The elevator trick had used up nearly all of Novoc's subtlety. He looked this new player up and down -- he looked strong, but tired, and was that anger or fear in this eyes? -- then gave him a friendly grin, extending one empty hand. "Mister...Badd, right?" he said, stumbling only a little over the unfamiliar arrangement of letters. "I'm Novoc Vevut, a friend of Byrne Faraday's from back home. Do you know where he is?"

He spoke English fluently, but with a strange accent. Byrne's surname came out sounding more like "Vharaday;" words beginning with "f" were almost non-existent in mando'a. Aside from that he sounded a lot like Byrne when he spoke.