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Updated: May 12, 2025
"The man Derec, from Walden, had thrown a bomb at you. You seemed to be dead. But Don Loris was not sure. He fretted, as he does. He wished to send someone to make sure. The Lady Fani said; 'I will make sure! She called me to her and said, 'Thal, will you fight for me? And there was Don Loris suddenly nodding beside her. So I said, 'Yes, my Lady Fani. Then she said; 'Thank you.
He now scowled ungraciously at the lawyer who had ordered him thrown out. He saw Derec wringing his hands. An agitated man in court uniform came to his side. "I'm the Citizen's Representative," he said uneasily. "I'm to look after your interests. Do you want a personal lawyer?" "Why?" asked Hoddan. He felt splendidly confident.
"Evening, Derec," said Hoddan cordially. "You're looking well!" "I don't feel it," said Derec dismally. "I feel like a fool in the castle yonder. And the high police official I came here with has gotten grumpy and snaps when I try to speak to him." Hoddan said gravely: "I'm sure the Lady Fani " "A tigress!" said Derec bitterly. "We don't get along."
The atmosphere was that of a conference room in which reasonable men could discuss differences of opinion in calm leisure. Only on a world like Walden would a prisoner brought in by police be dealt with in such surroundings. Derec came in by another door, with a man Hoddan recognized as the attorney who'd represented Nedda's father in certain past interviews.
Derec was also the character who'd conscientiously told the cops on Hoddan, when they found his power-receptor sneaked into a Mid-Continent station and a stray corpse coincidentally outside. He opened the boatport and stood in the opening. Derec had been a guest anyhow an inhabitant of Don Loris' castle for a good long while, now. Hoddan wondered if he considered his quarters cozy.
You didn't mean to, but you did, and ... it's terrible!" "Me kill somebody? That's ridiculous!" protested Hoddan. "They found him outside the powerhouse," said Derec bitterly. "Outside the Mid-Continent station that you " "Mid-Continent? Oh!" Hoddan was relieved. It was amazing how much he was relieved.
"You wouldn't know him, Bron," said Derec mournfully. "You didn't mean to do murder. But it's only luck that you killed only him instead of everybody!" "Everybody " Hoddan stared. "No more talk!" snapped the nearest cop. His teeth were chattering. "Keep quiet or else!" Hoddan shut up.
On the night before the police broke in the door of his room, though, accomplishment seemed imminent. He went to bed and slept soundly. He was calmly sure that his ambitions were about to be realized. At practically any instant his brilliance would be discovered and he'd be well-to-do, his friend Derec would admire him, and even Nedda would probably decide to marry him right away.
It exploded luridly as Derec crumpled from the pistol bolt. There was thick, strangling smoke. Hoddan disappeared. When the thickest smoke drifted away there was nothing to be seen but Derec, lying on the ground, and thinner smoke drifting out of the still-open boatport. Nearly half an hour later, figures came very cautiously toward the spaceboat. Thal was their leader.
Then his friend Derec came hesitantly in the door and looked at him remorsefully. He wrung his hands. "I had to do it, Bron," he said agitatedly. "I couldn't help doing it!" Hoddan blinked at him. He was dazed. Things didn't become clearer when he saw that a cop had slit open his pillow and was sifting its contents through his fingers.
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