Question of Comfort | Page 7

gravity--"
"About time," I said sarcastically, disliking myself but hoping it would get rid of them, "we opened three days ago."
He ignored my petulance and grinned. "No, I meant anti-gravity. I think it's possible. If you had a superconductor in an inductance field--"
"Why tell me?"
"Thought you'd have some ideas."
I shook my head. "That's what I hired you for. My only idea right now is going to sleep."
Bewildered, they left.
And on the fourth night, no one came. So I headed for the Tour. Now, having risked everything on my logic, I was a dead pigeon if wrong. There were only minutes left.
I eased through the back door, heard our automation equipment humming. Despite darkness, I shortcutted, nearly reaching the door to the service hallway in back of the planetary rooms. There was a distinct click, and a flashlight blinded me. I waited, stifling a cry, knowing if it were he, death was next.
Death never spoke in such quiet, sweet tones. Frank asked, "What are you doing here?"
Frank, Frank, not you!
Surprise shocked me: the light, her voice, the sudden suspicion. Still, diversion and counterattack ... "Perhaps you've the explaining to do," I said nastily. "Why are you here?"
Her wide-eyed ingenuousness making me more suspicious, she answered, "Waiting to see if you'd appear." Then she stopped being truthful: "You forget we had a date--"
"We didn't have any damned date," I said flatly, hurting deep within.
"All right, I want to know why you're still driving yourself. It isn't work; that's finished."
The way she talked made me hopeful. Maybe she wasn't the one ... and then came fear. Frank, if he's here, you're in danger. The monster respects nothing we hold dear--law, property, dignity, life.
There was one way to find out: make her leave. I 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 overriding considerations to your childish devotion to duty."
I shook my head. "This is too small a room for us. Even if I trusted you, I couldn't allow you at this naive young world."
Voices suddenly approached. "The GG?" Harry questioned.
"Didn't know they were coming." Desperately, I looked about, found an eroded mass. "Hide there; I'll get rid of them."
"You'd better--we have business." Possibly it was the only time I've agreed with him. Mel and Dex came in. I called, "Over here!"
* * * * *
Dex snapped his fingers. "Knew it was Venus."
Mel wrinkled his nose. "Sulfur dioxide, too, like we figured. Soda pop, when I broke into that tender scene between you and Frank--that gave you necessary carbon dioxide, right, am I not?"
"Yes ... Why don't