ted to make one. The Old Girl was looking it for once, but I
guess the thought of her miracle must have survived alongside the fear
of sacked sun and must have meant a lot to her, for she launched out
fast, all set to straight-arm Kaby into the heavy gravity and grab the
Minor Maintainer with the other hand.

CHAPTER 14

Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.

--Webster

"NOW WILL YOU TALK?"

Cretans have eyes under their back hair, or let's face it, Entertainers
aren't Soldiers. Kaby weaved to one side and flicked a helpful hand and
poor old Maud went where she'd been going to send Kaby. It sickened me
to see the gravity take hold and yank her down.

I could have jumped up and made it four in a row for Kaby, but I'm not a
bit brave when things like my life are at stake.

Lili was starting to get up, acting a little dazed. Kaby gently pushed
her down again and quietly said, "Where is it?" and then hauled off and
slapped her across the face. What got me was the matter-of-fact way Kaby
did it. I can understand somebody getting mad and socking someone, or
even deliberately working up a rage so as to be able to do something
nasty, but this cold-blooded way turns my stomach.

Lili looked as if half her face were about to start bleeding, but she
didn't look dazed any more and her jaw set. Kaby grabbed Lili's pearl
necklace and twisted it around her neck and it broke and the pearls went
bouncing around like ping-pong balls, so Kaby yanked down Lili's gray
silk bandeau until it was around the neck and tightened that. Lili
started to choke through her tight-pressed lips. Erich, Mark and Illy
had come up and crowded around, but they seemed to be content with the
job Kaby was doing.

"Listen, slut," she said, "we have no time. You have a healing room in
this place. I can work the things."

"Here it comes," I thought, wishing I could faint. On top of everything,
on top of death even, they had to drag in the nightmare personally
stylized for me, the horror with my name on it. I wasn't going to be
allowed to blow up peacefully. They weren't satisfied with an A-bomb.
They had to write my private hell into the script.

"There is a thing called an Invertor," Kaby said exactly as I'd known
she would, but as I didn't really hear it just then--a mental split I'll
explain in a moment. "It opens you up so they can cure your insides
without cutting your skin or making you b