Lanra nodded. "It does. It's almost perfect. And that should tell you that it's not true. How often does reality match up so well with appearances?"

"You have a different view, of course."

"Looms is on record as being opposed to any kind of technology that isolates people from direct control."

"True."

"Then why would he use that very technology to commit a crime for which he'd be likely to be implicated? And where would he get the expertise to implement it?"

"Expertise can be bought," Ariel noted.

"To what end? Close down a conference that might give him the best platform he's ever had from which to be heard?"

Ariel shook her head. "All you're doing is arguing motive, Mr. Lanra. There is as much motive to implicate him as there is to exonerate him."

"All right, what do you think was accomplished by this assassination? What was there in this conference that was so threatening that someone would commit murder to stop it?"

"A lot of tradition, a lot of credits, a lot of territorial imperative."

"All that, yes. But it's the money. Now ask yourself: what part of the proposed treaty was most likely to pass that would cost the most money."

"Cost who?"

"Answer the first, you answer that."

"There were a lot of elements"

"Let me give you a hint. Tiberius."

"The boarding incident?"

Lanra nodded. "That almost triggered a war, yes."

"I'm not sure I follow, Mr. Lanra."

Lanra leaned toward her, folding his hands on the table. "A year-and-a-half ago, Mr. Looms was approached by a group of industrialists to join an investment portfolio being funded by certain shipping lines. Mr. Looms declined, since he disapproves of interstellar settlement and, although the money looked very good, he could not afford to appear hypocritical on this issue. Most of his own investors are members of his church and they invest in DyNan as much from ideological conviction as out of the hope for potential profit. The fact is, DyNan doesn't perform nearly as well as its closest competitors, so that loyalty is significant. We make a lot of money, but our profit margins are narrower than average. This group assured him that his participation would be entirely anonymous. In fact, all of their participation in it was anonymous and completely off-record. The profits were funneled directly into the mutual fund, loaned out, and returned as interest free payments, at which time the funds could go into any account without the hint of taint. When Mr. Looms inquired into this shipping line through other channels, he found no such line existed. Officially."

"Black market," Ariel said.

"Exactly."

"The pirates."

"Who are not, strictly speaking, pirates," Lanra pointed out. "The thefts are all prearranged. The part of the treaty that would put a damper on it was the clause concerning robotic inspection of all ships, coming or going, to any recognized colony or Spacer world."

"I'd considered that, of course. How does this let Looms off?"

"He has no investment in this enterprise and, in fact, would not mind seeing such inspection. He feels that Terrans would resent it so much that it would significantly reduce trade. In time, it could curtail colonization. Hurt both enough, and you might see the day when Earth can extricate itself from involvement with Spacers and Settlers."

"That seems a bit optimistic, don't you think?" Ariel asked.

"Maybe. All I'm concerned with here is that it reduces Rega Looms' culpability."

"Disrupting the conference could accomplish the same thing, though. Give me something more concrete."

Lanra shook his head. "I can't. I'm looking into it, but right now I can't. I needed to see you to find out what you intend to do."

Ariel raised her eyebrows. "Me?"

"Spacers."

"We're hardly a monolith, Mr. Lanra. My own people are taking a wait-and-see approach. When and if the Terran authorities make arrests, then we can see."

"They're likely to arrest Rega Looms. What then?"

"It's a question of evidence."

"Look," Lanra said. "Mr. Looms is not especially liked here, either."

"What do you mean, 'either'?"

"Like Spacers. See, people want stability, they want comfort, they want reassurance. They don't want disruption. Change scares them. The way things are right now, it's fairly comfortable. Both you and my employer advocate changes. Whoever is setting this up will give the people something they want-two avenues of unwelcome change closed down. Who's going to be on Rega Looms' side in this when he's been telling people for years what lazy bastards they've been because they won't peel their own potatoes or make their own clothes? He sees the average technological environment today as no better than one with positronics. People resent it -enough to not care that he might not be guilty."

"He's the perfect scapegoat, in other words," Ariel said.

"As you say."

"You still haven't given me an alternative."

"Alda Mikels."

"Imbitek? Why would he?"

"You should look at his finances. And you should look at your own people. This didn't happen entirely here on Earth. The black market exists to serve Spacers and Settlers as well as Terrans."

"You're very good at making broad claims that you can't back up," Ariel said dryly.

"There's a very, very old saying on Earth, Ms. Burgess: 'Follow the money. ' "

Lanra stood then. "Thanks for meeting with me. I hope it wasn't fruitless."

Mia watched him cross the dining room. Halfway toward the entrance, he did a casual turn, sweeping the room. A very professional move, one she should have seen coming, but did not. She froze in place as his gaze swept past her, then returned, briefly. She thought she saw a faint frown of puzzlement, followed by a quick smile.

Then he was gone.