“He turned out to be an extremely valuable man,” Leoh said, smiling. “I think he’ll make a fine officer.”
Spencer grunted an affirmative.
“Well,” Leoh said, “that’s the story, to date. I believe that Odal is finished. But the Kerak Worlds have annexed the Szarno Confederacy and are rearming in earnest now. And the Acquatainian government is still very wobbly. There will be elections for a new Prime Minister in a few days, with half a dozen men running and no one in a clear majority. We haven’t heard the last of Kanus, either, not by a long shot.”
Spencer lifted a shaggy eyebrow. “Neither,” he rumbled. “has he heard the last from us.”
II
The Force of Pride
Odal sat alone in the waiting room. It was a bare cubicle, with rough stone walls and a single slit window set high above the floor, close to the ceiling. For furniture, there was only one wooden bench and a viewscreen set into the wall opposite it. The room was quiet as death.
The Kerak major sat stiff-backed and unmoving. But his mind was racing:
Kor uses this type of room to awe his visitors. He hwws how much like an ancient dungeon this room looks. He likes to terrify people.
Odal also knew that the interrogation rooms, deep in the sub-basements, were also built like this. Except that they had no windows, and the walls were often bloodspattered.
“The Minister will see you now.” said a feminine voice from the viewscreen. But the screen remained blank. Odal realized that he had probably been under observation every minute since he had entered Kor’s headquarters.