“I expect so.” He recounted his first sight of the sleeper, and his deductions about Abbot’s language research. “He’s going to send his message using what he’s learned from the ship’s computers.”

“Oh, my God. And you’ve been living with this all the time we’ve been-you’re right. I never did understand the situation.” In a very small voice, she asked, “Is there any more? Because if there is, heap it on me now while I’m down. I don’t think I can take too many more falls like this.”

“I don’t think there are any more really major facts you don’t know, but the minor ones may defeat you.”

“Plan,” she said dazedly. “We need a plan to stop him.”

He outlined his approaches, ending, “But if I knew how to stop him, I’d have done it already. Every time I tangle with him, he ends up saving me.”

“Don’t be a defeatist. You’ve proved you can beat him.” She hefted the power supply. “By the time he finds this gone, so many people will have been through there, moving the alien-I mean luren-around that he won’t know you stole it. We’ll keep him guessing, underestimating us, and too overloaded to think straight, and maybe we’ll win.”

Titus hitched up onto the rim of the sink, mentally reviewing what things must look like from Abbot’s point of view. “It may be he’s keeping himself overloaded. Or undernourished. Tell me again about Mirelle?”

She described the French woman’s condition again.

“It’s not like Abbot to just fail to show up at that demonstration. He might have put in a brief appearance, then had himself called away before he could be interviewed. Or I could see him staging an emergency elsewhere as an excuse not to show. But careless, open defiance of orders? Conspicuous absence? No. It’s not like him. Which means he didn’t expect to spend that time with Mirelle. Which means he’d driven himself over the edge and knew he couldn’t manage that demonstration in such a state of hunger. Why?”

Titus recounted Abbot’s derision of Titus’s dietary habits. “He’s taking blood as well as ectoplasm from Mirelle and maybe four others. That’s his usual custom. In such a small population, he has to be circumspect. He’s keeping his string as small as possible, and he’s rationing himself.”

“What could make him hungrier than usual?”

“Using Influence. Healing wounds. Dormancy. Fathering the sleeper. But that hasn’t happened yet. From what I learned from Mintraub, I’ll bet he’s not been sleeping at all while he’s been using Influence too much.” He described the way the medics had fought Abbot’s Influence. “So he’s got the beginnings desperate trouble on his hands-trouble from trying to do too much, too fast, with too many people.”

If he’s sweating, we’ve got to keep the pressure on.“

“Think about Mirelle, and the others! He’ll have to Mark n stringer or overburden the ones he has. And offhand, I’d say Mirelle needs vitamins and iron-lots of it. There was a limit to how much of that Abbot could have brought with him-” He had to pause to explain how responsible luren made sure those they bled took heavy supplements.

“But he’s not doing that for Mirelle? How many others is he bleeding dry?”

“He won’t kill. Not here. Not until he’s desperate, with his goal in sight, and he’s a long way from that. So he won’t violate any of the safety rules he pounded into me.”

“Pounded? Did it take a lot of pounding?”

“To be brutally honest, yes, it did. At first, I only knew how hungry I was-I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“You haven’t lied to me, have you?”

“No. I try very hard not to.”

“You have killed humans-for blood.”

“Yes. But it was long ago.”

Dully, she announced, “I should turn you in for murder.”

“Do you see why, when it comes to exposure, I’m on Abbot’s side? And he’s on mine, however much it galls him?”

“I’ve slept with an alien, a murderer. How low can you get?”

He wanted to gather her up and comfort her, but she’d run from him if he moved. At the same time, part of him loved her because killing disturbed her so deeply. “Imagine all the women who’ve had to sleep with husbands returned victorious from war-with blood on their hands.”

“Not the same.”

“No, but there’s murder-and murder. I’ve never killed deliberately. Abbot has, and doesn’t see anything wrong with it.” He told her how Abbot wanted to take Ebony.

Suddenly, she looked away, tugging at her hair. “When Langton went after Ebony, you moved like a blur. I mean no one could move that fast. And before, when Ebony moved on Carol, I swear you were in the air before Ebony’s hand dipped into her bodice. If you’re so set on concealing what you are, why did you do that?”

Titus had not been aware of it. He slumped. Abbot hadn’t even called him down for it. It was inconceivable that he hadn’t noticed.

“I know why you did it,” asserted Inea. “Because you care, and Abbot doesn’t. I saw your face when Langton died. You risked your life-and your luren secrets-to save two humans, and you lost one. And you grieved. I saw Abbot’s face, too. Maybe you should have let him kill Ebony, then Langton and the other guard wouldn’t be dead.”

“He couldn’t have gotten away with it.”

“That’s the point. He’d be sent to Earth for trial!”

“I keep telling you, that’s no solution.”

“Then what is?”

He sighed. “Convincing him we’re right. Using his strengths against him. Working at his weaknesses. And thanks to your noticing Mirelle’s condition, I think I understand now why Abbot wanted Ebony. He’s not getting what he needs from his stringers. They’re fighting him. They’re hating him. He’s not getting what you’ve given me-so while he’s been getting weaker, I’ve been getting stronger.”

“So I should go to bed with you as a duty?”

“No!” he snapped. I’m too tired for this. “If it’s doled out through gritted teeth, or dragged out over suppressed defenses, it’s no good. And it has to go both ways, Inea, it has to or you’ll end up like Mirelle.”

She was still toying with the box. “Both ways,” she repeated. “Both ways! That’s it!”

“What?”

She leaped to her feet, pacing in gigantic moon strides, and she gesticulated with the box. “Both ways-two-way communication. I’m such an idiot! Don’t you see, Abbot’s real advantage is in knowing what’s happening before you do. He’s got you always looking over your shoulder for one of his-stringers-right? He’s got stoolies at every corner!”

“Not quite that bad, but-”

“Listen! No army is any better than its intelligence. You’re before you start because you don’t have any stoolies. If did, Abbot could pick them right out of any crowd, couldn’t he? So, we’re going to convince him he’s being watched all the time, and keep him so busy wondering, he won’t have time to act. And while he’s all tangled up in confusion, we’ll run around his end guard and capture his goal-the sleeper-and you’ll father the alien!”

“What!” Shock echoed through Titus.

She waved the box under his nose. “Well, what else did you have in mind? Why would you have stolen this otherwise?”

“I don’t follow. But never mind, I’m not going to go around picking the brains of humans-”

“Shut up! Do you think I’d want you to?”

“No.” He felt ashamed. “But-”

She tapped him on the chest with the box. “It’s a compact power supply! Rechargeable.” When he still didn’t see, she spelled it out. “I build this into a system of microscopic bugs, and you sneak around and plant them, and I monitor them and tell you what he’s up to! And he thinks he’s being watched by your stringers-which don’t exist. He gets so spooked that we walk right by him. Just like when you stole this-you Idiot-love!” She flung her arms around him and kissed him resoundingly.

He sank into it almost afraid of it. But she drew back, cocking her head to one side. “I guess I shouldn’t have done that. It’s teasing. It’s just-I forgot myself.”