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I grimace. “Ouch.”
“You and I are honest with each other. You don’t just tell me the things I want to hear. You tell me the things I need to hear.”
“Can I be honest then?”
He extends his hand toward me. “Unleash your fire.”
“This is a crock of shit.”
His features become less amicable, more stern.
“Careful not to break rank, though.”
“You wanted to bring mymominto this? After everything I’ve done for you?”
He stares at me expectantly.
“Just a bit rude, that’s all.”
“Can I continue?”
I nod.
“Things ain’t so easy out there,” he continues. “War could break out at any moment. That would be bad for guys like you and me, who never want to talk down another traumatized soldier or pick up the pieces after another explosion.”
I look around the room, then out the window, speaking in a hushed whisper.
“But the embassy, though?”
“We don’t bother them, they don’t bother us,” he says. “And right now, it seems like we could use a branch to extend.”
“I guess.”
“Between you and me, I’m really not happy about this,” he says.
“What do I have to do? You can skip the commentary and the setup.”
“Theywant you to bring somebody to justice.” His emphasis on the word ‘they’ is especially notable, as though he can dodge all accountability by deflecting blame.
“Meaning ‘kill somebody.’”
“It is a mercenary mission, yes.”
I scratch my chin. “And what exactly did this person do?”
“The xaphans believe that somebody tied to eight murders of government personnel fled New Solas years back and that the person in question is hiding here, in Ikoth.”
“In Ikoth?”
“That is their belief, yes.”
“And I’m guessing you think it’s somewhere in the city? Ikoth is a big place.”
He shrugs, his horns nearly piercing the ceiling.
“They have no idea,” he says. “But it would do a lot of good for diplomacy if we could look.”
I cock my mouth to the side, fidgeting with my empty glass.
