Let's Make a Deal (Bob and Nikki Book 11), стр. 57
Dee asked, “What are we supposed to call him, anyway?”
“Danged if I know. I just figured as long as I treated him as an equal, he wouldn’t decide he was the big dog. Hadn’t thought it through farther than that.”
Jane said, “That’s our Bob. Let’s get it done, we’ll figure out the details when they come up.”
We boarded the ship we were going over on, and the ramp came up. Ace came over the speaker. “Thank you for flying Ace Air. We won’t be long, so don’t get too comfortable.” Soon enough, the ramp came down, showing us our welcome. There was an honor guard, and Natti was waiting at the bottom of the ramp. I strode down, with my entourage following. It felt silly, but I tried to maintain an air of competence. Natti said, “Commodore Wilson, I’m here to escort you to the throne room. Please follow me.” As he turned, I leaned in close and asked, “Where do they have the ambush set up?” I didn’t expect an answer, but his reaction told me what I needed to know. If there was an ambush, he hadn’t been told about it. Of course, it might be more convenient for the Emperor if we were both dead, so that didn’t necessarily mean we were safe. The head of the honor guard stepped up. He said, through a translator badge, “Your people will have to surrender your weapons before you are allowed into the presence of the Emperor.”
I replied, “Oh, I was mistaken. I thought he was serious about signing these documents. Sorry to waste your time.” I turned to get back aboard our ship. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Natti whispering excitedly into his comm. He turned to the guard and said, “The Emperor would like a word with you.” He handed the comm to the guard, who suddenly looked very chagrined. He handed Natti his comm, and said, “My mistake. Sorry to have bothered you.” I checked his rank tab, and said, “No problem, Lieutenant. I understand completely.”
I was surprised when he saluted me, but I managed to return it before he realized. He went back to his troops, and they escorted us to the throne room. The door guards swung the doors open, and snapped to as we approached. I nodded to them as we passed, and they seemed amazed that I would notice them. There was a table set up, with documents on it, in front of the throne. We walked up to the table, and Natti stepped around to the other side. He said, “Commodore, honored guests, it is my profound honor to present His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Oak.” He knelt, and made motions for us to follow suit. I remained standing, and my people did likewise. The Emperor strode in, looking at me oddly. He asked, “You do not kneel?”
“I come here as an equal, your Highness, not a subject.”
The honor guard was highly disciplined, but a gasp was still audible. The Emperor saved the moment by saying, “As it should be. I’m surprised to find you so well versed in our ways.”
“Our people are not that different when it comes to things like this, Majesty.”
“Shall we sign?”
“No offense, Majesty, but I would like to look at these documents, and make sure they contain the same agreement I worked out with your Ambassador.”
“That is wise. You haven’t dealt with me before, so how do you know you can trust me?”
“Exactly. I’m sure I’m just being overly cautious, but it’s easier to find out about it now, than have to renegotiate something later.”
“Be my guest.” Luckily, the comm training course I had taken covered scanning documents, and comparing them to stored copies. Otherwise, I would have been there awhile. My comm couldn’t find any problems, so I signed them, and handed them to the Emperor. He signed as well, and said, “I have heard of a custom among your people. ‘Handshake’, I believe it is called?”
I stuck out my hand. “Pleasure doing business with you, Majesty.”
“And you, Commodore. Would you stay, and celebrate?”
“I’m sorry, Majesty, but I need to return to my ship, my wife is expecting me.”
Natti spoke up. “Majesty, it would be wise not to annoy Mrs. Wilson. She is the Commodore’s most trusted advisor.”
The Emperor asked, “She is the one you spoke of, who helped with the negotiations?”
“Indeed.”
“Be on your way, Commodore. From what Natti has told me, I have no desire to annoy your wife.”
“Thank you Majesty. Once again, it is good to be at peace with you, and your people.”
“The feeling is mutual, Commodore. Come back when you can bring your wife.”
“I will.” We headed back to our ship, carrying our copies of the treaties. Once we were safely away, Dee said, “I thought you had screwed the pooch when you didn’t kneel, Bob.”
“I didn’t think acknowledging him as superior to me was the right way to go about it. I guess I wasn’t too far wrong.”
“Big brass ones, Bob. How did you figure that one out?”
“Just seemed like the thing to do, at the time.”
Bone spoke up. “Excuse me, Boss, but I have some information that might be important.”
“What do you have, Bone?”
“You were right about someone trying to take control of us while we were aboard the Emperor’s yacht. Luckily, none of us had the programming flaw to make us vulnerable to the attack.”
“Well, that’s good and bad, isn’t it? I thought the Emperor was playing it straight with us.”
Bone replied, “I think he was, Commodore. The signal was coming from one of the guard officers.”
“You’re telling me the Emperor still has people on his ship he