Romis nodded.
“You wish to exchange him for Major Odal?”
“No, not at all. The Major is … safer … where he is, for the time being. We have no desire for his return to Kerak at the moment. Perhaps later. However, we do want to assure you that no harm will come to Lieutenant Hector—no matter what happens here on Kerak.”
Spencer sat wordlessly for several seconds. At length he said, “You seem to be saying that there will be an upheaval in Kerak’s government shortly, and you will hold Lieutenant Hector hostage to make certain that the Star Watch does not interfere, Is that correct?”
“You put it rather bluntly,” Romis said, “but, in essence, you are correct.”
‘Very well,” said Spencer. “Go ahead and have your upheaval. But let me warn you: if, for any reason whatever, harm should befall a Star Watchman, you will have an invasion on your hands as quickly as star ships can reach your worlds. I will not wait for authorization from the Terran Council or any other formalities, I will crush you, one and all. Is that clear?”
“Quite clear,” Romis replied, his face reddening”Quite clear.”
Leoh had to mate his way through the length of the Acquatainian Justice Department’s longest hallway, down a lift tube to a sub-sub-basement, past four checkpoints guarded by a dozen armed and uniformed men each, into an anteroom where another pair of guards sat next to a tri-di scanner, and finally—after being stopped, photographed, questioned, and made to show his special identification card and pass each step of the way— entered Odal’s quarters.