Ecolitan Prime (Ecolitan Matter) by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

to spare. She jumped.
    “Ah, dear Lady. I am sorry.”
    He handed her the glass into which he had dumped the colorless and tasteless powder before filling it.
    “Really, I shouldn’t.”
    He poured himself an overflowing glass and sat down across the table from her.
    “But you have not explained your presence, your kindness in lunching with an unknown Envoy.”
    “No kindness, really. Courtney had already asked me to look into the Accord situation. What better way to start?”
    Sylvia smiled faintly, faintly enough to chill Nathaniel, and took a deep sip of the wine.
    He frowned and pulled at his chin.
    After Sylvia had taken a few more sips, the fidelitrol should take hold. The tricky drug left the victim unable to withhold the truth but had its disadvantages. First, the victim remembered everything, and second, any agent could be trained to minimize its effects.
    He took another sip of his own wine.
    “With a poor diplomat like me? A mere fumbler of figures?”
    Sylvia wrinkled her nose…then sneezed. Once! Twice!
    Her glass nearly tipped, and Nathaniel reached out to steady it.
    Sylvia leaned forward in reaction to her sneeze until, off-balance, her hand almost hit Nathaniel’s wine glass as she groped to steady herself.
    “Oh, excuse me, Envoy Whaler. Please excuse me.” She dabbed at her face with a tissue.
    Nathaniel took another sip of his wine, waiting for Sylvia to recover. At last, she finished dabbing and took another sip, more like a mouthful, of the wine.
    “You’re fresh from Accord,” she observed, “and who else would be a better source here in New Augusta?”
    “But you? What role do you play in this?” He hastily added another sentence to restrict the question. “For the Senator, I mean?”
    “I’m the principal investigator for the Committee, dear Envoy, and look into all sorts of things. Now I’m supposed to look into you.”
    A puzzled look crossed her dancer’s face.
    “And how did you come to such a distinguished position?”
    “Because the Service thought the Senator needed looking after, and because he has a weakness for good-looking women, and you know, dear Envoy, you beat me to it.” She smiled, and this time the smile was resigned in nature.
    “Beat you to what?” Nathaniel asked. The conversation had taken a decidedly bizarre turn.
    “Slipping something into my drink. I’ve never told anyone that about the Service, nor would I under anything remotely resembling normal circumstances.”
    Nathaniel realized she was stalling, stalling until whatever had ended up in his own drink took effect.
    He laughed.
    “Why did you drug my drink?” he asked, jumping to the obvious conclusion.
    “Because you aren’t quite what you seem, and there doesn’t seem to be any other quick way to find out what I need to know.”
    “Which is?”
    “The details of your mission, or missions, including the reasons and rationale…”
    Nathaniel chilled. He wasn’t sure he could fight the fidelitrol as successfully as she was, and he only had a question or two left before her drug, whatever it was, took effect.
    “Who sent you? Who is the Service, and what can I do to get a trade agreement?” He snapped out the questions like arrows.
    “Courtney Corwin-Smathers sent me because the I.I.S. set her up to have me sent, and the Service is the Imperial Intelligence Service, and the best way for you to get a trade agreement is to keep everyone off balance, wouldn’t you agree?”
    Nathaniel tried to frame another question, but instead found himself answering hers.
    “That was my initial reaction, but it’s difficult to know how to do that when you don’t know the real players—”
    “What’s your real purpose, dear Envoy?”
    How was he going to turn the tables on her?
    “My real purpose is to get a trade agreement favorable to Accord and to continue to block Imperial expansion back into the Rift and to do both while avoiding any sort of direct armed conflict between the Coordinate and