"Try me."
"Mental improvement. It costs me ten thousand a year and up to maintain
the rate of growth I desire."
"You mean college courses and books and such things cost you _ten
thousand_ a year?"
"I said you wouldn't believe me."
"So you did," Derrence muttered.
"Shall we order?"
Derrence decided the time had come. "How much?" he asked quietly.
Tzadi was looking around the room. He turned to Derrence. "I beg your
pardon?"
"How much do you want?"
Tzadi stared at him; then his head jerked slightly and he smiled and
said, "Ah, yes. How much. For my silence. I see. That _would_ be the
way, wouldn't it?"
Derrence didn't understand the man's reaction. It was almost as if
money had never entered Tzadi's head before this moment. But if it
hadn't been money....