"Could it be that, somehow, devastating Eilong might bring you riches? You have the ... look of a man covetous of wealth, at any price."

For Gelor, it was more than disconcerting; it was an awful moment. Of a sudden he was terrified of DeyMeox and her probing, brilliantly inferring mind. It was all he could do not to think of her as a witch, a sorceress. He knew he couldn't let her go on, slashing through his masks with her devastating insights. Already she had pierced and ripped away the layers of cover he had planned so carefully. Somehow he had to strike back, regain control of the situation.

Why not the truth, then. Mightn't that be the best defense-offense ?

Abruptly he said, "You've heard of CongCorp?"

"The mineral extraction complex?" DeyMeox showed her surprise. "Of course. Who hasn't? It's nearly as big as TMSMCo, surely."

"CongCorp's profits come from cyber-extraction. Robo-mining. On EiJong, they cannot use such methods. That means that to get kiraoun catalysts, CongCorp has to buy unprocessed ore through the planet's Elders."

66.A horrified light was beginning to dawn on DeyMeox's face. "A-and if there were no Eilans ..."

"The ruin need not be that complete." Gelor felt better now, less inclined to surrender to her brilliance. "It would be enough if the planet were in a state of total panic. Let anarchy take over. That's all that's needed."

"Then-you-would . . . ?"

He nodded. "I'll sell Eilong." Intentionally, he phrased it so that no hint of the conditional hung about the matter; as if he owned Eilong. "Planet and people, I'll sell them to CongCorp as a package."

She shook her head as if in disbelief, and heaved a sigh. "Your price?"

"Paradise. Paradise, and CongCorp's protection." "I. . . see." Thoughtfulness described DeyMeox-crober's expression, and then a cynicism. Did those olivine eyes twinkle? "You'll forgive me if I find your faith in corporate grat.i.tude naive, to say the least."

Gelor wanted to hit her. In a flash, she had brought back the raw apprehensiveness that was ever a pa.s.senger in his guts.

Yet . . . not that it mattered! She hadn't guessed too much beyond the outer boundaries of his planning. If he could hold her within those limits, there'd be no problems. He bent forward at the thought, resting his weight on hands planted on her bench while he smiled his most captivating smile.

"DeyMeox: I know that science is your lord and master. Yet paradise-my kind of paradise-must still hold charm for you. I want to share it with you. Join me! Be my partner.''

She stared at him as if she could not believe her ears.

He pressed on: "What do you stand to lose? Consider! All I ask is a sharing of your knowledge, your wisdom. Your reward will be not only riches, but opportunity. Think what you could do, what secrets of nature you could delve if money were no object! The whole Galaxy would be yours to probe-"

"You're mad," DeyMeox said.

It was her tone that stabbed so deeply. It was so flat, so 67.matter of fact, with no hint of emotion. An observation of spore-colony development in a growth-acceleration flat might have brought more emotion, more heat from her.

Fury exploded within Gelor.

"All right!" he raged. "Have it your way! Call me mad if you will-but die if you don't help me! That's your choice-help me, or die."

He had expected fear to seize her then. Yet so far as he could see, it did not. Rather, her lips twisted in wry disdain. And she continued to look serenely, directly into his eyes.

"If that is your wish, then-kill me."

Her very voice was a shrug. The moment was freighted with elements of catastrophe; an end to everything. As she must know . . .

Gelor was delighted that he had come prepared for it.

"Stain my hands with your blood? Neg," he smiled, and made it a point-for effect-to chuckle. "Oh no. I have a better solution to the problem." He brought forth the fake TZ injectab he had bought from Quong in the Riverside alley. "Do you recognize this?"

She gave it the most casual of glances. "Of course. From the skull, I a.s.sume that's a tetrazombase unit."

"Would it improve your work if I were to shoot it into one of your veins?"

This time her face opened in a full-fledged smile. "It really wouldn't matter to me." She extended a wrist in challenge. "You see, the price of a crober's life includes contact with many substances most people see as deadly. One of those is tetrazombase. Years ago I developed an immunity to its effects. So-if you wish to inject me with it, I won't even try to stop you."

Frustration gripped Gelor, and hurt. Once again this fiend in woman's form had him on the hip! Could it be that she was really to defeat him, after all his planning, his brilliant successes up to now?

Furiously he looked away-and looking, glimpsed again the row of recordacks along the wall. Each was neatly labeled. Zhing's job, probably.

68.Recordacks: storage units for raw scientific data. More- they were most often the choice of those who did not wish to take the slightest risk of entrusting such data to the electronic memory of computer storage.

A new spark kindled in Gelor. He spoke carefully: "Firm, then. You dash my dreams and I'll have only a small vengeance as solace."

DeyMeox's face went blank. "A ... small-vengeance?"

"Your records represent your life's work, years of effort." He smiled gently-and gestured to the wall of recordacks. "I shall destroy them. All of it, and be sure your computer wipes itself clean. It is the price you will pay for bringing my own plans to naught."

The crober's face made an interesting study, Gelor thought. Shock flashed across it, and then panic. Her mouth opened, closed. Her eyes flicked this way and that, as if she were searching desperately for some way-any way out of her dilemma.

Gelor had seldom enjoyed himself more. And, just in case, he held his thumb near the trigger of his spring-loaded weapon. Now her knuckles had gone white on the workbench. She stared down. Her tongue slid back and forth along her lips. He heard her swallow. He loved the sound; fear, horror, panic.

"Well?" he prodded.

Her eyes remained downcast. "I have no choice. The victory is yours."

He made sure that his own swallow was soundless. "Good." He savored his words: "You know what I require. How soon can you deliver?"

DeyMeox's eyes came up now. Strangely, her face once again was calm, as calm as if he had never made his threat. "I am a scientist. My work is my life. That's why 1 can't let you wipe out my records. They're too important- not to me so much as to humankind, the Galaxy. So, you defeat me. I will sp.a.w.n the mycotoxin. On one condition."

Despite the euphoria of his triumph, unease began again to grow in Gelor. "What is the . . . condition?"

69."A simple one. One that will exert no effect on what you plan."

"Get on with it, witch!" His body heat raced up along with his temper. "Tell me your triple-d.a.m.ned, Shiva-cursed condition}"

"A test, a simple one. No more than that." She paused: eyes wide, serene gaze on his face. "Before I begin production of T-Six for you, I wish to make a celloscopic transcription of your brain-wave patterns, for microelectro-pulsive study at some future date."

Gelor stood very still. Words, at that moment, were beyond him.

At last: "You mean . . . you'd treat me as if I were an uncla.s.sified alien life-form?" His voice trembled in his efforts to control it. "A-a hallucinotic lunatic? A specimen in a bionarium?"

"If you wish to phrase it so."

"But why?"

"Call it a scientist's curiosity, my dear." At long last the crober was again smiling. She smoothed her short-cropped charcoal hair back from her high, broad forehead. Touched her cheek where he had slapped her. "The issue is contradiction."

''Contradiction-?''

"That contradiction/contra-indication between the face you show the Galaxy and what's behind it. You are more than handsome-you know that. Women who give heed to such must rape you in their eagerness to share your beauty. Inside though-oh, that's another story! Inside you lies rottenness to put a sewer to shame. I trust that is not insulting-I believe you revel in it. Where other men l.u.s.t for woman-flesh, you l.u.s.t for horror, multiplied by millions: a whole planet-"

Control fled and Gelor struck out at her, a savage blow.

She sidestepped. The swing missed, even offbalancing him briefly. She did not try to take advantage of that and he knew in the same instant that she had planned even this. It was her intention to bait me into violence! But-where was the logic? He wasn't sure. He knew only that he dared 70.not play into her hands. If she sought violence, then he must eschew it.

He stepped back, carefully deep-breathing. For a long moment they only gazed at each other. Only one of them wore that tiny, maddening smile. . . .

"You asked me to permit a test." His voice sounded strange and strained, even to him. "I refuse."

"Then I refuse to help you." She was still smiling.

"There are persuasive sufferings."

She flipped her fingers. "Of course. But will they give you Teratogenesis Six? Or will you learn too late that the spores you've laid down on Eilong are harmless?"

Gelor's impulse was to do murder. He enjoyed it, he needed it-and he dared not act on the impulse. Not if he hoped to attain his goal. Hope existed.

"Right, then." He was quivering in cold fury. "If that's your price, I'll pay it, just as you will pay mine. But if you play me false, you'll be a long time dying."

DeyMeox smiled her cryptic smile. "So. At last we understand each other. Zhing: do get up and let me give you an injection."

Zhing obeyed, Gelor said ''Wait-" and started forward, and DeyMeox used the exodermic syringe. She also surged forward to catch Zhing, who began at once to collapse. She lowered him to the floor, and looked up at Gelor.

"You hurt him, and he needed that sedative. Of course now you need not worry about his interfering, or making a call for help. He will be unconscious for hours. I really do want to make that test, you see." Squatting there beside her servant, she gestured at the door at the lab's far end. "Will you carry-not-drag him in there, please? We test in there."

Tight-lipped, he stared at her. While fear was a score and more of worms in his vitals, he sought to sort out his feelings.

The test, whatever it was-that didn't matter. In the last a.n.a.lysis his resistance was a matter of pure ego. The fear factor, on the other hand-that sprang from DeyMeox herself. Her brain was too good, her mind too shrewd. He knew it: he could not match either. Furthermore, no matter 71.what this woman said and no matter how straightforward her manner, he knew that he dared not trust her. He drew a deep breath, expelled it.

Yet I have no choice but to use her. Without her, my dreams and schemes are ashes. Time's running out, too- already the company's wolves may be howling on my trail.

So. Let this b.i.t.c.h run her precious tests, perhaps to make him forever famous, then sp.a.w.n her h.e.l.lish fungi. He had other steps to take. With a nod, he took up Zhing's dead weight, noted that the fellow was breathing, and gestured for the crober to lead the way. He'd not be locked in a closet!

She said "Curie," and the yellow-tan door opened. He was right behind her, and they entered almost together. She said "Curie" again, and the lights came on while the door closed. Wanting to drop Zhing, he instead squatted, eyes directed at DeyMeox, and eased the man to the floor. And rose.

"I've heard reports of a cryogenic unit you've developed, Crober."

DeyMeox shrugged. "Not developed. Tested. As a favor to old colleagues."

"But it does work?"

"Of course." Her manner said that the question-the process itself-was too trivial for attention at a time like this. "It was merely a matter of synchronizing differential cell metabolism with computerized permafieeze techniques." She couldn't even be bothered to flip her fingers.

"The specimens arrived unharmed?"

She nodded. "At all levels, from ameboid to full-grown Jarps and Terasak slaves."

"Wonderful," Gelor said. "Now, since I am to be tested ... it is you who must strip."

"What?"

"I a.s.sure you I am not interested in what you will display, Crober. Surely testing me will put me at some disadvantage, and I want to take some small steps to equal that out. You will be so much more vulnerable, unclothed and barefoot."

DeyMeox heaved a sigh. "Shall we strip together, then?"

72.Gelor laughed because he couldn't help it.

Besides, his thoughts were a delight: Once you've completed preparations for our experiment on Eilong, we'll use your own cryo-unit to put you and your so-loyal a.s.sociate . . . into cold storage! A temporary measure; knowing you're safe here will free my mind for other vital work.

Specifically, there was the voyage he had to make to Nevermind, and another female, the andrist Shemsi . . .

6.

Take care! Strangers are coming!

-Capt. Theophilus Conneau At night this way on moonless Croz, the building that housed Oddford's policers loomed big and grim and dark. When a flyer pa.s.sed over to land on the roof, its shadow loomed huge as some dreadsome monster of myth.

Cheerily, Jestikhan Churt urged along the psychist named Yahna Golden. For the several th time, she balked.

"I demand to know!" she whispered fiercely. "What is it that you're going to do? I have a right!"

''As I had a right when you slapped the brain-drain on me?" Jesti's laugh was not endearing. "I'm the one sets the rules this time, Golden. You'll know what I think you need to know when I think you need to know it. That's it. Your first job's to play Yahna Golden. Surely you can handle that. Just tell the shift men what I told you. Stall or speak out of turn and I crack your kneecaps. Hurts!"

As emphasis to those words so pleasantly spoken, he twitched the electronic bond that linked her to the control-pak in his pocket. She jump-skipped a pace and shuddered big. He pushed her roughly forward. Catching herself barely in time to keep from falling, the leggy woman stumbled into the building ahead of him.

"You don't look your best," he muttered, and saw her 73.74.pride force her to straighten and, as he'd said, play Yahna Golden.

A guard sat at the desk commanding the entrance. Drab in his slate-blues, his attention perked at sight of the marvelous-looking woman who approached-accompanied by the freak.

Above a willowy but arrestingly feminine body her face was lean with p.r.o.nounced bone-structure and high cheekbones. All around that face and her rather broad shoulders bloomed that halo of deep yellow hair that was so impossible-and who cared? Certainly no male. While her waist was not deeply indented as so many women's were-not, admittedly, as a gift of nature-she had been well supplied in the chest. The conical swells there were dramatic and widely separated. At a height of about 185 sems*, she was pushing the height of her shockingly purple companion with seemingly endless legs as long as his. Couple all those physical blessings (and enhancements) with the fact that she wore a skinnt.i.te in a variety of colors including intriguingly placed bands of black net, and the man behind the desk was suddenly happy to have pulled night duty.

He stood at once, sucking up, pushing out his chest, striving to stand tall. He did not have to work to look completely attentive.

"I'm the psychist who was here last night," the vision said. "This man-" a nod indicated the Eilan freak with her-"has something more to say. Your captain may want to hear it."

"Pos and double pos!" The guard dropped back into his chair, pushed scanner b.u.t.tons, and hopped back up to gesture. "That door there. Three down and on your left."

Jesti's hard look kept the guard from staring at Yahna's rear-and from perhaps noting that she was being led.

The mismatched pair made its way down and to the left. There, a seemingly busy Crozer with a turquoise eye-ring looked up from a desk, startled. Then he raised both hands in welcome and was swiftly on his feet. His slate uniform * 185 centimeters. About six feet, one inch. Old Style.