As if he would at all costs keep his dignity, Smith turned slowly. When he picked up the thick packet, he almost dropped it. His proboscis blew a suspicious note. "Bill," he said.

He stopped, interrupted by a hysterical, tiny gonging from the woman's wristbox. She flicked the toggle and said, "Major Killison talking."

"Barbara!" tinned Yewliss' voice. "Drop everything and come on home. Good news! Lord, but it's good news! For all of us. For Earth and for you and for me."

"What is it?"

"The Belos field has been discovered independently by our scientists. We don't need to toady to Ogtate any more. You can forget about your sacrifice and cone home to me."

Bill jumped up and screamed, "What?" and he swayed.

Barbara seemed stunned, too. Yewliss demanded several times that she answer.

"All right, Yew. I'll contact you later."

"Later, nothing!" exploded the wristbox. “I’m flying now to get you."

"You stay right there until I tell you to come. There are some problems yet to solve."

"Babs, you don't have to go through with that silly act. Lord, now I think back on it, I don't see how I could have let you go ahead."

"But you did, Yew," she replied, tonelessly. "You know me well enough to realize I mean what I say. Don't come until I call you."

"Major Killison, this is General Yewliss speaking!"

“Man Yewliss, this is woman Killison talking. So long." She snapped the little lever.

Ogtate said, "1 don't know what to say, Barbara."

Smith stepped forward and seized the man's left hand in his webbed fingers. His trunk caressed Bill's forehead with a gesture of affection. It hinted, also, of sadness and farewell.

The woman, watching him, was aware of an irrelevant thought. She had wondered in the back of her mind why he wasn't affected by the bite. Now the answer came from the dark of forgotten facts. His metabolism was based on a fluorine-carbon chain. The drifting semiviruses couldn't attach themselves to his poisonous proteins.

The Priami seemed to know Ogtate was in no mood for lengthy ceremonies. He said, "I thank you for all you've clone. I respect you, Bill, and I know you respect me. I hope to see you again, and I wish you good fortune with your female. Whether that means getting or losing her, I can't say. But I wish you fortune."

Bill said in a tight voice, "Sorry you must go, Smitty. But your people will want to hear your news."

Smitty trumpeted. "I wouldn't be surprised if, when I arrived, I found my people, too, had discovered the Belos. And I will be ignored, the ignominious hero who was too late."

He faced Barbara. "I hope to visit you some day, Major. Openly."

She murmured a suitable reply.

He walked away, swinging long thin arms, then stopped and said, hesitantly, "Bill, would you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

The Priami picked up a box of cigars. "I'd like to take these home. It'll be hard getting a good smoke on Mars."

Ogtate burst out laughing and sat down. "Go ahead, Smitty. Take a dozen boxes, all I have. Compliments of the Earth Government!"

"The opening wedges in the door of peace." He was gone.

10

Barbara put the thermodial in his mouth and felt his pulse. When she looked at the gauge, she said, "Almost normal. How do you feel?"

"Rotten. But not from the fever. I feel like the world's biggest fool."

"At least you're not a nonentity."

"I’m that, too."

For want of anything better to say, thinking she must take his mind off his sudden plunge into humiliation, she commented, "Well, you'll have no more fever, anyway."

When he wanted to know what she meant, she decided nobody would be hurt by the information. The maneuvering was over.

He cursed. "Yewliss, again! I could sue him for interference of free will!"

"You won't. Your index shows you dislike legal procedures."

He poured two double shots of brandy and gave her one. "Well, here's to the Old Fox and you. May you bear him many cubs."

"Your index also shows you often leap to conclusions."

The dark liquor sloshed over the tiny glass. "If you go back to Yewliss," he said, "I'll have nothing." "Turn on the visor," she said.

They watched the wild celebrations of the crowds that had quickly gathered all over the world. Bill flicked the screen off.

"Poor devils, they remind me of us. They work on one problem, and halfway through the solution of the first, a second one forms."

"Life is like that," she said. Her hand touched his for the first time since he kissed her, and she didn't take it back.

"True," he said, "but I don't feel like philosophising. Barbara, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. That's funny, too, because I'm usually quick at deciding."

"Then you're not just going to walk out on me?"

She shook her head. "No. This is no longer a military mission. It's entirely personal. Actually, it was personal from the beginning."

"What do you mean?"

"You won't hate me? Promise?"

"Why should I? I mean, why should I hate you?"

"Bill, one of the reasons I came to you the main one, in fact-is that I felt guilty about you. I've had that feeling for a long time. I told myself it was ridiculous that what happened to you wasn't my fault."

"Barbara, get to the point!"

"Very well. I came here because ... I was responsible for your being inoculated with the Asp. You see, I was one of those who created it. I couldn't help that it was used as a political weapon. When we wade it, it was for experiments with laboratory animals. None of us had the slightest idea that someone would steal the virus and inject you with it."

He shut his eyes for a second. Opening them, he said, "I know. But it was a shock. I've cursed the asp inventors so many times, even when I knew they weren't guilty. And now to have you ..."

"You can see why I came?"

He nodded, and then, as if inspired, his face grew twisted, unrecognizable and frightening. He rose, took her hand and lead her to the broad staircase that curved like a ram's horn to the second floor.

She said, "What do you think you're doing?"

"We might as well find out if we really like each other."

She jerked her hand from his.

"Is that what you mean by really liking? Do you still think I'm just one of those women provided by the Government for your pleasure?"

He sensed he had lost her. "Forgive me, Barbara. No, it's just that we have to act in some fashion."

"But that's not my idea of using your brain to solve a problem. Or using your heart, either."

They sat down again. Hesitantly, he picked up her hand. When she did not refuse it, he put his arm around her and kissed her.

"But will you ever decide? You're sure you're not trying to let me down easy?"

"After I just confessed my guilt? Quit asking foolish questions, will you?"

She closed her eyes and leaned back. He, like an automaton obeying preset stimuli, leaned over and kissed her. This time, though he had expected she would, she did not protest. She shifted a little and did not turn her head away.

At last she whispered, "Oh, if you must, Bill. If you think that's the only way. But, I think it's …

Despite what she said, she held hint as tightly as he held her. Her nails dug into his arms as if she were loneliness and fear trying to clutch love and courage. He pondered: what, besides his flesh, did he have to give to her? He pondered only briefly.