"She did. You're still on the planet."
"What's this 'sir' business and the pleasant smile for?"
Kielgaard said. "You're a hero. It shows, incidentally, how the best
experts can make awe-inspiring mistakes. We gave you fast reflexes,
thinking that would make you safer. But it turns out that the planet
has a class of authorized assassins who hunt down criminals for a
livelihood, and never get too numerous because they fight each other
for extra credits and prestige. With your fast reflexes and built-in
wariness, the populace immediately spotted you for one of these lawful
assassins, so you couldn't have been more conspicuous."
Kielgaard shook his head. "Meanwhile, Trans-Space was bringing in hired
killers to knock off the planet's lawful assassins at a huge bonus per
head, in order to create an uproar so that the election committee,
which they had already captured and conditioned, would clap on more
restrictions, thus creating more tension, so that Trans-Space could
swing the referendum at the last minute. You see, the most dangerous
thing we could have done to you was to give you these extra-fast
reflexes. But now, because of it, you're a hero." Kielgaard looked sad.
"Luckily," said Dan, "I'm still alive. And so were all those soldiers."
"Another mistake of the experts," said Kielgaard. "The highest
authorities on Truth strongly suspected something was wrong with the
protective field around the control center. This made them fearful
that the scientific device to halt the flow of time hadn't worked
either. This would have been a terrible catastrophe, so by a set of
rationalizations that would do credit to a bunch of habitual liars,
they evaded the whole issue. The experts and I made the mistake of
drawing the logical conclusion. I'm glad it wasn't so."
"What happened to Trans-Space?"
Kielgaard stopped looking sad and smiled a smile of deep satisfaction.
"Galactic has its contract with this planet. Trans-Space is in a very
anemic condition. The Truthians don't like people who lie, and they
always settle their accounts very strictly."
Kielgaard's face subsided into its gloomy look.