boy
handed him a filled cup.

"Lawrence was found of saying that, and he's dead."

"Yes, and I'm likely to end the same way."

"Then why do you do it?"

"Because they ARE my own people. Maybe you pity them, try to
understand. I don't. There's no excuse for this, Elonna. None. It's
all been played out a hundred times before.

"There lives are empty and harsh," he continued. "So they say it must
be somebody's fault. Surely their God can't want them to suffer, apple
of his eye as they're supposed to be. So it must be anti-God. And who
is this? The blacks and other minorities, the corrupt and inept
liberals, a benign socialist colony two systems away. For God's sake,
we've been in Space for two hundred years, we should know better. They
forget, or choose to ignore, all the lessons it's taught us: that
we're only very small, and should help each other. They turn their
backs on history and the simplest understanding, and still find some
dark corner in which to masturbate their hatred. There's no excuse for
it. None."

She was silent for a time, then spoke. "What do you want me to do?"

"Don't say yes until you've heard what it is. Lawrence cared a great
deal for you, and if only for his sake, I must show some restraint."

"And what about you?"

"For myself, I would rather not ask a woman to do it. Also, it flushes
me out of the inner circles for good."

"But you think it could work, and be worth it."

"Yes."

"You want me to sleep with someone and kill him." She had forgotten
the boy. "Johnny, would you run off in the back and play? I'll be
there in a few minutes."

"Yes, Miss Elonna." He walked reluctantly into the back.

"You want me to sleep with someone and kill him."

"Yes and no."

"What do you mean, yes and no?"

"You say it as if it's nothing. I'm not asking you to sleep with some
soldier in a guardhouse and slit his throat. We're talking about
Roland Hunter, the head of Internal Affairs."

"THE Hunter? The man who ordered the purges?"

"Ordered, planned and executed, and the man who makes sure there is no
rebellion of conscience among the whites, no dissent of any kind. A
big target, Elonna, and very wary." Again she was silent.

"Still. If you could arrange it..... I think I could do it."

"With what weapon, Elonna?"

"Well, what about a poison needle?"

"No good. You will be thoroughly searched. Thoroughly."

"All right, then. Stop turning it around.