ht at any
rate. Lili had her victory: Bruce clearing the field for the marriage by
laying out the woman-hating boy friend who would be trying to get him to
go out nights. At that moment, I think Bruce wanted Lili and a life with
her more than he wanted to reform the Change World. Sure, us women have
our little victories--until the legions come or the Little Corporal
draws up his artillery or the Panzers roar down the road.

Erich scrambled to his feet and stood there in a half-slump,
half-crouch, still rubbing his jaw and glaring at Bruce over his hand,
but making no move to continue the fight, and I studied his face and
said to myself, "If he can get a gun, he's going to shoot himself, I
know."

Bruce started to say something and hesitated, like I would have in his
shoes, and just then Doc got one of his unpredictable inspirations and
went weaving out toward Erich, holding out the sculpture and making
deaf-and-dumb noises like he had to us. Erich looked at him as if he
were going to kill him, and then grabbed the sculpture and swung it up
over his head and smashed it down on the floor, and for a wonder, it
didn't shatter. It just skidded along in one piece and stopped inches
from my feet.

That thing not breaking must have been the last straw for Erich. I swear
I could see the red surge up through his eyes toward his brain. He swung
around into the Stores sector and ran the few steps between him and the
bronze bomb chest.

Everything got very slow motion for me, though I didn't do any moving.
Almost every man started out after Erich. Bruce didn't, though, and
Siddy turned back after the first surge forward, while Illy squunched
down for a leap, and it was between Sevensee's hairy shanks and Beau's
scissoring white pants that I saw that under-the-microscope circle of
death's heads and watched Erich's finger go down on them in the order
Kaby had given: one, three, five, six, two, four, seven. I was able to
pray seven distinct times that he'd make a mistake.

He straightened up. Illy landed by the box like a huge silver spider and
his tentacles whipped futilely across its top. The others surged to a
frightened halt around them.

Erich's chest was heaving, but his voice was cool and collected as he
said, "You mentioned something about our having a future, Miss Foster.
Now you can make that more specific. Unless we get back to the cosmos
and dump this box, or find a Spider A-tech, or manage to call
headquarters for