on. Evidently, they wanted to
pick up the girl, too. So I tucked her away in one of the suites in
this section, and gave her something to put her to sleep. She's there
now."

* * * * *

Quillan said, "And where are the prisoners and the cubicles?"

"In the Executive Block."

"How do you know?"

Reetal smiled briefly. "The Duke of Fluel told me."

"Huh? The Brotherhood knows you're here?"

"Relax," Reetal said. "Nobody but Heraga knows I'm working for the
Mooleys. I told the Duke I had a big con deal set up when the
_Camelot_ came in--I even suggested he might like to get in on it. He
laughed, and said he had other plans. But he won't mention to anyone
that I'm here."

"Why not?"

"Because," Reetal said dryly, "what the Duke is planning to get in on
is an hour of tender dalliance. Before the _Camelot_ arrives,
necessarily. The cold-blooded little skunk!" She hesitated a moment;
when she spoke again, her voice had turned harsh and nasal, wicked
amusement sounding through it. "Sort of busy at the moment,
sweetheart, but we might find time for a drink or two later on in the
evening, eh?"

Quillan grunted. "You're as good at the voice imitations as ever. How
did you find out about the cubicles?"

"I took a chance and fed him a Moment of Truth."

"With Fluel," Quillan said thoughtfully, "that was taking a chance!"

"Believe me, I was aware of it! I've run into card-carrying sadists
before, but the Duke's the only one who scares me silly. But it did
work. He dropped in for a about a minute and a half, and came out
without noticing a thing. Meanwhile, I'd got the answers to a few
questions. The bomb with which they're planning to mop up behind them
already has been planted up here in the normspace section. Fluel
didn't know where; armaments experts took care of it. It's armed now.
There's a firing switch on each of their ships, and both switches have
to be tripped before the thing goes off. Part of what they're after is
in those Pendrake rest cubicles--"

"Part of it?" Quillan asked.

"Uh-huh. An even hundred similar cubicles will be unloaded from the
_Camelot_--the bulk of the haul; which is why Nome Lancion is
supervising things on the liner. I started to ask what was in the
cubicles, but I saw Fluel was beginning to lose that blank look they
have under Truth, and switched back to light chitchat just before he
woke up. Yaco's paying for the job--or rather, it _will_ pay for