"We have nothing…to discuss." Her voice was returning, becoming stronger, but her throat was still sore.

She stood defiantly before him, knees slightly bent, ready to spring. If she sat, she would lose whatever advantage standing gave her. Although this man was many years her senior, she did not doubt his abilities.

"But you're wrong," he said. "We could be of considerable benefit to one another."

"If you're trying to buy me, it won't…work."

Hyatt's smile broadened. "Perhaps you will cost more than Krueger did," he said, "but I promise you, Captain, you can be bought. Everyone has a price."

"Then Krueger is working for you, after all." A statement rather than a question.

The impostor nodded. "We were hoping to get both you and my double at the same time."

"Double," Susan said. "That's a strange way to refer to him. After all, you are the impostor."

His smile broadened. He was enjoying this. For him, it was all just a game.

"I'm as much Hyatt as he was," the old man said.

Susan's mind raced frantically, trying to work out what he had just said, but it made no sense.

"You've been working under the handicap of ignorance and misinformation long enough," he said. "If you are to decide whether or not you will join us, you must know what this is all about."

He fell silent for a few seconds. Finally, when he realized Susan wouldn't respond, he continued:

"Like I said, I am as much a true Hyatt as was that other. And yet, we are separate individuals."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm a future Hyatt," he said, "from nearly five years from now. Therefore, I am Hyatt. And yet, because I am from that other's future, I am a completely different individual."

Susan's knees became suddenly weak, and she staggered back a step. She collapsed into the chair he had offered a moment before.

Her mind couldn't grasp what he had just said. There was something wrong with it, something horribly wrong. Something that made absolutely no sense. And yet, she couldn't quite pin down what it was.

Opening her mouth, she started to speak, then realized she did not know what to say. Until now, she had believed her experiences since arriving on Luna a few days ago the strangest possible, but what this man was saying made them pedestrian by comparison. What he had just said tore at the very fabric of what she considered reality, filling her mind with a dread far greater than anything she had yet experienced.

But it couldn't be true. He simply could not be from Hyatt's future.

She recalled everything that had happened to her since that short dark man had attacked her in her quarters on Fleet Base: the second attempt on her life in the exchange area, her spotting that figure out on the lunar surface during the floater ride out to Luna City, the time-jump at the deserted mining camp that had put her in a position to become that very figure. And there were those unexplained discrepancies between what she remembered and what everyone else remembered. Bill Darcy was Luna City's mayor, and his brother had been dead for years. The power satellite and the mining camp…

Alone, all those things meant nothing. Together they gelled into something nearly concrete.

Nearly, but not quite.

Suddenly, she knew what he had said was true; she felt it deep within her. This man was from the future, from five years hence.

And the pendants somehow made it all possible.

Then it hit her: she knew what hadn't seemed right a few seconds ago. This man had murdered his past self, or at least had his past self killed. And yet, he still existed. If he had died in his past, how could he still exist?

Susan asked the man as much.

"As long as I am wearing a pendant, I exist outside the time stream," he answered. "And, although I am no longer subject to time while I wear it-maybe because of that-I can react within time, in any period."

Susan frowned. The concepts he was dealing with were difficult to grasp. Perhaps impossible.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he asked.

Susan shook her head.

"I know, it is hard. But it's real!"

"The differences in the world around us," Susan asked, "the power satellite, the mining camp, and Bill Darcy as mayor-how did they come about?"

"I am responsible for them," Hyatt said. "Actually, the only thing I wanted to change was Darcy. I wanted to eliminate Sam Darcy, making sure he never became mayor of Luna City. He was, of course, as I am certain you remember."

Susan nodded.

"But as mayor, Sam Darcy was a hard opponent. I could never have gotten my D.I. program past him. On the other hand, I could manipulate his brother, Bill. So I went back into the past and made sure Sam would never become mayor. The other changes-the mining camp and the power satellite-were simple by-products of that conscious change."

Again Susan nodded. "But why did you kill-your past self?"

Hyatt smilled. "I must see that things come out the way I know they must. That, you see, is my destiny."

"And you can actually know your destiny?"

"Yes," he said. "As strange as it might seem, I can. In fact, I do."

Control, Susan thought. With Hyatt, it was all about control. And the means to that control were the pendants.

"Where did you get it?" Hyatt asked.

"Get what?" Then she realized that, as she had thought about the pendant, her hand had strayed to the device hanging about her neck.

But she couldn't tell him how she got it. In that knowledge might rest the very element he needed to make his conquest a success. She couldn't tell him anything.

"No matter," he said when he realized she would not respond. "Eventually you will tell me everything I wish to know. But for now, we will let it go."

"Damn," Susan responded, "I wished I had a blaster. Then I would stop you."

"You two are so very much alike," he said.

"What do you mean?" Susan asked. "Which two?"

"That doesn't matter right now, either," he said. "And a blaster probably wouldn't do you any good-particularly one from another time. A power weapon carried across time lines simply does not work."

She thought about the belter in her quarters on Fleet Base, and the tall man outside the Exchange area. That explained why neither had used his weapon.

"But now for the negotiation of your price," the old man said, scattering Susan's thoughts.

"There will be no negotiation," Susan responded. "I will not deal with you, not for any price."

He smiled. "Not even for Photon? It can be yours. But first, you will be of use to me."

A chill rattled up Susan's spine, yet she remained silent. He knew her weak spot-he knew his offer would tempt her. She wanted that ship more than anything in the world. She needed it. With it, she could get away from all this, leave it behind and begin life anew.

But there was no way she could bargain with this man. Deep down, he possessed an inhuman flaw. A flaw so evil it poisoned the very air he breathed. She didn't know precisely what his motives were, but she did know that whatever he hoped to accomplish would not be in the best interest of humankind.

Yet, why would he make the offer if he knew she would refuse it? Why would he waste his time?

Maybe he wasn't wasting it. Maybe he knew something she didn't. Might he know she would accept his offer? Could she do that?

No! she thought. There was absolutely no way she could accept this man's offer.

When she did not immediately respond, Hyatt said, "You do understand, of course, that you know too much to be permitted to live if you refuse my offer. You are either with me, or you are against me."

As he talked, Susan's mind raced, searching for a means to stop him. Somehow, she must kill this man. She knew that.

"I can almost predict what you are thinking," he said. "You are trying to formulate a way to stop me." He smiled and shook his head. "But you can't, you know."