The question had one part unsaid, but that all understood.
What could she pay for his silence, for his cooperation?
Rednipp lost her smile, her expression turning calm. She looked like a different person, someone who had evolved past the low levels, climbing and overcoming obstacles, someone who had a brain, and not just breasts.
The exchange of glances between the two aliens was not intense. It did not even look like a battle of wits or wills. It was just a calm business-like mutual analysis, with one focused on the price, and the other on the cost.
In the silence around the chair in the middle of the hall, Rednipp seemed to determine what would be acceptable for her, as well as the other side in the transaction, before opening her mouth:
"I will only take her–"
But Dumbreast didn't even think before he rebutted in his rumbling voice:
