"I have a plan, Elonna, and them is a reasonable chance it will work. But it may be more than your mind is equipped to handle. Also. . .it is sexual in nature." "You think I don't know that, the way you're always looking at me?" "Listen first. Save your scorn for the enemy. You will need it all." "I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you." "Never, NEVER apologize. And don't ever feel pity for a man who's done you wrong. If you do at a critical time in this, we're lost." "You're worse than he was." "Yes, and I'm still alive." He stirred uncomfortably in the chair. "I didn't mean that. Have you got any water?" "Yes." She sent the boy to get some. "Try to understand, Elonna. As undersecretary to Hunter, I'm surrounded by them constantly. These guerrillas, even Lawrence, flit in and out of the fire." "Lawrence did more than flit." "Yes he did. And if I could change that, I would..... But I live in the midst of it. I can't afford the luxury of emotion. And I want desperately to bring them down. That they're my own people doesn't help." She studied him more closely. "You say they're your own people. What about us? Are we just pieces on the board?" "Not a fair question. You don't know what we're up against." The 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."