Let's Make a Deal (Bob and Nikki Book 11), стр. 54
“You must give him good service, for him to be so loyal to you.”
“I’m not all that useful to him, he’s just loyal to all his people. If you want to know the truth, I think he was testing you, to see if you would really let me off the ship or not. He needs to know if he can trust you, and this was a good test.”
“You don’t seem all that upset to be used in such a scheme.”
“Your Majesty, you do see all the Marines around me, don’t you? There are many more on the other ships of the fleet. I have no doubt that they would all be here to get me back, if you went back on your word.”
“You trust your monkey Commodore a great deal. Are you sure he is worth it?”
“Without a doubt.”
“Why is that?”
“I have seen the lengths he has gone to, in order to keep from harming any more of our people than he must. He is a good man, monkey or not.”
Crikki spoke up. “If he is so good, why does he mistrust the Emperor?”
Lakki replied, “Because those of our people he has met so far have not dealt with him honorably. He has no reason to believe the Emperor is any different, begging your pardon, Majesty.”
“You already have that, Lakki. I can see why the Commodore would be cautious, if he has been dealing with people like the Admirals recently in my employ.”
“He is cautious, but he sincerely wants peace. I hope that you can come to an agreement with him, Majesty.”
“Why is it so important to you?”
“I have seen and heard the things the Commodore can do. I do not want him to be forced to do them to our people, Majesty.”
“The course you gave me is working. I can tell you sincerely believe what you said.”
“I am glad to be of service, Majesty.”
“To me, or to your Commodore?”
“Both, I hope.”
“A noble goal. Go in peace. The Emperor has spoken.”
Lakki curtsied, and said, “Yes, Majesty.” Then she headed back to the saucer she flew over. The Emperor said, “Ambassador, I think we should retire to my study, and go over the agreements you brought.”
Natti said, “Yes, Majesty. Let me dismiss these Marines, and I will be right with you.”
The Marine in charge spoke up. “Mr. Ambassador, I should leave you an escort, just because the Admirals are no longer a problem, doesn’t mean there aren’t bad actors still aboard the yacht.”
Dixie said, “Likewise, Ambassador, I should stay until we are sure there is no longer a threat.”
Natti wound up with Dixie and eight Marines. The rest returned to the Puller. Saucy asked, “Would you like me to switch our feed to one of the Marines staying behind, Boss?”
“No, thanks. Give them a little privacy. I’m sure the Marines will let us know if something important comes up.”
“Okay, Boss.” I turned to Topper. “Anything else happening in our corner of the galaxy today?”
“The folks Captain Dressi trained have cleared another ship, and they hope to be able to send all the Marines back late today, or early tomorrow.”
“That’s good news. I don’t like being in possession of their fleet, while we’re trying to negotiate with them. Makes it harder to convince them we mean them no harm. Anything else?”
Sue spoke up. “Boss, I’ve used every trick I can think of, and then made some stuff up. If they have any stealthed ships out there, they’re way better than anything we’ve seen before.”
Topper said, “It seems to be as calm as we could hope for, Boss. Does that scare you as much as it does me?”
“It certainly does, Topper. Murphy will be along shortly, I have no doubt. Until he gets here, I’m going to get out of your way. Your ship, Topper.”
“My ship, Boss. I’ll call you when Murphy gets here.”
“Thanks.” I headed out. As soon as I was off the bridge, I asked Gene, “Where could I find Mrs. Wilson, Gene?”
“She’s in the ready room, taking a course, Boss.”
“How long till she finishes?”
“Three minutes.” I went in the ready room, and waited for Nikki to come out of her course. When she woke up, she asked, “Hey, Caveman, whatcha doing?”
“Waiting on my favorite lady.”
“Need something?”
“Some advice, I guess. I’m not sure I handled things right this morning.”
“What did you do that you’re not sure about?”
“I sent Lakki to the Imperial yacht, to give the Emperor the cold-reading course.”
“I thought she had already proved it was safe, with Snappi?”
“She did, but this way, I got her a pardon from the Emperor, so she can go see her friends and family, and I found out whether I could trust the Emperor.”
“It’s the last part that has you wondering?”
“Yep. I sent her into a potentially dangerous situation, just to gather intel, without asking her first. Am I becoming one of those guys who thinks that whatever he wants is the right thing, without thinking about how it affects other people?”
“Nope. If you were, you wouldn’t be here asking me about it. You’d be celebrating how well your plan worked, don’t you think?”
“I guess so. I just want to be careful that I don’t go off the rails. I have a lot of people depending on me.”
“Would you feel better, if you apologized to Lakki, for sending her in without letting her know everything beforehand?”
“Maybe.”
“You know that it’s a part of the job, don’t you?”
“What’s that?”
“Sending people to do jobs, without explaining why. Sometimes even sending people to do jobs they won’t come back from.”
“I know it in my