Part 22 (1/2)
”But that's why Abbot has to be-”
”Yes, but how long until they discover me too, then trace us back to Earth? Our lifestyle is horrifying and we have power over humans. How long until panic triggers a global witch hunt? Look how you felt about sleeping with an alien from outer s.p.a.ce, and you've known me all my life. You love me, for pity's sake-and look how you feel. Think, Inea. What is the only reason I'd ever side with Abbot?”
”To keep all your people safe.”
”So I had to prevent Carol from seeing the illogic of not firing Abbot despite what he'd done, then deducing that she'd been Influenced by him.” He peered at his disposable shoes. ”Betraying you was the hardest thing I've ever done. I hope I never have to do it again, but I will if I must. So, before you try again, you've got to tell me because, no matter how hard I try to tell you everything, there'll always be something you don't know.”
”You haven't been doing a very good job of telling me everything so far. Like, for example, why did Abbot tell you to call me off, as if I were your dog-or as if you'd Marked me, and he couldn't deal with me himself?”
”I haven't Marked you! I've never lied to you. Not about where the s.h.i.+p crashed, or when, or anything, and especially not about Marking you!”
She arched her brows and waited.
He told her the deal he'd struck with Abbot in the cryo-lab. So now you're safe from him. He'll keep his word.”
”And if he doesn't?”
”He won't go for you. He'll come for me, directly-and he can do almost anything he wants with me.” He told her of the data Abbot had kept to prove to a luren court that t.i.tus had gone feral. ”So if you break luren law, it's my neck.”
”That's not fair. I don't even know luren law.”
”So check with me before doing anything.”
She shook her head and scrubbed at her face with one hand. ”This's all too much for me. I guess I'm tired.” She got up. ”Well, if your deal with Abbot is your big shocker for the night, the one you asked if I was ready for-”
”It wasn't.” He had to force the words out.
She sank back into the chair searching his face.
There was only one way to say it. ”I've been trying to tell you-the luren in the cryogenic chamber-the reason we risked our lives with that bomb is that he's still alive.”
For a moment, her expression didn't change. Then it went wooden. ”Oh.” After a long while, she added, ”I should have guessed. You must think I'm awfully dumb.”
”It's just too many shocks too fast. I haven't been too bright lately either.”
”What are we going to do? I mean if they warm the corpsea” I mean, dormant luren-to get a cloning specimen, it'll come alive-won't it-he? He'll be ravenous. He'll kill somebody. We've got to tell Carol. Somebody has to-”
”Carol is under Abbot's control, and Abbot signed Carol's name to the order to try the cloning, or got her to sign it and made her forget.”
”Abbot. Abbot! He'll father it-him!”
”I expect so.” He recounted his first sight of the sleeper, and his deductions about Abbot's language research. ”He's going to send his message using what he's learned from the s.h.i.+p's computers.”
”Oh, my G.o.d. And you've been living with this all the time we've been-you're right. I never did understand the situation.” In a very small voice, she asked, ”Is there any more? Because if there is, heap it on me now while I'm down. I don't think I can take too many more falls like this.”
”I don't think there are any more really major facts you don't know, but the minor ones may defeat you.”
”Plan,” she said dazedly. ”We need a plan to stop him.”
He outlined his approaches, ending, ”But if I knew how to stop him, I'd have done it already. Every time I tangle with him, he ends up saving me.”
”Don't be a defeatist. You've proved you can beat him.” She hefted the power supply. ”By the time he finds this gone, so many people will have been through there, moving the alien-I mean luren-around that he won't know you stole it. We'll keep him guessing, underestimating us, and too overloaded to think straight, and maybe we'll win.”
t.i.tus. .h.i.tched up onto the rim of the sink, mentally reviewing what things must look like from Abbot's point of view. ”It may be he's keeping himself overloaded. Or undernourished. Tell me again about Mirelle?”
She described the French woman's condition again.
”It's not like Abbot to just fail to show up at that demonstration. He might have put in a brief appearance, then had himself called away before he could be interviewed. Or I could see him staging an emergency elsewhere as an excuse not to show. But careless, open defiance of orders? Conspicuous absence? No. It's not like him. Which means he didn't expect to spend that time with Mirelle. Which means he'd driven himself over the edge and knew he couldn't manage that demonstration in such a state of hunger. Why?”
t.i.tus recounted Abbot's derision of t.i.tus's dietary habits. ”He's taking blood as well as ectoplasm from Mirelle and maybe four others. That's his usual custom. In such a small population, he has to be circ.u.mspect. He's keeping his string as small as possible, and he's rationing himself.”
”What could make him hungrier than usual?”
”Using Influence. Healing wounds. Dormancy. Fathering the sleeper. But that hasn't happened yet. From what I learned from Mintraub, I'll bet he's not been sleeping at all while he's been using Influence too much.” He described the way the medics had fought Abbot's Influence. ”So he's got the beginnings desperate trouble on his hands-trouble from trying to do too much, too fast, with too many people.”
If he's sweating, we've got to keep the pressure on.”
”Think about Mirelle, and the others! He'll have to Mark n stringer or overburden the ones he has. And offhand, I'd say Mirelle needs vitamins and iron-lots of it. There was a limit to how much of that Abbot could have brought with him-” He had to pause to explain how responsible luren made sure those they bled took heavy supplements.
”But he's not doing that for Mirelle? How many others is he bleeding dry?”
”He won't kill. Not here. Not until he's desperate, with his goal in sight, and he's a long way from that. So he won't violate any of the safety rules he pounded into me.”
”Pounded? Did it take a lot of pounding?”
”To be brutally honest, yes, it did. At first, I only knew how hungry I was-I didn't know what I was doing.”
”You haven't lied to me, have you?”
”No. I try very hard not to.”
”You have killed humans-for blood.”
”Yes. But it was long ago.”
Dully, she announced, ”I should turn you in for murder.”
”Do you see why, when it comes to exposure, I'm on Abbot's side? And he's on mine, however much it galls him?”
”I've slept with an alien, a murderer. How low can you get?”
He wanted to gather her up and comfort her, but she'd run from him if he moved. At the same time, part of him loved her because killing disturbed her so deeply. ”Imagine all the women who've had to sleep with husbands returned victorious from war-with blood on their hands.”
”Not the same.”
”No, but there's murder-and murder. I've never killed deliberately. Abbot has, and doesn't see anything wrong with it.” He told her how Abbot wanted to take Ebony.