The three men knew that they'd be safe from almost anything inside that ship, so they kept going. They'd rather take the risk than lose their chance at having immortality or a mind control machine. I walked quietly over to a window and looked out. Giles, the triggerman, was firing, accurately but ineffectively, at the police craft. The blue-hot beam of his Lundhurst was simply spattering off their shields. A police beam winked down, and Giles Jackson was gone. I hadn't known the fat man could move so fast. He was already at the airlock, tugging open the emergency unlocker. Bob North was right behind him. Again the police gunner's beam found its mark. But this beam touched the ship, too. I turned away from the window and ran to Nikki. Her shock at seeing me didn't last long. "Close your eyes!" I yelled. "Get behind that sofa!" A glare of brilliant white lit up the landscape for miles around as my ship dissolved in a blaze of silent flame. The light seemed to come through the very walls of the house as the ship burned. "The police will be blind for a while from that," I said rapidly. "Remember that you don't know anything. You weren't even told anything by anyone. The fat man came in here and held you prisoner, but you don't know why. Got that?" "Yes, darling! Now hide, _quickly_!" I did. I headed back for my secret sub-basement, and I didn't come out again for several hours. When I did, Nikki was waiting for me. We didn't speak at first; I was too busy kissing her. * * * * * "I still don't quite know what happened, Marcus," she said afterwards. "I've thought, all these years, that you were in that ship." "Not Marcus," I cautioned her. "Marcus Varden is as dead as his wife. From now on, you're Nikki Varden, and I'm Daniel Markell." "Explain," she said. "The house defenses are up again. Not even the police can get in here." Then she giggled. "They were certainly surprised when that ship went up. They wanted to get the secrets of what was inside it just as much as Van Ostrand did." "I'll bet. That's one of the reasons I did it this way. I was reasonably certain that not even the government could be trusted with a secret like this. That's why I left misleading information in the government vaults. That's where Van Ostrand got the information, by the way; he got the same mixture of truth and half-truth that I'd given them. Someone in high places is going to get burned for this." "He thought I--or, rather, my mother--must have blown up your other ship, just to get your money." "I know." I grinned. "I was listening all the time." "But--_how?_" "That sigma projector of mine. I used it on the cat. I just wanted to take a look around, before coming out in my own body. And it's a good thing I did."