"So, I can't kill you."
"Suit yourself."
"We'll get to that later," Short said. "Now, about where I can go: you got any ideas?"
"There are ten thousand and some worlds connected by these sub-space units, Mr. Short. What type of world did you have in mind?"
"Not a new one or a small one. I'd stick out like a sore thumb. I want one plenty far from Earth but still not a brand new, uncrowded colony. I want a far colony but an established one."
"Deneb Twelve," Liddell said in a very businesslike voice. "You couldn't possibly do better than Deneb Twelve. At the last census it had a population of over a hundred million, but it's more than six hundred light years from Earth, the twelfth planet of a system in which seven, nine, ten, eleven, twelve and fourteen are inhabited or habitable...."
"All right, all right. Cut all the details. How do I know you're telling the truth about Deneb Twelve?"
"You don't but you can always check it in our library."
"If you say I can check it, then I don't have to. I believe you. But unfortunately, I know nothing about sub-space."
Liddell shrugged.