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The maid rushed out of the room.

Ashinik climbed into the bathtub and washed and shaved himself recovering slowly. His recollections were becoming clearer and now he was absolutely sure that he indeed had had a fit yesterday. Damned Yadan! He drove Ashinik to it with his forked tongue. But how could Inis walk away when he was in the middle of a fit? Did she leave her helpless husband rolling on the floor?

Wincing, Ashinik swallowed two cups of coffee and walked back to the bedroom to change his clothing. Only now he noticed what he had not noticed half an hour ago — a white woman's arm on the carpet, on the other side of the bed, closer to the window.

Ashinik moved nearer and froze.

Inis lay on the carpet on the other side of the bed and the pearls set in silver were scattered all around her — the necklace did snap. A red mark darkened her neck but that was not all of it — her body was hacked and covered in blood and a knife with a bone handle lay next to her.

'Inis!' Ashinik screamed desperately clutching at his wife's face.

Ashinik stood up from his knees in fifteen minutes. He was completely covered with blood now. He swayed. His thoughts darted around like hungry mice in a cage. His memory was getting clearer and clearer. An ugly quarrel had happened at first and a fit followed it. Is it possible that he killed his wife during the fit? It's possible. The police will certainly think along these lines. It will be a gift worthy of an Emperor for Shavash…

What if it was not him? He refused to follow Yadan's orders — Yadan knows that Ashinik loses himself completely during a fit; one of Yadan's men could have been there watching them and he could have punished Ashinik for being obstinate!

It just had to have happened like that!

Though why would the sect need a scandal that would certainly hit it? The 'yellow coats' will squeeze everything out of Ashinik! Does Yadan hope that Ashinik will run back to the zealots for help? 'Only they can help me,' Ashinik thought, 'Only they can hide a corpse and hide me.'

Or maybe it's not Yadan. It could be a spy of Shavash's. It could be anybody who hates Ashinik. Who hates Ashinik? The whole world hates him! His only home is the sect but the Earthmen took it away from him!

Bemish! Terence Bemish will understand him!

X X X

In seven minutes Ashinik, pale but already groomed, climbed out of a taxi at the main spaceport building. He didn't have an ID that allowed access to the service floors anymore but a manager recognized Ashinik and walked him upstairs.

Thankfully, Terence Bemish was in his office. He immediately stood up greeting Ashinik.

'Oh my God, Ashinik! What happened to you? Are you sick?'

'I had a fit,' Ashinik said. 'What am I saying,' a thought glanced in his mind, 'When they find Inis, he will immediately think about the fit. On the other hand, I am going to tell him everything…'

But at that point something beeped and whined at Bemish's belt.

'Yes,' the Assalah director shouted into the receiver. Having turned it off in five minutes, he said, 'Ashinik, I need to go!'

'I will come with you!'

'No, it's ok. Get yourself a coffee and I'll be back in a moment.'

He disappeared through the door.

Ashinik mechanically sat down in the office owner's armchair. He was confused and deeply offended that Terence hadn't even heard him out. Several minutes had passed before Ashinik moved. It was not the first occasion when he was sitting in this armchair as the Assalah director's deputy but then he had used his own password…

When Bemish returned to his office in three hours, he didn't find Ashinik there.

'He figured out why I called him to Weia,' Bemish thought. He leaned back in the armchair and dialed Ashinik's hotel room number. Nobody picked up a receiver — the room was empty. Bemish called his villa and his headman told him that the mistress hadn't arrived yet and that everything was ready for her arrival accordingly to Bemish's orders.

With a smile Bemish called the border control chief — just in case — and told him not to let Ashinik and Inis off the planet. Time and again later he blamed himself that he hadn't called police at once, though it would have made no difference by then.

X X X

In two days at five in the morning, a phone call woke Bemish up at the villa. It was Shavash's personal secretary and Bemish's heart skipped a beat because a phone call so early could be only about Inis — she and Ashinik had disappeared out of the hotel room without a trace like a rotting mushroom would disappear in the earth in the fall.

'Mr. Bemish?'

'Yes.'

'Have you seen today's Blue Sun?'

'No, I haven't seen it.'

'Take a look.'

The secretary hung the receiver.

'Where are the newspapers?!' Bemish screamed rushing out at the terrace.

His secretary, pale with fear, handed the newspapers to him. The front page had it all, 'The Earthmen are building a military base next to the capital — Weia is now a hostage in the superpowers' fight.' The second page boasted another title, 'The last bribe of Shavash's. What's the price of your country?' The phone rang. It was Kissur.

'Terence? The Emperor wants to see you. You should be in the Fragrant Solemnity Pavilion in half an hour.'

The phone screamed again.

'I am not here, not here, I am already flying!' Bemish shouted leaping out of his bathrobe. A helicopter was beating his transparent wings at the landing field behind the white wall.

Bemish spent half an hour in the helicopter studying the damned Blue Sun, a shitty newspaper that belonged to the rebels. 'I've always known that it would come to that,' he thought. The newspaper lied only in the minor details. The bribe received by Shavash had actually been thirty percent higher. Terence Bemish was called 'a professional spy, an experienced agent who wormed his way into the confidence of some people close to the sovereign.' There was even some bullshit story about Bemish being kicked out of Gera three years ago for espionage — it didn't speak in favor of his spying skills.

They were already awaiting him in the carved halls. Sweetish smoke was rising out of the silver corollas of the braziers. The gold peacocks, cast during Empress Cassia's rule, stood on the both sides of the forbidden door and gawked at the Earthman with bewilderment and condemnation. The Emperor, confused and pale, sat in an armchair. Dressed up Shavash faced the Emperor expressionlessly and the first minister Yanik stood to the right. He was devouring Shavash with his eyes.

'How do you do, Mr. Bemish?' the Emperor said.

Bemish felt himself blushing as if he were a boy caught in a supermarket while stealing a chocolate bar and not the man responsible for the largest military scandal of the century.

The sovereign paused and added, 'It's not my place to judge but, really, should the Emperor of the Country of Great Light find what you do to my country out of newspapers?'

Precisely at that moment, the doors of the golden peacocks moved apart and another character — Giles — walked in.

Bemish turned to him and said vengefully, 'Well, what have I told you? We got it.'

'I am very upset, Mr. Bemish,' sovereign Varnazd continued, 'I considered you to be an honest man. I am always wrong about people.'

'Bemish has nothing to do with it,' Giles said, 'Our company was supposed to get the license. It took us a while to persuade Mr. Bemish so that he agreed to build it our way.'

'And how much has it cost you for Mr. Bemish to agree?' the Emperor smiled.

Bemish became as red as the apples on the tapestry behind the Emperor and said, 'It cost them nothing. I