The bubbling air seemed to draw in on itself and take solid form. Dr. Leoh sat at a desk chair and looked up at the standing commander.
“Harold, it’s a pleasure to see you once again.”
Spencer’s stern eyes softened, and his beefy face broke into a well-creased smile. “Albert, you ancient scoundrel. What do you mean by interrupting my first visit home in fifteen years?”
“It won’t be a long interruption,” Leoh said.
“You told my chief of staff that it was urgent,” Sir Harold groused.
“It is. But it’s not the sort of problem that requires much action on your part. Yet. You are familiar with recent political developments on the Kerak Worlds?”
Spencer snorted. “I know that a barbarian named Kanus has established himself as a dictator. He’s a troublemaker. I’ve been talking to the Commonwealth Council about the advisability of quashing him before he causes grief, but you know the Council ... first wait until the flames have sprung up, then thrash about and demand that the Star Watch do something!”
Leoh grinned. “You’re as irascible as ever.”
“My personality is not the subject of this rather expensive discussion. What about Kanus? And what are you doing, getting yourself involved in politics? About to change your profession again?”
“No, not at all,” Leoh answered, laughing. Then, more seriously. “It seems as though Kanus has discovered some method of using the dueling machines to achieve political advantages over his neighbors.”