All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
“The Price of Survival” first appeared in Analog, June 22, 1981.
“The Giftie Gie Us” first appeared in Analog, July 21, 1981.
“The Final Report on the Lifeline Experiment” first appeared in Analog, May 1983.
“Cascade Point” first appeared in Analog, December 1983.
“Music Hath Charms” first appeared in Analog, April 1985.
“The President’s Doll” first appeared in Analog, July 1987.
“Clean Slate” first appeared in Amazing Stories, January 1989.
“Hitmen—See Murderers” first appeared in Amazing Stories, June 1991.
“Protocol” first appeared in Analog, September 2002.
“Old-Boy Network” first appeared in Sol’s Children, August 2002.
“Proof” first appeared in Amazing Stories, September 2004.
“The Ring” first appeared in Pandora’s Closet, DAW Books, August 2007.
“Trollbridge” first appeared in Spells of the City, DAW Books, December 2009.
“Chem Lab 301” first appeared in the FenCon program brook, September 2014.
“Pawn’s Gambit” first appeared in Analog, March 29, 1982.
Copyright © 2016 by Timothy Zahn
Cover design by Kat JK Lee
978-1-5040-1620-9
Published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
