“Your deductions are interesting.”
“And yours are lacking. Think about it! The Families are absolute rulers on their world. They revel in their domination of everyone around them. Do you really think people who are used to being kings would settle for being pirates and gangsters? They don’t just want Rigel II, Garos. They want Rigel.”
Garos controlled his reaction. “An entirely plausible suggestion. But wanting is one thing, achieving another.”
Williams’s head shook in disappointment. “You’re not thinking it through. You know they already have the means. Think about what else they could do with the information in that archive. Don’t trust me, reason it out for yourself.”
Garos pondered . . . and, despite himself, expressed his thoughts aloud for her consideration. “Of course the secret archives have the potential to ruin businesses across the system. To throw the entire Rigelian economy into chaos.”
She nodded. “And destabilize the whole Kandari Sector and beyond. Economically, politically, even militarily.”
Including Maluria, he realized. He shook it off. “But how would that benefit them? They depend on that economy as much as the rest of us do. Mining and interstellar tourism are the basis of Rigel II’s economy—it would be worth little if that were taken away. Not to mention their shipping concerns.”
“It’s pronounced ‘piracy.’ ”
“As you will. Without active interstellar commerce, with a depressed economy or even system-wide warfare, their business would be severely undermined.”
“And that’s the root of your problem, Garos. You think they care about business. You think holding on to offworld trade is important to them. Garos, they hate outsiders. They hate it that their civilization’s dependent on the Jelna for all its advances since first contact. And they see more exotic species like the Chelons or yourselves as little more than livestock.”
“We are allies. Partners.” No doubt some of the Zami felt as Williams described, but he could not believe it of Retifel Thamnos, not after the time he’d spent in her company.
“You’re using them and you’d throw them out an airlock as soon as it was convenient. They’d do the same to you. In fact, I heard them brag about having dirt they could use to control you along with everyone else. ‘Make the lizards dance,’ they said.” He couldn’t look away now. “They don’t care if they control a healthy economy on an interstellar scale,” Williams said. “They don’t care if they have to throw away the profits they make from outsystem trade and tourism. They’re not that rational. They just want to be in absolute control, like it was in the bad old days. They’ll gladly settle for a smaller pond, because that makes it easier to be the biggest fish.”
Garos paced the room for several moments, contemplating. But he remained skeptical. “Granted, they could do as you say. But it comes down to your claim about their motives, their priorities. How do I know you speak the truth?”
“I’m sure you still have a mole or two with access to the Trade Commission. The Commission should have a record of the data files I sent back to my ship, the conversations I overheard in the Corthoc estate.” She shrugged. “Or find out yourself. I was able to infiltrate as a servant, go unseen and overlooked for a few hours, and find out all I needed about their real plans. You’re supposed to be the masters of infiltration—you really haven’t tried this already?”
Garos didn’t want to believe her. But he was a master of deception, and she would have to be extraordinary to fake such sincerity well enough to fool him. At the very least, he had to look into it.
“What a shame.”
He and Williams spun to face the door. There stood Retifel Thamnos sucking on her narcotic stick, flanked by the two guards from before—who had their weapons drawn on him. “Of course you’ll have to investigate her claims, Garos,” the Zami matriarch said. “It’s only prudent. And it’s only prudent of us to assume you’ll find she’s telling the truth. So I’m afraid we have no choice but to skip a few steps and kill you both now. We’ll make it look like she killed you and was then killed by our guards, so that your fellow lizards will be none the wiser.”
Garos stared at her for a long moment. Extraordinary indeed, he thought. Retifel had managed to fool him completely. Or perhaps he’d just been so starved for the company of a worthy female that he’d allowed himself to be fooled. Either way, he realized, it only increased his respect for her.