"So! Sit down. I'll ring you up some breakfast. What will it be?"

"I'll have some of whatever you're having, please. And the sooner the better."

"Orange juice?"

"Gallons." She settled into her chair next to her father's. "And some of those scrumptious croissants-if there are any left."

Director Zanderson rang the silver bell at his elbow and a pink jumpsuited kitchen attendant swished into the room with the crisp, formal movements of a military conscript. The director was the only person on GM to have his own serving staff and kitchen; everyone else ate at the commissary. He gave the man their breakfast order and sent him away.

"Oh, and Henry, no croissants for me. I'm meeting with the AgDiv heads this morning." He turned back to his daughter. "They say they have invented a new protein potato or some such thing and they want me to pass judgment on it. I'll probably have to eat my weight in potato steaks. Would you care to accompany me, dearest?"

"I thought I'd go for a swim. I haven't been near the pool for ages. I could use a little sun too" ,. "Quite right. Just the thing to put the roses back in you, lovely cheeks."

"But enjoy your new potato. Sounds promising."

"Oh, I'm sure it's fantastic. It's just that every other week or so they seem to come up with something bigger and better than the week before. A bigger carrot, better rabbits-I don't know what. I'm afraid it's getting harder and harder for me to work up enthusiasm like I used to. And the smell down there would knock you over."

She smiled cheerily. "It's the price of progress, Daddy. just keep thinking maybe they'll come up with a way to make your nutristeak taste like real beef."

"Now that's something I'll crow about. By the way"-he paused, his manner growing serious. "I meant to tell you before, but-"

"What is it, Daddy" The smile faded.

"The Gyrfalcon is due in sometime today or tomorrow. I think that's what Wermeyer told me yesterday. I thought you should know so that if you heard it somewhere else it wouldn't come as a shock." He patted her shoulder and gave her a kind, fatherly look. "I hope I haven't ruined your day."

"I'm not going to let anything ruin my day. Yes, the wound is still tender, but I thank you for telling me. Don't worry. I'll be all right."

The servant brought in two large trays and set them before the diners. Ari, true to her word, tackled a cream cheese omelet with vigor; her father drifted back to his perusal of the morning's news.

After seeing her father off to his office, she went to her room and slipped on her bathing suit and made her way down to the garden level to walk in green solitude before going to the noisy, kid-ridden pool.

The quiet pathways wending among the growing things and the clear unobstructed view of the garden sweeping before her in the distance to vanish around the curve of the station lifted her spirits once more to their previous level; soon she was soaring again.

Something is about to happen, she told herself. Something good, I know it.

13

… HATED LYING TO him like that. I don't enjoy this at all,"

I moaned half full cups of cold coffee f Kalnikov ace-to-face making his – galley final burn for home.

"There was no other way. You know that. We've been over and over it. Why do you keep bringing it up?

"I'm sorry Adjani." Spence looked at his friend's usually, fresh, untroubled face. Now he saw dark circles of fatigue under the black eyes and lines of concern pulling the edges of his mouth into a perpetual frown. "And I'm sorry for mixing you up in this. I had no right-"

"I gave you the right when I asked you to be my friend. Don't ever question it, Spence. Never. Understand?" Adjani lowered his voice-it seemed that they had talked in lowered voices the whole of the trip back. "I know what you think, but you could not have held such a secret inside you for long. It is too great for one man to bear."

"You think Packer is satisfied with the explanation I gave him? He seemed skeptical."

"Leave Packer to me. I've known him for a long time. I'll talk to him again, but don't you say any more. Stick by your story -at least until we figure out what to do next. Will you promise me that much?"

Spence sighed and nodded slowly. "I promise. I won't do anything rash or stupid-at least not without asking you first. But I didn't expect it to be this hard. Really, I-"

"Did you think you had returned from a Sunday picnic? Your life has been changed. You will never be the same, Spence. You have seen things no man has ever seen and you know things now that can… well, change the world. And you can't tell anyone."

Spence stared dully ahead, eyes unfocused, remembering the long sessions he and Adjani had put in during the five-week jour ney back to Gotham. Now, only a few hours more before docking, they were rehearsing it all again.

He had told Packer a story about his having a fight with Adjani and how he had wanted only to get out of the installation for a few minutes to cool off. He hadn't know Adjani was hurt, and hadn't meant to hurt him. The storm blew up and he became disoriented and couldn't find his way back. Spence admitted to having violent spells of anger and frustration lately-probably due to overwork_ and that something had touched him off. Adjani had had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Packer accepted this version of the events in much the same way he accepted Spence's version of his miraculous survival on the surface of an extremely hostile planet-he nodded a good deal and puffed out his cheeks and rubbed his hand through his wiry thatch of copper-colored hair and at last said, "I see. Very interesting." And that had been that.

Packer had not questioned him further about either incident, and that is why Spence felt he had not been believed-Packer had seen through the shabby lie and been too hurt to press the matter further. He wanted to come clean and explain everything just the way it happened. Adjani counseled against this and was still of the same opinion: wait and see.

"You're right, of course," said Spence at length. "It's just that I, ah…"

"I know, I know. You feel very alone right now. Don't worry. I'm with you. Together we'll work this out."

Spence wondered if Adjani knew or guessed there was more to his story than tunnels and a lost city. He had not told him about Kyr-partly out of obligation to the Martian, and partly out of fear that he would not have been believed. This, too, was eating at him. He wondered if he should tell Adjani about Kyr now, or wait for a better time. He decided reluctantly to wait.

He looked glumly into the dark brown stain at the bottom of his cup as if peering into his future and not liking the color of what he saw.

"You think I'm still in danger, don't you?" he said at last.

"Yes, I do. I see no reason to think otherwise." Adjani leaned across the small table. "As soon as we get back I'm going to request data on the Naga superstitions of Northern India and run it through MIRA for a profile. We may see something there that can help us."

"All right. What do I do in the meantime? Go on as if nothing had happened?" -precisely, Nothing did."

"You know, all the while I was in Tso I didn't dream-I mean other than normal dreams. And no blackouts, either. What do you make of that?"

"I don't know. But it is another fact to be considered in our theory."

Spence raised his eyes slowly. "I'm afraid, Adjani. Really afraid. I don't want to go back there. I feel as if he's waiting for me-this Dream Thief of yours-and as soon as I set foot back in Gotham, I'm lost. Powerless."

"Far from it. We will fight him, Spence. And we will win."

"How do you fight a dream?"

"God knows," said Adjani firmly, "and he will aid us."