guidance on disarming the bomb, we have a future
exactly thirty minutes long."

CHAPTER 13

But whence he was, or of what wombe ybore,
Of beasts, or of the earth, I have not red:
But certes was with milke of wolves and tygres fed.

--Spenser

THE TIGER IS LOOSE

I guess when they really push the button or throw the switch or spring
the trap or focus the beam or what have you, you don't faint or go crazy
or anything else convenient. I didn't. Everything, everybody, every move
that was made, every word that was spoken, was painfully real to me,
like a hand twisting and squeezing things deep inside me, and I saw
every least detail spotlighted and magnified like I had the seven
skulls.

Erich was standing beyond the bomb chest; little smiles were ruffling
his lips. I'd never seen him look so sharp. Illy was beside him, but not
on his side, you understand. Mark, Sevensee and Beau were around the
chest to the nearer side. Beau had dropped to a knee and was scanning
the chest minutely, terror-under-control making him bend his head a
little closer than he needed to for clear vision, but with his hands
locked together behind his back, I guess to restrain the impulse to push
any and everything that looked like a disarming button.

Doc was sprawled face down on the nearest couch, out like a light, I
suppose.

Us four girls were still by the control divan. With Kaby, that surprised
me, because she didn't look scared or frozen, but almost as intensely
alive as Erich.

Sid had turned back, as I'd said, and had one hand stretched out toward
but not touching the Minor Maintainer, and a look on his beardy face as
if he were calling down death and destruction on every boozy rogue who
had ever gone up from King's Lynn to Cambridge and London, and I
realized why: if he'd thought of the Minor Maintainer a second sooner,
he could have pinned Erich down with heavy gravity before he could touch
the buttons.

Bruce was resting one hand on the head of the control divan and was
looking toward the group around the chest, toward Erich, I think, as if
Erich had done something rather wonderful for him, though I can't
imagine myself being tickled at being included in anybody's suicide
surprise party. Bruce looked altogether too dreamy, Brahma blast him,
for someone who must have the same steel-spiked thought in his head that
I know darn well the rest of us had: that in twe