“We seem to be worth their time now.”
“Yeah, because we just got attacked by Dredel Led. We went from speck of dirt to exploding supernova in terms of danger.”
“And don’t you find it amazingly odd that a Therezian is here? When he has his choice of any planet and occupation in the galaxy, he chooses to be a doorman on Belvaille. That’s almost insulting to our intelligence. What’s he REALLY guarding?”
“I wish Wallow wasn’t here,” I said matter-of-factly, as I absently felt my recently rebuilt hipbone. “But who knows the psychology of Therezians? I heard what he’s doing isn’t out of the ordinary.”
“How about this: did you know your ‘good friend’ Garm was formerly a member of the Colmarian Secret Seven?” Rendrae threw this question like a javelin.
“No,” I said, thinking. “But she had to come from some department, right? I can’t imagine being sent to Belvaille was a promotion. Look, Rendrae, she’s the most crooked person I know and I mean that as a compliment.”
“I’ve run checks on about fifty of Garm’s personnel here and guess what, almost all of them have backgrounds in the Colmarian Intelligence Services. Is that also a coincidence? Open your eyes.”
This was kind of news. I had never paid much attention to Garm’s people. I figured they were mostly just police. Still, Rendrae was being paranoid.
“Hank, you can’t see the big picture.”
“Dirty deals are the big picture on Belvaille. And look at you. What are you skulking around for? You think Garm is trying to kill you? As if she doesn’t have better things to do.”
“I know she’s trying. Ever since I started reporting on the real activities here, my circulation has gone through the roof. I’ve got 95% coverage on the station. She hates the scrutiny I’m creating.”
“That’s stupid. We got children here. We got people who can’t even read. We got people who won’t read even if you had a gun to their head. It’s impossible 95% of the population have a subscription.”
“Last week I topped 135,000,” he said smugly.
“There aren’t even that many people here. Are they buying multiple copies?”
“I thought there were 145,000 here,” he said, confused.
“No,” I answered, but didn’t elaborate.
“Well,” Rendrae began uneasily, “I know my numbers. And I know Garm is hunting me. I’ve had to keep moving this whole time.” He paused as I looked at him skeptically. “Hank, even if you want to avoid all this data in front of you, why would the Dredel Led come here? It is literally the last place out of trillions of Colmarian habitations they could have assaulted. According to you there’s nothing here and we’re on the opposite side of the galaxy.”
I took in a deep breath as I thought. I knew why they had come, obviously. But I couldn’t tell Rendrae about Jyonal, not with his big mouth. But his big mouth connected to a lot of ears and it was messing up things on the station.
“Okay,” I began, and now I looked around nervously, like some Rendrae imitation. “What I’m about to tell you, you can’t tell anyone else.”
Rendrae practically snapped to attention. This was about as close to ecstasy as he got, I suspected.
“I know why the Dredel Led came here,” I said in a whisper.
“Why?” Rendrae whispered back.
We had almost merged into a single organism we were standing so close together.
“I can’t tell you,” I responded.
And Rendrae jerked away, like an amoeba that had tried to fuse with another, only to learn it was of the same sex.
“That’s it?” He was offended.
“Yeah,” I said, my spirits dampened.
“That’s your big secret? You have a lot to learn, Hank.”
Then I realized I had left something out. Or so I thought.
“Wait, wait, wait. There’s more,” I said.
Rendrae wasn’t very interested. He gave me one ear and only halfheartedly.
“I know why the Dredel Led came here,” I repeated.
“You stated that already.”
“And Garm doesn’t know.”
Rendrae looked at me. He blinked and his lips were slightly parted.
“Garm—how much doesn’t she know?” Rendrae tried to clarify.
“Nothing. At all,” I said with an ostentatious sweep of my arms.
It was like a silent blow to Rendrae and he tilted back on his heels.
“But you didn’t know a lot of things, Hank. How can you know she doesn’t know?”
I could see I had him hooked. But his level of detail was a bit irksome.
“Because they are independent. Because I am positive.”