Meanwhile, Inea edged closer to Titus, one ear cocked to the medical discussion. As she began to believe Titus was all right, anger replaced her anxiety. “I forced my way in here because I thought you were in danger from those doctors! I Wanted to help you, you cretin! How could you even think-let alone say right in front of everybody-that I’m more concerned about my damn program than about you?”

Long as she’s mad at me, she won’t give herself away to Abbot. “Well naturally, I just came to and I thought-” The lie stuck in his throat.

“You thought? You’re not capable of thinking! All you know how to do is force people to believe you!”

Stung, he hissed, “Idiot-love, you’re not thinking! And if you don’t get me out of these straps right now, all the disasters you expected may come to pass. Or worse.”

“Turn to mist and ooze out of them!” She whirled and stalked back to the group’s heated discussion, where the humans were now comparing Titus to Abbot.

“I can’t quite put my finger on it,” Chuck was saying. “It’s just a feeling.”

“Very scientific,” said Colby.

Dave announced, “I’ll pull the records and we’ll see.”

“It’s nothing in the records,” confessed Chuck. “I’ve checked. It’s just a sense of having missed something-do you know what I mean, Dave? Like doing rounds with a prof who doesn’t say a word until you’re out in the hall. You feel you’ve zeroed in on the diagnosis by the book-yet you know you’ve missed something and you’re gonna get clobbered.”

Titus cloaked his voice and called, “Abbot!”

His father poked his head under the curtain, and Titus glanced at the discussion group through the crack. “We’ve blown it.”

Chuck continued to Colby, “That’s why I don’t want to let him walk out of here until we know there’s no hematoma in the brain from that blow, and absolutely no chance of any damage to the heart. I wouldn’t dare risk it.”

“Very commendable,” agreed Colby.

“But-” interrupted Abbot, turning to them. Titus felt his Influence gearing down to a fine, subtle touch. “-a good scientist learns when to take risks. If you’re still timidly laboring under the specter of some professor’s wrath, you don’t have the strength to hold up your end of a team effort. Isn’t that true, Dr. Colby?”

“Very true.”

Abbot turned to Inea. “I expect Titus feels at a disadvantage, all tied down. Why don’t you release him, while Dr. Colby explains everything to these fine doctors.”

Abbot’s Influence was hardly discernible, but Inea turned to comply as if it were her own will.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper, Titus. I was taught better than to hit a man when he’s down.”

“Forget it,” he replied. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Chuck,” said Colby, “I’m not impugning your medical judgment. Abbot’s right. There are other factors to consider. The centrifuge was sabotaged and we have reason to believe it was an assassination attempt on Dr. Shiddehara.”

Titus bolted upright. “Assassination!”

The two medics tried to push him down again, but Titus swung his feet to the floor. “I’m fine, really I’m fine. Did you catch the bastard?”

“Not yet,” replied Colby. “So I don’t want you stuck in sick bay, a high profile target. I’d rather have you moving around and working, not sleeping in your own apartment. I’m putting a decoy guard on your door, and another pair to follow you around, but that might not help.”

Abbot turned to Titus. “The two centrifuge attendants were knocked out. Expertly. The damage was done very crudely. The assassin doesn’t know computers or machinery.”

“But he was strong,” added Colby. “Very, very strong. Ripped out fail-safe boards by force. And clever. Not a clue to his identity. We’ll not underestimate him again.”

Titus ignored the searing ache in his body. “I flatly refuse to be put under guard.” Oh, shit. Wrong approach.

“I’m afraid you have no choice-at least until we catch this ”bastard,“ as you so aptly put it.”

Titus went to Colby, summoning all his patience, trying not to think about hunger. “Carol, look, I don’t want to resign over a matter of principle that has nothing to do with my work here. I’ll accept a guard on my door. But don’t put a tail on me. One of the guards could be the hitman.”

“Brink’s? Not likely, but I’m rechecking everyone. Titus, if I you get murdered-especially after this warning-it may as well be me in the coffin. Listen, we have professionals in these matters here and on Earth. You don’t have to worry. Your guards will be screened. You’re going to be safer than anyone else on the station.”

Inea said, “I’ve an idea. Give Titus another apartment for tonight-Abbot’s or yours, Dr. Colby, or any vacant one. He’ll drop out of sight until the reporters leave, then we can trap the assassin using a ringer for Titus.”

Colby ran a hand over her face. “The timing of this attack was no accident. The terrorists wanted to divert those reporters from anything good we have to show them. And without Titus, the Project would really be crippled. They’d argue it’s hopeless to send the probe out at all. If that’s their game, they’ll attack again while the press is here.”

“Good,” said Inea. “Then we only have to live with this for a few hours. You can have extra plainclothes guards around during the demonstration in Titus’s lab. But leave him alone in the meantime, and he can get lost. This is not a small place, and there’s probably only one assassin on the station. I mean, how could security have slipped up twice?”

“Well, if there was a vacant apartment. But we’re moving people out and tripling up in order to squeeze the reporters in for a night.”

“Titus can have my place for the duration,” offered Abbot. “I’ll take his. Nobody would mistake me for him.”

Oh, no you don’t! He’d never find all the bugs Abbot would leave behind. How am I going to get out of this?

Inea was looking at him strangely. Suddenly, she said, “For that matter, who’d confuse me with Titus? And it’s less remarkable for a woman to invade a man’s bedroom-than for another man to just. well, move in. I mean, neither of them has that sort of reputation. Here, switch with me.” She dug her key out of a hip pocket and shoved it at Titus. “After all, I owe you something for putting my copyright on my program.”

Colby agreed to the plan, but the medics insisted on a battery of tests before letting him go. Colby’s parting remark proved she accepted Titus’s claim to health. “I’ll expect a full report on my desk in four days-everything you noticed before and during the incident.”

Abbot turned at the door and, cloaking his words, asked, “You’re sure you can handle the humans now?”

“Of course,” he replied cheerfully. “They got the jump on me when I was unconscious. Thanks for the rescue. I’m in your debt.”

“No.” He shrugged. “Merely a parent’s duty.” He left.

Glumly Titus turned from the closing door. Abbot had only been obeying luren law, keeping humans from discovering too much. There was no affection in him.

Titus couldn’t brood over his feelings about Abbot. He had to gather all his strength for the ensuing challenge. The medics weighed and measured him, scrutinized his private parts, poked and prodded and attached electrodes, and made him lie on cold tables while slow scanners floated around him.

All of this had been done countless times before, and if Connie’s agents’ work on the computer records still stood, the results would be the same this time. But Titus had to stay alert, misdirecting, twisting and averting suspicion. These doctors were no ordinary clinicians. They had worked on luren and orl corpses. The trained medical mind never forgot anything and continually integrated new data.

By now, both doctors were haunted by a nightmarish deja vu when they considered Titus, Abbot, or the aliens. When the Influenced memories finally surfaced, they might well raise a hue and cry. But before then, Abbot will kill them. It was universal luren policy-Tourist and Resident alike. They had to protect their secret or be exterminated. But Residents tried to recruit the suspicious, not kill them-a risk the Tourists found unconscionable.