Targovi, Tigery, Trader And...

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWO.

We learn immediately that Targovi is a trader and will soon learn that he is also an Intelligence agent. (The attached cover image shows him disguised as a circus animal.) Thus, on a modest and merely interplanetary scale, this Tigery combines the professions of van Rijn and Flandry. In either capacity, Targovi needs to ask shrewd questions about the state of society. As he says:

"'...a merchant must needs keep aware of what is in the wind.'" (p. 224)

Addressing a uniformed human Naval Intelligence officer, he asks:

"'Forgive a foreigner...The subtleties of politics lie far beyond his feeble grasp. What is it that you tauten yourselves against? Surely not the Merseians again.'" (ibid.)

Targovi already knows that it is not the Merseians again but must both feign ignorance and confirm existing knowledge while also hopefully learning more. His self-deprecating inquiry reminds us of yet another passage in the Time Patrol series:

"'I am a stranger and ignorant,' said Li. 'Forgive me if I do not understand your talk of irresistible weapons.'

"Which is the politest way I've ever been called a liar, thought Everard."

-Poul Anderson, "The Only Game in Town" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 129-171 AT 3, p. 144.

 

Shortly, we will analyze Targovi's skillful questioning of junior port officer, Dosabhai Patel - a good Terrestrial name out on the Imperial border!