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Amadeo Croce sipped, then set the drink down. "I appreciate your joining me on such short notice, Madam Chairman. Really, I should have invited you to Government Mansion more often."
"In my years at the Survey Service, I've been here many times, sir." When Croce only nodded and did not respond to the veiled barb, the Chairman felt her confidence grow. The prime minister was as much weathervane as executive; he shifted with the winds of power. By his ma
At last he did. "I am glad to see that no evidence has been unearthed to co
Not "that you are i
"So it would seem," the prime minister said. It did not sound like agreement. It sounded more like, "Well, we haven't been able to pin this one on you; too bad." Considering the way things could have gone, that would do nicely.
"A remarkable woman, Sabium, truly a remarkable woman," Justin Olmstead declared, his rich baritone rising slightly to show just how impressed he was. More than ever, Magda chalked him up as a pompous ass. Neither she nor any of the other Terrans sitting around the table, though, could readily disagree with him.
The priestly guards in the big audience chamber looked bored. The group from the Ha
She abruptly sat bolt upright, and she was not alone?several Survey Service people who had been enduring Olmstead's drone also seemed to wake up at the same instant. Her bellowed, "You did what?" was, however, the loudest of the chorus.
"I told her something of the working of the Federacy's parliamentary system when she asked," the other anthropologist replied, taken aback at the uproar he had caused. "She asked how we chose our kings, and when I told her we had none, she was interested in what we used instead. She grasped the principle very quickly."
"I'll bet she did." Magda spoke in loud, clear tones for the record being continuously taped on the Ha
"I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head," he said, scowling at her. "And what is this nonsensical talk of interference? I merely answered a few of her questions, in quite abstract terms."
"Yes?questions about things she'd never thought of before, and wouldn't have, without you. Service perso
"Oh, but Magda, he's with the Noninterference Foundation, as you said, so how could his motives be anything but good and pure?"
She stared at Pierre Bochy in surprised admiration. The stateliness with which he delivered the sarcasm only made it more effective. She had not thought he had it in him.
"Fortunately," Stavros put in, "Sabium has better sense than Justin here and won't necessarily rush out to try everything he blabs on about."
It always came back to that in the end, Magda thought. Because Sabium had good sense, things ran well on Bilbeis IV. As long as she was here, things would… and she looked likely to be here about forever. After so many centuries, Bilbeis IV was unimaginable without her.
The longer Roupen Hova
He wondered what the Chairman would do were she here now. Of one thing he was certain: sitting quietly in the Ha
However tempting the notion was, Hova
He wondered if he could arrange things through that chamberlain of Sabium's. That local?what was his name? Bagadat, that was it?plainly feared the Terrans for threatening whatever influence he had gained on his ruler. Reluctantly, Hova
That moved Hova
And if she died, how would the locals take it? Only one image occurred to him: they would act like ants after somebody kicked in their hill. In that chaos, all sorts of interesting and profitable opportunities might arise. At the very least, Bilbeis IV would stop looking so outrageously abnormal.
What had Pierre Bochy said? Hova
That would fix a lot of problems, Hova
He drew a few odd looks when he checked out a flier in Bilbeis IV disguise but Federacy clothing. The only people who would have asked serious questions, though, were already in detention in Mawsil. None of the technicians and engineers did more than scratch his head when Hova
Stavros rolled the wooden die, thumped his thigh with his fist as he saw a four turn up, and took Magda's last man. She said something rude. "That's fifty-five you owe me now." He gri
She stared at him. "The hell you say. I was up fifty, not down?you only owe me forty-five now." Putting five a pop on one of the local board games made it more interesting. They'd been playing since Magda had begged a set from a priest not long after they had taken enforced residence at the temple. They'd also, evidently, kept their ru