provisions of Article Twelve which conflict with the Peeper Laws. Yes. Now—and finish it as soon as you can.” He touched another button. “Well, that’s that,” he said. “I hope you’ll enjoy being a member of our group.”
“I think I shall,” Kennon said. “You know, sir, I would have waived part of that last demand if you had cared to argue.”
“I know it,” Alexander said. “But what concessions I could have wrung from you would be relatively unimportant beside the fact that you would be unhappy about them later. What little I could have won here, I’d lose elsewhere. And since I want you, I’d prefer to have you satisfied.”
“I see,” Kennon said. Actually he didn’t see at all. He looked curiously at the entrepreneur. Alexander couldn’t be as easy as he seemed. Objectivity and dispassionate weighing and balancing were nice traits and very helpful ones, but in the bear pit of galactic business they wouldn’t keep their owner alive for five minutes. The interworld trade sharks would have skinned him long ago and divided the stripped carcass of his company between them.
But Outworld was a “respected” company. The exchange reports said so—which made Alexander a different breed of cat entirely. Still, his surface was perfect—polished and impenetrable as a duralloy turret on one of the latest Brotherhood battleships. Kennon regretted he wasn’t a sensitive. It would be nice to know what Alexander really was.
“Tell me, sir,” Kennon asked. “What are the real reasons that make you think I’m the man you want?”
“And you’re the young man who’s so insistent on a personal privacy rider,” Alexander chuckled. “However, there’s no harm telling you. There are several reasons.
“You’re from a culture whose name is a byword for moral integrity. That makes you a good risk so far as your ethics are concerned. In addition you’re the product of one of the finest educational systems in the galaxy-and you have proven your intelligence to my satisfaction. You also showed me that you weren’t a spineless ‘yes man.’ And finally, you have a spirit of adventure. Not one in a million of your people would do what you have done. What more could an entrepreneur ask of a prospective employee?”
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