Free Competitions by Sharon Green Page B

as he drifted around the room, looking at the displayed examples of Kambil’s father’s collection of antique teacups. “I feel so much closer to you than I do to the others, as though you and I were just alike and I might tell you anything. It’s my fond hope that you feel something of the same.”
    Kambil was instantly alert, knowing Rigos felt nothing of the sort. The agent hated all of them just about equally, with a bit extra thrown in for Kambil because of his added height.
    “Well, we do have quite a lot in common,” Kambil allowed slowly and thoughtfully, as though he had no idea what Rigos might be after. “Our fathers have almost the same position in society, but you’ve gone ahead and established your own position. I haven’t managed that as yet, so it wouldn’t be fair to say we’re just the same.”
    “I’m sure you’ll begin to establish your own mark as soon as this competition business is over with,” Rigos said, turning to smile at Kambil. He’d enjoyed having his superiority pointed out, just as Kambil had meant him to. “When that happens we’ll be even closer, and right now I’d like to confide in you. As a preview of situations which will certainly come to be, if you take my meaning.”
    The look in Rigos’s dark eyes had sharpened, and Kambil suddenly knew exactly what he meant. Rigos was promising him an influential—and well-paid—position, but in return for—what?
    “I’d like to feel that you can confide in me under any circumstances,” Kambil said, even more carefully than before. “How can I help you?”
    “Well, actually, it would not be me you were helping,” Rigos replied casually, scratching at one ear as he moved back toward Kambil. “A good friend of mine is also involved with doing things with the groups chosen for the competitions, and she’s worried about something. I told her I would think about the situation, and let her know if she was definitely worrying about nothing.”
    “Ah, there’s a lady involved!” Kambil exclaimed with a grin, pretending he believed it. “Now I understand your interest in the matter. Again, how can I help?”
    “You can help me to decide if she’s imagining things,” Rigos answered with a smile that would make a shark uneasy. “You see, she’s somehow gotten the idea that some of the groups have plans they’re not mentioning, like that they mean to actually try to win the competition. We both know they’d have no chance whatsoever doing it, but she’s still afraid they might try. Are her fears, in your opinion, completely groundless, or is she wise to suspect that something might be going on?”
    “I suppose it depends on who the members of the particular groups are, but in general I’d say the poor little thing has let her imagination run away with her.” Kambil made certain to show a good deal of amusement as he said that, as though he were sharing the joke with Rigos. “You really must remind her that none of us wanted to do this in the first place, so sudden conversions to ambition would be completely out of character. They would have to exert themselves and make an effort, after all, and judging by this group I can’t honestly picture anything like that. Can you?”
    “Not really,” Rigos grudged, forced into conceding the point. “When people can’t even manage to make a meeting on time—Well, there was always the possibility that someone would be that foolish.”
    “If they are, they have my sincere condolences,” Kambil said, then gestured to the service a maid had brought and left. “Let’s have some tea while we wait, and continue our discussion sitting down, like civilized people. I’d still like to know what you mean about my achieving a mark of my own after this competition nonsense is over.”
    Kambil let a flash of intense interest and casual greed show briefly in his expression, but not so briefly that Rigos didn’t notice it. An innocent man who was uninvolved in plots and plans would