“No problems at all, then,” the commander said. “That’s a relief.”
“Well … not with the show itself, anyway.”
Phule’s head came up with a snap.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he challenged.
The lieutenant swallowed nervously.
“Umm … there was one report that concerned me a bit,” he said. “It seems that during one of the curtain calls, Dee Dee dragged Lex out of the wings and introduced him to the audience as the show’s stage manager and an old friend of hers from her theater days, now on temporary duty with the Space Legion.”
“Oh, swell,” the commander growled. “As if I didn’t already have enough to worry about.”
“To be fair, sir, we can’t really say it was her fault. Nobody told her not to put the spotlight on our decoy associates.”
“It never occurred to me that she might do it,” Phule said. “Oh well … it’s done now, and we can’t change it. Let’s just hope none of the opposition was at the first show … or that if they were, they don’t find it unusual that we have an actor in our company. Pass the word to Lex, though, to ask her not to do it again.”
“I’ll do that,” Armstrong said.
“Just a moment, Lieutenant …”
The commander veered slightly to pass by the hotel’s registration desk.
“Mr. Bombest,” he called, beckoning the manager over for a quick consultation. “I hear things are going fine. Do you have enough rooms now?”
“Yes, Mr. Phule.” Bombest looked a bit haggard, but managed to rally enough to smile at his benefactor. “The winnowing of the guest list should provide the rooms necessary. I’ve got a few people I’ve had to delay check-in for until some of the `special guests’ who arrived early can be evicted from their rooms, but nothing I can’t handle.”