"All of you! Where are Stevens, Cogswell, MacBride?"
Barry Watson said, "Plekhanov's fault. Lost in the battle that broke the
back of the rebels. At least Cogswell and MacBride were. Stevens made
the mistake of backing Plekhanov when the showdown came."
Joe Chessman looked sourly at his military chief. "I'll act as team
spokesman, Barry."
"Yes, sir," Watson said.
"Broke the back of the rebels," Jerry Kennedy mused. "That opens all
sorts of avenues, doesn't it?"
Chessman growled. "I suppose that in the past twenty years your team had
no obstacles. Not a drop of blood shed. Come on, the truth. How many of
your team has been lost?"
Mayer shifted in his chair. "Possibly your point is well taken. Dean and
Rosetti were burned by the formerly dominant religious group. Rykov was
killed in a fracas with bandits while he was transporting some gold." He
added, musingly, "We lost more than half a million Genoese pounds in
that robbery."
"Only three men lost, eh?"
Mayer stirred uncomfortably, then flushed in irritation at the other's
tone. "Something has happened to Buchwald and MacDonald. They must be
insane. They've broken off contact with me, are amassing personal
fortunes in the eastern hemisphere."
Hawkins laughed abruptly. "Free competition," he said.
Chessman growled, "Let's halt this bickering and get to business. First
let me introduce Reif, Texcocan State Army Chief of Staff and his son
Taller. And these other Texcocans are Wiss and Fokin, both of whom have
gone far in the sciences."
The Tulans shook hands, Earth style, but then stepped to the rear again
where they followed the conversation without comment.