ate? The whistle just blew. Of
course I'm ready to go to work." _Liverlips, that's what you are. And
still in that same blue shirt. What a wife you must have. Probably as
sloppy as you are...._

Good, Riuku thought. Now she'll be working. Now he'd find out whatever
it was she was doing. Not that it would be important, of course, but
let him learn what her job was, and what those other girls' jobs were,
and in a little while he'd have all the data he needed. Maybe even
before the shift ended tonight, before she went through the Shielding
boost.

He shivered a little, thinking of the boost. He'd survive it, of
course. He'd be too well integrated with her by then. But it was
nothing to look forward to.

Still, he needn't worry about it. He had the whole shift to find out
what the weapon was. The whole shift, here inside Alice's mind, inside
the most closely guarded factory on or under or above the surface of
the Earth. He settled down and waited, expectantly.

Alice Hendricks turned her back on the lead man and looked down the
work table to her place. The other girls were there already. Lois and
Marge and Coralie, the other three members of the Plug table, Line 73.

"Hey, how'd you make out?" Marge said. She glanced around to make sure
none of the lead men or timekeepers were close enough to overhear her,
then went on. "Did you get away with it?"

"Sure," Alice said. "And you should of seen Pete's face when I walked
in."

She took the soldering iron out of her locker, plugged it in, and
reached out for the pan of 731 wires. "You know, it's funny. Pete's
not so good looking, and he's sort of a careless dresser and all that,
but oh, what he does to me." She filled the 731 plug with solder and
reached for the white, black, red wire.

"You'd better watch out," Lois said. "Or Susan's going to be doing
something to you."

"Oh, her." Alice touched the tip of the iron to the solder filled pin,
worked the wire down into position. "What can she do? Pete doesn't
give a damn about her."

"He's still living with her, isn't he?" Lois said.

Alice shrugged.... _What a mealy-mouthed little snip Lois could be,
sometimes. You'd think to hear her that she was better than any of
them, and luckier too, with her Joe and the kids. What a laugh! Joe
was probably the only guy who'd ever looked at her, and she'd hooked
him right out of school, and now with three kids in five years and her
working nights...._

Alice finished solderi