That thought knocked me out of the raging mood I had been working myself into. I couldn't afford to lose my head. I'd been wondering how Thorsten was going to work a rendezvous right in the middle of the Belt, with renegade Marties that had held out from the war swarming all over the place, just waiting for a prize like this. The answer was simple--he'd worked out an alliance with them. Probably the Marties thought they could use it to reconquer the System. If I knew Harry, he had other plans, but they were probably just as bad. What in hell was I going to do? One more thought hit me, that was the worst one of all, because it held out an impossible hope. It was all right to picture Weidmann getting a boot out of me taking a woman along. Under ordinary circumstances, that might have been true. But this was too big, too important. There were two alternatives. Weidmann must have known I was a D.O. I could assume that. But, knowing how important the job was, Weidmann wouldn't have let Pat come along, no matter what, _if he hadn't thought she and I were working together_. And that one stopped me cold. _Was she, or wasn't she?_ V What was Pat doing, tied up with Thorsten? She was a high grade operator now, as far from the immature tease I'd known at the Academy as I could imagine. Where had she learned to handle a gun like that? Where had she gotten the experience that let her handle a job this size by herself? I couldn't answer that--not any of it, and it was driving me nuts. I stared over the control banks at the forward screen, watching the stars, and beating my brains out. We'd been out in space for two days, and I hadn't dared to try and find out. You don't, when you're alone with the woman you love. She was standing next to me, and I looked up at her. The coveralls gave a pretty good indication of what lay beneath, and it was top grade. Not that her figure was that spectacular--she had something more than figures on a tape measure. There was a precision, a slim freshness and freedom to the way one curve flowed into another. It sounds silly, but the way she held herself reminded me of a thing I'd seen once; a rocket transiting the sun, fire sparkling from the shimmering hull, and the Milky Way behind it. I finally caught what I was trying to phrase; she looked as if she was poised for flight. She grinned down at me. "Like it?" she asked, chuckling. Her green eyes crackled with light, and there were little demons in her laugh. I tried to think of a clever comeback, but I couldn't. I just said, "Yes." I did like it. And I hated it, at the same time. * * * * * The ship was fast, but space is big. I had a week to plan my next moves while we worked our way through the area between Earth and Mars' orbit where the TSN kept the raiders down.