"Sit down, Mr. Oak," he said in that oddly forced voice of his. "Would you care for something to eat? Or a drink, perhaps?" He already had a drink, still three-quarters full.
"Not just yet. Later, maybe."
I had watched him as he stood up, and I went right on watching him while we sat down. For a man who was just in from Earth, he handled himself remarkably well under low gee. "We may order later," he said to the waiter.
As soon as the waiter was out of earshot, Venuccio leaned toward me, and suddenly he was all business.
One hand slid a banknote across the table. "Here is the hundred we agreed upon, Mr. Oak. I can state my proposition very quickly; you have only to listen."
I palmed the hundred and slipped it out of sight. "You have rented yourself a pair of ears, Mr. Venuccio."
"Very good." He kept his voice low and even. "Do you know anything of the Cronos Water Corporation?"
"Sure. Cronos is one of the companies that mines the rings of Saturn. A lot of the water here in the Belt comes from the ice they ship in. Why?"
"Not exactly," he said, ignoring my question. "They now have full control of their only rival, Titan Enterprises. I am a stockholder in Titan, and I am convinced that there was chicanery involved in the transfer of managership. The Cronos Corporation intends to raise the price of water in the Belt and make a lot of fast money."
"Does the Government know about this?"