“I regret the intrusion,” Broghuiio began. His voice was deep and harsh, and he spoke stiffly, in the manner of somebody performing a duty that demanded a greater show of feeling than he could muster readily. “We have just received news of the most serious nature: all traces of the ship have disappeared from our tracking data. We can only conclude that it has been destroyed.” He paused and cast his eyes around the room for effect. “The pos
sibifity that this could be the result of a deliberate act cannot be dismissed.”
The Thuriens stared back in silence for what seemed a long time. They did not attempt playacting any show of concern or dismay. . . or even surprise. The first glimmer of uncertainty crept into Broghuilio’s eyes as he searched the Ganymean faces for a reaction. Evidently this was not going as he had anticipated.
One of the other two, also tall, dressed somberly in dark blue and black, with icy blue eyes, slicked-back silver hair, and a florid face that tended toward puffiness, seemed not to have read the signs. “We tried to warn you,” he said, spreading his hands imploringly in a good imitation of sharing the anguish that the Thuriens were presumably supposed to be feeling at that moment. “We urged you to intercept the ship before now.” That was hardly true; possibly he placed a lot of faith in his powers of suggestion. “We told you that Earth would never allow the Shapieron to reach Thurien.”
Across the room Garuth’s eyes turned steely, and his expression was about as close to malevolence as that of a Ganymean could get. “Patience, Garuth,” Hunt called out. “You’ll get your shots in before long.”
“Luckily Ganymeans possess plenty of that,” Garuth replied. The Jevlenese didn’t hear a thing. It was uncanny.
“Really?”. Calazar responded after a pause. He sounded neither convinced nor impressed. “Your concern is most touching, Secretary Wylott. You almost sound as if you believe your own lies.”
Wylott froze with his mouth hanging half open, obviously taken completely aback. The third Jevienese, who had to be Estordu, was a lean, thin-faced man with a hooked nose, wearing an elaborate two-piece garment of light green embroidered with gold over a yellow shirt. He threw up his hands in shock. “Lies? I don’t understand. Why do you say that? You have been tracking the ship yourselves. Hasn’t VISAR confirmed the data?”
Broghuilio’s expression darkened. “You have insulted us,” he rumbled ominously. “Are you telling us that vis~ does not corroborate what we have said?”
“I’m not disputing the data,” Calazar told him. “But I would advise you to think again about your explanation for it.”
Broghuilio drew himself up to his full height to face the
Thuriens squarely. Evidently he was going to brazen it out. “Explain yourself, Calazar,” he growled.
“But we are waiting for you to explain yourself,” Showm said from one side of Calazar. Her voice was low, little more than a whisper, but it held the tension of a tightly wound spring. Braghuilio jerked his face around to look at her, his eyes darting suspiciously from side to side as a sixth sense told him he had walked into a trap. “Let’s forget the Shapieron for a moment,” Showm went on. “How long has JEVEX been falsifying its reports of Earth?”
“What?” Broghuilio’s eyes bulged. “I don’t understand. What is the-”
“How long?” Showm asked again, her voice rising suddenly to cut the air sharply. Her tone and the expressions of the other Thuriens spelled out clearly that any attempt at a denial would have been futile. The hue of Broghuilio’s face deepened to purple, but he seemed too stunned to form a reply.
“What grounds do you have for such an accusation?” Wylott demanded. “The department that conducts the surveillance is responsible to me. I consider this a personal attack.”
“Evidence?” Showm uttered the word offhandedly, as if the demand were too absurd to take seriously. “Earth disarmed strategically in the second decade of its current century and has pursued peaceful coexistence ever since, but JEVEX has never mentioned it. Instead JEVEX has reported nucleonic weapons deployed in orbit, radiation projectors sited on Luna, military installations across the solar system, and a whole concoction of fictions that have never existed. Do you deny it?”