XXI

“Go away!” Tenuous uncertainties danced fuzzily at the periphery of her thoughts. “I am sleeping.”

The words that reached her via the door speaker were not Huma, but she recognized them anyway. She wasn’t quite as fluent in the guttural language of her nocturnal visitor as she was in that of the warrior bipeds or the Hivistahm, but even half-asleep she managed adequately.

“I reiterate: Go away!”

“Please,” the voice pleaded. “It is urgent that I speak with you.”

Considering the racial identity of the unseen speaker, the statement made no sense. Perplexed and by now more awake than asleep, she rose from the night nest and made her way to the door. The built-in scanner confirmed the species of the speaker but did nothing to alleviate her confusion.

The scanner showed an anxious Lepar clad in the shapeless, simple uniform they wore when on duty. Its tail hung motionless on the hallway floor, glistening moistly in the overhead night-lights. A maintenance case dangled from one thick-fingered, half-webbed hand.

“What do you want?”

“Some environmental controls were damaged in the big fighting yesterday. The monitors are just starting to light up. If the problem isn’t fixed quickly, no one in this building will be able to adjust heat or cold or humidity to personal taste. It could get very uncomfortable. I know it is late, but if you will let me in I can fix a bypass in your room that will keep you comfortable while we replace the unit that failed.”

She leaned against the door, uncertain whether to try and wake up or go back to the nest. “There is nothing the matter with conditions in here. Go work on someone else’s room.”

“Please.” On the scanner the Lepar’s expression became more mournful than ever, the flat, wide-mouthed face frozen in a gaze of pitiable imbecility. “I have been ordered to put a bypass in every room. If I do not, then I cannot sign off. I must remain here until everyone has let me in, even if I have to wait until sunrise. It will go on my work record as an incompetence and that means I will not get any sleep and will—”

“Enough! Don’t whine. It is unbecoming to sapience.” Irritably she unsealed the entrance and activated the room’s interior illumination.

The heavyset male amphibian shuffled in, and she let the door close automatically behind it. Without a word it turned to the concealed control panel set in the same wall. Opening the case it carried, her unwelcome visitor began to examine the contents as if searching for a particular tool.

“I am sorry to disturb you so late at night,” he gurgled.

“No matter. I am awake now.” She was unclad and unadorned, but there was no reason to be otherwise in the presence of a Lepar to whom she would resemble nothing more than a large, flightless bird. The sight of her body would engender the same reaction in him as a view of an abstract sculpture.

Her visitor had insisted he wouldn’t be long, but given his initial hesitation and knowing well the Lepar she decided she might as well make use of the time. Retiring to the viewer mounted just above the floor, she folded her legs beneath her and sat down in front of the screen. There were always notes to be organized, material to be reviewed.

She put the Lepar completely out of her mind until the throaty voice said from behind her, “If I might have your attention for a moment?”

“What now?” Grumbling, she turned to look up from the viewer, and promptly received the greatest shock of her life. Which, considering everything she had experienced over the years, was a qualification of some magnitude.

The gun the Lepar held in one slick-skinned, dark green hand was small enough to qualify as toylike. Being far more familiar with such devices than the average Wais, she knew that its size in no way mitigated its potential lethality. Its presence in the hand of a non-Human or non-Massood was astonishing. To see it being wielded by a Lepar simply beggared belief.

Her dumbfounded gaze rose to the expansive face. The broad, toothless mouth was shut, the widely spaced, tiny black eyes glinting in the artificial light. She was too stunned to speak.

“Please do not be alarmed.” The tone was polite and typically deferential. It gestured with the gun. “I can imagine using this only in the most extreme circumstances.”

If he was trying to set her mind at ease, he wasn’t succeeding. “You are Lepar. Your people have been civilized members of the Weave from its beginnings. While not particularly smart, you are no more inclined to violence than is my kind. I do not understand this.” With twitching wingtip she indicated the weapon. “How can you stand there and threaten me with that?”

“It is a considerable emotional stretch, but I am managing. Know that I will make use of it without hesitation if circumstances require.”

Her initial fear was slowly giving way to anger. This was simply too outrageous. “The people here are already trying to cope with one dead Amplitur and two dead Humans. Don’t you think a Wais dead of a gunshot would be a little hard to explain?”

“It probably would be,” the Lepar conceded. “If I am forced to kill you here and now, it is quite possible that my involvement would be discovered. Since that cannot be allowed, after killing you I will have to kill myself. That should be sufficient to put an end to any questions.”

She thought she was beyond shock. She was wrong.

“So you intend to kill me?”

“No one wants to kill you, Honored Scholar Lalelelang. You are a unique and valuable individual. The knowledge you have gathered and distilled concerning how Humankind interacts with the other species of the Weave has proven very useful.”

“Useful,” she echoed. Her lashes jerked. “Surely not to you?”

“We have been accessing your archived material for a long time.” That enigmatic visage seemed perpetually frozen in a skimpy, stupid grin. She reminded herself that the expression was a function of bone physiology, not emotion. “Lepar workers on your homeworld have ready entry to them.”

She thought of the contract Lepar she had noted performing time-consuming, mostly menial tasks around the grounds of the university. The quiet, soft-spoken, obeisant Lepar. Like the rest of her colleagues she’d never given them a second thought. Mentally and emotionally they were suited to such employment, while the Wais and for that matter most other intelligent species were not. The Lepar had always been willing, even eager, to take on such tasks, recognizing their inherent limitations and taking quiet pleasure in carrying out their chosen pursuits to the best of their diffident abilities.

Nothing was making any sense. “What,” she inquired dazedly, “are the Lepar doing accessing my files? What are the Lepar doing accessing any files? My work is complex and nonspecific. It is beyond the capacity of any of your kind to comprehend.”

“Not beyond. Difficult certainly. But there are among us some of greater intelligence than is generally known. It is hard for them, but they are just smart enough to make sense of such things.”

“This is insane,” Lalelelang muttered aloud in her own sibilant language. “Crazy.”

The translator he wore around his nearly nonexistent neck picked up her words. “The universe is a crazy place. I am told that the physics of it make no sense. Why should those who live within it be any more sensibly organized?”

Realization dawned gradually. There was the very real weapon her visitor held, the absence so far of any other suspect conspirators, and the fact that this creature was, if it could be believed and unbelievable as it seemed, ready to use it against her.

She had understood from the first how the Amplitur and the reactionary General Levaughn had died, but until now the cause of her friend Colonel Straat-ien’s death had been a complete mystery. No Amplitur could overcome a Human in individual combat, nor could a single representative of any other species. Not even a Chirinaldo or Molitar. But Human fighters could sometimes be defeated by other, less obvious methods.

Complete surprise, for example.

“You were there,” she said accusingly.

She recognized the simple, straightforward gesture, equally comprehensible above or below the water, that acknowledged her accusation. “I was there.” It was conclusive that he did not ask to where she was referring.

“How did it happen? Can you tell me that much?” She did not add that it was gradually dawning on her that she probably had no future beyond the termination of the current conversation. Resistance was out of the question. In addition to everything else she was too numbed by the incredible reality of the situation.

It occurred to her that this might be an isolated condition, that the Lepar confronting her might really be clinically psychotic. As an unavoidable corollary to intelligence, insanity was found among every member of the Weave. Were the Lepar prone to it? She didn’t know, having concentrated on Humankind to the exclusion of all else.

“It was … unpleasant,” the Lepar told her unemotionally. “At the time of the confrontation I was attending to the Amplitur’s quarters. You may know that our taste in environments is somewhat similar, so that I was at ease while carrying out my work.

“The human general was not. While oozing salt and water from his skin he engaged in much conversation with the Amplitur. Neither of them took any notice of me, nor did I of them, until the second Human arrived.”

“Colonel Straat-ien,” she murmured softly.

“Yes. I heard him request entrance. As an associate of General Levaughn, he was admitted.”

“What ensued?”

The Lepar managed to look thoughtful. “It was extraordinary. The Human Straat-ien made an attempt to mentally overwhelm the Amplitur. Though no sound issued from either individual it was plain to see that both were striving mightily toward some unfathomable end. The strain was evident in their expressions and gestures. The Human’s face passed through the most remarkable series of contortions while the Amplitur thrashed about violently with its tentacles. The rapid color changes its skin underwent astonished me.

“As this silent struggle continued, the Human Levaughn grew increasingly alarmed. It was plain he did not understand what was happening, and neither of the mental combatants took the time to respond to his increasingly shrill inquiries.”

Lalelelang spoke very carefully. “Just a moment. How did you know there was a mental confrontation taking place? You might have guessed what the Amplitur was trying to do, but unless the Human Straat-ien tried to suggest you, there was no way you could know that he was actively involved in responding to the Amplitur.”

“You are owed an explanation. We are capable of detecting such activity.”

“Yes, yes. The Lepar are as suggestible as the Wais, or the Hivistahm, or any of the other sapient species except Humankind. But an Amplitur has to suggest you. You cannot by yourself detect the presence of such activity in them. And you claim that the Human was trying to suggest the Amplitur.” She watched her captor carefully. “That is impossible. Humans can only resist such probing. They do not share with the Amplitur the ability to suggest.”

“The Amplitur does not have to suggest us. While we have no projective talent ourselves, we can quite readily sense when others are using it, be they Amplitur or representatives of that Human group which calls itself the Core.”

“The Core?” Her mind was reeling. “What is that?”

“We have known about it for some time. Collectively we know more about Humankind than any of the other member species of the Weave. Our knowledge is exceeded only by that of a few specialists, of whom you are prominent.

“Lepar were with the first contact ship. Lepar were among the first to speak and deal directly with Humans, and we are still the only ones who can interact effectively with them underwater. We were interested in them from the beginning, as we are interested in anything that threatens our security and safety.

“A Hivistahm was the first to encounter one of the captured Humans the Amplitur attempted to modify to look and think like Ashregan but fight for the Purpose with the strength and stealth of Humankind. His companion was a Lepar, who immediately recognized the significance of the encounter and made certain that the individual specimen was brought back alive for further study. It was the Lepar who was prepared to resort to violence to accomplish this aim.

“As for the Core, it was formed by the offspring of those Amplitur-modified children, whose unique abilities are an accidental and apparently inheritable by-product of Hivistahm attempts to surgically repair the alterations the Amplitur genetic engineers had made. We have been monitoring the activities of these gifted Humans since the time of the one called Ranji-aar.”

Lalelelang was silent for several moments, carefully considering not only what the Lepar had said, but what it had not said.

“If you have done all this without interference, then it follows that you can not only detect attempts to suggest, you can, in the fashion of Humans, resist it.”

“That is so. Your perception has not been overrated. Our nervous system acts differently from that of Humans. Theirs is an active defense that fights any attempt at intrusion or manipulation. Ours is passive. We simply are not suggestible.”

“But there have been many documented instances of captured Lepar being manipulated by the Amplitur.”

“Those captured merely pretended to comply with the suggestions of the enemy. It is not difficult to do. Since we are a simple folk, we are given only simple tasks to do. Everyone knows we are no threat. Perceived ignorance is a surprisingly effective buffer. It is sometimes a good thing to be considered an imbecile.

“No Core Human ever tried to suggest us. There was no reason to. We had little to do with the conduct of the war. For the same reason the Amplitur have largely ignored us. Given a choice, ignored is what we prefer to be.

“This is a terrible shame. Everything was going so well. The war was ended, peace had come, and my people could go about trying to better themselves mentally and in other ways without having to worry about the destruction and disruption that war brings. We knew about the Core Humans and kept a watch on them, but they seemed concerned only with keeping the secret of their existence.” He gestured idly with the gun.

“Not for the first time we underestimated the deviousness of the Amplitur. Who would have thought that having capitulated they would subsequently try to ally themselves with reactionary Humans? Or that some Humans would prove themselves even less civilized than anyone believed possible by agreeing to accept Amplitur assistance and guidance?

“We would have reacted sooner to this threat save for the fact that we are not very smart. It takes us a long time to see things clearly. Your research, for example, is very detailed and sometimes hard to follow.”

Having resigned herself to whatever might come, Lalelelang had grown calm. “If someone had come to me with such a litany as you have just recited I would have thought them addled.”

“We are little more than what we appear,” said the Lepar almost apologetically. “Helpful, subservient, and quite harmless.”

“You will pardon my pointing out that you do not look very harmless just now.”

“Believe me when I say that I am truly sorry for the way this has turned out. It is necessary, to insure the preservation of certain secrets.”

“What happens … after?”

“I will not be suspected in the deaths. As you accurately point out, no one would suppose a Lepar capable of complicity in such violence. We will go on monitoring the activities of the Core, just as we will those of reactionary Humans and obsequious Amplitur. If it again proves necessary to interfere, we will do so as nonviolently and unobtrusively as possible.”

“You appear to have thought everything out.”

“We have no choice,” the Lepar confessed. “We are not clever enough to resist the machinations of species like Humankind and the Amplitur. So we must act before they do.”

“Having told me all this, surely there is no harm in telling me what transpired in the Amplitur’s quarters?” The Lepar hesitated. “Please,” Lalelelang entreated her captor. “The least you can do is satisfy my curiosity.”

“Ever the true scholar. As you will.” Tiny black eyes squinted with the strain of remembrance. “The Human Straat-ien and the Amplitur struggled silently. The Human Levaughn had no idea of the nature of the battle which was taking place in front of him. I did, and tried my best to pretend that I did not.

“Neither the Human Straat-ien nor the Amplitur could gain an advantage. The Human probed and the Amplitur resisted.

“When he could obtain no reaction to his entreaties from either his fellow Human or his guest, the Human Levaughn grew panicky and prepared to summon aid. Seeing this, the Human Straat-ien moved to stop him. There was a brief confrontation which resulted in the Human Straat-ien slaying the Human Levaughn.

“This momentary diversion of the Human Straat-ien’s attention spurred the Amplitur to try and flee. As it had by now been made aware of the Human’s suggestive capability, it was obvious Straat-ien could not permit this. Your friend turned the weapon he had just used on his fellow being toward the Amplitur and fired several times. It made terrible wounds on the Amplitur’s body, butchering it beyond hope of resurrection.

“The Human Straat-ien then very cleverly placed his weapon in one of the dead human’s hands, closing the deceased man’s fingers around it. His intent was clearly to make it appear as if the general had slain the Amplitur and then killed himself. To make this strategy work it was necessary for your friend to resolve one final awkwardness.

“Me.

“I was a witness to everything that had taken place.”

Lalelelang had followed the somber recitation in contemplative silence. Now she looked up again. “What did the Human Straat-ien do?”

“He placed himself deliberately between myself and the doorway, announcing with what I believe to be genuine regret that he was going to have to kill me. He was very surprised when I produced from inside a vest pocket a weapon much like his own with which I carefully shot him between the eyes. I am no expert at understanding Human expression but I am sure I am correct in this interpretation. Also, at the critical moment he projected involuntarily, and his consternation was clear in his thoughts. As he had conveniently put his own weapon in one of the deceased General Levaughn’s hands, I was able to place mine in his.

“He seemed to me to be a very decent and concerned creature, for a Human, and I regretted having to kill him.”

The inner edges of Lalelelang’s beak ground slowly against one another. “Everything you have told me I believe, except that you killed him. You, a Lepar, slaying a Human?”

“It was unavoidable. It would have been better to leave Colonel Straat-ien alive, morally as well as for other reasons. But there are other members of the Core, younger than he, who will take up energetically the task of insuring that their own kind remains peaceful and does not succumb to cunning Amplitur blandishments.”

She appeared not to have heard the last. “You really expect me to believe that you shot a Human? A highly trained soldier like Nevan Straat-ien?”

“There have been times previous where it was nearly required, but not until this incident was it necessary to follow through.”

“The Lepar have never been fighters.”

“That is still so. We hate violence, and are not very good at it. We have to force ourselves. When you are sufficiently frightened you can do many things previously believed impossible, and because we are so insecure we are easily frightened.”

She gestured deliberately at the tiny gun. “Are you pointing that at me because I frighten you?”

“Yes,” said the Lepar with portentous conviction. “The knowledge you possess frightens me terribly.”

“Enough to kill me? To cause physical violence to another intelligent being who means you no harm?” When the Lepar did not reply she tried another tack. “How will you explain away my death by gunfire? No confrontation is taking place, no fighting. I am no Human whom others may imagine disposed to madness and fury. I am a peaceful scholar.”

The Lepar raised the compact weapon. “This is not like the weapon that was used to kill Colonel Straat-ien. It does not fire explosive or penetrating projectiles. It is a compressed gas injector that will leave no marks. The drug that will enter your bloodstream will make it appear as though your heart has failed due to natural causes. Though the toxin employed disperses rapidly into the system and breaks down into unidentifiable components soon thereafter, an in-depth forensic analysis performed immediately after death could possibly reveal the actual cause. I will therefore remain here after you expire, to insure that this does not take place and that your body is not disturbed for the proscribed period.

“The Wais are known for their delicate constitutions. Your death will arouse no unusual suspicion.”

“What happens then? I will be dead, along with Colonel Straat-ien, General Levaughn, and the Amplitur representative. What will it have solved? Other Humans will take Levaughn’s place.”

“Perhaps not and if so, perhaps not for some time. The Human Levaughn evinced an unusual combination of capability and drive. Having failed spectacularly with him, the Amplitur will withdraw to contemplate their failure. This will give the peace time to further solidify.

“Meanwhile we will monitor political developments among reactionary-inclined Humans, and keep silent watch over the activities of the Core while they continue to oversee their own kind. Hopefully we will not soon again have to inject ourselves into the affairs of other species. The Hivistahm and the O’o’yan, the Bir’rimor and the Massood, the Yula and the S’van and Humankind and all the rest will be no more aware of us than they are now or have ever been. This is best, because we are and have always been frightened of all of them.”

“If you truly are immune to Amplitur mind-manipulation,” she said, “you could have been great fighters for the Weave. You could have fought alongside the Massood before we discovered and enlisted the Humans.”

“I have told you that we are not fighters. Combat terrifies us, as it does any civilized species. Just because we are not as smart as some does not mean we are any less civilized.”

“I’m not sure you are as dumb as you try to appear, either.”

“We are. Do not doubt it. But it has sometimes seemed to those of us with the capacity to ponder such things that there are differences between being intelligent and being smart, and that too much intelligence may not be such a good thing. Where survival is at stake, sometimes instinct is better. Being stupid forces you to concentrate on what really matters and to live within your limitations.

“We do those jobs which more intelligent species disdain. As a result we have prospered and multiplied within the framework of the Weave. While other species quarrel and sometimes even fight, we are ignored. Meanwhile we work hard, and watch, and listen, and try to become a little smarter. When you are given the lowliest jobs, when others ignore you as though you do not exist, you have wonderful opportunities to observe, and to listen. My people realized long ago that it is hard to learn when your own mouth is always open.

“Independence is better for such development. So the Amplitur cannot be permitted to resurrect the Purpose. Peace is a better framework for such an existence. So Humans cannot be allowed to resurrect war. Humans and Amplitur working together would result in the worst combination of possibilities. We are not so stupid that we cannot see that.”

Lalelelang sensed that the Lepar was growing increasingly nervous and that she was running out of options. “If in spite of your precautions they find a lethal toxin in my body the local authorities are going to start looking for a murderer.” She used the Human term, there being no exact equivalent in either the Lepar or Wais tongue.

“That is possible. No action is riskproof. However, in that unlikely event I do not think they will suspect or question me, a lowly Lepar maintenance worker. Even if they thought one of my kind capable of the act, they would not think us possessed of the necessary smarts.

“I do not want to kill you, Honored Scholar Lalelelang, any more than I wanted to kill the Human Straat-ien. But fear and insecurity are powerful motivators for such as my kind. They concentrate even limited abilities wonderfully well.”

The greatest revelation in recorded history, she found herself thinking, more striking even than the existence of the Core among genetically altered Humans, and it was going to perish with her. All because she was dedicated to her studies.

“Besides which, we can help the Humans.”

“You?” She was startled. “The Lepar?”

“Humankind knows that of all the intelligent species, the Lepar represent the least threat to them. They consider us mentally as well as physically inferior and inoffensive. Therefore they will listen to us where their natural skepticism would make them wary of such as the S’van. That is the secret to dealing successfully with Humans. Challenge them and you incur their suspicion, as do the Hivistahm and Yula and all the others. Acknowledge their dominance and they become your friends and protectors forever.

“In addition, we are the only ones who can swim with them. Deep inside, they remember the water from which they sprang. It is a subtle bond, and it gives my kind an advantage in dealing with them.

“The Weave wants to perpetuate but control their fighting ability. We want to moderate it, for our own security. We can do that.”

“By secretly monitoring them?”

“By offering them unthreatening friendship. Now that the peril posed by the individual Levaughn has been ended, the Core can probably deal adequately with lesser Humans of his persuasion. It will be left to us to deal with the species as a whole.”

She knew she was almost out of time. “It’s not for me to criticize your methodology or your goals, but is it really necessary to kill me to protect them? The modified Humans have trusted me with the secret of their Core. Can you not also trust me with yours? I can be useful to you as I have been useful to them.”

“I am afraid not. We are not as clever as the modified Humans. You could deceive us without our realizing it. Better to be safe. You see, Honored Scholar, you know the truth about the modified Humans, and about the intentions of the Amplitur and the reactionary Humans, and now about us. You have accumulated so many truths that it has made you very possibly the most dangerous individual alive.”

She blinked long lashes. “In an unusual life I have been called many things, but never dangerous.”

“You underestimate yourself gravely. We do not.”

“I am only a simple scholar, a plodding seeker after wisdom. It is all I ever wanted to be. Mere knowledge is not dangerous.”

The Lepar considered her thoughtfully. “Perhaps you are not so smart after all.”

“I guess you are right, or I would not find myself in this position now. I am not even smart enough to hide all my notes in a safe place.” She turned in the direction of the storage cube next to the nest. He followed her glance.

That’s when she hit him with the recorder.

It wasn’t very heavy, but it was made well. Cupped tightly within and propelled by the force of her right wingtip, it added just enough mass to make the blow effective. The actual wing motion was drawn from an adolescent mating dance, but it simulated a Human punch well enough. She was familiar with the physical mechanism from her studies.

As she made contact, pain exploded up the length of her wing, momentarily paralyzing her right side. The startled Lepar fared worse, the impact smashing a cheekbone and crushing an eye. He staggered on his short legs, the thick tail stiffening reflexively to provide additional support. She saw his fingers convulse on the injector, closed her eyes as she heard it emit a soft phut.

The high-velocity dose missed her chest and splatted harmlessly against the wall behind her. By then she was on top of the Lepar, knocking him to the floor. The impact further dazed him and she was able to wrest the weapon from his limp fingers.

Though it was designed for manipulation by bony digits, she was able to grasp the simple device with the flexible quill-tips of her left wing. Cyclically reciting her most dynamic control mantra, she rose and stood looking down at her reluctant assassin. The Lepar blinked up at her out of his remaining good eye, his tail twitching convulsively back and forth beneath him.

“How extraordinary. Had I not experienced such a thing, I would not have thought it possible. What are you going to do now?”

She was surprised to discover she didn’t know. Everything had happened very fast, and now sanity was returning with a rush. She started to shake violently.

Taking note of her reaction, the Lepar started to get to its feet. Blood trickled from the left side of its face, marring the sad, frozen smile. “You cannot kill me. You are Wais, who pride themselves on being the most civilized of all species.” A webbed hand reached toward her. “Give back the weapon. The drug works painlessly. Let us put an end to all this, for both our sakes.”

She stumbled backward. “You, too, are ‘civilized.’”

“Yes. But we are just scared and simpleminded enough to get around it. Having attained a much higher level of civilization, you are not.” The hand remained extended expectantly; fingers open, mottled green-black palm turned upward.

“You forget one thing. I have spent years working intimately with Humans. My friends, my family, my triad, and my colleagues have insisted all along that this has had a permanent and deleterious effect on me. Always I disputed them. Now I am afraid I must admit that they were right.”

The Lepar blinked its remaining eye once as the little gun went off for the second time, making a sound like some small cuddly creature sneezing into its own fur. The capacious mouth gaped wide, showing a wet black gullet. No sound emerged.

It sat down heavily. “I was correctly informed. There is no pain.” She eyed him insensibly. “What a pity that the toxin is not species-specific.” Slowly it toppled over onto its left side. “Most interesting.” The black eye gazed unblinkingly up at her. She wanted to turn away, to run, but she could not. Horrified fascination kept her transfixed to the spot.

“You should not have been capable of doing that.” She had to strain to hear the weakly gargled words. “This will complicate things.” The voice sank toward inaudibility.

After that the Lepar said nothing more, nor did any part of its body move again.

Shakily she walked around the corpse, not taking her eyes off it for a second, and finally sat down on the edge of the nest. She watched the motionless form for over an hour. Feeling reasonably safe at that point, she put the deceptively innocuous-looking weapon down and walked to the apartment’s hygiene alcove. Inclining her neck and head over the disposal, she proceeded to violently evacuate the contents of her stomach and crop into the pastel, scented receptacle.

When she’d finished, she washed and groomed herself as best she could and began to pack her belongings, not neglecting to include the deadly little gun. Whoever encountered the lifeless Lepar would discover that it had died of heart failure. The deception intended to disguise the true cause of her own death would serve equally well for her would-be assassin.

The medication that allowed her to work intimately and for extended periods with Human beings served to mask her nervousness as she departed the tense confines of the compound. Wholly absorbed by the inexplicable deaths of the Amplitur and two senior Human officers, none of the staff paid any attention to the decision of a visiting Wais scholar to depart. Amid the confusion she doubted if anyone would even bother to remark on the subsequent demise of a Lepar worker who had clearly died a natural death.

Except perhaps his fellow frightened, simpleminded Lepar. The Lepar who watched, and listened, and said little, but who occasionally acted. The Lepar who had never managed to master Underspace on their own and had to be conveyed by more technologically competent species from world to world. The Lepar who in that manner had succeeded in spreading themselves unobtrusively throughout the length and breadth of the Weave. Those Lepar.

What had he said? she reflected from the safety of her room aboard the Underspace liner hovering in orbit. That she, Lalelelang, was possibly the most dangerous individual alive?

The Lepar hadn’t said anything about the traitorous Turlog. Was it possible the amphibians had never discovered that particular duplicity? Maybe it was true that only she knew all the secrets.

All she wanted was to be left alone with her work.

As the transship entered Underspace, she felt a pang of regret for the deceased Straat-ien, with whom she had shared many difficulties and much time. He had represented his species admirably. Now she would be forever deprived of his unique viewpoint.

No matter. Her research would go on without him.

Among the ship’s crew were several Lepar. She kept a wary eye on them, but there was nothing to indicate that she was the focus of any unusual attention on their part or on the part of anyone else aboard. She had made her escape from Daccar with commendable speed.

Would they now seek her out on her homeworld? Lepar worked in the main cities, but they were not a common sight. None presently served at the university. How much would they dare, and how boldly? Or would they seek allies to carry out her assassination? A renegade Massood, perhaps, though a Human was a more likely candidate. Wasn’t that how they had originally entered the war, as soldiers for hire? That would be ironic. A Human would be even more conspicuous in her environs than a lethally minded Lepar.

She was neither innocent nor helpless, and her distinctive experiences had taught her much. There were steps she could take to protect herself.