Part 5 (1/2)

Stiggur's eyebrows lifted slightly, but he nodded without hesitation. ”All right. We'll meet back here in 20 minutes.”

The general exodus was quiet-apparently the others felt in need of a break, as well-and a minute or two later Corwin was sitting in his father's Dominion

Building office. For a long moment he stared at the phone on the desk, wondering if he should discuss this with anyone before he went ahead and did it. But his father would still be in the depths of biochemical surgery, and he could guess what his mother would say. Theron Yutu, across town in Jonny's main office? No.

The twins-he ought to discuss it with them. But Justin was incommunicado in the surgery wing of the Cobra Academy, and to tell only Joshua would be unfair... and Corwin realized he was stalling. Taking a deep breath, he got up from his father's chair and headed down the hall to Governor Telek's office.

If she was surprised to see him, it didn't show. ”Corwin,” she nodded, closing the door behind him and ushering him to a seat. ”Nice dilemma we have here, isn't it? What can I do for you?”

Corwin waited until she was seated again at her desk before speaking, ”How do you see the vote?” he asked bluntly.

Again, she showed no surprise. ”Myself, Brom, Dylan, and Howie for; you, Jor, and Olor against. Deadlock. You come here to try and change my mind?” He shook his head. ”You knew my father would be against the whole thing, didn't you?

That's why you dragged Cally and Almo into it.”

”Your father was one of the strongest opponents of the Cobra Academy when it was set up some twenty-five years ago,” she reminded him. ”It wasn't hard to guess he'd be against any proposal that would increase the number of Cobras.”

Which made Jonny's philosophical objections to Cobras-for-hire sound like nothing more than camouflage for an old habitual reflex. Corwin swallowed hard against the reb.u.t.tal that wanted to come out. Now was not the time to defend his father's stand. ”So what exactly do you want?” he asked instead. ”A contractual commitment to handle whatever this threat is that Qasama poses?”

”Of course not,” she snorted. ”No one in their right mind would give a Troft a carte blanche like that. All I want is to commit us to a survey mission-at Troft expense.”

”Won't that commit us to carrying out the rest of it, too?”

”Not if the agreement's drawn up carefully enough.” She pursed her lips. ”You're about to bring up the image question if we look Qasama over and then back out. I don't really have any better answer to that than the one I gave fifteen minutes ago. The risks of not knowing what kind of threat Qasama is are greater than the risks of looking weak to the Trofts.”

Corwin took a deep breath. ”Then I presume you'd like to have that as the official recommendation to the Council in a few hours?”

”I'd like that very much,” she said cautiously. ”What's it going to cost me?”

Corwin gestured toward the conference room down the hall. ”Your proposed survey mission would include a maximum of twelve people plus s.h.i.+p's crew, as I recall.

I want two of those twelve to be my father's choice.”

”With his skeptic's att.i.tude to keep the mission honest?” She smiled wryly. ”As a matter of fact, that's probably a good idea... but giving a governor emeritus sixteen percent of the package isn't likely to fly very smoothly.”

”I can sweeten the deal considerably. How would you like to send an undetectable

Cobra on the mission?”

He had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes widen with surprise. ”I thought a careful deep-body scan would pick up even Cobra gear.”

”It will,” Corwin nodded. ”But a scan of that type takes almost fifteen minutes to complete. How many times is a host likely to subject visiting dignitaries to that sort of thing?”

She frowned at him for several heartbeats. ”My immediate reaction is that you're being anthropomorphic in the extreme. Suppose their deep-body stuff is more sensitive or just faster than ours, for example? But a.s.suming you're right, then what?-cram a Cobra surgery team into the Dewdrop for some fast work?”

”Not at all. I propose sending a Cobra and a non-Cobra who are virtually indistinguishable from each other. My twin brothers Joshua and Justin.”

Telek's breath came out in a thoughtful hiss. ”Cute. Very cute. So the Cobra stays aboard s.h.i.+p until the aliens have done all their studies on the landing party, and then they switch places? Interesting proposal. But suppose the

Qasamans use something besides sight for identification? Sound or scent, for instance?”