A slithering of voice, then faint, but distinct, from Lora: "I couldn't do it and I can't let you do it. Afterward, whichever of us, it would be as if I were no better than a dog." Hammen stared ahead of him at the alcove wall. "Ham," Hale said, "why did you come to us with this?" "You were friends of mine," Hammen said. "No." "No?" "We aren't friends of yours, Ham," Hale said patiently. "We're just acquaintances of yours. We'd like to help you out, but not enough to split our team for you. Surely you've got some real friends, people you look better to than us.... Hell, man, don't you know what a friend is?" Hammen thought of it. "I suppose not." "But there must be _someone_," Hale said in embarrassment, "a woman." "I know a woman Witch on another world. We make love together sometimes. But I know her only well enough to know better than to ask favors of her." "There are lots of Witches," Hale said in nervous exasperation. "One of them is bound to Companion with you on a thing like this." Ham touched his fingers to his wrist. "I think not. No other Witch is going to help me set a precedent to put them out of the trade." "But the Code!" Hale said furiously. "Surely you can count on your fellow Witches under the Code." "Why? I couldn't count on my fellow Companions under the Code," said Hammen, and pressed his wristphone into silence. * * * * * Hammen stepped from the alcove back into Gordus' office to find a lovely golden woman groveling at the coordinator's feet. The coordinator was smiling at the pleasure of the thing. "What's this?" Hammen demanded. "Cargo," Gordus said. "Is she ill?" "Mad." "Then she can't be transmitted. No one could hold together a disintegrating personality in transmission," Hammen said. "It will be difficult. Unprecedentedly difficult. That is why it will take the two of us acting as Companions to bring her safely to Earth." "Why is it so important that she get to Earth?" "Ask her," Gordus suggested. Hammen glanced down and saw Lad nosing pointedly at the woman. Often he forgot that the dog was constantly at his side. His eyes lifted up to the woman. She had fine features, impressive blonde hair, and she was wrapped in a frazzled blanket, indigo rubbed away to white threads here and there. "What's your name, woman?" Hammen asked. "I know what it is." "Of course you do," he said sharply, "but I don't." "I know you don't." "There isn't much that you don't know, is there?" "I know everything," she confessed humbly, honey eyes down. Hammen whirled to Gordus. "What do they want with her on Earth?" The coordinator gestured eloquently. "She knows everything. Do you think they know everything on Earth? Don't believe propaganda. There are things she can tell them." Hammen looked again to the creature huddled on the floor. "What could she tell anyone?"