"She's coming!"

I nearly fumbled it. Then I caught on. Catherine was coming; to remove
the little finger manipulator and to have a chit-chat with me. I didn't
want to see her, and I was beginning to wish--then I remembered that one
glimmer out of me that I knew the truth and everything would be higher
than Orbital Station One.

I shoved my mind into low gear and started to think idle thoughts,
letting myself sort of daydream. I was convincing to myself; it's hard
to explain exactly, but I was play-thinking like a dramatist. I fell
into it; it seemed almost truth to me as I roamed on and on. I'd been
trapped and Catherine had come here to hand herself over as a hostage
against my good behavior. She'd escaped the Highways bunch or maybe she
just left them quietly. Somehow Phelps had seen to it that Catherine got
word--I didn't know how, but that was not important. The important thing
was Catherine being here as a means of keeping me alive and well.

I went on thinking the lie. Catherine came in shortly and saw what Nurse
Farrow was doing.

"I was supposed to do that," said Catherine.

Nurse Farrow straightened up from her work of loosening the straps on
the manipulator. "Sorry," she said in a cool, crisp voice. "I didn't
know that. This is usually my job. It's a rather delicate proposition,
you know." There was a chill of professional rebuff in Farrow's voice.
It was the pert white hat and the gold pin looking down upon the gray
uniform with no adornment. Catherine looked a bit uncomfortable but she
apparently had to take it.

Catherine tried lamely, "You see, Mr. Cornell is my fiancee."

Farrow jumped on that one hard. "I'm aware of that. So let's not forget
that scholars of medicine do not treat their own loved ones for ethical
reasons."

Catherine took it like a slap across the face with an iced towel. "I'm
sure that Dr. Thorndyke would not have let me take care of him if I'd
not been capable," she replied.

"Perhaps Dr. Thorndyke did not realize at the time that Mr. Cornell
would be ready for the Treatment Department. Or," she added slyly, "have
you been trained to prepare a patient for the full treatment?"

"The full treatment--? Dr. Thorndyke did not seem to think--"

"Please," said Farrow with that cold crispness coming out hard, "As a
nurse I must keep my own opinion to myself, as well as keeping the
opinions of doctors to myself. I take orders only and I perform them."

That was a sharp shot; prac