"
Magnusson had evidently not expected her to take this tack. He scowled
and looked disconcerted, shifting uneasily in his big chair, but when
Juli did not continue, obviously awaiting his answer, he said, "Juli, he
left me no choice. I never knew how his mind worked. That final deal he
engineered--have you any idea how much that cost the Service? And have
you taken a good look at your brother's face, Juli girl?"
Juli raised her eyes slowly, and I saw her flinch. I knew how she felt.
For three years I had kept my mirror covered, growing an untidy
straggle of beard because it hid the scars and saved me the ordeal of
facing myself to shave.
Juli whispered, "Rakhal's is just as bad. Worse."
"That's some satisfaction," I said, and Mack stared at us, baffled.
"Even now I don't know what it was all about."
"And you never will," I said for the hundredth time. "We've been over
this before. Nobody could understand it unless he'd lived in the
Dry-towns. Let's not talk about it. You talk, Juli. What brought you
here like this? What about the kid?"
"There's no way I can tell you the end without telling you the
beginning," she said reasonably.
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