wrenched the flashlight
from her, smashed it on the concrete floor. "I mean this: get the hell
out of here, and stay out!"

She said, distastefully, "I've seen it happen, but never this fast.
You've gone Hollywood, you're a genius, you're tremendous--forgetting
other people who helped. Go ahead with your mysterious deal--and I hope
we never meet again."

I struggled with ambivalence. This might be a trick; if not, Frank now
hated me irreparably.

* * * * *

No time to worry about human emotions, not any more. Nausea reminded me
of the primary purpose. I continued down the dark hallway, listening for
Frank's return, hoping she needn't die.

Light was unnecessary: I knew the right door. Because it started here,
it would end here. Quickly, silently, I slipped inside the Venus room.
With peculiar relief, I realized Frank wasn't it: my nose led me right
to the monster.

In an ecstatic, semistuporous state, smelling strongly of sulfur
dioxide, he couldn't have been aware of me. Couldn't?

"It took you long enough." He didn't bother to turn from the rock he was
huddled against.

"I had to be sure." I felt anything but the calm carried in my voice.
"No wonder the GG got the right answers, with you making initial starts.
Say, were you responsible for the cat that rolled at me?"

"An accident. Obviously, I wanted this room built as much as you."
Harry, now undisguised, languorously turned. "Your little trap didn't
quite come off--a danger in fighting a superior intellect."

"No trap. I had a job to do; it's done."

"Job? Job?" Infuriated, leaping to his feet, he shouted, "Speak the
native tongue, filth!"

"What's the use? Because of you, I'll never again have the chance. And
you no longer have a native tongue."

"Who were those judges," he asked bitterly, "to declare _me_ an
outcast?"

"Representatives of an outraged society." I almost lost my temper,
thinking of this deviant's crimes. "You were lucky to get banishment
instead of death."

He grinned. "So were you."

"True. I tried to find the proper place, where you'd have some chance."

He laughed openly. "I fixed the ship nicely."

"You don't understand at all--"

"I counted on your being a hero, trying to save us. So, I escaped."

"For three years only."

"What do you mean?"

"One of us won't leave here."

Harry frowned, then tried cunning. "Aren't you being silly? We are
hopelessly marooned. Surely there are over