Part 14 (1/2)

She ran her tongue over her lips. ”Any sensible person would do the same. It's a fairly safe a.s.sumption.”

”Yeah.”

”But the secret of victory is to do the unexpected.”

”Yeah.”

”All right. The aperture we used will come on again in two hours and eleven minutes. Check your watch; you'll only have fifteen seconds.”

”I don't have a watch.”

There it was again. She was missing the obvious at a calamitous rate in her preoccupation with larger concerns. She needed computer reorientation -- but could not get it. There was no choice but to continue more carefully.

She removed her watch and handed it to him. ”All you have to do is stand exactly where we landed. In fact, your best bet is to go there now, camp out on that spot. Then you'll be transported back automatically even if you're asleep. Tell your friends where I went, then wait at the city. Cal will understand.”

He was confused. ”Where are you going? I thought -- ”

She knelt by the generator. ”After the tiger. This will not be pretty, and I may not return. It's not fair to involve you further.”

”You're going to fight that other agent?”

”I have to. For our world, Earth.”

”You're not taking me along?”

”Veg, I was using you. I'm sorry; I felt it was a necessary safeguard. My purposes are not yours, and this is not your quarrel. Go back to your friends.” She was checking over the projector as she talked, making sure it was in working order, memorizing the setting.

”That was the note you left,” he said wisely. ”Telling Cal and 'Quilon not to try anything if they didn't want anything to happen to me.”

She nodded acquiescence. ”The projector is vulnerable. If they moved it or changed the setting, even accidentally...” Of course she could do the same thing to this one and return to the city, but that was no sure way to solve the problem. The other agent might have another projector, so her act would only alert him -- and an agent needed no more than a warning! No, she had to go after him and catch him before he was aware, and kill him -- if she could.

”Now you're letting me go.” His mixture of emotions was too complex for her to a.n.a.lyze at the moment. The projector was more important.

”There was nothing personal, Veg. We do what we must. We're agents, not normal people.” All was in order; the projector had not been used in several days, so it was fresh and ready to operate safely. ”We will lie, cheat, and kill when we have to -- but we don't do these things from preference. I suppose it won't hurt for you to know now: I was extremely sorry to see those dinosaurs destroyed on Paleo. Had I been in charge, we would have left you and them alone. But I follow my orders literally, using my judgment only in the application of my instructions when judgment is required.” She glanced up, smiling briefly. ”Take it from a trained liar and killer: Honesty and peace are normally the best policies.”

”Yeah. I knew you were using me. That's why I lost interest, once I thought it through. I'm slow, but I do get there in time. Trees don't use people.”

She took an instant to verify that in him. He was serious; deceptive behavior turned him off even when he didn't recognize it consciously. She had misread him before, and that was bad. She had overrated the impact of her s.e.x appeal; the preoccupation had become more hers than his. She was slipping.

Veg had loved Aquilon -- still loved her -- in part because of her basic integrity. He had lost interest in Tamme when her agent nature was verified. He was a decent man. Now his interest was increasing again as she played it straight.

”I made you a kind of promise,” she said. ”Since I may not be seeing you again, it behooves me to keep that promise now.” She ran her finger along the seam of her low-fas.h.i.+oned blouse, opening it.

Veg was strongly tempted; she read the signals all over his body. No mistake this time! But something in him would not let go. ”No -- that's paid love. Not the kind I crave.”

”Not a difficult payment. s.e.x is nothing more than a technique to us. And -- you are quite a man, Veg.”

”Thanks, anyway,” he said. ”Better get on with your mission.” There was a turbulent decision in him, a multi-faceted, pain/pleasure metamorphosis. But he did not intend to betray her. ”Time can make a difference -- maybe even half an hour.”

”I tried to deceive you before,” she said. ”That discouraged you. Now I am dealing only in truth. I never deceived you in what I was offering, only in my motive, and that's changed now. I would prefer to part with you amicably.”