The pattern, followed by the mantra. But still the headache intensified.

Only three people stood between Hyatt and Susan when she appeared. He was not yet aware of her presence.

His gaze raked the crowd, searching for her. He knew she would follow, but he didn't know when she would appear, or where. He was too short to see much, and suddenly Susan realized he was depending on her height to give her away.

She slouched as best she could in the press of the crowd. If she could blend in for just a few seconds more, until the commotion she heard beginning five hundred feet behind her had reached her new location-a commotion she herself had started when she vanished-and distracted him, she might stand a chance.

But she had to get near enough to reach out and jerk the pendant from around his neck, snapping him back to his own time before he could make another jump.

No, that's not right, Susan thought. He would not be snapped back to his own time. He would cease to exist, because his past self had been killed.

The noise behind her suddenly intensified, spreading out from the spot where she had disappeared. In only a few seconds that panic would be on her, and Hyatt would be too busy to notice that she was standing right beside him.

If she could only keep him from seeing her for a few seconds longer…

She slouched a bit more.

The roar of panic became louder, and yet louder. Someone pushed her from behind, toward Hyatt. She resisted, using her strength to stand her ground as best she could. She couldn't make her move yet. It would only fail now. He would only jump, and she would have to track him again. But if she could hold out for only a few seconds more, he would be so fully engulfed in the riot that he would not see her even if he looked straight at her. Not until it was too late.

Panic washed through the crowd like a wave through the ocean. Those in whose midst she slouched did not know what the panic was about. They were too far from the incident that had set it off-too far from the spot where Susan had vanished. They knew only that those behind were pushing, elbowing, driving them, and that if they did not do the same to those in front of them, they would be trampled.

Suddenly, Hyatt's eyes became wide with fear as he realized what was happening. He had not yet spotted Susan, but he knew she had caused the panic. And he knew why.

His gaze darted, his head snapping almost convulsively. He opened his mouth in a scream that was swallowed up in the crowd's growing roar.

Now! Susan thought.

She straightened, just as Hyatt's head snapped around. He saw her, and his eyes grew wider still, his mouth twisting in a silent cry of fear and rage.

Susan pushed past the three people between Hyatt and herself, somehow finding enough strength to throw them aside. She reached out, and the tips of her prosthetic fingers touched the pendant hanging from its chain around his neck.

Again he cried out, and this time Susan was near enough to hear him. But now it was not a cry of rage, nor of fear. This time the sound she heard was one of infinite despair.

He started to go down and her fingers wrapped around the pendant. The crowd pressed in around him, and Susan lost sight of him. Somehow, miraculously, she kept her own feet.

And pulled the pendant free.

Susan stood unmoving for several seconds, her mind numbed. Those around her stared at the spot where Hyatt had lain only an instant before, panic evident in their faces. A few of those near her were turning, attempting to get away from her as best they could in the press of the crowd.

In eliminating Hyatt, Susan had started another center of panic. Where an instant before the riot might have worked itself out, gradually becoming dampened by the shear mass of the crowd, now it was started anew.

And she knew that when she disappeared again, returning to her own time and to Luna, the panic would intensify still more.

But where should she go? What should she do now?

Back to Luna City, of course. Back to the Survey Service compound and the ship, Photon. Once aboard the ship and out into deep space, she would be safe. That was all she wanted now.

But first, she had to see Admiral Renford. She had to at least make an attempt to convince him of what had happened. She would first go to Fleet Base.

Again she thought of her mother and father. She still found it hard to believe that she had been responsible for their deaths. But she had been; she knew that now. And she had survived those forty-seven years in her past-now!- protected by their bodies from the crowd's trampling feet.

Suddenly, Susan realized she was crying. There had been nothing she could do about her parents' death. She had been powerless to influence the events she had known must happen. Yet she wished with all her heart she might have been able to change those events. She wished she could have somehow saved her parents.

She shook her head sharply. She didn't have time for tears now. There was still too much she must do.

Wiping her eyes on the frayed and dirty bandages covering her prosthetic hands, she formed a thought in her mind.

Instantly she stood in the corridor outside Admiral Renford's office, just as she had less than a week ago. But it seemed much longer than a week. So much had happened since she had last talked to the Admiral. Her life had been turned literally inside out.

The snowflake pattern formed in her mind and the mumbled mantra came to her lips. This time, however, they seemed to have absolutely no effect on the headache. The pain in her head still flared like fire, unaltered by the pattern and the mantra that had worked so often before.

She stepped to the door, and it irised open. The reception desk in the outer office was empty. Krueger was gone, just as she had known he would be. She walked to the door to Renford's inner office and it, too, irised open. She stepped through.

Renford sat behind his desk. His eyes became wide with surprise as he looked up from his paperwork.

"What in hell are you doing here?" he said. Then he noticed that her uniform was soiled and scorched, and that her prosthetic hands and arms were bandaged. In places the bandages were coming off, exposing the burned through plasti-alloy and the electronics and mechanics beneath. "What happened?"

"We need to talk," she said. "We're in trouble."

"I know. Krueger's body was found in a hospital room in the Survey Service compound less than an hour ago. A hospital room registered to you!"

"Then he's dead?" He had been alive when Susan left the hospital room.

Renford nodded.

Had Hyatt finished him off? she wondered. Or perhaps her double had. Would it do any good to tell the admiral what had happened? Would he believe her?

Probably not. If it hadn't happened to her, if she hadn't actually experienced it all herself, she would never have believed it.

Still, she had no choice. She had to tell him, had to try to convince him. She needed help, and he was her last hope.

"Will you listen for a few minutes before turning me in?" she asked. "And will you at least try to believe me?"

"I'll try," Renford said. He motioned her to the chair by desk. "I owe you that much."

"Fine." She sat. "It all started with the attack in my quarters here on Fleet Base, the one I told you about before…"

She told him everything. She told him about her double from the future and about Hyatt's double. She told him how she had found Hyatt dead out at the mining camp-a mining camp that should still be in full operation but was now closed. And she told him how Krueger had tried to kill her. Showing him the pendants, she told him how she had jumped from one place and time to another. She even told him about the death of her parents in a riot she had caused.