"But that"s why Abbot has to be-"

"Yes, but how long until they discover me too, then trace us back to Earth? Our lifestyle is horrifying and we have power over humans. How long until panic triggers a global witch hunt? Look how you felt about sleeping with an alien from outer s.p.a.ce, and you"ve known me all my life. You love me, for pity"s sake-and look how you feel. Think, Inea. What is the only reason I"d ever side with Abbot?"

"To keep all your people safe."

"So I had to prevent Carol from seeing the illogic of not firing Abbot despite what he"d done, then deducing that she"d been Influenced by him." He peered at his disposable shoes. "Betraying you was the hardest thing I"ve ever done. I hope I never have to do it again, but I will if I must. So, before you try again, you"ve got to tell me because, no matter how hard I try to tell you everything, there"ll always be something you don"t know."

"You haven"t been doing a very good job of telling me everything so far. Like, for example, why did Abbot tell you to call me off, as if I were your dog-or as if you"d Marked me, and he couldn"t deal with me himself?"

"I haven"t Marked you! I"ve never lied to you. Not about where the ship crashed, or when, or anything, and especially not about Marking you!"

She arched her brows and waited.

He told her the deal he"d struck with Abbot in the cryo-lab. So now you"re safe from him. He"ll keep his word."

"And if he doesn"t?"

"He won"t go for you. He"ll come for me, directly-and he can do almost anything he wants with me." He told her of the data Abbot had kept to prove to a luren court that t.i.tus had gone feral. "So if you break luren law, it"s my neck."

"That"s not fair. I don"t even know luren law."

"So check with me before doing anything."

She shook her head and scrubbed at her face with one hand. "This"s all too much for me. I guess I"m tired." She got up. "Well, if your deal with Abbot is your big shocker for the night, the one you asked if I was ready for-"

"It wasn"t." He had to force the words out.

She sank back into the chair searching his face.

There was only one way to say it. "I"ve been trying to tell you-the luren in the cryogenic chamber-the reason we risked our lives with that bomb is that he"s still alive."

For a moment, her expression didn"t change. Then it went wooden. "Oh." After a long while, she added, "I should have guessed. You must think I"m awfully dumb."

"It"s just too many shocks too fast. I haven"t been too bright lately either."

"What are we going to do? I mean if they warm the corpsea" I mean, dormant luren-to get a cloning specimen, it"ll come alive-won"t it-he? He"ll be ravenous. He"ll kill somebody. We"ve got to tell Carol. Somebody has to-"

"Carol is under Abbot"s control, and Abbot signed Carol"s name to the order to try the cloning, or got her to sign it and made her forget."

"Abbot. Abbot! He"ll father it-him!"

"I expect so." He recounted his first sight of the sleeper, and his deductions about Abbot"s language research. "He"s going to send his message using what he"s learned from the ship"s computers."

"Oh, my G.o.d. And you"ve been living with this all the time we"ve been-you"re right. I never did understand the situation." In a very small voice, she asked, "Is there any more? Because if there is, heap it on me now while I"m down. I don"t think I can take too many more falls like this."

"I don"t think there are any more really major facts you don"t know, but the minor ones may defeat you."

"Plan," she said dazedly. "We need a plan to stop him."

He outlined his approaches, ending, "But if I knew how to stop him, I"d have done it already. Every time I tangle with him, he ends up saving me."

"Don"t be a defeatist. You"ve proved you can beat him." She hefted the power supply. "By the time he finds this gone, so many people will have been through there, moving the alien-I mean luren-around that he won"t know you stole it. We"ll keep him guessing, underestimating us, and too overloaded to think straight, and maybe we"ll win."

t.i.tus. .h.i.tched up onto the rim of the sink, mentally reviewing what things must look like from Abbot"s point of view. "It may be he"s keeping himself overloaded. Or undernourished. Tell me again about Mirelle?"

She described the French woman"s condition again.

"It"s not like Abbot to just fail to show up at that demonstration. He might have put in a brief appearance, then had himself called away before he could be interviewed. Or I could see him staging an emergency elsewhere as an excuse not to show. But careless, open defiance of orders? Conspicuous absence? No. It"s not like him. Which means he didn"t expect to spend that time with Mirelle. Which means he"d driven himself over the edge and knew he couldn"t manage that demonstration in such a state of hunger. Why?"

t.i.tus recounted Abbot"s derision of t.i.tus"s dietary habits. "He"s taking blood as well as ectoplasm from Mirelle and maybe four others. That"s his usual custom. In such a small population, he has to be circ.u.mspect. He"s keeping his string as small as possible, and he"s rationing himself."

"What could make him hungrier than usual?"

"Using Influence. Healing wounds. Dormancy. Fathering the sleeper. But that hasn"t happened yet. From what I learned from Mintraub, I"ll bet he"s not been sleeping at all while he"s been using Influence too much." He described the way the medics had fought Abbot"s Influence. "So he"s got the beginnings desperate trouble on his hands-trouble from trying to do too much, too fast, with too many people."

If he"s sweating, we"ve got to keep the pressure on."

"Think about Mirelle, and the others! He"ll have to Mark n stringer or overburden the ones he has. And offhand, I"d say Mirelle needs vitamins and iron-lots of it. There was a limit to how much of that Abbot could have brought with him-" He had to pause to explain how responsible luren made sure those they bled took heavy supplements.

"But he"s not doing that for Mirelle? How many others is he bleeding dry?"

"He won"t kill. Not here. Not until he"s desperate, with his goal in sight, and he"s a long way from that. So he won"t violate any of the safety rules he pounded into me."

"Pounded? Did it take a lot of pounding?"

"To be brutally honest, yes, it did. At first, I only knew how hungry I was-I didn"t know what I was doing."

"You haven"t lied to me, have you?"

"No. I try very hard not to."

"You have killed humans-for blood."

"Yes. But it was long ago."

Dully, she announced, "I should turn you in for murder."

"Do you see why, when it comes to exposure, I"m on Abbot"s side? And he"s on mine, however much it galls him?"

"I"ve slept with an alien, a murderer. How low can you get?"

He wanted to gather her up and comfort her, but she"d run from him if he moved. At the same time, part of him loved her because killing disturbed her so deeply. "Imagine all the women who"ve had to sleep with husbands returned victorious from war-with blood on their hands."

"Not the same."

"No, but there"s murder-and murder. I"ve never killed deliberately. Abbot has, and doesn"t see anything wrong with it." He told her how Abbot wanted to take Ebony.

Suddenly, she looked away, tugging at her hair. "When Langton went after Ebony, you moved like a blur. I mean no one could move that fast. And before, when Ebony moved on Carol, I swear you were in the air before Ebony"s hand dipped into her bodice. If you"re so set on concealing what you are, why did you do that?"

t.i.tus had not been aware of it. He slumped. Abbot hadn"t even called him down for it. It was inconceivable that he hadn"t noticed.

"I know why you did it," a.s.serted Inea. "Because you care, and Abbot doesn"t. I saw your face when Langton died. You risked your life-and your luren secrets-to save two humans, and you lost one. And you grieved. I saw Abbot"s face, too. Maybe you should have let him kill Ebony, then Langton and the other guard wouldn"t be dead."

"He couldn"t have gotten away with it."

"That"s the point. He"d be sent to Earth for trial!"

"I keep telling you, that"s no solution."

"Then what is?"

He sighed. "Convincing him we"re right. Using his strengths against him. Working at his weaknesses. And thanks to your noticing Mirelle"s condition, I think I understand now why Abbot wanted Ebony. He"s not getting what he needs from his stringers. They"re fighting him. They"re hating him. He"s not getting what you"ve given me-so while he"s been getting weaker, I"ve been getting stronger."

"So I should go to bed with you as a duty?"

"No!" he snapped. I"m too tired for this. "If it"s doled out through gritted teeth, or dragged out over suppressed defenses, it"s no good. And it has to go both ways, Inea, it has to or you"ll end up like Mirelle."

She was still toying with the box. "Both ways," she repeated. "Both ways! That"s it!"

"What?"

She leaped to her feet, pacing in gigantic moon strides, and she gesticulated with the box. "Both ways-two-way communication. I"m such an idiot! Don"t you see, Abbot"s real advantage is in knowing what"s happening before you do. He"s got you always looking over your shoulder for one of his-stringers-right? He"s got stoolies at every corner!"

"Not quite that bad, but-"

"Listen! No army is any better than its intelligence. You"re before you start because you don"t have any stoolies. If did, Abbot could pick them right out of any crowd, couldn"t he? So, we"re going to convince him he"s being watched all the time, and keep him so busy wondering, he won"t have time to act. And while he"s all tangled up in confusion, we"ll run around his end guard and capture his goal-the sleeper-and you"ll father the alien!"

"What!" Shock echoed through t.i.tus.

She waved the box under his nose. "Well, what else did you have in mind? Why would you have stolen this otherwise?"

"I don"t follow. But never mind, I"m not going to go around picking the brains of humans-"

"Shut up! Do you think I"d want you to?"

"No." He felt ashamed. "But-"

She tapped him on the chest with the box. "It"s a compact power supply! Rechargeable." When he still didn"t see, she spelled it out. "I build this into a system of microscopic bugs, and you sneak around and plant them, and I monitor them and tell you what he"s up to! And he thinks he"s being watched by your stringers-which don"t exist. He gets so spooked that we walk right by him. Just like when you stole this-you Idiot-love!" She flung her arms around him and kissed him resoundingly.

He sank into it almost afraid of it. But she drew back, c.o.c.king her head to one side. "I guess I shouldn"t have done that. It"s teasing. It"s just-I forgot myself."

"I"ll wait. As long as you need."

She looked at the box. "But this will take a while. How can you survive? I mean, you do need ectoplasm, too."

"I can get enough to survive just being around people. And-if I must-I"m sure I can find someone willing." She went pale. He hastened to add, "But I won"t have to for a while. Take your time. Get used to knowing what I am and see if knowing makes so very much difference."

Very seriously, she said, "It does." Her eye fell on the clock. "s.h.i.t. We"ve been talking for hours! I"ve got to get some sleep. I can"t think straight anymore." She pocketed the box and went toward the door. "I never thought I"d be grateful for the shop training you forced on me, but now I am because I know exactly how to get Abbot Nandoha!"

Every step she took hurt. He had to clutch the sink rim to make himself stay there. She paused at the door, and he stopped breathing. "You"ll be all right?"

He nodded and tried to focus on her plan, telling himself he was letting her take the component because, even though they probably wouldn"t catch much of Abbot"s activity with bugs, still it would keep her too busy to challenge Abbot. Besides, maybe it would help. "Go. I"ll be fine."

As the door closed behind her, his hand strayed to the packet of blood crystals on the sink drainboard. He shied from the thought of that sterile fluid coursing down his throat. He had to force himself to reheat the water and make the solution. He had lived on it alone for months at a time with no problem. Now, it was all he could do to choke it down. But he had to, just to get through tomorrow.

Sitting at the table, he chuckled over what Abbot would say if he could see him now. That led him to ponder Abbot"s condition, seeing Abbot"s risky use of Influence and the merciless pace he set himself in a new light. Feeling Abbot"s desperation in his own bones, t.i.tus could suddenly believe Abbot"s vision of the end of the luren on Earth.

t.i.tus saw himself through Abbot"s eyes as a wayward child who demanded the utmost patience. He felt his father"s love then, as he"d shared it on the shuttle leaving Earth. Maybe it"s wrong to stop their SOS?

The thought sent thrills of shock through him.

Had he let Inea take the component just so he wouldn"t have to destroy it, to strike that symbolic blow against Abbot"s mission? Could he have done it at all? What if I"ve been wrong and Abbot"s right?

Chapter fifteen.

Inea was as good as her word. With a bit of help from t.i.tus getting parts and security codes, she designed eight tiny bugs slaved to a central unit made from a gutted pocket calculator and the miniaturized power source. She even put a memory into it, programmed to debrief the bugs at intervals and save the data. The central unit interfaced with t.i.tus"s console, and would also pirate images from security scanners.

t.i.tus, however, had little time to plant the bugs.

When he got back to his office, he discovered his black box had captured a terse message from Connie informing him he"d have to contend with Abbot alone.

Though she had people in the Project"s groundside Communications and Supplies, Connie couldn"t get anyone up to the station through the security designed to stop a.s.sa.s.sins. But she"d arranged to have his security clearance increased.

"When you hear about the bombing of your house," the message continued, "don"t worry. We got there first, but this channel is not secure enough to discuss further plans."

She ended, "We can now guarantee your blood supply. They"d perfected a way of turning the crystals into maroon packing chips to be used in boxes shipped to his lab. microwave to restore solubility, and dissolve. Connie."

t.i.tus reported Abbot"s doings and the situation with the sleeper and the transmitter, but omitted mention of Inea.

Later that day, while Colby was struggling to convince the reporters that the bombing had been a terrorist act, not an attempt to cover up a cloning lab, t.i.tus was informed that his security clearance had been b.u.mped up to Abbot"s level.

Within an hour, he was given a heavier meeting schedule than ever before. While it provided a better overview of the Project and of Abbot"s activities, it cut into the time he needed to compare the two copies of his catalogue.

Lorie had called in five other programmers. The news, however, was bleak. They found files that had been erased from the directory on each catalogue, files that didn"t have appropriate security or date stamps on them, files t.i.tus didn"t recognize. Two different methods had been used on the separate catalogues, so it was likely that t.i.tus could sort out the mess of fragmented temporary and backup files to construct one correct set of numbers.

t.i.tus had both versions of the data put on line, and carried his Bell 990 around, tapping into his console through the station"s system so he could work during meetings. At the edge of despair, he cherished the idea that Connie had an untampered version of the data, and the Tourists might have kept one, too, when they took his flight bag. His life"s work was not lost, just inaccessible.

In one grazing encounter, Abbot coolly informed him that a mature luren would not be having such trouble.

After that, t.i.tus spent a night attempting to reach a depth of the luren"s mnemonic trance he"d never reached before, but the numerical data eluded him. Relationships, equations, functions, and useful constants were clear, but it seemed the data one Plugged into the equations or subst.i.tuted for algebraic expressions had never been recorded in his memory.