He was staring straight ahead, his hands locked about the controls. He was sort of--well, distant. Not her Petey any more. Someone else's Pete. Susan's Pete.... "I think we should be more careful," he said. Riuku twisted his way through her thoughts, tried to push them down.... _Does he love me, he's got to love me, sure he does, he just doesn't want me to get hurt...._ And far away, almost completely out of phase, Nagor's call. "Riuku, another ship's gone. You'd better come back. Bring what you've learned so far and we can withdraw from the system and maybe piece it together...." "In a little while. Just a little while." Stop thinking about Susan, you biological schizo. Change the subject. You'll never get anything out of that man by having hysterics.... "I suppose," Alice cried bitterly, "you've been leading me on all the time. You don't love me. You'd rather have _her_!" "That's not so. Hell, baby...." _He's angry. He's not even going to kiss me. I'm just cutting my own throat when I act like that...._ "Okay, Pete. I'm sorry. I know it's tough on you. Let's have a drink, okay? Still got some in the glove compartment?" "Huh? Oh, sure." She poured two drinks, neat, and he swallowed his with one impatient gulp. She poured him another. * * * * * Riuku prodded. The drink made his job easier. Alice's thoughts calmed, swirled away from Susan and what am I going to do and why didn't I pick up with some single guy, anyway? A single guy, like Tommy maybe. Tommy and his spot welder, over there by the Restricted Area. The Restricted Area.... "Pete." "Yeah, baby?" "How come they let so much voltage loose in the plant, so we can't even go over in the Restricted Area?" "Whatever made you think of that?" He laughed suddenly. He turned to her, still laughing. He was the old Pete again, she thought, with his face happy and his mouth quirked up at the corner. "Voltage loose ... oh, baby, baby. Don't you know what that is?" "No. What?" "That's the control panel for one of the weapons, silly. It's only a duplicate, actually--a monitor station. But it's tuned to the frequencies of all the ships in this sector and--" She listened. She wanted to listen. She had to want to listen, now. "Nagor, I'm getting it," Riuku called. "I'll bring it all back with me. Just a minute and I'll have it." "How does it work, honey?" Alice Hendricks said. "You really want to know? Okay. Now the Corcoran field is generated between the ships and areas like that one, only a lot more powerful, by--" "It's coming through now, Nagor." "--a very simple power source, once you get the basics of it. You--oh, oh!" He grabbed her arm. "Duck, Alice!" A spotlight flashed out of the darkness, turned on them, outlined them. A siren whirred briefly, and then another copter pulled up beside them and a loudspeaker blared tinnily. "Okay, bud, pull down to the landing lane." The police.