Riuku waited until she'd fallen soundly asleep that night before he tried contacting Nagor. He'd learned nothing useful. He'd picked up nothing in her mind except more thoughts of Pete, and gee, maybe someday they'd get married, if he only had guts enough to tell Susan where to get off.... But she was asleep at last. Riuku was free enough of her thoughts to break contact, partially of course, since if he broke it completely he wouldn't be able to get back through the Shielding. It was hard enough to reach out through it. He sent a painful probing feeler out into space, to the spot where Nagor and the others waited for his report. "Nagor...." "Riuku? Is that you?" "Yes. I've got a contact. A girl. But I haven't learned anything yet that can help us." "Louder, Riuku. I can hardly hear you...." Alice Hendricks stirred in her sleep. The dream images slipped through her subconscious, almost waking her, beating against Riuku. Pete, baby, you shouldn't be like that.... Riuku cursed the bisexual species in their own language. "Riuku!" Nagor's call was harsh, urgent. "You've got to find out. We haven't much time. We lost three more ships today, and there wasn't a sign of danger. No Earthman nearby, no force fields, nothing. You've got to find out why." Those ships just disappeared. Riuku forced his way up through the erotic dreams of Alice Hendricks. "I know a little," he said. "They damp their thought waves somehow, and keep us from spotting the Corcoran field." "Corcoran field? What's that?" "I don't know." Alice's thoughts washed over him, pulling him back into complete integration, away from Nagor, into a medley of heroic Petes with gleaming eyes and clutching hands and good little Alices pushing them away--for the moment. "But surely you can find out through the girl," Nagor insisted from far away, almost out of phase altogether. "No, Pete!" Alice Hendricks said aloud. "Riuku, you're the only one of us with any possible sort of contact. You've got to find out, if we're to stay here at all." "Well," Alice Hendricks thought, "maybe...." Riuku cursed her again, in the lingua franca of a dozen systems. Nagor's voice faded. Riuku switched back to English. * * * * * Saturday. Into the plant at 3:58. Jean's diamond again.... _Wish it would choke her; she's got a horsey enough face for it to. Where's old Liverlips? Don't see him around. Might as well go to the restroom for a while...._ That's it, Riuku thought. Get her over past the machine shop, over by that Restricted Area. There must be something there we can go on.... "Hello, Tommy," Alice Hendricks said. "How's the love life?" "It could be better if someone I know would, uh, cooperate...."