Berendt pulled his gaze away from the window and Carol's vanishing figure as she rounded a corner of the building. "Needle you, Bert? What the hell gave you that idea? You're acting pretty peculiar--" "Maybe just normal. Could that be it, Miles?" Berendt shrugged, glancing closely at his partner. "I know you pretty well, Bert. Something's bothering you. You're pretty moody lately. Perhaps you better not take the Deimos run if you're not up to it. Even Carol has remarked--" "Carol?" The harshness was in Bert Tanner's voice. And Miles Berendt frowned as he saw the wild light that sprang up suddenly in Tanner's eyes. "So you and Carol have been talking about me!" Tanner almost shouted. "Or is it maybe that you've been talking to Carol--trying to poison her against me!" * * * * * Miles showed sudden astonishment. His hands came out of his pockets and he tried to place one of them on Bert's shoulder. "Look here, Bert, you really are upset--" Tanner threw his arm away from him with a violent movement. "Get your goddamned hands off me, Miles." His voice grated and his hands suddenly formed into fists at his sides. Berendt frowned, his eyes narrowed in thought now. "I was only half-kidding before when I asked you what was wrong, Bert. Now I'm demanding. What the hell's the matter with you? Every time I mention Carol's name you seem to blastoff." Tanner laughed suddenly. But it wasn't a pleasant laugh. He moved away from Berendt and stood with his hands resting on top of a glassite table near the window. There was a scale model of a space ship--a trim freighter--resting on top of the table. As Tanner's eyes remained fastened on Berendt, his hand ran along the smooth side of the model ship. "Women are like a space ship, Miles, or hadn't you noticed?" Berendt frowned but did not speak. "Go on, play dumb. You've been pretty good at it for the past several months. Thought you were fooling me, didn't you?" "Bert, for crissakes, what's eating you?" "See this ship, Miles?" Bert's voice had a tautness to it. "It was our first one. We built this business with it--or should I say, I built the ship, you built the business?" "Whatever we did we did together, Bert. You know that. I've always said you were the real brain here--without your technical skill there wouldn't be a Tanner-Berendt Space Lines. But what are you leading up to?" Tanner's hand ran fondly along the lines of the model ship. "A ship's like a woman--as I said," Bert said. "Both have beauty and dignity, but they're no good without a man ... the right man." "You're talking in riddles, Bert." Tanner laughed again. "Like I said, Miles, take this ship. Our first one. I practically built it by hand with Jeff Morrow helping. Jeff loved her almost as much as I did. Even you loved her, I suppose."