Part 11 (1/2)

”Keep trying, Larry, you'll make it yet!” Hilton leaned forward and walloped the android a tremendous blow on the knee. ”Home, James!”

The car shot forward and Hilton went on: ”I don't expect even your brain to get the full value of this in any short s.p.a.ce of time. So let it stew in its own juice for a week or two.” The car swept out onto the dock and stopped. ”So long, Larry.”

”But ... can't I come in with you ... sir?”

”No. You aren't a copycat or a semaph.o.r.e or a relay any longer. You're a free-wheeling, wide-swinging, hard-hitting, independent ent.i.ty--monarch of all you survey--captain of your soul and so on. I want you to devote the imponderable force of the intellect to that concept until you understand it thoroughly. Until you have developed a top-bracket lot of top-bracket stuff--originality, initiative, force, drive, and thrust. As soon as you really understand it, you'll do something about it yourself, without being told. Go to it, chum.”

In the s.h.i.+p, Hilton went directly to Kincaid's office. ”Alex, I want to ask you a thing that's got a snapper on it.” Then, slowly and hesitantly: ”It's about Temple Bells. Has she ... is she ... well, does she remind you in any way of an iceberg?” Then, as the psychologist began to smile; ”And no, d.a.m.n it, I _don't_ mean physically!”

”I know you don't.” Kincaid's smile was rueful, not at all what Hilton had thought it was going to be. ”She does. Would it be helpful to know that I first asked, then ordered her to trade places with me?”

”It would, very. I know why she refused. You're a _d.a.m.ned_ good man, Alex.”

”Thanks, Jarve. To answer the question you were going to ask next--no, I will not be at all perturbed or put out if you put her onto a job that some people might think should have been mine. What's the job, and when?”

”That's the devil of it--I don't know.” Hilton brought Kincaid up to date. ”So you see, it'll have to develop, and G.o.d only knows what line it will take. My thought is that Temple and I should form a Committee of Two to watch it develop.”

”That one I'll buy, and I'll look on with glee.”

”Thanks, fellow.” Hilton went down to his office, stuck his big feet up onto his desk, settled back onto his spine, and buried himself in thought.

Hours later he got up, shrugged, and went to bed without bothering to eat.

Days pa.s.sed.

And weeks.

IV

”Look,” said Stella Wing to Beverly Bell. ”Over there.”

”I've seen it before. It's simply disgusting.”

”_That's_ a laugh.” Stella's tawny-brown eyes twinkled. ”You made your bombing runs on that target, too, my sweet, and didn't score any higher than I did.”

”I soon found out I didn't want him--much too stiff and serious. Frank's a lot more fun.”

The staff had gathered in the lounge, as had become the custom, to spend an hour or so before bedtime in reading, conversation, dancing, light flirtation and even lighter drinking. Most of the girls, and many of the men, drank only soft drinks. Hilton took one drink per day of avignognac, a fine old brandy. So did de Vaux--the two usually making a ceremony of it.

Across the room from Stella and Beverly, Temple Bells was looking up at Hilton and laughing. She took his elbow and, in the gesture now familiar to all, pressed his arm quickly, but in no sense furtively, against her side. And he, equally openly, held her forearm for a moment in the full grasp of his hand.

”And he _isn't_ a pawer,” Stella said, thoughtfully. ”He never touches any of the rest of us. She _taught_ him to do that, d.a.m.n her, without him ever knowing anything about it ... and I wish I knew how she did it.”

”That isn't pawing,” Beverly laughed lightly. ”It's simply self-defense.

If he didn't fend her off, G.o.d knows what she'd do. I still say it's disgusting. And the way she dances with him! She ought to be ashamed of herself. He ought to fire her.”

”She's never been caught outside the safety zone, and we've all been watching her like hawks. In fact, she's the only one of us all who has never been alone with him for a minute. No, darling, she isn't playing games. She's playing for keeps, and she's a mighty smooth worker.”