Reilly took a slow sip of his drink before replying.

“All right, Hosato. I’ll put all our cards on the table. Mc. Crae’s security is tight and I mean really tight. They’re very careful about who they let wander around their complex. Oh, they cater to tour groups, but passing visitors never get near anything vital. We think the only machines they see are do-nothing dummies rigged for show only.”

“What makes you think that?” Hosato asked.

Reilly smiled. “Because that’s what we do with tour groups at Ravensteel.”

“I see.” Hosato mentally filed away that piece of information for possible future use.

“Anyway,” Reilly continued, “the only ones who get into the depths of the complex are permanent employees. And most of the designing, manufacturing, and mining are automated, so they don’t hire many humans. Consequently, the ones they do hire are screened very carefully. New employees aren’t simply interviewed when they appear, they’re researched and then approached. Naturally, this makes infiltration a bit difficult.”

“Now, the other shoe,” Hosato prompted. “How am I supposed to break this airtight defense?”

“Like everyone else, they’ll bend the rules for a specialist. We’ve gotten information that one of the Mc. Crae executives is looking for a fencing master for his son. It was a long shot, but we figured if we could find a fencer with other shall we say ’special talents,' he might be willing to listen to a proposal from us. We started searching and found you.”

Hosato thought it through. It made sense. Fencing was an ability that couldn’t be faked or learned overnight. You either could or you couldn’t.

“We’re not really throwing you to the wolves,” Reilly added hastily. Apparently he mistook Hosato’s silence for hesitancy.