The girl sighed. “Name and position, please.”

“Nora Arie, special liaison from the office of the secretary of visitors, Charles Green,” Nora looked triumphant.

“You realize there is a ten kola fee for your invocation,” said the girl whose engraved name plaque read J. Kane. “Are you employing a bodyguard, or is this your visitor? He’s pretty cute, what’s his name?”

Lewis didn’t know if he was more embarrassed or flattered, but before he could think of something to say Nora slapped her hand down flat on the desk.

Nora sounded very angry. “This is First Lieutenant Jonathan Angel Lewis, representing DeLeah Enterprises, shipping division. He’s here on his first visit from Ascore, so don’t insult him or scare him off with your atrocious manners.”

Miss Kane rose behind her desk, glaring at Nora. She turned and nodded to Lewis. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant, I did not know.”

Lewis smiled a little and said. “No harm done.”

The girl turned and retrieved some papers from a filing cabinet. She brought them to the desk and began to fill them out, Lewis counted eleven sheets. Nora and Lewis provided over thirty signatures in the next hour.

“Is everything like this?” Lewis wondered aloud. Miss Kane giggled a little at that.

Nora said. “We’ve requested an emergency meeting, it must be well-documented.”

Lewis reached into his pocket and palmed a ten kola note. He waited until Nora was distracted with a paragraph she was writing, then he caught Miss Kane’s eye with a raised eyebrow. He slid the bill under the paper he was signing, and presented the paper to her.

She dropped the sheet on her side of the desk, saying “Oops, clumsy me.” She bent down and picked up the paper. When Nora finished writing Miss Kane smiled sweetly and said. “Well that’s it, there are a few little details that I can take care of. I’ll check to see if Councilor Koker will see you now.” She stood up and left the room through the back door.

After she left Nora stared after her dumbfounded, then turned to Lewis and said. “We were not done, there were several more papers to finish. Did you do something?”

“Hey, she said I was cute so I just played it up a little,” Lewis said with an innocent expression. “I was a soldier for years, with a team to account for. Believe me, I did lots of paperwork. I learned a long time ago that anytime you are able to streamline the process it’s productive.”

Nora looked exasperated. “What you call streamlining is cheating; there is a proper procedure for these things. If you cut corners by not doing the job right, that’s anarchy! This girl thinks she is able to make decisions on what is important enough to fill out and what is not important. Her job is to file the required paperwork, dammit, wait till I talk to her boss!”

“Hey, easy now,” Lewis said. “This process was supposed to take ten days, until you streamlined it. Let’s not make trouble for Miss Kane, who is just trying to help us to get our job done a little faster.”

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“A soldier knows as well as anybody that an individual is just a small part of the whole. A war could be lost because one person doesn’t do his job without question. A whole society is at stake here, which leaves no room for individuals. We are only parts of the whole, if we are working for the greater good,” Nora said in a teaching tone. Lewis decided at that point arguing was making things worse. When he didn’t answer, Nora looked smug and satisfied.

Miss Kane came out of the door to the next room and smiled at them. “Councilor Koker will see you now,” She held the door open and ushered them through into Mr. Koker’s office. The counselor stood and walked around his huge desk.

“Welcome,” He said, shaking Lewis’s hand and laying a hand on his shoulder. When Lewis shook his hand he transferred a gold coin to Mr. Koker. After a moment of eye contact and camaraderie, Koker turned to Nora and repeated the process.

When the greetings were finished he went back to his seat, sat down, and asked. “Tell me, Lieutenant, what may I do for you?” The way Mr. Koker was paying attention made Lewis feel like his task was the most important thing the Councilor had heard in a long time. He told Koker about DeLeah enterprises and the proposed shipping business. The company was especially interested in the idea of obtaining a warehouse for storing goods and an office for conducting business. The Councilor asked Nora to wait outside, and when she stepped into Miss Kane’s office he addressed Lewis.

“Do you really need a liaison?” Koker questioned intently.

“I thought the law required it,” Lewis replied.

“Not if you have a license to operate a business here. Miss Arie is a reformist, and she believes that any transaction that occurs in the dark is evil. However, people like Miss Kane couldn’t survive on the meager wage that the city pays them and then taxes take half of it. Without small kindnesses such as you showed out there, she might be forced to seek more lucrative but less pleasant employment. Her husband was killed in the service of Port Mist and left her with two children to raise on what the city calls a ‘widows wage.’ To get to the point, she approached me and I hired her for the job she has now.”

“Is she still paid her ‘widows wage’?” Lewis asked.

“She has been deemed too wealthy to receive benefits from the city, now that she works in my office,” Koker replied. “If Miss Arie discovers that you gave her a gift, I may have to fire her to protect my own position.”

“Where do you stand on this reform movement?” Lewis wanted to know.

Koker looked grim.” I stand firmly with my constituency. Most of the population seems to believe that more control and taxes are not the answer. The council holds only about a third of the power in the city, but we come by that power at the behest of the people. Would you care to join me for dinner tonight?”

“Certainly,” Lewis said, with a smile and a bow. “I’ll get your address from Miss Kane. And thank you for all of your help.”

He found Miss Kane at her desk writing on a paper, Nora was nowhere to be seen. Lewis received a business license for DeLeah Shipping, and Mr. Koker’s address, along with a proper time frame for visiting. Nora was in the lobby talking to a gentleman there about shipping.

“Hello, Lieutenant,” She said, when she spotted him. “I think you will be interested in what Secretary Spealer was saying. Secretary, allow me to introduce Lieutenant Lewis of the DeLeah Shipping Company.”

Secretary Spealer greeted him a little coolly, but he politely said. “So, I hear you are trying to establish an office here in Port Mist.”

“Yes sir,” Lewis answered. “I am here representing my employer, who is starting a shipping interest out of Ascore. DeLeah Ventures is presently operating from there.”

“I heard something was happening in Ascore,” the Secretary said. “Something having to do with an off-planet ship. Would that be your employer?”

“Yes, Sir,” Lewis said crisply.

“Do you have time to meet with me tonight?” Spealer asked, looking quite interested. “I would very much like to hear more of your story; also I may have some information that you and your employer need.”

“I have dinner plans,” Lewis informed him. “Could we meet in the morning instead?”

Secretary Spealer looked hurt. “Let’s go to my office and look at my schedule. We might be able to manage that.”