The last two relocations, I just didn't plant anything except in pots. Was this normal for a rising bureaucrat? Tien said it was a necessity, no bosses ever promoted from within or raised a former subordinate above them you had to go around to move up. won't pretend that hasn't been difficult. She scraped at the last of the apple syrup on her plate. Not that his school we saw this morning isn't very nice, of course, which I shall report back for her reassurance, I promise. She did think you would seize the opportunity to place Nikki in a Komarran school, for the, as she would say, cultural experience. She had usually been too conscious of herself as a representative of Tien, of the need to cordially meet and greet everyone, to get into any very intimate conversations. Ekaterin had met the young Komarran woman perhaps three times, at carefully choreographed Project events. His dryness was mitigated by a slight twinkle. I did not have the impression that Nikki was socially ambitious. Tien had been thirty when they'd married. Well, as she'd stretched into hers she'd been only twenty, after all. A young couple's early life was supposed to be unsettled, as they stretched into their new lives as adults. How could he ever garner the rewards of promotion and seniority, the status he hungered for, if he never stuck with one thing long enough to earn any? His first few postings, she'd had to agree with him, had been mediocre she'd had no problem understanding why he wanted to move on quickly. Maybe Tien would stay with this Komarran post. I've talked to all her friends I can find. I thought you might have been friends, or at least acquaintances. So had her engineering boss, Radovas, the one she'd said she was going on the field project with.

When I finally pinned him, he said, Farr swallowed, she'd resigned abruptly six weeks ago and left.

Steam sandboxie