Chapter 12 For Bian Nguyen, the past few weeks had almost been fun. Granted, there was nothing funny about the basic situation. The last advantage Earth had in competition with its former colonies was the knowledge that telepathy existed and the ability to put telepathic agents into the field. If that monopoly was broken, Earth’s prestige in interstellar politics, which had been slipping continually since Leone opened its trade agreement with the Dur-ill, would rapidly reach bottom. Earth would be forgotten except as a footnote in the history books for being the original home of humankind. Bian and everyone else at the TIA were working hard to prevent that—but the exposure of their telepathic agents would negate their efforts and seal Earth’s fate. She was enough of a patriot to fear tha