e
time. You don't love me. You'd rather have _her_!"

"That's not so. Hell, baby...."

_He's angry. He's not even going to kiss me. I'm just cutting my own
throat when I act like that...._

"Okay, Pete. I'm sorry. I know it's tough on you. Let's have a drink,
okay? Still got some in the glove compartment?"

"Huh? Oh, sure."

She poured two drinks, neat, and he swallowed his with one impatient
gulp. She poured him another.

* * * * *

Riuku prodded. The drink made his job easier. Alice's thoughts calmed,
swirled away from Susan and what am I going to do and why didn't I
pick up with some single guy, anyway? A single guy, like Tommy maybe.
Tommy and his spot welder, over there by the Restricted Area. The
Restricted Area....

"Pete."

"Yeah, baby?"

"How come they let so much voltage loose in the plant, so we can't
even go over in the Restricted Area?"

"Whatever made you think of that?" He laughed suddenly. He turned to
her, still laughing. He was the old Pete again, she thought, with his
face happy and his mouth quirked up at the corner. "Voltage loose ...
oh, baby, baby. Don't you know what that is?"

"No. What?"

"That's the control panel for one of the weapons, silly. It's only a
duplicate, actually--a monitor station. But it's tuned to the
frequencies of all the ships in this sector and--"

She listened. She wanted to listen. She had to want to listen, now.

"Nagor, I'm getting it," Riuku called. "I'll bring it all back with
me. Just a minute and I'll have it."

"How does it work, honey?" Alice Hendricks said.

"You really want to know? Okay. Now the Corcoran field is generated
between the ships and areas like that one, only a lot more powerful,
by--"

"It's coming through now, Nagor."

"--a very simple power source, once you get the basics of it. You--oh,
oh!" He grabbed her arm. "Duck, Alice!"

A spotlight flashed out of the darkness, turned on them, outlined
them. A siren whirred briefly, and then another copter pulled up
beside them and a loudspeaker blared tinnily.

"Okay, bud, pull down to the landing lane."

The police.

Police. Fear, all the way through Alice's thoughts, all the way
through Riuku. Police. Earth law. That meant--it must mean he'd been
discovered, that they had some other means of protection besides the
Shielding....

"Nagor! I've been discovered!"

"Come away then, you fool!"

He twisted, trying to pull free of Alice's fear,