A Novel by GEORGE O. SMITH (continued 4)

"I'll be the defeated warrior," she said. She uttered three words in her native sing-song and the man in the pilot's chair stopped struggling. She went to the radio and picked up the microphone and started to broadcast.

It was a long series of staccato sounds that were sometimes musical and just as often discordant, as the tones rose and fell seemingly without pattern. Then she turned to face Farradyne.

"You win. Again you win," she told him. "Somehow you always do, and maybe—maybe—I'm glad it's over!"

Tears spilled down her cheeks as she stumbled away from him.

Farradyne looked down at the face, as pale and wan as the hospital sheets. Her eyes opened slowly and saw him. Her smile was genuine, but far from robust. Farradyne squeezed her hand gently and said, "Relax, Norma. It's all over."

"You're sure?"

"As sure as any man can be. There's been a batch of meetings and conferences, and lots and lots of gold braid and striped trousers. I got strictly left behind when the top-level boys moved in. So now all you have to do is get well."

Her eyes were large and hurt-animal luminous. "I know. It's not the excitement. It's the cure. I had to hang on to my nervous system too long after being freed, they tell me. It's left me washed-out—but I'll be all right, Charles."

"Good. You've got to be."

"You talk," she said. "I'm—tell me what happened?"

"First thing, they sat on the guys that were in the Lancaster with Carolyn and among them they discovered a space engineer. They held them as hostages against my return, and several of us went to Lyra with Carolyn as interpreter. We made 'em cough up Clevis and about thirty-five other boys who'd been too smart for them to let free. It's all been concluded nicely. I have my license back for honest, and just between you and me, I have enough contracts already to make a mint of moola out of the interstellar business. I can buy more spacers soon, and then I can let someone else go a-spacing. Maybe I'd like to retire, honey—"

She looked up at him and smiled. "Is that a proposal of marriage?"

He nodded.

Norma pulled him down and gave him her lips. Then as he stood up again, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears.

"Norma—?" he said plaintively.

"Charles, it wouldn't work."

"But—"

Norma smiled gently through her tears. "Not that, Charles," she said. "You were thinking about Frank, and the years of hate. Since then I've come to know you and admire you, but I can't really love you. I—"

He saw something glow momentarily in her eyes and he waited patiently.

"Howard is a strong man," she said simply. "He used Frank, and then he used me, and finally he used you. And hellflowers took me away from Howard, and then they took Howard. And you brought me back and now you've brought Howard back to me, and—"

Farradyne interrupted her: "Be happy, baby!" He bent down and kissed her. Then he turned on his heel and left the room. He paused long enough in the corridor to shake the vacuum out of his feelings and then went down to the waiting room.

"Howard? She's awake and feeling fit, even though weak. A bit of the sight and touch of you would work wonders. She wants you."

Clevis nodded and started for the door. Farradyne caught him by the arm and turned him around. "Look," he said with a crookedly amused grin, "I want to be second-best man."

"Any damned day in the week, Charley," said Howard Clevis.

Farradyne sat down in a chair and waited. He lit a cigarette and blew smoke at his toes. Somehow he felt disappointed in himself; he should have been despondent instead of content.

And then the plume of smoke curled around a pair of slender ankles and Farradyne realized what his unfinished business was.

The waiting room resounded gently with a delicate musical chord, operatic in quality like a trio of angel, hoyden, and devil singing a bacchanal. He smiled and looked up at her. "Any damned day in the week," he promised, getting to his feet.

Against his face, softly, Carolyn laughed. "But you don't even know my name!"

"I'll find out," he promised. "Later."