Cut_ it!" Garlock ordered, sharply. "I said we had work to do. Jim,
you're hunting up the nearest observatory."

"How about transportation? No teleportation?"

"Out. Rent a car or hire a plane, or both. Fill your wallet--better have
too much money than not enough. If you're too far away tonight to make
it feasible to come back here, send me a flash. Brownie, you'll work
this town first. Belle and I will have to work in the library for a
while. We'll all want to compare notes tonight...."

"Yeah," James said into the pause, "I could tune in remote, but I don't
know where I'll be, so it might not be so good."

"Check. You can 'port, but be _damn_ sure nobody sees or senses you
doing it. That buttons it up, I guess."

* * *

James and Lola left the ship; Garlock and Belle went into the library.

"If I didn't know you were impotent, Clee," Belle shivered affectedly
and began to laugh, "I'd be scared to death to be alone with you in this
great big spaceship. Lola hasn't realized yet what she really hatched
out--the screamingest screamer ever pulled on anybody!"

"It isn't _that_ funny. You have got a savage sense of humor."

"Perhaps." She shrugged her shoulders. "But you were on the receiving
end, which makes a big difference. She's a peculiar sort of duck.
Brainy, but impersonal--academic. She knows all the words and all their
meanings, all the questions and all the answers, but she doesn't apply
any of them to herself. She's always the observer, never the
participant. Pure egg-head ... pure? _That's_ it. She looks, acts,
talks, and thinks like a _virgin_.... Well, if that's all, she isn't
any--or is she? Even though you've started calling her 'Brownie,' like
my now-tamed tomcat, you might not...." She stared at him.

"Go ahead. Probe."

"Why waste energy trying to crack a Prime's shield? But just out of
curiosity, are you two pairing, or not?"

"Tut-tut; don't be inurbane. Let's talk about Jim instead. I thought
he'd be gibbering."

"No, I'm working under double wraps--full dampers. I don't want him in
love with me. You want to know why?"

"I think I know why."

"Because having him mooning around underfoot would weaken the team and I
want to get back to Tellus."

"I was wrong, then. I thought you were out after bigger game."

Belle's face went stiff and still. "What do you mean by that?"

"Plain enough, I would think. Wherever you are, you've got to be the
Boss. You've nev