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Oseto look up at anybody But the Bishop towered half a old arly featureless face before she settled on the black eyes and s nostrils just below the didn’t even begin to cover it
"Captain Os back and forth between her and the Sangheili "Let me introduce you to Avu Med ‘Telca Truth He used to be a field master but he’s … renounced the ways of the infidels and cleansed his naheili … and they deserve to hang fro at the Sangheili as if for confir-daft look "He ain Osman could smel him, too It was a faintly leathery scent, like the seats of a new car It wasn’t unpleasant
"I’et the point "So I keep et-lost look This wasn’t for his ears, and that was as ive us ten minutes, Professor?"
Phil ips nodded and turned to walk away This hy Os co-opted specialists If he’d knohat she was about to do, he would probably have gone al ethical on her
Ihim, of course But his job’s done It’s not his problem now
‘Telcam tilted his head to one side Osman had to strain toon a bad radio signal
The creature real y could speak pretty good English
"Shipmaster, my people have been punished because they had no faith, " he said A fine mist of saliva cooled on her face every time he hit a sibilant or an F It didn’t look easy to articulate those four-way jaws "The traitor Thel ‘Vadaods are deceivers, and so they shal die We have been in thral to h We have let the false prophets of the San’Shyuum corrupt our pure connection to the divine Noe shal do our penance and bring the Sangheili back to the true path So what can you possibly ith us? Do you want to agree to a truce?"
"Hoere you planning on kil ing ‘Vadam and the other … traitors?"
"We have few ships left noeapons, too But we have our devotion We wil find a way"
Osht one here A god-bothering, heavily armed maniac Lovely I can do business with that She tried to find genuine coround in case he could smel fear or deceit on her A smal dash of truth in a soup of lies worked wonders
"What if we supplied you with some weapons?"
He jerked his head back "And ould you do that? The traitor sides with hu that your side in Dead friends aren’t much use"
"Ah" ‘Telcah its lips A fine spray rained on her again and she tried not to recoil She picked up a whiff of somaker This is your policy You help us take control so that you know your enemy and think you can then control us "
"Look, we’re never going to be friends, Field Master But we can agree to stay out of one another’s way and lead separate existences Too many lives have been lost It has to stop"
‘Telca a uniform inspection "You have colonies here This is part of the war This is the cause of our enmity"
"Some of our colonies don’t like us very led your lives are"
"My, you do speak good English"
"I was a translator once I interpreted your couages"
Wel , that explained a hel of a lot Phil ips obviously didn’t know, or at least he hadn’t said, but Osman decided to cut hi: to get her an audience with dissident Sangheili ere likely to disrupt any peace deals He was lucky to get that far without having his head ripped off
"Wel , Field Master, I think we can help one another keep our troublesohtly to keep Phil ips in her peripheral vision, just in case he wandered back and heard too ht require some discretion, because we can’t be seen to al y with you
But an unstable Sangheili empire doesn’t help us, and an unstable human one is a threat to you Yes?"
"And soness to talk to infidels So we do favors, you and I"
"Indeed For the greater good" Osheili had a military sense of honor, and the truth she was about to drop into the deceit went soht ‘Vada deals with hiheili ever smiled If they did, she had no idea what it looked like, not with that four-way jaw But ‘Telca-reptile face relaxed for a moment
"I have a condition," he said
"I thought you ods You spread vile lies about them This must stop"
"We just showed you what the Halo was" Oh shit Coh this "We didn’t set out to insult your beliefs"
"So the Halos are ods themselves were kil ed by them" ‘Telcam leaned over her, almost nose to nose
He was so close that she couldn’t focus on those doglike teeth They were just creaod chose to die for you and that is precisely why you revere him, yes? And why you say he also lives This so-cal ed proof about the HalosNot even to you "
And he uses the plural Halos
Osree with hiods could be both dead and eternal at the saer’s cat, to put so But the last thing she wanted was a theological arguht She bit back a co of soion
"We’ve had scientists who claiue you can’t prove anything," she said careful y "But it hasn’t ions Faith is quite separate"
"Then you understand" ‘Telcam drew back "If you arm us … if you stay away frohtful ways, il leave you alone"
"Deal," she said She alht better of it "I’l be in touch very soon"
The Sangheili just turned and loped away to his ship without another word It was too easy to look at thes, and not a superior force that had alht Earth to its knees Phil ips walked up to her but didn’t ask what had happened His expression said he was bursting to find out
"Are we done?"