"All right. You may leave this." She nodded and left. Defoe turned back to me. "I have some news for you, Thomas. Hammond has been located."
"That's good," I said. "Not too badly hung over, I hope."
He gave me an arctic smile. "Hardly. He was found by a couple of peasants who were picking grapes. He's dead."
V
Hammond dead! He had had his faults, but he was an officer of the Company and a man I had met. Dead!
I asked, "How? What happened?"
"Perhaps you can tell me that, Thomas," said Defoe.
I sat startledly erect, shocked by the significance of the words. I said hotly, "Damn it, Mr. Defoe, you know I had nothing to do with this! I've been all over the whole thing with you and I thought you were on my side! Just because I said a lot of crazy things after Marianna died doesn't mean I'm anti-Company—and it certainly doesn't mean I'd commit murder. If you think that, then why the devil did you put me in cadet school?"
Defoe merely raised his hand by bending the wrist slightly; it was enough to stop me, though. "Gently, Thomas. I don't think you did it—that much should be obvious. And I put you in cadet school because I had work for you."