“Yes. At any rate, she treats all of you as if you were the same man, so don’t be surprised. I believe she regards it as her personal joke.”
They had done a nice job, Deitrich thought. The new building was located in a government vegetation preserve, and had about as much beauty and luxury as was available anywhere in the system. And that was considerable.
As he entered his office, the secretary glanced up at him and raised a finger. Then, in a time-honored gesture, she pointed it to her head. “Inside,” she said cryptically. “You’ll have to give me a better clue than that,” Deitrich protested. “After all, I just got here.”
She frowned with annoyance, but she explained. “I couldn’t keep him out. Said you were the only one who could help him and that it was practically a matter of life and death.” Deitrich nodded doubtfully and went on into the inner office.
A short, muscular man jumped to his feet with a clatter of hard plastic sandals. His clothing indicated that he was a lower-class merchant, which was somewhat surprising to Deitrich because a lower-class man like that could hardly be involved with a TJ transport. The only exception would be as a subsidy-colonist, and the Eighteen Planets never shipped any of those.
“I’m sorry to bother you sir, but my wife thought you might be able to—” The man hesitated and nervously fingered the tassels on his blouse.
“What’s your name?”
“Tsuroak, sir.”
Deitrich motioned, and they both sat down. Tsuroak continued to fool with the yellow-corded tassel.
“And what is the trouble?”