The captain smiled mechanically, trying to ignore the maddening finger-drumming.
“And I’ll be staying with you,” Hector went on, “until you assassinate Kanus.”
“DONT SAY THAT!” The captain almost leaped into Hector’s lap and clapped a hand over the Watchman’s mouth.
“Oh. Doesn’t the crew know about it?”
The captain rubbed his forehead with a shaky hand. “How .. . who … whatever gave you the idea that we would . .. contemplate such a thing?”
Hector frowned in puzzlement. “I don’t really know. Just odds and ends. You know. A few things my guards have said. And I figure that Kanus would have pickled my brain by now. You haven’t. I’m being treated almost like a guest. So you’re not working for Kanus. Yet you’re wearing Kerak insignia. Therefore you must be. . ..”
“Enough! Please, it is not necessary to go into any more detail.”
“Okay.” Hector got to his feet. “It’s all right for me to walk through the ship?*’
“Yes; with the exceptions I mentioned.” The captain rose also. “Oh, yes, there is one other forbidden area:he computers. I understand you were in there this morning.”
Hector nodded. “The guards let me go in. I was taking my after-breakfast exercise. The guards insisted on it. The exercise, that is.”
“That is irrelevant! You discussed computation methods with one of our junior programers. . ..”
“Yes. I’m pretty good at math, you see, and….”
“Please! I don’t know what you told him, but in attempting to put your so-called ‘improvements’ into the computer program, he blew out three banks of logic circuits and caused a shutdown of the computer for several hours.”