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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 2 of 2))
'I suppose your silence is answer enough,' said Hanton. 'I hope that you continue to maintain a healthy skepticism of the Vanguard going forward.'

"...You really don't like them, do you?" said Hector.

'They are an invasive species. They pretend they are not, but they are. Once they have you in their clutches, they will never let you go.'

Hector immediately thought of Garovel, who used to work for the Vanguard and managed to leave it just fine. But then he thought of Mehlsanz. And the Rainlords. He didn't think he could just dismiss Hanton's perspective as wholly wrong.

Hector mulled over his next question carefully. While he was more inclined to believe Hanton now, he still wasn't prepared to let the Goalanets off the hook yet entirely. "How did you finally convince the Vanguard to leave Atreya?"

'I am... reluctant to say, but I suppose there is no sense hiding it. Once we were able to locate where the Vanguard was operating out of, my daughter, being her usual self, decided to take rather drastic action. She walked right into their base and told them all to leave.'

Hmm. Well, that tracked with what he'd found in that abandoned house. It had been Pauline's name there, not Hanton's. "It was just that easy, huh?"

'We can be very persuasive.'

"Mm. Then why'd you wait so long to do it? The Vanguard had been monitoring Atreya for ages, hadn't they?"

'Up until that point, we believed the Vanguard were content with merely monitoring the country. When we discovered that they intended to increase their presence here... well. My daughter made a dramatic decision. I am merely grateful that it did not bring ruin down upon us.'

"Did she erase all their memories?"

'She replaced them with ones of utter frustration and futility in their work here. Which was not far from the truth, frankly. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she "exaggerated" their memories, instead.'