But Gina had made no mention of having been referred to Hunt. That meant that she had let him make his own choice in the matter freely, without mentioning Caldwell’s name, which would have carried the implication that Hunt was being prodded from above. She would have let the project go rather than resort to high—pressure tactics. Not many people would have done that. He felt relieved now that he had brought the matter back to Caldwell instead of burying it.
“I guess it wasn’t something the firm could put its name on,” Hunt said, nodding as it all became clearer. “But you thought she deserved a break all the same, eh?”
“She talks more sense than I hear from geniuses they put on TV screens for ten thousand bucks an hour,” Caldwell replied. He pulled a cigar from a drawer in the desk. “But there’s another side to it. Think of it this way. The kind of dealings that Garuth is talking about are going to require a certain amount of. . . let’s call it ‘discretion.’ When you get there, situations will quite likely arise in which some kinds of irregularities might be acceptable, while others will not. Or to put it another way, things might need to be done that an independent free-lancer—and especially one with the kind of reputation that she’s no doubt built up——might get away with, but which a deputy director of an UNSA division—” Caldwell pointed at Hunt with the cigar before putting it in his mouth. “—couldn’t be seen to do.”
In other words, Hunt’s team had an unofficial aide to help in potential politically sensitive situations where official UNSA action was precluded. And that, Hunt had to agree, could turn out to be very useful. What impressed him even more was that Caldwell had figured it out in the brief time that had gone by since his decision to send Hunt to Jevlen.
Caldwell was like a chess player, Hunt had noticed, building his winning positions from the accruing of many small advantages, none of them especially significant in itself to begin with, or created with any definite idea at the time of how it would eventually be used. In Gina’s case, he could simply have told her that there was nothing he could do, and sent her away. But instead, he had invested the effort of doing her a small favor, which really had cost him nothing. And as things had turned out, the return had come a lot sooner than anyone could have guessed.
Caidwell read that Hunt had assessed everything accurately, and gave a satisfied nod. “How did you leave things with her?” he asked.
“I said I’d get back. She’s still at the Maddox. I wanted to bring it up with you first.”
“You talk to her, then, and tell her we want to send her toJevlen. We’ll work out some cover angle for public consumption.” Caldwell waved in the direction of his outer office. “Mitzi has a line to the Vishnu. She’ll fix the details. Then, that’s it, unless you’ve got any other points for now.”
Hunt started to rise, then looked up. “What are you expecting me to come back with this time, Gregg?” he asked.
“How do I know?” Caldwell spread his hands and made a face. “Lost planet, starship, interstellar civilization. What does that leave? The next thing can only be a universe.”
“That’s all? You know, you may have me there, Gregg,” Hunt said, smiling. “There aren’t too many of those left. Where am I supposed to find another universe?”
Caldwell stared at him expressionlessly. “I don’t think anything you did could surprise me anymore,” he replied.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The gods had turned away from the world of Waroth, and their stars had gone out. With the emptiness in the sky came changelessness upon the land. The currents of life, which brought storms and stirred the landscapes, died to a flicker, and sameness hung like a stupor everywhere from day to day and from place to place. Crops failed; orchards wilted. Sea monsters that devoured ships moved in close to the shores, and the fishermen were afraid to leave their harbors. Marauding bands roamed at large, plundering and burning. Sickness and pestilences came.