Norma headed for her own cubicle, where she ignored the papers and the telephone messages waiting for her and reached for the intercom button instead. She pushed it twice and a voice said: "What happened?" "It's not good, Greta," Norma said. "It's--well, undecided, anyhow: we've got that much going for us." "Undecided?" the voice asked. "She said she wouldn't do anything--yet. But she left it open." "Oh. Lord. Oh, my." Norma nodded at the intercom speaker. "That's right. Anything's possible--you know what she's like." "Oh, Lord. Do I." "And--Greta, why did you have to be there, right by the door, with that strange type--as if it had been set up for her? Right in front of her eyes...." "An accident," Greta said. "A pure by-God accident. When she walked in, when I saw her, believe me, Norma, my blood ran absolutely cold. Temperature of ice, or something colder than ice." "Just that one look, just that one long look around." Norma said, "and she was gone. As if she'd memorized us, every one of us, filed the whole thing away and didn't need to see any more." "I would have explained. But there wasn't any time." "I know," Norma said. "Greta, who was he, anyhow?" "Him?" Greta said. "Who knows? A friend of Cendar's--you know Cendar, don't you?" "Albin Cendar?" "That's the one. He--" "But he's not from Psych." Norma said. "Neither is his friend, I guess," Greta said. "But they come over, you know that--Cendar's always around." "And you had to invite them...." "Invite?" Greta said. "I didn't invite anybody. They were there, that's all. Cendar always shows up. You know that." "Great," Nonna said. "So last night he had to bring a friend and the friend got grabby--" "No," Greta said. "He was--well, confused maybe. Never been to a party of ours before, or anyhow not that I remember. I was trying to--loosen him up." "You loosened everybody up," Norma said. There was a silence. "I'm sorry," Norma said. "All right. You couldn't have known--" "I didn't know anything," Greta's voice said. "She was there, that's all." "I wonder whether Dr. Haenlingen knew him," Norma said. "The new one, I mean." "His name was Johnny something," Greta said. "We'll just have to wait and find out," Norma said. "Whatever she's going to do, there isn't any way to stop it. I did the best I could--" "Sure you did," Greta said. "We know that. Sure." "Cendar and his friends--" Norma began. "Oh, forget about that," Greta said. "Who cares about them?" 6 The party had meant nothing, nothing at all, and Albin told himself he could forget all about it. If Haenlingen wanted to take any action, he insisted, she'd take it against her own division. The Psych people would get most of it. Why, she probably didn't even know who Albin Cendar was.... But the Psych division knew a lot they weren't supposed to know. Maybe she would even....