“They think that the best bet is for you as a . . . polity to hand Obelus over to them, since he is apparently what they are after. The hope being that if you give them what they want, they’ll leave and take Obelus home as they’re ordered to do, and leave them and us to our horrible fate.”

Porter glared at him, not amused, while the others deliberated among themselves for a response. Eventually, Ghasabian emerged. “We obviously cannot force you to do anything, but we would ask you to stay in our custody, and we would ask Nikola and Scio to do the same. If you would share intelligence with us as to how we can find and recapture Obelus, we would be grateful, but we cannot allow you to do it for us.”

[Even lacking the body he used to cause such damage three months ago, with a smaller, less lethal body, his is an intelligence capable of incredible harm, both to us and to your civilization. Your military apparatus does not have the capability to track down any amygdaline that does not want to be found. My Similar does. Permit him to use your resources to find and recapture Obelus.]

“Thank you for your offer,” said Ghasabian. “But we can neither permit nor endorse this. Please, at least until we have legislation regarding your legal status, we ask you to stay here.”

Esperas seemed to contract and expand on himself like a breath, then without another word, he and Brako exited the room, and their handler followed. The bureaucrats behind him erupted into another burble of whispers.

“How about it?” Kaveh whispered to Nikola.

Nikola stood back up to his full height. “TELL THEM THAT I WILL BE COMPLIANT. BUT I DO NOT BELIEVE MY CONTRIBUTING INTELLIGENCE WILL BE ENOUGH. IF THEY WILL NOT PERMIT BRAKO THE FREEDOM TO DO SO, PERHAPS THEY WILL PERMIT IT TO ME. I WILL NOT BE SEEN BY ANY HUMAN EYES, AND I WILL KEEP THEM ABREAST OF MY MOVEMENTS.”

“He really thinks there’s no way for humans to track Obelus down. He thinks he should do it. He says he’ll make sure no one sees him, and he’ll keep you in the loop on what he’s doing.”

Ghasabian approached the two of them and knelt respectfully in front of Nikola. “We do not have the sufficient language to express our gratitude that you have been so forthcoming and communicative. But after Pershing Square, we cannot allow you free range to search for Obelus. Perhaps we are more advanced than you suspect.”

“IMPRESS UPON THEM THAT I FEEL IT WILL BE A WASTE. I WILL SHARE WHAT I CAN, BUT THEY WILL NOT SUCCEED IN HIS RECAPTURE. ONLY WE CAN DO THAT, AND I FEAR THAT BY THE TIME THEY ALLOW US THE FREEDOM TO DO SO, IT WILL BE TOO LATE.”

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