There was a long silence. Bannion finally broke it. ‘I think we’ve completed the decent silence.’ ‘How can you estimate a man’s worth in silence?’ ‘I have a feeling you’re just burning to tell me what bad news it will be if the brotherhood find out we ain’t been treating you right.’ ‘The basic computations that support the city’s gambling economy and even its basic stasis and life support all come from the brotherhood.’ ‘And it might just get cut off if they found we’d messed you up?’ ‘It’s possible.’ ‘That’s why my men aren’t beating you to death right now.’ ‘You stopped them?’ ‘I stopped them.’ ‘And what will happen to me now?’ ‘That depends.’ ‘On what?’ ‘You’re here to kill?’ ‘I’m here on an executive task.’ ‘You’re here to kill?’ ‘Yes.’ Bannion sighed. ‘That’s more like it. Okay, who?’ ‘A woman who lives in this town.’ ‘Why?’ ‘If her course of action is not terminated, the eventual outcome could be a major disaster.’ ‘Is this woman a native of Litz?’ Jeb Stuart Ho shook his head.
