In the lounge of the Hebe G.B., Jeri must serve drinks for van Rijn, Torrance and herself because the steward is helping with the intelligence test of the gorilloid. When she reproaches van Rijn for not even coming to watch when Torrance was nearly killed capturing the gorilloid, van Rijn replies that he:
is too old and fat for the physical fight;
is not technical enough to help the engineer;
is neither a specialist nor a university graduate;
has learned from experience how to make men do things for him and how to profit from what they do;
is in the lounge reading engineer studies of the alien ship.
Jeri seems to be redirecting her attention to Torrance but van Rijn will redress the balance before the story ends.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And, as always, I find myself admiring Old Nick and amused by his melodrama and histrionics! AND, I noticed the bit about van Rijn carefully reading the engineering studies of the alien ship. Because he was looking for clues indicating which of the "animals" might have been able to handle that ship. A nice, understated touch of SERIOUSNESS on van Rijn's part.
Sean
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