One was the copy the reporter had brought, and the other bore the Project logo.

As he initialed the security man’s electronic clipboard, Titus answered, “Good question.”

As the lab emptied, Titus stared at the two boxes now sitting on top of one of the consoles. Where to start?

He saw two guards parting Inea from a pair of reporters. She glanced his way as the guards herded her toward the door with the others. Titus called, “Go on home and get some sleep. You’ll have some real work tomorrow.” Frowning, she took a step toward him. He shook his head. “I’ll call you. Soon as I have anything. Promise.” Slowly, she turned away.

He watched her leave, wishing mightily he could go with her. But she probably preferred solitude to his company. Again, he realized Abbot had never shown up to discover Titus hadn’t Marked her. At least she won’t go looking for him!

He hefted the two data cases. “Well, now what?”

Shimon called across to a group leaving. “Lorie!”

A chubby redhead wearing thick glasses limped toward them. Shimon introduced her, “Titus, Lorie here is a software wizard in her spare time.” Quickly he briefed Lorie. “So how do we tell which one has been tampered with?”

“Good question,” observed Lorie. “You mean Dr. Colby expects you to do this by morning, Doctor?”

“She’s an administrator, not a programmer.”

“With all due respects, Doctor, I don’t think you’re enough of a programmer to get it done in time.”

“I agree. Can you help?”

She tapped one long fingernail on each of the boxes. “Whoever’s playing tricks would’ve altered the data on the Taurus region stars-not anywhere else. Right?”

“Reasonable assumption.”

“There’s unpublished data in here on those stars?”

“Megabytes of it. I study dozens of parameters on each object. I use an ultra-customized Carrington-Worthy database. Infinitely variable, so no two entries are alike.”

“I see. Do you have documentation on the customizing?”

“In my personal calculator.”

Lorie sat down at a nearby console and called it to life. “Patch in and shoot me all of it, plus anything else on the catalogue’s operation. I’ll bet the saboteurs didn’t know about the customizing. Next, I want an exhaustive list of everything in the Taurus region. And I need your index of attribute summaries. Then send out for enough sandwiches and coffee to last all night. Shimon, do you think you could stick around in case I need some help?” She raised her eyebrows at Titus as if to say, Are you still here?

“I’ll see to it all, Lorie,” answered Titus. And to Shimon, he added, “You’re both on double-time overtime.”

“I’ll stay,” replied Shimon, and began to connect the twin catalogue modules into the system while asking Lorie what she Wanted on her pizza.

Titus retired to his office and transferred the data Lorie Needed, then stuck with it as she demanded other items.

Nearly two hours later, he rocked back in his chair to watch her at her console, her intensity creating an aura of sexual beauty. She now had six monitors set up around her and was tapping away on three keyboards. Shimon was hovering in the background, loose cables festooned around his neck, ready to build her any configuration she wanted, his whole attitude betraying how attracted he was to her.

Idly, Titus pulled up Lorie’s records, discovering her last name was unpronounceable, and her credits in her field were staggering. Small wonder she’d tackle the absurd at a moment’s notice. She was simply having fun.

Finally, Titus relaxed enough to consider things in perspective. He made some notes in his Bell 990 on Ebony, listing the flimsy evidence against her, her physique, her political background, her Brink’s file entry showing lack of computer literacy, and that Gold was in one of her classes.

Gold. Gold! He sat bolt upright.

Assume Ebony was a terrorist and knew about the cloning project and about the sleeper. Destroy the sleeper, and make it look like the Project was covering up after Gold’s accusation. That would be the end of Project Hail.

It might already be too late.

Titus tore out of the lab.

Titus rounded the corner into the Biomed corridor at a dead run. He pulled up short. All the guards were gone.

It was third shift, “night.” But that was no reason for the corridor to be deserted. He crept along, holding his breath until realized where the sense of wrongness came from. All the _ panels labeling the doors were dark.

He approached the short hall leading to the sleeper’s chamber. The security equipment had vanished with the guards. The sleeper’s door was dark. No security evident.

Disbelieving, he touched the hall floor with his toe, all senses alert for alarms. There were Brink’s alarm systems he’d ever heard of. Theft wasn’t his field. Nothing here!

Fear put an edge on his senses. As he approached the door, felt his way into the room beyond. Abbot! The feel of his father’s Influence was unmistakable.

Half a dozen humans were in there, too, all intent on their work. Two bored guards flanked the door on the inside.

The sound of a power drill inside decided Titus. He opened e door and marched in, planting himself between the two guards and gazing through the double-walled bio-isolation lock and shower into the chamber. Hands behind his back, he bounced on the balls of his feet and intoned, “I have to check progress here.” He ignored the two heavy dartguns aimed at his back. “Well? How much longer will it be?”

“How should we know, Dr. Shiddehara?” asked one guard The other added, “Sir, you’re not on our clearance list.”

“I know that,” he snapped. “So does Dr. Colby.” He didn’t even have to Influence him to the desired conclusion.

Across the room, Abbot turned to look toward him with raised eyebrows.

“I’ll be right there,” called Titus, and stepped aside into the opaque shower alcove to strip and walk through the shower stall, then dress in the disposable suit and light bubble mask everyone else inside wore.

Abbot was waiting when Titus stepped ouf of the airlock and closed it behind him. Abbot greeted him with an ironic bow. “That was bold, but foolish. They’ll report you.”

“I expect. But this is an open secret now.”

Cloaking his words, Abbot asked, “You expect me to handle Carol for you?”

“I can handle Carol. And I won’t need Influence for it anymore than I did with those two back there.”

Abbot studied him skeptically, then strolled over to two men who were wrestling an instrument up onto the workbench. The casing bore signs of having been cut open, then repaired. All the cloning equipment that had been in crates was now up on the counters, and showed similar signs of modification.

As Titus followed Abbot, he saw a crate that hadn’t been opened-the variable womb. It was being used to support a piece of countertop which held a terminal and some locked file cabinets. When Abbot paused, Titus gestured to the scene about them. “Was this your idea?” He had to admit it was clever. The incriminating evidence had suddenly been modified into customized lab equipment unsuited for cloning.

Casting a pall of blurring Influence around them, Abbot demanded, “Titus, why didn’t you come to me with the hunger-Why did you pretend you were all right?”

God. I did fool him! “I felt all right. And I am now.” Around them, people wrapped up their work and one-by-one, began leaving.

“I shouldn’t have believed you. I should have checked the data on how long you were dead. But I was worried about Sisi. I figured it was no accident you had her in there alone. When I found I was right, I admired your technique. I doubt if anyone else would have detected your work on her.”

Titus glanced about and noticed that Sisi wasn’t there. “I expected you to detect it,” brazened Titus. “But I didn’t plan on her getting hurt. I don’t know how she could have escaped suffocation since I was driven dormant.”