The lift ground upward ... halted, finally, deep in the heart of the ship. Boone prodded Krobis down the narrow, duroid corridor that led to the tech quarters. The card on the last door to the right said, "Miss Rey." Boone knocked. The tension was almost unbearable now. His palms were slick. His belly quivered. A latch-click. The door opened part way, framing Eileen's face. Shoving Krobis ahead of him, Boone crowded her back into the cabin and shouldered shut the door. She stared. "What--?" Krobis spoke rapidly, caustically: "Boone's jealous of your new assignment, my dear. He doesn't want to let you go to Titan." Eileen caught her breath. Her eyes flicked to Boone. "Fred--" "You can believe that if you want to, Eileen." Boone quit trying to keep the anger, the tension, out of his own voice. "The main thing is, you're not going." He could see the storm flare in her eyes. "Fred, you can't stop me!" "Can't I?" Boone tossed the coat from his arm, baring the nerve-gun. "I've watched Krobis run through this big-boss act before, Eileen. He specializes in putting people under obligation. In your case, he knows how much your work means to you, so he'd like to maneuver things around to where you'll feel indebted to him for letting you prove your professional competency at the top level. Only this gun,"--he gestured with it--"says he's not going to get away with it." The curves of Eileen's face changed to planes and hollows. A thin white anger-line drew about her mouth. "Fred, this is utterly absurd!" And from Krobis: "Miss Rey happens to be one of the Cartel's best extraterrestrial biologists--" Boone slashed in on him: "--And also, at the moment, she's a woman you want." He laughed--savagely, explosively. "A nice co-incidence, isn't it? You'd gamble her life on it--send her into a chunk of void where monsters materialize out of nowhere and two ships in three never come back. If she lives and cracks the nut, figures out how those nightmares get aboard our ships and why, mekronal production and your rating--with Eileen and IC both--go sky-high. If she dies, you chalk up another score for yourself as an ironclad Cartel man so set on his job that he doesn't know what sentiment means. Either way, Martin Krobis wins." "Then you'd let this ship go out without a biologist?" Eileen's breath came fast and shallow. "You'd let the crew face the monsters with not even a fighting chance to win?" Boone clipped his words: "Don't worry. There'll be a biologist aboard." And then: "You see--I'm going in your place." "So--!" Face alight, Krobis turned to Eileen. "I was right, my dear! Boone's jealous, that's all--jealous of you, your ability, the chance I've given you to solve this problem!" A tremor ran through Eileen. For an instant she swayed, her pale face a mask of mixed emotions. Then, heedless of the nerve-gun, she clawed at Boone. He stepped back fast; clubbed his left fist upward.