First, as "acting head" of the Intergalactic Mining Company he had to sign some contracts as collator for Brown Limper's attempts to build a castle, resulting in fifteen copies of incriminating documents that would condemn him to a painful death if Psychlo ever got hold of them (which is a very moot point).
Terl comforts himself by shredding his copies of the paperwork, then packing his paycheck in coffins marked "radioactive killed" for later recovery on... wow, déjà vu. Anyway, during this he notices that one of the coffins he was about to use has disappeared, which leads to Terl discovering how cadets are buying the coffins off the Brigante guards with whiskey, then melting the lead down into gamepieces. Furthermore, most of the storehouses at the old Psychlo base are nearly empty after months of looting, salvage, and petty theft.
And then Terl goes to harangue Ker for letting the cadets park their trainer machines just anywhere, before realizing that he needs an ally and offering Ker a big fat paycheck for helping Terl get to Psychlo. He also orders five hundred extra Brigante guards for his firing platform, but finds them sprawled out and drunk a few nights later. Oh, and he privately decides that Brown Limper's incompetence is going to botch his plan, but takes comfort in the knowledge that the box he's building will solve all his Earth-based problems.
To summarize, in this chapter Terl did paperwork, complained about office theft, and belittled his coworkers. But he's still holding onto the dream of recovering his treasure-laden coffins on Psychlo and becoming powerful.
He spread his bedding out on top of the coffins and slept a beautiful sleep with beautiful dreams where royalty bowed when they met The Great Terl on the street. And all evidence and this planet would have been totally destroyed behind him.
It's not just that nothing interesting is happening, it's that and the fact that some things are happening again.
Back to Chapter Four
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