“I see.” John had no idea what to do next. He was tired, worried, and his head buzzed with a million technical problems. There was no way on earth that Maddy Wheatstone could possibly solve any of them. The logical thing to do was to let her leave.

Then he stopped thinking and said, “If you’re not going back to Earth right away, would you have dinner with me?” He counted his racing pulse through a long and awful pause, then added, “I didn’t mean tonight; I’m sure you have other plans. Anytime. I’m free anytime.”

She stood a foot away from him, breathing heavily. At last she said, “You’re not free ever. Not until the particle storm has been and gone.”

“I’ll make time. When?”

“Tonight’s as good as any. Where?”

“I’ll pick you up at your rooms.”

“You know where that is?”

“Yes, I know. Remember?”

“I do. When I saw you standing there in the middle of the night it scared me half to death.” Maddy smiled — at last. “I’ll do better this time; I won’t be scared. Let’s eat early. All right?”

She stared at him, waiting, while he did and said nothing. At last she turned and left.

John collapsed back into his chair. His thoughts skipped all over the place. The old shield was no good. The new defense system did not exist. Earth was in terrible danger. The next few weeks were going to be filled with enormous amounts of labor and dreadful risks. And he was doing — what?

He wasn’t quite sure, but whatever it was, he suspected that he had chosen the worst moment in history to do it.

Maddy left the engineering center with her mind in turmoil. They had been alone together, John showed real interest in her, and even then she had not been able to tell him what the Argos Group was doing on Sky City. She couldn’t make sense of her own feelings. She hated what Gordy Rolfe had said to her, but he had taught her everything she knew about business. Gordy was the reason that she was here. He was also a crook and a lunatic. And if the Argos Group was delivering inferior products and sabotaging shield development, nothing could be more important than that.

Celine Tanaka, when Maddy finally got through to her, had been skeptical. “Slowing shield development? And delivering defective materials? That’s quite an accusation, against your own employer.”

“I don’t work for the Argos Group anymore.”

“Ah. I see.”

Maddy knew what Celine must be thinking. “Look, it’s not that I’m vindictive and trying to get back at Gordy Rolfe. This is really happening.”

“You have proof? And others will back you up?”

“Not real proof.”

It sounded weak, and it was. After an uncomfortably long silence, Celine said, “I’ll look into this. But I have to move carefully. You’re making a very serious charge.”

“I know.”

“Until I get back to you, don’t say another word to anyone.”

That order from Celine Tanaka was the hardest part. Maddy had wanted to tell John everything that she knew. But what did she know? Gordy himself had told her that it was all hearsay.

Was she helping to save Earth from destruction, or was she utterly deluded? There seemed nothing in between.

Maddy slowed her steps as she approached the elevator shaft leading down toward the perimeter. Should she go back?

The decision was made for her. There, waiting by the elevator, was one source of her problems. But for him she wouldn’t be agonizing over her actions.

Seth Parsigian nodded. “Got a second?”

“If it’s Argos business, I don’t.” Maddy needed to say it to somebody who understood, even if it was only to the unshaven thug lounging in front of her. “I’m out of there. I did it. I called Gordy and resigned.”

Dark eyebrows rose high on the smooth forehead. “Whoo. That’s what I call livin’ dangerous. I wondered if you’d carry through. I guess it helps that you’re out here where he can’t get at you. What did he say?”

“Nothing much. Called me an ungrateful bitch, a faithless fucker, and a worthless whore. Told me I’d never work again, anywhere. He took it real well.”

“I’d say. What’d you tell him?”

Maddy hesitated. She had mentioned the Argos Group’s fleecing of Sky City, but she had been careful not to use Seth’s name or to quote his assertion of deliberate shield delays. “I kept pretty quiet. When Gordy’s on a rant he doesn’t leave you much space.”

“Too true. Makes you wonder why we work for him. Or did, in your case. He’s gettin’ worse. Maybe I oughter be outa there, too.” He was eyeing her, making some decision of his own. “Look, this is nothin’ to do with Argos Group business. Yesterday I told you I knew who the Sky City murderer was. You didn’t believe me, did you?”

“Of course I didn’t. If you knew, you’d tell security.”

“Suppose you were dead sure who it was, but you didn’t have hard evidence. Nothin’ enough to stand up legally. What would you do then?”

“I suppose I’d try to get evidence.”

“You really want to catch the killer?”

“What sort of question is that? Of course I do.”

“Would you ask other people to help you if you knew who did it?”

“I might.”

“Well, so might I. I really do know the name of the murderer. But there’s no hard evidence, so catchin’ the killer ain’t simple. There’s a way that might work, only I’ll need help.”

“I already told you, I’ll not go wandering around Sky City with you again.”

“It’s nothin’ like that. I want you to do just one thing, an’ for you it will be easy. I want you to arrange a meetin’, just me, you, and lover-boy John. But before that meeting you gotta make him swear, to you personally, that he won’t say nothin’ to anybody else until the killer’s under arrest.”

“He’ll not agree to that. Why should he?”

“For me, he wouldn’t. Otherwise I’d ask him. You, it’s different. He’d let you flay him and use his naked hide for seat covers.”

“That is gross and disgusting. Also nonsense.”

“You don’t see him lookin’ at you. He thinks the sun shines outa — well, never mind. If I’m wrong, you got nothin’ to lose by tryin’.” He was staring at her with an odd intensity. “Will you talk to him?”

“I will not. Why should I? I don’t owe you. And I don’t work for Gordy anymore, so I don’t owe Argos.”

“You don’t owe me an’ Gordy, all right. But mebbe you owe somebody else.”

Seth stared at Maddy in silence until she turned away. She said softly, “I don’t owe anybody.”

“Mebbe you do. Could be you owe twelve teenagers.”

Maddy looked again into Seth’s brown eyes. He was conning her, she just knew it. It made no difference. She had lost the argument.

He said, “Listen to me. I’m gonna break one of my own rules. I’m gonna tell you before I know you’re aboard.”

For the next ten minutes he spoke and she said not a word. At the end of it, he asked, “Well?”

She had a perfect opportunity to ask John; she could do it when they were having dinner. A perfect opportunity to talk about a perfectly awful subject.

Would she do it? Why should she do it, when the evening offered the first-ever chance for a private and intimate meal with John?

The forlorn corpse of Lucille DeNorville, abandoned and floating in limbo, drifted slowly forward from the back of her mind.

She nodded. “I will. I’ll ask him tonight.”

Why didn’t life ever go the way it was supposed to?