head. It would keep. She opened the door and stepped
out into the hall.

She fell down.

As she fell, she tried to give the bag the send-off squeeze, but she
couldn't move her fingers. She couldn't move anything.

There were people around her. They were doing things swiftly. She was
turned over on her back and, for a few moments then, she saw her own
face smiling down at her from just a few feet away.

21

She was, suddenly, in a large room, well lit, with elaborate
furnishings--sitting leaned back in a soft chair before a highly
polished little table. On the opposite side of the table two people sat
looking at her with expressions of mild surprise. One of them was Lyad
Ermetyne. The other was a man she didn't know.

The man glanced aside at Lyad. "Very fast snap-back!" he said. He looked
again at Trigger. He was a small man with salt-and-pepper hair, a deeply
lined face, beautiful liquid-black eyes.

"Very!" Lyad said. "We must remember that. Hello, Trigger!"

"Hello," Trigger said. Her glance went once around the room and came
back to Lyad's amiably observant face. Repulsive's container was nowhere
around. There seemed to be nobody else in the room. An ornamental
ComWeb stood against one wall. Two of the walls were covered with heavy
hangings, and a great gold-brocaded canopy bellied from the ceiling. No
doors or portals in sight; they might be camouflaged, or behind those
hangings. Any number of people could be in call range--and a few
certainly must be watching her right now, because that small man was no
rough-and-tumble type.

The small man was regarding her with something like restrained
amusement.

"A cool one," he murmured. "Very cool!"

Trigger looked at him a moment, then turned her eyes back to Lyad. She
didn't feel cool. She felt tense and scared cold. This was probably very
bad!

"What did you want to see me about?" she asked.

Lyad smiled. "A business matter. Do you know where you are?"

"Not on your ship, First Lady."

The light-amber eyes barely narrowed. But Lyad had become, at that
moment, very alert.

"Why do you think so?" she asked pleasantly.

"This room," said Trigger. "You don't gush, I think. What was the
business matter?"

"In a moment," Lyad said. She smiled again. "Where else might you be?"

Trigger thought she could guess. But she didn't intend to. Not out loud.
She shrugged. "It's no place I want to be." She settled back a little in
her chair. Her right h