Read Online Chess With a Dragon by David Gerrold - Free Book Online Page B

idealist.”
    â€œYes. You and I, we have been put where we cannot cause any trouble. I am sorry I take you down with me. You are good manager. Not a good leader, but a good manager. Is two different things. I am good leader.”
    â€œAnd modest too.”
    â€œYes. Thank you for noticing.”
    Yake blinked. Was that a serious response—or had she topped his own gibe. Sometimes with Madja Poparov it was hard to tell. He rubbed his hand through his bristly hair and scratched his head in puzzlement.
    â€œYou know,” Kasahara interrupted. “You guys are both missing something. There might be another possibility here too.”
    â€œWhat?” Anne Larson looked up for the first time.
    â€œMaybe, just maybe , the Ambassador thinks we’re smart enough to come up with something that nobody else can; a solution that isn’t so damned insulting .”
    â€œIs good point, Kasahara. I owe you apology. I make mistake of not seeing that possibility.”
    â€œHm,” said Yake. “Out of the mouths of babes.”
    â€œI must admit—” said Madja, “—It does not seem a very likely possibility to me, but it is the only possibility that we can accept that is not insulting to us—hmm? Is same problem, right? So! All right. Let us snatch victory from mouth of deceit, right? Right! If we solve it here, we solve it anywhere.” She looked around the room for agreement.
    Anne Larson nodded cautiously. Kasahara allowed himself a tiny smile of hope.
    Yake thought about it for half a second, then looked Madja directly in the eyes. “Okay, right. Let’s try it.” He took a sip of his coffee. It was going to be a long night. He sighed and began: “Let me throw this out as a . . . a working assumption. A place to start from. What would an acceptable solution look like? What are the particles of it?”
    â€œHonor,” suggested Kasahara in a quiet voice. “It would have to be honorable.
    Yake looked over at Nori, surprised. “I thought you were a pragmatist.”
    â€œI am. Honor is pragmatic.”
    â€œHm. Okay. A solution has to be honorable. What else?”
    Madja put up a finger. “I think solution must be fair. If it is not fair, one side or other will begin to resent it, question it, work against it. We have seen this in our own dealings.”
    â€œI can believe it,” said Larson.
    â€œI will ignore that one,” said Madja, nonchalantly. “Coming as it does from the representative of senile colonialism.”
    â€œHow kind of you,” Larson smiled back.
    â€œLet’s stay on purpose,” said Yake. “Anne, what about you?”
    â€œI’m pragmatic.” Larson pronounced her words carefully, and with a very proper English accent. “I want it to be workable. We should be able to pay our debts without resentment or punishment. No human being should be hurt in the process or be forced to do anything that goes against his or her humanity. And yes, I’d like us to be able to keep our pride.”
    â€œHm,” said Yake. “Hm.”
    â€œEh?” said Madja. “Is something wrong?”
    â€œNot really. I was hoping for a little more agreement here.”
    Larson looked surprised. “I thought we were in agreement.”
    â€œYou guys are, yes.”
    â€œAh,” said Madja. “What is it you are asking for, Yake? What would good solution look like to you?”
    Yake said it flatly. “Revenge.”
    They blinked.
    Yake spread his hands before him to show that he was hiding nothing. “I feel like I’ve been betrayed. I want to get even. Everything that each of you have said is absolutely correct and proper and appropriate and should be at the top of our list of criteria for an acceptable solution. “But if we can have all that, and have an appropriate revenge too, that’s what I’d like.”
    Kasahara nodded politely. “I