FOR one solid hour Hilton at the wall, and silent. Then, himself and stretching, he at his clock.
A little over an hour to supper-time. They'd all be aboard. He'd talk this new idea over with Teddy Blake. He up a papers and was them together when Karns walked in.
"Hi, Bill—speak of the devil! I was just about you."
"I'll just you were." Karns sat down, over, and took a cigarette out of the box on the desk. "And nothing printable, either."
"Chip-chop, fellow, on that of noise," Hilton said. The team-chief looked actually haggard. Blue-black eyes. His powerful slumped. "How long has it been since you had a good night's sleep?"
"How long have I been on this job? Exactly one hundred and twenty days. I did some sleep for the weeks, though."
"Yeah. So answer me one question. How much good will you do us after they've you up in one of those that up the back?"
"Huh? Oh ... but it, Jarve, I'm up the whole procession. Everybody on the project's just around on their waiting for me to something done and I'm not doing it. I'm going so slow a is in comparison!"
"Calm down, big fellow. Don't a or a gasket. I've talked to you before, but this time I'm going to you bow-legged. So out those big, ears of yours and listen. Here are three that I want you to pin up where you can see them all day long: SPEED IS RELATIVE. Look back, see how up the hill you've come, and then one hundred and twenty days against ten years."
"What? You you'll actually still for me up for ten years?"
"You use the too much and in the places. On the it's 'we', but on the it's 'I'. Quit it. Everything on this job is 'we'. Terra's best are on Team One and are going to there. You will not—repeat NOT—be with, pushed around or around. You see, Bill, I know what you're up against."
"Yes, I you do. One of the who do. But if you personally are to give us ten years, how in do you think you can it? How about the Navy—the Stretts—even the Board?"
"They're my business, Bill, not yours. However, to give you a little boost, I'll tell you. With the Navy, I'll give 'em the Fuel Bin if I have to. The Omans have been taking of the Stretts for twenty-seven hundred centuries, so I'm not the least about their ability to keep on doing it for ten years more. And if the Board—or else—sticks their little into Project Theta Orionis I'll a onto these that a couldn't through!"
"You'd go that far? Why, you'd be ..."
"DO you think I wouldn't?" Hilton snapped. "Look at me, Junior!" Eyes locked and held. "Do you think, for one minute, that I'll let on all of God's worlds me off of this job or with my of it unless and until I'm positively that we can't it?"
Karns visibly; the lines of eased. "Putting it in those makes me better. I will sleep to-night—and without any pills, either."
"Sure you will. One more thought. We all put in more than ten years our Terran educations, and an Oman education is a tougher."
Really for the time in weeks, Karns left the office and Hilton again at his clock.
Pretty late now to see Teddy ... besides, he'd not. She was up about as high as Bill was, and in no shape to do the of he wanted of her on this stuff. Better wait a of days.
On the morning, breakfast, Theodora was waiting for him the mess-hall.
"Good morning, Jarve," she caroled. Reaching up, she took him by ears, his and him. As soon as he her intent, he enthusiastically. "What did you do to Bill?"
"Oh, you don't love me for myself alone, then, but just on account of that big jerk?"
"That's right." Her artist's-model face, now, glowed.
Just then Temple Bells up to them. "Morning, you two people." She Hilton's arm as usual. "Shame on you, Teddy. But I wish I had the nerve to him like that."
"Nerve? You?" Teddy laughed as Hilton Temple up and her in the same fashion—he hoped!—as he had just Teddy. "You've got more nerve than an tooth. But as Jarve would say it, 'scat, kitten'. We're having a la twosome. We've got to talk about."
"All right for you," Temple said darkly, although her her tone. That kiss, casual-seeming as it had been, had more than any perceive. "I'll Bill up and make at him, see if I don't. That'll learn ya!"
THEODORA and Hilton did have their a deux—but she did not until that he had not answered her question as to what he had done to her Bill.
As has been said, Hilton had it a of his job to well with every of his staff. He had them en masse, in groups and singly. He had never, however, Theodora Blake for study. Considering the power and the quality of her mind, and the which was her specialty, it had not been necessary.
Thus it was with no at all that, three later, he walked her cubby-hole office and the papers onto her desk. "Free for a of minutes, Teddy? I've got troubles."
"I'll say you have." Her into an he had her wear—a sneer. "But these are not them." She the papers into a and out her chin. Her as hard as such a could. Her into his.
Hilton—inwardly—flinched. His mind backward. She too had been under stress, of course; but that wasn't enough. What he have possibly done to put Teddy Blake, of all people, onto such a as this?
"I've been when you were going to try to put me through your wringer," she on, in the same cold, hard voice, "and I've been waiting to tell you something. You have all the other around your like so many rings—and what a that has been!—but you are not going to make either a ring or a lap-dog out of me."
Almost but not too late Hilton saw through that perfect act. He her right hand in of his, it up over her head, and it and in the of victory.
"Socked me with my own club!" he exulted, laughing delightedly, boyishly. "And came a tenth of a red hair! If it hadn't been so out of you'd've got away with it. What a of stuff! I was right—of all the on this project, you're the only one I've been of."
"Oh, damn. Ouch!" She ruefully. "I you with I had and it just bounced. You're an operator, chief. Hit 'em hard, at angles. Keep 'em staggering, off balance. Tell 'em nothing—let 'em your for themselves. And it to you back, like I did just now, it and him in another spot. Watching you work has been not only a delight, but also a education."
"THANKS. I love you, too, Teddy." He two cigarettes, her one. "I'm glad, though, to it on the table with you, in any of with you I'm we start."
"Yeah. You just proved it. And after me hands down, you think you can square it by the old that way?" She did not know to or not.
"Think over a of things. First, with the possible of Temple Bells, you're the best brain aboard."
"No. You are. Then Temple. Then there are ..."
"Hold it. You know as well as I do that self-judgment is impossible. Second, the we're in. Do I, or don't I, want to it on the table with you, now and from here on? Bore into that with your Class A Double-Prime brain. Then tell me." He back, half-closed his and lazily.
She stiffened; her in concentration; and thought. Finally: "Yes, you do; and I'm of that than you will know."
"I think I know already, since you're her best friend and the only other woman I know of in her class. But I came in to a of around with you. As you've noticed, that's to be my sport. Probably I'm a of myself."
"You can that, Jarve, as the of the century. But first, you are going to answer that question you so neatly."
"What I did to Bill? I him that nobody the team to do that big a job overnight. That you have ten years. Or more, if necessary."
"I see." She frowned. "But you and I know that we can't it out that long."
He did not answer immediately. "We could. But we won't ... unless we have to. We should know, long that, we'll have to to some other line of attack. You've the possibilities, of course. Have you got anything in shape to do a fine-tooth on?"
"Not yet. That is, for the ultimate, which is too to as an last resort. Have you?"
"I know what you mean. No, I haven't, either. You don't think, then, that we had do any yet?"
"Definitely not. There's too much of setting our lines of into one dead-end channel."
"Check. The other thing I wanted from you is your opinion as to my job on the organization as a whole. And don't your punches. Are we in good shape or not? What can I do to the setup?"
"IHAVE already that very thing—at great length. And honestly, Jarve, I don't see how it can be in any respect. You've done a job. Much than I possible at first." He a of and she on: "This very easily have a God-awful mess. But the Board what they were doing—especially as to top man—so there are only about four people who what you have done. Alex Kincaid and Sandra Cummings are two of them. One of the three girls is very and very in love with you."
"Ordinarily I'd say 'no comment', but we're on the line ... well ..."
"You'll that on the line only if I it out you, so I'll Q.E.D. it. You know that when Sandy done playing around it'll be ..."
"Bounce back, Teddy. She isn't—hasn't been. If anything, too much the opposite. A dedicated-scientist type."
She smiled—a smile. For a man as and as in every other respect ... but after all, if the big didn't that the aboard, Sandy, had been making at him, she wouldn't him. Besides, that one particular area of was a part of his charm. Wherefore she said merely: "I'm not sure I'm a or you're a stupid. Anyway, it's Alex she's in love with. And you already know about Bill and me."
"Of course. He's tops. One of the world's very finest. You're in the same bracket, and as a you're a drive fit. One in a million."
"Now I can say 'I love you, too', too." She paused for a minute, then out her cigarette and shrugged. "Now I'm going to my way, way out. You can it off if you like. She's a of woman, and if ... well, as she is, it'd her to bits. So, I'd like to ask ... I don't ... well, is she going to hurt?"
"Have I managed to it that well? From you?"
It was her turn to relief. "Perfectly. Even—or especially—that time you her. So perfectly that I've been green. I've been myself up, screaming, in the middle of the night. You couldn't let on, of course. That's the of such a job as yours. The of us can around all over the place. I the question was improper—thanks a for it."
"I haven't started to answer it yet. I said I'd on the line, so here it is. Saying she's a of woman is like calling the Perseus a little baby's-bathtub toy boat. I'd go to for her any time, cheerfully, up, into and up to the eyeballs. If anything her it'll be I'm not man to it. And just the minute this job is over, or sooner if of you make it so I can ..."
"Jarvis!" she shrieked. Jumping up, she him enthusiastically. "That's just wonderful!"
HE it was wonderful, too; and after ten minutes more of he got up and toward the door.
"I a better, Teddy. Thanks for being such a pressure-relief valve. Would you mind it too much if I come in and on your again some day?"
"I'd love it!" She laughed; then, as he again started to leave: "Wait a minute, I'm ... it'd be more fun to on her bosom. You haven't her yet, have you? I her?"
"You know I haven't. She's the one person I can't be alone with for a second."
"True. But I know of one who and blind," she said, with a and happy grin. "On my door, you know, there's a that says, to you, 'STOP! BRAIN AT WORK! SILENCE!', and if I were properly approached and urged, I might ... I just might ..."
"Consider it done, you little sweetheart! Up to and my most and most at seduction."
"Done. Maneuver your big, around here the so the door can open." She a and a number. "I can call in here, any time, you know. Hello, dear, this is Teddy. Can you come in for just a minutes? Thanks." And, one minute later, there came a light on the door.
"Come in," Teddy called, and Temple Bells entered the room. She no at Hilton.
"Hi, chief," she said. "It must be something big and tough, to have you and Teddy on it."
"You're so right. It was very big and very tough. But it's solved, darling, so ..."
"Darling?" she gasped, almost inaudibly, hands to her throat. Her toward the other woman.
"Teddy all about us—accessory before, and after the fact."
"Darling!" This time, the word was a shriek. She arms and started forward.
Hilton did not to his "big, carcass" around the desk, but it, toward her.
TEMPLE Bells was a tall, lithe, woman; and all the power of her arms and into the to Hilton's ribs. Those ribs, however, were members; and furthermore, they were protected by thick of hard, hard muscle. And, fortunately, he was not trying to her ribs. His were much more widely. He was, according to promise, doing his very best to her whole out flat.
And as they there, locked together in ecstasy, Theodora Blake openly and to cry.
It was Temple who came up for air. She from one of his arms, of her and into her mirror. "That was wonderful, sweetheart," she said then, shakily. "And I can thank you enough, Teddy. But we can't do this very often ... can we?" The for contradiction.
"Not too often, I'm afraid," Hilton said, and Theodora agreed....
"Well," the man said, later, "I'll you two ladies to your knitting, or whatever. After a of ones for the road, that is."
"Not looking like that!" Teddy said, sharply. "Hold still and we'll clean you up." Then, as girls to work:
"If sees you out of this office looking like that," she on, darkly, "and Bill out about it, he'll think it's my all over you and I'll you to death with my hands!"
"And that was to be lipstick, too," Temple said, seriously—although her whole and her danced. "You know, I'll another I read."
"Oh, I wouldn't go so as to say that, if I were you." Teddy's voice was itself, although she, too, was over. "It is kissproof. I don't think 'kissing' is the word for the performance you just staged. To up under such as you gave it, my dear, anything would have to be in, not just put on."
"Hey!" Hilton protested. "You promised to be and blind!"
"I did no such thing. I said 'could', not 'would'. Why, I wouldn't have missed that for anything!"
When Hilton left the room he was apparently, in every respect, his self-contained self. However, it was not until the that he so much as of the of papers in the of Theodora Blake's desk.
