. . .

Gentler, “Or do you just hide, Mr. Loggins, and do your best, and give a dopey look, and hope that if you fail somebody else will come along and make it right? What do you think will happen here, Mr. Loggins, if you cannot help me? Somebody else will solve it, won’t they? The system will step in, won’t it? The Agency? It’s all right to give up on me, isn’t it, Mr. Loggins? I’m just an ex-ophidian planet-inheritor in a wicked hat. You don’t have to care. Only —”

Tom hesitates.

“— only I think that perhaps I am obliged to care about you.”

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