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"You'll recall it was Laney's idea first. But the evidence seems good. Do you doubt that Polly left because you contracted her irises?"
Of course he doubted it. But he couldn't back it up. He looked at Laney, waiting.
"It's important, isn't it, Matt?"
"Yah."
"You remember, just before the raid, when you asked me if everyone was as nervous as you were?"
"Mmm ... Yah, I remember. You said, 'Not that nervous, but still nervous.'
"What are you two talking about?"
"Jay, do you remember your first-mmm. Do you remember when you stopped being a virgin?"
Hood threw back his head and laughed. "What a question, Laney! Nobody ever forgets the first time! It was--'
"Right. Were you nervous?"
Hood sobered. "At one point, I was. There was so much I didn't know. I was afraid I'd make a fool of myself."
Laney nodded. "I'll bet everyone's nervous the first time. Including you, Matt. You suddenly realize, This Is It, and you get all tensed up. Then your girl's eyes go fu
Matt said a bad word. This was exactly what he hadn't wanted to hear. "But what about us? Laney, why didn't I defend myself against you?"
"I don't know."
Hood snapped, "What difference does it make? Whatever you've got, you're not going to use it."
"I have to know!"
Hood shrugged and went to stand before the fire.
"You were pretty sloshed," said Laney. "Could that have had anything to do with it?"
"Maybe.
She couldn't have known why it was important, but she was trying to help. "Maybe its because I'm older than you. Maybe you decided I knew what I was doing."
"I didn't decide anything. I was too drunk. And too bitter."
She turned restlessly, her wrinkled party dress swirling out around her. She stopped. "Matt! I remember! It was pitch dark in there!"
Matt closed his eyes. Why, so it was. He'd stumbled unseeing across the bed; he'd had to turn on a light to see Laney at all. "That's it. I didn't even realize what was going on until the door was closed. Oookay," he sighed, letting all his breath rush out with the word, leaving him an empty man.
Hood said, "That's great. Are you finished with us?"
"Yah."
Hood left without looking back. Laney, on the verge of leaving, hesitated. Matt looked half dead, as if every erg of energy had been drained out of him.
She touched his arm. "What's wrong, Matt?"
"I drove her away! It wasn't her fault!"
"Polly?" She gri
"Oh, Laney, Laney. She could be in the organ banks! She could be in the coffin cure, whatever the hell that is."
"It's not your fault. If you'd found her in the vivarium--,
"Is it my fault that I was glad? She dropped me like a sick housecleaner, and an hour later Implementation took her away! And when I found out, I was glad! I had revenge!" His hands were on her upper arms, squeezing, almost hard enough to hurt.
"It wasn't your fault," she repeated. "You'd have saved her if you could."
"Sure." But he wasn't hearing her. He let go of her arms. "I've got to go after her," he muttered, saying the words aloud, trying the taste of them. "Yah. I've got to go after her."
He turned and made for the entrance.
CHAPTER 9
THE WAY BACK
"COME BACK here, you idiot!"
Matt stopped halfway to the door. "Huh? Isn't this what you all want?"
"Come back here! How are you going to get over the wall? You can't pound on the gate again!"
Matt turned back. He felt feverish, unable to think. "Castro'd be ready for that, wouldn't he? He may not know what happened last night, but he must know something's wrong."
"We tried hard enough to tell him! Come here, sit down... Don't underestimate that man, Matt. We've got to think this through."
"That wall. How am I going to get over? Oh, damn, damn."
"You're tired. Why not wait till Harry comes down? Then we can get things organized."
"Oh, no. I'm not taking help from the Sons of Earth. This has nothing to do with them."
"How about me? Will you take my help?"
"Sure, Laney."
She decided not to question the illogic of this. "All right, let's start at the begi
"Yah. Too far to walk. Mmm ... Parlette's car. It's on the roof."
"But if Castro gets it, it'll lead him straight here."
"I'd have to wait till midnight to get the other car."
"That may be the only way." Laney wasn't tired; she'd had twice as much sleep as she needed in the vivarium. But she felt used, ready for the laundry. A hot bath would help. She put it out of her mind. "Maybe we can raid a crew house for another car. Then we set the autopilot to take Parlette's car back here."
"That'll take time."
"We'll have to take it. We'll also have to wait till after sunset before we start."
"Will we need darkness that early?"
"It would help. And suppose the fog cleared while we were over the void?"
"Oh." Colonist and crew alike, the people of the Plateau loved to watch the sun setting over the void mist. The colors were never the same twice. Land along the void edge always cost three times as much as land anywhere else.
"Suddenly we'd have a thousand crew looking down at us. It might be a mistake to use the void at all. Castro may have thought of that. We'll be safe if the fog holds. But whatever we do, we'll have to wait till dark."
Matt stood up and stretched muscles that felt knotted. "Okay. So we get to the Hospital. How do we get in?-Laney, what's an electric eye?"
She told him.
"Oh. I didn't see any light... Ultraviolet, of course, or infrared. I should be able to get over that."
"We."
"You're not invisible, Laney."
"I am if I stick close to you."
"Phut. "
"I'll have to come that far with you anyway. You can't program an autopilot."
Matt got up to pace. "Leave that a moment. How do we get over the wall?"
"I don't," said Laney, and stopped. "There may be a way," she said. "Leave it to me."
"Tell me."
"I can't."
The cold breeze outside had become a wind, audible through the walls. Laney shivered, though the electric fire was hot enough. The fog beyond the south windows was growing dark.
"We'll need guns," she said.
"I don't want to take one of yours. You've only got the two we picked up on the way to the car."
"Matt, I know more than you do about crew. They all go in for sports of one kind or another."
"So?"
"Some of them hunt. A long time ago Earth sent us some frozen fertilized deer and caribou ova in a cargo ramrobot. The Hospital hatched them out, grew 'em to adulthood and scattered them around the bottom edge of the glacier, north of here. There's enough grass there to keep them happy."
"Then we might find guns here."
"It's a good bet. The richer a crew is, the more sports equipment he buys. Even if he never uses it."
The gun rack was in a room in the upper story, a room lined with paintings of more-or-less wild-animals and with heads and hooves of deer and caribou. The rack held half-a-dozen air-powered rifles. They searched the room, and eventually Laney found a drawer containing several boxes of crystal slivers, each sliver two inches long.