"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....