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don t, just collect basic andsnerch. Guys are the worst, always talking about
being Ministers, as if the Ministers ever did anything. Who does the work?You
and me.
Nathaniel nodded, although he didn t think she was really looking for a
response.
Bet you work for a fancy-pants Envoy. Here you are working, and he s
probablyluxing it up. First man I ve seen working so late since I took thejob,
and you re anoutworlder.Figures. She shook her head.
Nathaniel didn t bother to correct her misimpression. I wouldn t be
surprised if anything and everything went on here. Or is it just boring
because nothing happens after hours?
Pretty dull.Wouldn t dare to talk to any woman, and I don t rate standby for
a Minister or Deputy. All of them sit and stare, or sit and read. Not like
Perky. She s got the same job at Commerce. I got the idea fromher, that is,
driving after classes. She s Class I now, even got Lord Mersen last week.
Told me the other day she drove three Fleet Commanders back from Defense to
Commerce. Nothing like that happens here. The car slipped out of the tunnel.
Want the public or private concourse?
Wherever I m less likely to get noticed.
Public side, this time of day.Still crowded.Be like a tomb on the private
side. A pause followed. What are you worried about?
Nathaniel couldn t help laughing. The girl was one of the first real people,
without a mask, that he d talked to. Tell you when I get out.
Here you are.
Thanks for the ride.
As he climbed out of the backseat, she poked her head through the top opening
in the front bubble. You forgot to tell me.
I m the Envoy, and someone keeps trying to assassinate me. Her mouth
dropped open. Not everyone wants those trade talks. It was probably unfair
to leave it at that, thought Nathaniel as he ducked away and into a public
fresher stall on the concourse level.
With the belt detector he went over his clothes thoroughly for tracers or
snoops. One minute speck on his collar registered, but it could have retained
static charges. Otherwise he seemed clean.
He put on the rust film cloak over his blacks and left the fresher.
A woman talking to another woman on the far side of the corridor looked up as
he passed, then looked back at the closing door to the fresher. She began
fiddling with her pocket calendar, but centered her attention on the fresher,
totally disregarding Nathaniel.
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He took the lift shaft to the corridor for the private entrance to the
Envoy s quarters. Under the cover of the cloak, he checked the entrance as he
approached. The snoops had been replaced, of course, but they were standard.
No energy links to the portal showed.
& XXIV&
Once inside, as he folded the cloak and surveyed the apartment, he swept the
area again. The disabled visual snoop had not yet been replaced. He marched
into the study and eyed the comm unit. With a sigh, he sank into the all too
plush swivel and thumbed for the directory, keying up some background music at
the same time. While whoever had links to the comm unit would know what he
wasa sking, perhaps some of the other players wouldn t get all the information
yet.
He tapped out the number for the Diplomatic Reference Library, assuming that
it was either automated or operated around the clock. It was both. State your
interest area.
Interstellar law.
Choose from among the following & The gist of the answer to his long
question was that the Ministry of External Affairs had jurisdiction over trade
and treaty matters involving nonempire systems.
Query: authority of the Ministry of Commerce to enforce trade agreements
within the Empire &
The Commerce Ministry could request the Imperial Fleet to apply sanctions.
Query: does an agreement between a former Empire system and the Ministry of
Commerce constitute a legal basis for resumption of Imperial Jurisdiction?
According to the library computer, there were precedents on both sides.
Nathaniel pulled at his chin, looked down at the screen. Query& What else
could he ask? He signed off. Leaning back in the swivel, he gazed out the
window. Sunset would be coming soon, and for the moment he was going to watch
it. Maybe think while he watched it, but watch it he would.
A few high and thin clouds dotted the sky, deep blue as he saw it through the
panoramic window, and yellow white of the sun was turning golden as it dipped
toward the tree-covered hills on the westernhorizon.
He d seen the holos of the blighted forests created by the Secession, and the
Terran casualty figures in the billions as the result of the ensuing
starvation.
He d also seen the slag that had beenHaversolCity and holos of the asteroid
belt that had beenSligo before the Empire pulverized it.
Both sides were people, people like the girl who had driven him, people like
Sylvia, like Marcella, even people like JanisDu-Plessis, who set in motion the
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