Hector snapped to attention and saluted.
“Stand easy. Lieutenant. No need for formality. So, you’re the man who beat Kerak’s assassin, are you?”
“No, sir. I mean yessir … I mean. Professor Leoh is the one….”
“Nonsense. Albert told me all about it. You’re the one who faced the danger.”
Hector’s mouth twitched once or twice, as though he was trying to say something, but no sounds came out.
Spencer stuck a massive hand into his pocket and pulled out a small ebony box. “This is for you. Lieutenant.” He handed the box to Hector.
The Watchman opened it and saw inside, against a jetblack setting, two small silver pins in the shape of comets. The insignia of a full lieutenant. His jaw dropped open-
“The official notification is grinding through Star Watch processing, Lieutenant,” Spencer said, “I thought there was no sense letting you wait until the computers straightened out all the records. Congratulations on a well-earned promotion.”
Hector managed a half-strangled, “Thank you, sir.”
Turning to Leoh, Spencer said, “Now then, Albert, let us recount old times. I assume you have some refreshments on the premises?”
Several hours later the two old men were sitting on the air couch, while Hector listened from the web chair. The room’s color had shifted to reds and yellows now, and the scent was of desert flowers.
“And what do you intend to do now?” Sir Harold was asking the Professor. “Surely you don’t expect me to believe that you’re going to luxuriate here and then return to Carinae, in the midst of the deepest political crisis of the century.”