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“What’s wrong with them?” Clarey asked, pushing away his half-finished crême brulée a la Betelgeuse with a sigh. “Are they excessively belligerent, then?”

“No more belligerent than any intelligent life-form which has pulled itself up by its bootstraps.”

“Rigid?” Clarey suggested. “Unadaptable? Intolerant? Indolent? Personally offensive?”

Spano smiled. He leaned back with half-shut eyes, as if this were a guessing game. “None of those.”

“Then why consider disposing of them?” Clarey asked. “They sound pretty decent for natives. Don’t wipe them out; even an ilf has a right to live.”

“Clarey,” the girl said, “you’re drunk.”

“I’m in full command of my faculties,” he assured her. “My wits are all about me, moving me to ask how you could possibly expect to use a secret agent on Damorlan if there are no colonists. What would he disguise himself as—a touring Earth official?” He laughed with modest triumph.

Spano smiled. “He could disguise himself as one of them. They’re humanoid.”

“That humanoid?”