The other subsided somewhat. “I suppose you're right,” he said. “I'm deathly tired. Do whatever you want. But don't expect much from me.”
Tog said, just a trifle tartly, Ronny thought, “We'll have to call on you, as usual, Agent Hassan. There's probably no single job in Section G more important than the pursuit of Tommy Paine.”
“All right, all right,” Mouley Hassan admitted. “I'll co-operate. How long have you been away from Earth?” he said to Ronny.
“About one basic week.”
“Oh,” he grunted. “This is your first stop, eh? Well, I don't envy you your job.” He brought a cool bottle from a delivery drawer in the desk along with two glasses. “Here's the wine.”
Ronny leaned forward to accept the glass. “This situation here,” he said, “do you think it can be laid to Paine?”
Mouley Hassan shrugged wearily. “I don't know.”
Ronny sipped the drink, looking at the tired agent over the glass rim. “From what we understand, check has been kept on all persons leaving the planet since the bombing.”
“Check is right. There's only one ship that took off and it carried nobody except my assistants. If you ask me, I still needed them, but some brass hat back on Earth decided they were more necessary over on Avalon.” He was disgusted.
Ronny put the glass down. “You mean only one ship's left this planet since the God-King was killed?”