He stood up as the room’s only door opened automatically. With a measured military briskness, Odal strode down the hallway toward the other door at its end, his boots clicking on the stone flooring. He knocked once at the heavy wooden door. No answer. He knocked again, and the door opened by itself.
Kor was sitting at the far end of the office, behind a mammoth desk. The room was dimly lit, except for a single lamp over the desk that made the Intelligence Minister’s bald head glisten. Odal carefully shut the door, took a few steps into the carpeted room, and waited for Kor to look up. The Intelligence chief was busily signing papers, ignoring his visitor.
Finally Kor glanced up. “Sit,” he commanded.
Odal walked to the desk and sat at the single straightbacked chair before it. Kor signed a few more documents, then pushed the stack of papers off to the side of his desk.
“I spent the morning with the Leader,” he said in his irritatingly shrill voice. “Needless to say, he was unhappy about your duel with the Watchman.”
Odal could picture Kanus’ angry tirade. “My only desire is to meet the Watchman again and rectify that error.”
Kor’s emotionless eyes fixed on Odal’s. “Personal motives are of no interest. The Watchman is only a bumbling fool, but he has succeeded in destroying our primary plan for the defeat of Acquatainia. He succeeded because of this meddler, Leoh. He is our target. He is the one who must be put out of the way.”
“I see….”
“No, you do not see,” Kor snapped”You have no concept of the plan I have in mind, because I have told it to no one except the Leader himself. And I will tell it to no one, until it is necessary.”