"How?"
"None of your business. But they talked. I think RUMOKO"s igniters need another check."
"I can pick them up in your cabin?"
"Yes."
"How did you apprehend them?"
"They didn"t know I had a gun."
"I see. Neither did I ... We"ll get them, don"t worry. But you are telling me that you took both of them and beat some answers out of them?"
"More or less," I said, "and yes and no, and off the record, in case this place is bugged. Is it?"
She came in, nodded her head and put a finger to her lips.
"Well, let"s go do something," I said. "We"d better act quickly, I don"t want these guys fouling the project all up."
"They won"t. Okay. I"ll give it to you that you know what you are doing. I will take you at face value as a strange creature. You did something which n.o.body expected of you. This does happen occasionally. We sometimes meet up with a guy who knows his job thoroughly and can see when something is going wrong, and who cares enough about it to proceed from there and d.a.m.n the torpedoes. You say an atomic bomb will soon be going off aboard this ship. Right?"
"Yes."
"You think one of the charges has been attached, and has a timer cued in?"
"Right," and I looked at my wrist.w.a.tch and saw that it was going on seven.
"I"d bet less than an hour from now."
"They"re going down in a few minutes," she told me.
"What are you going to do about it?"
She picked up the telephone on the little table next to her bed.
"Operations," she said. "Stop the countdown." Then, "Give me the barracks."
"Sergeant," she then said, "I want you to make some arrests." She looked at me. "What is your room number?" she asked.
"Six-forty," I replied.
"Six-forty," she said. "Two men ... Right ... Yes ... Thank you." And she hung up.
"They"re taken care of," she told me. "So, you think a charge might go off prematurely?"
"That"s what I said, twice."
"Could you stop it?"
"With the proper equipment, though I"d rather you send in a service ... "
"Get it," she said to me.
"Okay," and I went and did that thing.
I came back to her cabin around five minutes later, with a heavy pack slung over my shoulder.
"I had to sign my name in blood," I told her. "But I"ve got what I need ... Why don"t you get yourself a good physicist?"
"I want you," she said. "You were in from the beginning. You know what you"re doing. Let"s keep the group small and tight."
"Tell me where to go to do it," I said, and she led the way. It was pushing seven by then.
It took me ten minutes to find out which one they had done it to. It was child"s play. They had used the motor from an advanced kid"s erector set, with self-contained power unit. It was to be actuated by a standard clock-type timer, which would cause it to pull the lead shielding. The d.a.m.ned thing would go off while it was on the way down. It took me less than ten minutes to disarm it.
We stood near the railing, and I leaned upon it.
"Good," I said.
"Very good," she said.
"While you"re at it," she continued, "get on your guard. You are about to be the subject of the biggest security investigation I have ever set off."
"Go ahead. I"m pure as snow and swansdown."
"You aren"t real," she told me. "They don"t make people like that."
"So touch me," I said. "I am sorry if you don"t like the way I go about existing."
"If you don"t turn into a frog come midnight, a girl could learn to like a guy like you."
"That would require a very stupid girl," I said. And she gave me a strange look which I did not really care to try interpreting. Then she stared me straight in the eyes. "You"ve got some kind of secret I do not quite understand yet." she said. "You seem like a leftover from the Old Days."
"Maybe I am. Look, you"ve already said that I"ve been of help. Why not leave it at that? I haven"t done anything wrong."
"I"ve got a job to do. But, on the other hand, you"re right. You have helped, and you haven"t really broken any regs ... Except with reference to the J-9, for which I"m sure n.o.body is going to cause you trouble. On the opposite hand, I"ve got a report to write. Of necessity, your actions will figure in it prominently. I can"t very well leave you out."
"I wasn"t asking that," I said.
"What do you want me to do?"
Once it got into Central, I knew, I could kill it. But prior to that, it would be filtered through a mess of humans. They could cause trouble. "You kept the group small and tight," I said. "You could drop one."
"No."
"Okay. I could be a draftee, from the beginning."
"That"s better."
"Then maybe we could let it be that way."
"I see no great problems."
"You"ll do it?"
"I will see what I can do."
"That"s enough. Thanks."
"What will you do when your job here is finished?"
"I don"t know. Take a vacation, maybe."
"All alone?"
"Maybe."
"Look, I like you. I"ll do things to keep you out of trouble."
"I"d appreciate that."
"You seem to have answers for everything."
"Thank you."
"What about a girl?"
"What do you mean?"
"Could you use one, in whatever you do?"
"I thought you had a pretty good job here."
"I do. That"s not what I"m talking about ... Do you have one?"
"One what?"
"Stop playing the stupid role ... A girl, is what I mean."
"No."
"Well?"
"You"re nuts," I said. "What the h.e.l.l could I do with an Intelligence-type girl? Do you mean that you would actually take the chance of teaming up with a stranger?"
"I"ve watched you in action, and I"m not afraid of you. Yes, I would take the chance."
"This is the strangest proposal I"ve ever received."
"Think quick," she said.
"You don"t know what you"re asking," I told her.
"What if I like you, an awful lot?"
"Well, I disarmed your bomb ... "
"I"m not talking about being grateful ... But thanks, anyway ... The answer, I take it, is, "No." "
"Stop that! Can"t you give a man a chance to think?"
"Okay," she said, and turned away.
"Wait. Don"t be that way. You can"t hurt me, so I can talk honestly. I do have a crush on you. I have been a confirmed bachelor for many years, though. You are a complication."
"Let"s look at it this way," she told me. "You"re different, I know that. I wish I could do different things."
"Like what?"
"Lie to computers and get away with it."
"What makes you say that?"
"It"s the only answer, if you"re real."
"I"m real."
"Then you know how to beat the system."
"I doubt it."
"Take me along," she said. "I"d like to do the same thing." And I looked at her. A little wisp of hair was touching her cheek, and she looked as if she wanted to cry.
"I"m your last chance, aren"t I? You met me at a strange moment in your life, and you want to gamble."
"Yes."
"You"re nuts, and I can"t promise you security unless you want to quit the game, and I can"t. I play it by my own rules, though, and they"re kind of strange. If you and I got together, you would probably be a young widow ... So you would have that going for you."
"You"re tough enough to disarm bombs."
"I will meet an early grave. I do lots of stupid things when I have to."
"I think I might be in love with you."
"Then, for G.o.ds" sakes, let me talk to you later. I have lots of things to think about, now."
"All right."