This man, for instance. He'd owed Owajima a debt, true, but it had been loyalty rather than obligation that had led him to help the way he had. Assuming he was successful in this mission, Nevan thought, he'd have to see the businesser got some sort of compensation. Though the man had definitely been in serious pain, Nevan had inflicted no real damage beyond bruises; when the man woke, he'd be able to function normally.
Nevan was tempted to clean the man up, put him to bed, and dose him with rapid-heal--but that wasn't how one with his cover occupation would act. Instead, he got an injector of energine and triggered it into the businesser's carotid artery. Seconds later, the man's eyes opened and he groaned. "Are you done yet?"
"Yes. You may get dressed and leave. I would advise you to waste no time; liftoff is in ten minutes."
"I'll be gone." The man struggled to his feet and into the small 'fresher, where Nevan had had him leave his clothing; less than two minutes later he was leaving the ship.
Nevan had his flight plan ready by then. He transmitted it to the spaceport controller, got clearance, and was lifting off at the specified time. Not long afterward, he was far enough from the planet to make the transition to hyperspace, and did so.
Owajima smiled as he read his agent's decoded message. DarLowrie had acted precisely as could be expected from a Sandeman assassin, it seemed, though Owajima was pleased his agent reported nothing more serious than bruises. He frowned, though, when he reached the last paragraph.
"Personal impressions: I can't pinpoint it, but something about him reminds me of you. The feeling you give me of being looked into more than at, maybe. It's not the typical Sandeman arrogance that makes you feel like you're not worth the bother of looking at--it's more like being under a microscope. I'm sorry to be so vague, but as I said, there wasn't anything definite I can point to."
A feeling of being looked into rather than at. Owajima frowned more deeply. That bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a particularly observant person's reaction to someone who was reading @'s face and body language. That was not a common skill, particularly among Sandemans--though he had to admit it would be as useful a skill for an assassin as it was for a field agent.
In which case, it was possible DarLowrie had obtained more information than Owajima had intended--including that the information had been set up for him to find. And where had DarLowrie learned such a skill? Not on any of the Sandeman worlds, which weren't given to such subtleties. The only places Owajima knew, in fact, that taught more than the most basic such reading were the Kai school here, and the Imperial field agent school on Terra. No Sandeman had ever studied here, and he was aware of only one who had successfully completed field agent training--his predecessor as top agent, Nevan DarLeras, now sworn to the Crown Princess by the totally-binding Sandeman personal-fealty oath.