Her eyes widened. 'Beg pardon, Captain?!" 'Just do it! When we reach the next floor, people are going to be wondering what happened in here.

We'll both live longer if they think I've been inside your pants. Or would you rather I told 'em you've been pa.s.sing me state secrets? I'

Sutton yanked down her front zipper- revealing a good firm pair of b.r.e.a.s.t.s under a green T-shirt.

Steve ruffled her bobbed hair and pinched her cheeks.

'Now try and look as if you enjoyed it."

They switched lifts at the next floor. Any questions people in the lobby might have had died on their lips when they saw Steve was Family.

Sutton hurriedly rearranged herself and went back up. Steve carried on down to take the short subway ride to the White House interchange and the special turnstile that only accepted Family ID cards.

The first stage of the journey back to Cloudlands ....

Despite his casual demeanour in the lift, Steve's mind was in even greater turmoil than before. Clearwater had vanished with the wrong baby. Did she know they had been switched? She must have, surely!

Was that why she had cried?

But why did she not say anything? Was it to protect him? Or was it to protect Lucas Brickman? Who had chosen that name for their son? His son - who had been handed over to his own guard-mother. To be raised by her and Crazy Uncle Bart.

It was a nightmare which didn't make sense. If the PG was ready to swap Clearwater for Fran after mounting a costly operation to capture her, what was the point of the subst.i.tution? Why would Jefferson want to keep her baby? And why was he, the father - the supposedly loyal and well-rewarded servant - being kept in the dark?

Steve couldn't figure it out. But then he didn't know that Mount St Helens had erupted as Clearwater delivered her child into the world, or that Jefferson the 31st was convinced that he, 8902 Brickman S.R had sired the Talisman ....

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

As he turned off the shower, Steve heard m.u.f.fled ,voices coming from the bedroom. The deeper one belonged to Joshua, the grey-haired Mute Who was Head of Service at Savannah. Steve pulled a bathrobe over his dripping wet body and emerged, to discover who his visitors were.

He caught sight of Joshua exiting into the hall then glimpsed a sudden movement behind him. He whirled around and was sent staggering backwards as Fran flung herself at him with an excited laugh.

'You pleased to see me?!" Steve loosened the choking embrace and put some warmth into his voice. 'Of course I am! I'm only sorry I wasn't there at the hand-over. Karlstrom told me I was down for it and ' 'Who cares?" Fran silenced him with a hungry kiss.

'You're here, I'm here - both safe and sound. That's all that matters." She hugged him happily. 'When I saw you lying face down on the verandah, Christo - I thought you were dead! Jeer! Now that really did frighten me!" She looked as if she meant it too. But for how long?

Being around Fran was like walking on quicksand. Steve hugged her back. 'How d'you think I felt when I woke up, tied hand and foot and found you were gone?!" He led her over to the table which held the crystal decanters of wine and the stiffer kind of booze he'd come to rely on when Fran was around. 'What happened?"

'Can't say exactly. Someone hit me over the head.

When I came to I was blindfolded and gagged and wrapped inside what felt like a bed quilt." She took the offered drink, toasted him, then moved around the room as she talked, touching familiar objects like an animal putting down territorial markers.

'G.o.ddam nearly choked to death. I was on or in some kind of wheeled vehicle then, after a while I heard waves breaking on the sh.o.r.e. I was slung into a rowboat - I could tell that by the way it bobbed up and down then transferred onto a junk. Once that got underway, the sound of the engine told me all I needed to know."

She came back for a refill. 'Anyway, they cut me loose from the quilt, and took the gag off but I still couldn't see anything. They put me some place where I could hear water sloshing around - and there were rats too!" She shuddered at the memory. 'Jeezuss!" Steve gave her a soothing shoulder-hug. 'Sounds like you were down in the bottom of the boat. The bilges."

Fran resumed her walk-about. 'Yeah, well, it was G.o.ddam awful wherever it was. They kept me tied up, but some j.a.p came and fed me spoonfuls of boiled rice and a little tea. They left the blindfold on till we reached Sara-kusa. The first thing I see is the inside of another prison cell. Only this one was clean. It was me that stank."

She stopped in front of him. 'D'you know that all the time I was tied up those j.a.p b.a.s.t.a.r.ds didn't let me go to the john?! For nearly three days! First you go through the agony of trying to 'hold your water, and then you suffer the humiliation of having to pee in your pants!

Ugnnhh! I wanted to die!" 'Yeah, I know how it feels,: said Steve.

He'd been in the same jam after being 'posted' by Malone's renegades.

He poured himself another drink. 'Then what?"

'Things started to get better. They brought in a tub, soap and hot water. towels. and took my clothes away to be washed and pressed."

Fran unzipped her grey tunic and tossed it aside, sat down on the edge of the bed and offered up her right leg. 'And I met your friend Cadillac .... ' Steve straddled her leg and eased off the close-fitting boot. 'He's no friend of mine."

'You're right there." She raised her left leg. 'He made it quite plain he hates your guts."

Steve worked up some indignation as he wrestled off the second boot.

'The feeling's mutual. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d took Roz from The Lady and then stood around and let her die."

'Yes." Fran drained her gla.s.s and placed it on the chest that ran along the foot of the bed. 'I asked him what happened - just to keep the records straight. He said she was one of several people who died after eating some smoked meat. Ironic, isn't it? All the talents she possessed - and yet she couldn't protect herself from the poisonous c.r.a.p these lumpheads stuff down their throats."

She stood up and caressed Steve's face. 'And she very nearly took you with her. It's really weird, isn't it - how your body reproduced all the symptoms...?"

'Yehh - but none of the toxin. It drove the doctors crazy."

'And me too. That was one of the worst weeks of my life." She kissed him. 'At least there's no danger of that happening again."

'Don't be so sure. You know what they say - "Trouble always comes in threes."' 'Well, I'm going to make sure you stay out of trouble from now on." Locking her arms round his neck, she pulled him down onto the bed beside her. 'So what happened after you came round? How did you get away?"

Steve outlined the nail-biting suspense that had accompanied the theft of a junk, then touched upon the long sea-voyage around Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico where the sea had been discoloured by a huge plume of mud nearly a hundred miles long.

'Yeah, it's from the Mississippi,' said Fran. 'There's been ma.s.sive flooding in the east. Some of the divisional bases and way-stations have been badly hit."

Steve drew his head back. 'There's been nothing on Channel 9."

Fran kissed the tip of his nose. 'That's 'cos we don't believe in broadcasting bad news. What have you been up to since you got back?"

'Learning j.a.panese and playing games. And let me tell you - that language is a real b.i.t.c.h. I'm way behind."

'Don't worry. I'll help you from now on. If you want to learn a language, there's nothing better than a sleeping dictionary. We can make love in j.a.panese. I've got one of their s.e.x manuals. We can go through it, page by page." Fran snuggled closer. 'And just who have you been playing games with?"

Steve laughed. 'I've been a.s.signed to the Simulation Room. It's full of computers and big screens, and there's this team of programmers who set up various scenarios and strategies involving the Mutes, the Iron Masters and the Federation, and then play 'em through and see how it works out. At the moment I'm pretending to be Cadillac."

He grinned. 'And the Mutes are gaining ground."

'Knowing you, that doesn't surprise me - the genuine article is no bonehead either. But he has one major character defect. He can't resist telling people how clever he is - especially if he's got a captive audience. It was . . most revealing."

A cold dart of fear struck Steve's heart. When Cadillac had the upper hand he tended to shoot his mouth off. He tried to sound casual. 'Oh, yehh - what about?"

Fran hesitated then half-rolled on top of him. 'No.

Maybe I'd better not tell you."