“Makes what more difficult?”

“Trusting me.” His eyes flicked around the room, as anyone’s might, but Lunzie could not believe it was the usual casual glance. Then he looked back at her. “You don’t, and I can’t blame you, but we must work together or. Or things could get very bad indeed.”

“Isn’t your involvement with an offworlder going to be a little conspicuous?” She let a little sarcasm edge her voice; how naive did he think she was?

“Of course. That doesn’t matter.” He ate a few bites while she digested the implications of that statement. It could only “not matter” if policymakers knew and approved. When he looked up and swallowed, she nodded at him. “Good! You understand. Your name on the medical team was a little conspicuous, if you’d had any ulterior motive for coming here . . .”He let that trail away, and Lunzie said nothing. Whatever motives she had had, the important tiling now was to find out what Zebara was talking about. She took another bite of stew; it was better than the same dish in the research complex’s dining hall.

“I saw the list,” Zebara went on. “One of the things my department does is screen such delegations, looking for possible troublemakers. Nothing unusual. Most planets do the same. There was your name, and I wondered if it was the same Lunzie. Found out that it was you and then the rocks started falling.”