action flow, as they all said. However things turned out, this would sell a billion loops.
"Take a drink, sweet Arran Handully, from the glass you offered me," Jazz said, smiling.
"What an actor you are," she said softly, and Hop was sure now that he saw terror in her eyes. For the first time it occurred to him that somehow Jason might well have uncovered the very murder plot he had been warned against. But how? They hadn't left each other since he disembarked from the ship.
Jazz began to tip the glass up to pour over her smiling mouth. Suddenly she writhed away, knocking the glass on the floor. It broke; the liquid splashed.
"Don't touch it," Jazz commanded. "It's now time for at least one of our kind and watchful observers to show himself and take a fragment of glass for analysis."
Suddenly several women moaned in disappointment, punching at the buttons on their loop recorders. A grim - faced man came up, holding a suppressor, and the moans stopped. Mother's Little Boys could do whatever they liked - including cutting out a choice scene from a lifeloop. The man knelt down by the fragments of glass and in a very businesslike way mopped up a sample of the liquid and took four pieces of glass, dumped them into a small bag he pulled from his pocket, and then, nodding to the company, left.
Arran was sitting down, shaking.
Fritz Kapock looked at Jason Worthing in hatred. "That was incredibly crude, doing a thing like that," he said.
"I know," Jazz agreed, smiling. "A more courteous man would have drunk, and died gracefully." Jazz excused himself from the group in a way that informed everyone that he preferred not to be accompanied. Hop, of course, accompanied him anyway.
"How did you know?" Hop asked.
"I didn't. But it seems like it was a pretty good guess, doesn't it?"
Guess? Hop knew perfectly well that Jazz Worthing wasn't stupid enough to open himself up to libel suits on the basis of mere guesswork. But if he preferred not to tell, why push him? Then again, why not? Managers have some rights.
"Come on, Jazz. How did you know?"
"I'm a Swipe," Jazz answered.
Hop rolled his eyes and laughed. "All right then. Don't tell me. Protect your sources. But at least tell me why she tried!"
Jazz only smiled and looked over at the group gathered to commiserate with their offended hostess. She was looking weak and helpless, and Hop couldn't help but admire her technique. A brilliant actress - able to utterly hide every natural emotion, play a role every waking moment.
Fritz Kapock separated himself from the group around Arran Handully and began to walk toward where Hop and Jazz were sitting.
"You see," Jazz said, "they're persistent. They won't settle for one attempt."
"What?" Hop asked. "Not Kapock. He's - " but then Hop remembered the gossip sheet " - a damned good swordsman and has had more than a few formal duels. None to the death, but Jazz, be careful, you've got to keep yourself safe. The Empire needs you."
"Not as much as you need your twenty percent, my dear friend," Jason answered.
Fritz Kapock stopped about three meters away, and began talking loudly with a group that had gathered there. Jazz didn't take his eyes off Kapock. Hop was worried. "Jazz, you know a hell of a lot more than you've been telling me."
"Of course," Jazz said, patting Hop's wrist. "That's why you're a manager and I'm a starpilot."
Kapock's voice came loudly to them: "Only a bastard and a coward would make an accusation like that - especially at her own party."
People nearby began to edge nearer. Actresses frantically fiddled with their loop recorders, trying to get them to warm up again, though they knew it was hopeless for a few minutes more - suppressors always ruined recording for exactly ten minutes, no more, no less.
"Jazz, he's trying to provoke you," Hop said.
"Perhaps I shall let him succeed," Jazz answered, and Hop resigned himself to watching his meal ticket get killed on the end of Fritz Kapock's sword. It went like clockwork.
"That boor isn't fit company for civilized persons," said Fritz.
"Hold my hat," said Jazz.
"They should never allow these common soldiers in refined company," said Fritz Kapock.
"Fritz Kapock, I believe?" said Jazz.
"And you're the man who ruined our hostess's evening, aren't you?" Fritz snarled.
"I assume you were hoping I would overhear your insults."
"It's hardly my affair what you do and don't