The Governor was angry. "That little brat pissed on them, and now my career is in trouble!"
"If the Guests had kept their mouths shut. . ." the Governor's aide began.
The Governor interrupted. "If the brat hadn't escaped and gorged herself with water. . ."
"If the Guests hadn't let her escape, or left water out where she could find it--or if they had even noted that she had drunk it. . . Look, Governor, there's enough blame to go around, and you can't really blame a child for wanting to do everything she can to stay alive?"
"Why not? Why not? Don't these people understand the meaning of sacrifice? I have to sacrifice to appease the Guests. I--I've sacrificed my right to wage war against the Morphs."
"With all due respect, Your Excellency," began the aide, "we've been at peace with the Morphs for the past fifteen years."
"It could change in an instant. You know the Morphs," the Governor said--but he knew the aide was right. War with the Morphs was about as unlikely as snow in the Equatorial Valley. The Morphs were weak, heavily dependent on alien aid. Their army was a joke. King Ecco was ready to abdicate, yet nobody wanted to take his place.
"What will the Guests do now?" asked the aide. It was a good question. They had been resented for years, but nobody knew what to do about them. They had seemed invincible. Now it was known that urine could kill them. Already there were reports of Guests disappearing, presumably at the hands and body fluids of victims and victims' families.
"They must respect my loyalty to them. If it weren't for me, they'd have nothing."
"With all due respect, Governor," said the aide, "they don't have very much right now, do they?" The aide hesitated a bit. "I know this isn't a good time to tell you, but I am resigning effective the end of this month. I will, of course, keep all confidences. However--"
"You know the power I have over you. You must never leave me." The Governor was prepared for this: he knew of his aide's criminal background.
"I have taken advantage of my position to purge my name from the records. By the time you can recover any data, I can be long gone. But I hope you will let my departure be amicable. There's no need to make things messy, is there? After all, we aides come and go, and if we remain anywhere for too long, people--including our enemies--get suspicious. Think about your predecessor." The aide smiled sadly; the Governor's predecessor had committed suicide after being caught in a sex scandal involving two aides that had been with him a long time.
The Governor sat down and stared at the floor as the aide prepared correspondence.