"How long have you been working with Snook.u.ms?" he asked, without looking up from his coffee.

"Over eight years," she said.

Then Mike looked up. "You know, you hardly look old enough. You don"t look much older than twenty-five."

She smiled--a little shyly, Mike thought. "As Snook.u.ms says, "You"re nice." I"m twenty-six."

"And you"ve been working with Snook.u.ms since you were eighteen?"

"Uh-huh." She looked, very suddenly, much younger than even the twenty-five Mike had guessed at. She seemed to be more like a somewhat bashful teen-ager who had been educated in a convent. "I was what they call an "exceptional child." My mother died when I was seven, and Dad ... well, he just didn"t know what to do with a baby girl, I guess. He was a kind man, and I think he really loved me, but he just didn"t know what to do with me. So when the tests showed that I was ... brighter ...

than the average, he put me in a special school in Italy. Said he didn"t want my mind cramped by being forced to conform to the mental norm.

Maybe he even believed that himself.

"And, too, he didn"t approve of public education. He had a lot of odd ideas.

"Anyway, I saw him during summer vacations and went to school the rest of the year. He took me all over the world when I was with him, and the instructors were pretty wonderful people; I"m not sorry that I was brought up that way. It was a little different from the education that most children have, but it gave me a chance to use my mind."

"I know the school," said Mike the Angel. "That"s the one under the Cesare Alfieri Inst.i.tute in Florence?"

"That"s it; did you go there?" There was an odd, eager look in her eyes.

Mike shook his head. "Nope. But a friend of mine did. Ever know a guy named Paulvitch?"

She squealed with delight, as though she"d been playfully pinched. "Sir Gay? You mean Serge Paulvitch, the Fiend of Florence?" She p.r.o.nounced the name properly: "_Sair_-gay," instead of "surge," as too many people were p.r.o.ne to do.

"Sounds like the same man," Mike admitted, grinning. "As evil-looking as Satanas himself?"

"That"s Sir Gay, all right. Half the girls were scared of him, and I think _all_ the boys were. He"s about three years older than I am, I guess."

"Why call him Sir Gay?" Mike asked. "Just because of his name?"

"Partly. And partly because he was always such a gentleman. A real _nice_ guy, if you know what I mean. Do you know him well?"

"_Know_ him? h.e.l.l, I couldn"t run my business without him."

"Your business?" She blinked. "But he works for--" Then her eyes became very wide, her mouth opened, and she pointed an index finger at Mike.

"Then you ... you"re Mike the Angel! M. R. Gabriel! Sure!" She started laughing. "I never connected it up! My golly, my golly! I thought you were just another s.p.a.ce Service commander! Mike the Angel! Well, I"ll be darned!"

She caught her breath. "I"m sorry. I was just so surprised, that"s all.

Are you really _the_ M. R. Gabriel, of M. R. Gabriel, Power Design?"

Mike was as close to being nonplused as he cared to be. "Sure," he said.

"You mean you didn"t know?"

She shook her head. "No. I thought Mike the Angel was about sixty years old, a crotchety old genius behind a desk, as eccentric as a comet"s...o...b..t, and wealthier than Croesus. You"re just not what I pictured, that"s all."

"Just wait a few more decades," Mike said, laughing. "I"ll try to live up to my reputation."

"So you"re Serge"s boss. How is he? I haven"t seen him since I was sixteen."

"He"s grown a beard," said Mike.

"No!"

"Fact."

"My G.o.d, how horrible!" She put her hand over her eyes in mock horror.

"Let"s talk about you," said Mike. "You"re much prettier than Serge Paulvitch."

"Well, I should hope so! But really, there"s nothing to tell. I went to school. B.S. at fourteen, M.S. at sixteen, Ph.D. at eighteen. Then I went to work for C.C. of E., and I"ve been there ever since. I"ve never been engaged, I"ve never been married, and I"m still a virgin. Anything else?"

"No runs, no hits, no errors," said Mike the Angel.

She grinned back impishly. "I haven"t been up to bat yet, Commander Gabriel."

"Then I suggest you grab some sort of club to defend yourself, because I"m going to be in there pitching."

The smile on her face faded, to be replaced by a look that was neither awe nor surprise, but partook of both.

"You really mean that, don"t you?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"I do," said Mike the Angel.

Commander Peter Jeffers was in the Control Bridge when Mike the Angel stepped in through the door. Jeffers was standing with his back to the door, facing the bank of instruments that gave him a general picture of the condition of the whole ship.

Overhead, the great dome of the ship"s nose allowed the gleaming points of light from the star field ahead to shine down on those beneath through the heavy, transparent shield of the cast transite and the invisible screen of the external field.

Mike walked over and tapped Pete Jeffers on the shoulder.

"Busy?"

Jeffers turned around slowly and grinned. "Hullo, old soul. Naw, I ain"t busy. Nothin" outside but stars, and we don"t figger on gettin" too close to "em right off the bat. What"s the beef?"

"I have," said Mike the Angel succinctly, "goofed."

Jeffers" keen eyes swept a.n.a.lytically over Mike the Angel"s face. "You want a drink? I snuck a spot o" brandy aboard, and just by purty ole coincidence, there"s a bottle right over there in the speaker housing."

Without waiting for an answer, he turned away from Mike and walked toward the cabinet that held the intercom speaker. Meantime, he went right on talking.

"Great stuff, brandy. French call it _eau de vie_, and that, in case you don"t know it, means "water of life." You want a little, eh, ol" buddy?

Sure you do." By this time, he"d come back with the bottle and a pair of gla.s.ses and was pouring a good dose into each one. "On the other hand, the Irish gave us our name for whisky. Comes from _uisge-beatha_, and by some b.l.o.o.d.y peculiar coincidence, that also means "water of life." So you just set yourself right down here and get some life into you."

Mike sat down at the computer table, and Jeffers sat down across from him. "Now you just drink on up, buddy-buddy and then tell your ol" Uncle Pete what the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l the trouble is."

Mike looked at the brandy for a full half minute. Then, with one quick flip of his wrist and a sudden spasmodic movement of his gullet, he downed it.

Then he took a deep breath and said: "Do I look as bad as all that?"