"You"ll do no such thing!" squawked Nuwell in alarm. "It"s, too dangerous! Now you listen to me, Maya. You stay out of sight of this man and wait till I get there!"
"All right, darling, I"ll use my own judgment," replied Maya demurely, and hung up.
She sat and cogitated for a time. She was dressed for dinner, and she had been looking forward to appearing in the dining room in the somewhat sensational moulded, flame-red gown she had bought recently in Mars City. She didn"t relish the idea of having dinner sent to her room, and sitting up here alone to eat it.
With sudden decision, she arose. She donned dark gla.s.ses and tossed a powder-red veil over her dark hair. Kensington had only seen her once and would not be expecting to see her here. If he saw her now, he wouldn"t recognize her.
Fifteen minutes later, she was sipping an extremely expensive martini in the dining room when she raised her eyes to see Dark Kensington enter, wearing a dark-red, form-fitting evening suit.
He paused just inside the door and stood there, slowly surveying the room. His eyes fell on Maya and paused. Then he walked straight to her table.
"May I join you, Miss Cara Nome?" he asked in a deep, controlled voice, a rather sardonic smile on his lips.
She felt trapped, and irrationally angry at him for recognizing her.
"I"m afraid you"ve made a mistake," she said coldly. "That isn"t my name."
At this juncture, a helpful waiter appeared at Maya"s elbow and asked in an appallingly distinct tone:
"Would you care for another drink, Miss Cara Nome, or do you wish to eat now?"
"An understandable mistake, since it"s such a common name," said Dark, sitting down opposite her. He turned pale-blue eyes, remote and filled with light, on the waiter, and added: "She"ll have another drink, and bring me one of the same."
The waiter left, and Maya removed her dark gla.s.ses to level furious black eyes at Dark.
"I could call the manager and complain that you"re annoying me, you know," she said.
"You could," he agreed somberly. "You seem to be a very efficient tattletale. Or are you going to try to pretend that you weren"t the one responsible for the raid on the college?"
She recognized that she was well in for it. He was not going to play a game of pretense. Well, she had tried--partly, anyway--to do as Nuwell wanted.
Very deliberately, she opened her purse, realizing that Dark was watching her closely, all his muscles tense. She took out a cigarette case and a lighter, laying them side by side on the table, and he relaxed visibly.
Maya extracted a cigarette and placed it between her lips casually. She picked up the lighter and balanced it in her hand.
"I a.s.sume that you"re not armed, Mr. Kensington," she said.
He shrugged and smiled, revealing strong white teeth.
"Hardly, in this suit," he replied. "I"m glad to see you"ve decided to recognize me."
"I am," she said grimly. "Armed, I mean. This is not a cigarette lighter, but a very efficient and deadly heatgun. You"re under arrest, Mr. Kensington, so I suppose you"re having dinner with me whether you like it or not. Now, do you mind being a gentleman and lighting my cigarette, since this is not very good for the purpose?"
He looked at her face, then dropped his eyes to the lighter, still smiling.
"You"d better take my word for it," she advised. "I don"t want to kill you, Mr. Kensington, but I won"t hesitate. I"m an agent of the terrestrial government."
Dark shrugged again. He produced a lighter and leaned forward to light her cigarette, without a tremor.
The waiter returned with their drinks and an announcement.
"There"s a telephone call for you from Mars City, Miss Cara Nome," he said.
Maya kept her eyes on Dark.
"Can you bring a telephone to the table?" she asked the waiter.
"Certainly, Miss," he replied. He left, and returned a moment later with a telephone. He set it before her and plugged it in under the table.
Juggling the lighter-gun gently in one hand, Maya picked up the phone.
As soon as she answered it, her ears were a.s.sailed by Nuwell"s agonized voice.
"Maya, I can"t get up there tonight!" he said. "There aren"t any jets here, and these idiots refuse to bring one in from Hesperidum or Cynia for me to use. I"ll have to come up by groundcar."
Maya sat silent, stunned. It had not seemed too great a feat to her to hold Dark captive with her disguised heatgun when she was antic.i.p.ating Nuwell"s arrival within hours. But suddenly she felt like a hunter who has snared a lion in a rabbit trap.
"Maya, are you there?" demanded Nuwell querulously. "We"ll spell each other at the wheel and drive up without stopping, but it will still take two and a half days to get there."
Maya took a deep breath.
"Come ahead," she said in a steady voice. "I"ll have your man waiting for you when you get here."
"You"ll what? But I thought you said he was only staying overnight!
Maya, don"t you do anything rash!"
"I"m afraid I already have," she said, a little ruefully. "I have him under arrest right now."
The noise at the other end of the line sounded like a dismayed shriek.
"You little fool!" he shrilled. "I told you not to do anything like that! How can you hold a man like that for two days, single-handed? Call in the police!"
"It seems to me that I already mentioned there aren"t any around here,"
she reminded him patiently.
There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Then Nuwell said, with forced calm:
"I"m leaving immediately. In the name of s.p.a.ce, Maya, be careful!"
Maya put the telephone quietly back in its cradle and looked across the table at the Tartar she had caught. Dark smiled at her, easily.
"So the reinforcements you were expecting won"t get here tonight, after all," he remarked softly.
"He didn"t say that at all!" she retorted, too quickly.
"There"s hardly any point in trying to deceive me about it is there?" he pointed out. "I can tell a great deal from your conversation and the expression on your face, and I"d estimate that your help is going to have to come from Mars City by groundcar--a trip I"ve just made, so I know exactly how long it takes. Do you plan for us to spend these two nights in your room, or mine?"
She looked at him silently, stricken.
"I see our waiter returning," said Dark equably. "I trust you"ll enjoy your meal as much as I"m going to enjoy mine, Miss Cara Nome."