Daniel hid his frown, but he darted a quick glance at Adele. She smiled thinly—her back was to their host—and said in a soft voice, “Yes, of course he’s lying, but we may as well go along with it.”
“Delighted, sir,” Daniel said cheerfully as he strode over to the nobleman. “And I should say at the outset that Officer Mundy here had more to do with the success of the operation than any other person.”
They got into the small vessel, Daniel and Adele sitting behind Vaughn and Tredegar respectively. Two well-dressed Cinnabar nobles and a woman whom Daniel recognized as a senator’s widow had been standing close by. They looked vaguely put out as they moved off in search of other seating for the trip back to the entrance.
Mistress Zane had returned to the larger boat which she’d ridden on the way in. Unlike the trio, she seemed quite at ease to be separated from her host.
“I really would be delighted to hear about your exploits, Lieutenant,” Vaughn said in an undertone. “And yours as well, Officer Mundy. But I have to admit to a small subterfuge—I’ve just short of promised three of your fellow guests that I’d rent a house from each of them, and in truth I don’t intend to go through with any of the deals. If I were alone with one of them I’d have to descend to flat lies, and if I rode in a larger craft with all three together, my entire imposture would be exposed.”
Tredegar reached past the steering column to touch the joystick on the dashboard; the trolling motor whined and the boat started to back away from the shore. Vaughn put his hand over the aide’s and said, “Wait for the others to board, Cornelius. We’re not in a hurry, after all.”
Tredegar turned to look at Vaughn. His expression was empty, his eyes glazed in a taut face. He didn’t seem to be taking in the words, but at last he glanced down at the control and lifted his hand away.
“Are you all right, Tredegar?” Daniel said sharply. “You don’t look well, if you don’t mind my saying.”
Or if you do. The aide looked as if he’d been poisoned; that, or he was utterly terrified.
“Sun,” Tredegar said. “Just a touch of sun. I’m all right now.”
The blood had indeed returned to his cheeks, but as he spoke he engaged the motor again as if he’d forgotten the exchange of a few seconds earlier. Vaughn looked puzzled, but the other vessels were loaded by now so there was no further reason to delay.
The boat eased into the channel. Tredegar centered the joystick, then clicked it upward to send them toward the entrance. In the clear water beneath, fish like strands of gilded tinsel schooled in the waterweed. They reminded Daniel of lightning flashing among the clouds.
“If you’ll permit a question, Mr. Vaughn,” Adele said coolly, “why did you suggest you were going to rent a house if you didn’t intend to do so?”
“Am I simply a pathological liar, you mean, mistress?” Vaughn translated with a laugh. “No, or at any rate I don’t see it that way. But you see, if my enemies—Friderik Nunes and his friends from the Alliance of Free Stars—learn that the Republic is sending me home, they’ll try to eliminate me before I leave. I’m practicing a mild deception to encourage spies here on Cinnabar to believe that I expect to remain on your planet for the foreseeable future.”
“It’s not safe for you to go back,” Tredegar said. He kept his face straight ahead so that he didn’t have to meet his superior’s eyes. “You trust Zane but she’ll be your death. Death, Delos!”
“Cinnabar is a wonderful planet, Lieutenant,” Vaughn said, seeming to have ignored Tredegar’s words. “She isn’t my planet, however. I’m looking forward to returning to a home I haven’t seen in fifteen years.”
To the left was an islet whose trees seemed swathed in cobwebs instead of having ordinary foliage. Daniel couldn’t place their origin and suddenly regretted not having made more of an exploration of the Gardens. Even though the habitats were selective and thus artificial, the vegetation and the few permitted animal species were real so far as they went.