Riuku listened to her half of the conversation. Stupid Earthman. If only she'd start thinking about the job. Or if only his contact with her were better. If he could use her sense perceptions, see through her eyes, hear through her ears, feel through her fingers, then everything would be easy. But he couldn't. All he could do was read her thoughts. Earth thoughts at that.... _... The time clock. Where's my card? Oh, here it is. Only 3:57. Why did I have to hurry so? I had lots of time...._ "Why, Mary, how nice you look today. That's a new hairdo, isn't it? A permanent? Yeah, what kind?" _... What a microbe! Looks like pink straw, her hair does, and of course she thinks it's beautiful...._ "I'd better get down to my station. Old Liverlips will be ranting again. You oughta be glad you have Eddie for a lead man. Eddie's cute. So's Dave, over in 77. But Liverlips, ugh...." She was walking down the aisle to her station now. A procession of names: _Maisie, and Edith, and that fat slob Natalie, and if Jean Andrews comes around tonight flashing that diamond in my face again, I'll--I'll kill her...._ "Oh hello, Clinton. What do you mean, late? The whistle just blew. Of course I'm ready to go to work." _Liverlips, that's what you are. And still in that same blue shirt. What a wife you must have. Probably as sloppy as you are...._ Good, Riuku thought. Now she'll be working. Now he'd find out whatever it was she was doing. Not that it would be important, of course, but let him learn what her job was, and what those other girls' jobs were, and in a little while he'd have all the data he needed. Maybe even before the shift ended tonight, before she went through the Shielding boost. He shivered a little, thinking of the boost. He'd survive it, of course. He'd be too well integrated with her by then. But it was nothing to look forward to. Still, he needn't worry about it. He had the whole shift to find out what the weapon was. The whole shift, here inside Alice's mind, inside the most closely guarded factory on or under or above the surface of the Earth. He settled down and waited, expectantly. Alice Hendricks turned her back on the lead man and looked down the work table to her place. The other girls were there already. Lois and Marge and Coralie, the other three members of the Plug table, Line 73. "Hey, how'd you make out?" Marge said. She glanced around to make sure none of the lead men or timekeepers were close enough to overhear her, then went on. "Did you get away with it?" "Sure," Alice said. "And you should of seen Pete's face when I walked in." She took the soldering iron out of her locker, plugged it in, and reached out for the pan of 731 wires. "You know, it's funny. Pete's not so good looking, and he's sort of a careless dresser and all that, but oh, what he does to me." She filled the 731 plug with solder and reached for the white, black, red wire. "You'd better watch out," Lois said. "Or Susan's going to be doing something to you."