Deadly enemies, they drank to each other's damnation.
"I realize that you don't trust me," the Damakoi said. "But I have come here merely to warn you. If you have time to listen to my story—"
He left the sentence hanging, as though waiting for a rebuke from me. But I'd had my orders.
"It's not that, Holdreth Khain," I said, keeping my voice smooth; "We realize that a high percentage of your race are loyal to the Galactic Federation. You are all fanatical in your beliefs, of course, but that is merely a racial psychological trait. There are as many of the Damakoi for us as against us. The trouble is, we can never know which is which."
It wasn't quite true. There were many more of the Damakoi against us than for us. At least seventy percent of the beings from the planet Damak hated the principles that the Galactic Federation stood for. If this alien was against us, I was in one devil of a jam.
"My people have acquired a very unsavory reputation throughout the Galaxy," the Damakoi said. "But I am not the assassin type, myself." He waved a four-fingered blue hand in a deprecative gesture. "I am in complete disagreement with the anti-Federation beliefs which are widely held on my planet."
I nodded and tried to keep my face pleasant. I had little enough love for the Damakoi—they were mostly hotheads whose suicide assassins had done too much already to wreck Galactic amity. I trusted Holdreth Khain about as far as I could throw a chimney by the smoke.
"And why did you wish to see me, Holdreth Khain?" I asked.