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waved him to his seat
"First," she said, "you must learn that we're much less formal here. We
reserve our 'company manners'
strictly for company."
"But," he said, smiling as he took his seat, "a beauti-
ful woman should always be treated like a treasured guest."
Channa served herself from a platter and passed it to him, letting go of it
almost before he'd gotten a grip on it
"Flatterer. I'm not ugly, but I'm no great beauty, either."
He almost dropped the hot platter in surprise, its contents lilting alarming
close to the edge and burning his thumb. He put it down hastily and sucked the
injury for a moment
"No, truly," he said, flapping his hand to cool it "I
think you are most attractive." There was no doubting
THE CITY WHO FOUGHT
205
the sincerity in his wide, gentian-blue eyes. The lashes, she noticed, were
long and curled. His gaze grew play-
ful. "In a strange, foreign, exotic fashion, of course."
"Well, you're very attractive, too, Amos," she said seriously.
"I like attracrive-wo&en," he said, and his gaze was subtly challenging.
"Mmh, I don't likeattractive men," she said posi-
tively. Actually, I don't approve of them, which is not exactly the same
thing, she amended to herself. "They tend to be spoiled and self-centered and
in general much more trouble than they're worth. Now, let us eat before the
food cools. We have a great deal of work to do and not much time and energy to
spare." She gave him a direct stare. "I'm sure we're going to have an
excellent busi-
ness relationship, manager to manager."
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"Of course," Amos said with a neutral, social smile.
"Shouldn't you start calling Amos Simeon-Amos, Channa?" Simeon broke in,
before the atmosphere got any cooler.
"Good idea," Channa said.
Amos, as far as Simeon could tell, was sulking slightly.
Aha, Simeon thought With those looks, plus brains and charisma and high
position, he's probably used to women suc-
cumbing to his every ploy. And, he noted charitably, the
Bethelite was only in his early twenties. All the textbooks said softshells
were highly subject to hor-
monal influences at that stage in their pitifully short development spans.
Nine gets you ten, he told himself, that there's a worn-
down track m the carpet between their doors within a week.
The notion was oddly unpalatable. He put it aside and launched into some of
the nineteen million things
Amos would have to become familiar with about station management
H CHAPTER TvfeLVE
# is
Ahhha, gotcha! Simeon crooned to himself "Channa?
You awake?"
"You can always tell when I'm awake. Why ask?"
"Because it'spoliteS he replied.
"What is it?" Her tone noted that the sleep period was three hours gone and,
in barely five more, she would have to be awake for more of the interminable
meetings and briefings.
"I've found out something about our expected and uninvited guests," he went
on.
That brought her alert, sitting up in bed and reach-
ing to key up the lights and switch off the soft fugue she had been playing to
court sleep.
"Couldn't sleep anyway," she said. "Let me have it,"
"Got a download from Central. Had to burn some butts to get it released. It's
not much. Planet named
Koinar, settled way, way, way back. Quite a ways from here, too, as such
things go. About forty times as far as the sun Saffron, further in on the
spiral arm."
Channa frowned. "That's really out in the boonies, settled in the second or
third waves."
"Uh-uh. It was first wave."
She pursed her lips in a silent whistle. "Right at the beginning of
interstellar colonization
He went on. "Involuntary colonization. Translation program running... Okay, a
whole bunch of bad-hat groups; the Kh&nir Reddish Rice Cosmetic, the Temil
Large
Striped Felines, the New Council Men, the Resurrected
Aryan-Germanic Statewide Associationist Employees Party, THE CTIY WHO FOUGHT
207
faeSonsofChaka, the Luminescent Footway, the Darwin-
Wilson Society, the N"
"What's so amusing?" she said as she caught the laughter ripple in his voice.
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