“Who does, any more?” Diana mumbled.
“Some of us deem its survival the lesser evil. But no matter that.” Targovi paused. “Here is where I fall silent. Did I tell you my guess, you could well become tense, nervous, wary—and the Zacharians would see. They are not stupid. Ai, they are not stupid! For that matter, I seldom voice my thoughts to myself. They could be mistaken. I hope to arrive open-minded, no blinkers upon my senses.”
“How about me?” Diana asked slowly.
“Relax and enjoy,” he answered. “That will be your best service.”
“And keep ready.” She touched the haft of her Tigery knife.
“And, aye, prevent Axor from blurting out awkward information,” Targovi said. “Can you?”
She deliberated. “M-m-m … well, he scarcely knows any more than you want him to. The main inconsistency, I think, is that you say you sold him passage to Daedalus—you bein’ a huckster with an eye for any credits you could make—while he thinks you carried us out of benevolence. I’ll slip him a hint that I paid you, from a bigger money stash than I’d admitted havin’, for the sake of the trip. Not that anybody’s likely to quiz him, but if they do, that should satisfy them. Otherwise … m-m-m … he did see you run from arrest in Aurea—Yes. Got it. You panicked because Tigeries can’t stand long imprisonment. You were embarrassed to tell Pele Zachary that, because in fact the patrol soon caught you. Havin’ been cleared anyhow and released, you followed us on an express boat the way you said.” Laughter. “Yay, that should make you out to be the kind of half-civilized bumbler you want to seem!”
His gaze drew downright respectful. “You have it, I believe.” Just the same, he felt compelled to add: “Remember, do not let yourself get caught up in this. Play calm, play safe. The last thing we want is an uproar.”
“I understand,” she said, “though I’ll bet we get one regardless.”
Chapter 16
The aircar came from the east.
That meant, almost surely, from Aurea; and that in turn could mean trouble—fight, flight, outlawry proclaimed across the entire planet. Ordinarily Targovi would have felt no such forebodings. A number of vehicles still flew, some of them touching at Lulach, and they weren’t all military. Not even a majority were. Civilian needs must still be served, if Daedalus was to continue providing Magnusson with the stuff of war.
But Pele went to meet this arrival.
At first Targovi knew no cause for apprehension. Rather, his blood flowed quick when she emerged from her building and strode off toward the airfield. He had grown weary of waiting. His stakeout had degenerated into routine, which never took long to bore him.
For a large part of each fair-weather rotation period he settled down under a shading kura tree beside a main street. There he eked out his dwindled exchequer by telling Toborko folk tales to whomever would stop, listen, and eventually toss him a coin or two. It was quite plausible that he would do this, and the fact that his position gave him a view of Zacharia House signified nothing, did it? At other times he wandered idly about; when nobody was looking, he might scramble onto untenanted boughs from whose leafage he could invisibly observe; he seldom left the place out of his sight, and then it was by prearrangement with Diana.
The girl passed her time in “a lot of pokin’ around and people-watchin’,” so it was no surprise that she occasionally lounged beneath the kura and followed the passing scene. Cynthians often paused to exchange banter with her. Several male human residents did likewise, and tried to get her to accompany them elsewhere. She accepted a few of their invitations, but just for times when Targovi would be on watch and—as they discovered—just to go sightseeing or canoeing or to a tavern for a little drinking and dancing.
She had persuaded Axor to postpone acceptance of the job he was offered, in hopes of something better. He took rambles or swims that covered a great many kilometers, and else usually sprawled in front of a terminal screening books from the public database. When Diana asked him if he wasn’t lonely, he replied, “Why, no. You are kind to think of me. However, I always have God, and am making some splendid new friends. All of yesterday I visited with Montaigne.” She didn’t inquire who that was, not having hours in which to sit and hear him.