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he holovisor camera. If Kontar was willing to stand up
for me to his progenitor and sovereign, I sure as hell wasn't
going to slink away, even if I couldn't understand a word of what
they were saying.
At length, the dual cacophony of hisses, yowls and arched backs
wound down and they concluded their conversation on a normal
level. After switching off the apparatus, Kontar belted down a
triple screwdriver before he pulled me down on the bed beside
him. "Thontaur said everything would be all right if I could
still pull off this trade deal," he told me. "I told him I could
handle it."
He was right, the commercial establishment in this state really
wanted that trade agreement and what the establishment in this
state wants, it gets. The reporters were quashed and their
stories killed. Oh, I know that the powers that be have a liber-
al image in Minnesota but there is an iron hand beneath those
velvet gloves.
With the impending successful conclusion of the negotiations and
Kontar's departure, the moment that both of us had avoided talk-
ing about was fast approaching. Kontar was the first to bring it
up, about a week before his departure, one night when he was at
my house.
"Have you ever thought about coming back to Ailouros with me,
Brad?" he asked.
I lit a cigar before I answered. "It
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