Defoe stood over me. He said, "I'm very glad to see you, Thomas.
Coffee?"
He steadied my hands as I gulped it. When I had managed a few swallows,
he took the cup away.
"I did not think you would resist arrest, Thomas," he said in a
parental tone.
I said, "Damn it, you didn't have to arrest me! I came down here of my
own free will!"
"Down?" His eyebrows rose. "Down from where do you mean, Thomas?"
"Down from Mount--" I hesitated, then finished. "All right. Down from
Mount Vesuvius. The museum, where I was hiding out with the ringleaders
of the anti-Company movement. Is that what you want to know?"
Defoe crackled: "Manning!" The lieutenant-general saluted and left the
room. Defoe said, "That was the first thing I wanted, yes. But now I
want much more. Please begin talking, Thomas. I will listen."
I talked. There was nothing to stop me. Even with my body a mass of
aches and pains from the tender care of the Company's expediters, I
still had to side with the Company in this. For the Cobalt-bomb ended
all loyalties.
I left nothing important out, not even Rena. I admitted that I had
taken Benedetto from the clinic, how we had escaped to Rome, how we had
fled to Vesuvius ... and what I had learned. I made it short, skipping
a few unimportant things like Zorchi.
And Defoe sat sipping his coffee, listening, his warm eyes twinkling.