopolitan amenities," and he winked at Mac.

"No complaints, sir."

"An...

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