Chapter 20

She looked as she always had, with her hair piled up high on her head and the full lips drowsily sensuous, and her breasts thrusting firmly upward against the tight-clinging fabric that ensheathed them just below the curve of her throat, and the soft whiteness of her upper bosom.

Only her eyes had changed. Stark terror looked out of them and suddenly as she stared at us she pressed one hand to her throat and swayed back against the bulkhead on the right side of the doorway. It brought her up short. But I was sure that if it hadn’t she’d have gone right on retreating backwards until she either started screaming again or crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.

She neither screamed again nor fainted, for Commander Littlefield gave her no time to succumb to utter panic. But if his voice hadn’t rung out as sharply as it did--at the precise moment that it did--the outcome might have been quite different.

“Why did you return to the ship?” he shouted. “Why did you do such a reckless thing? Was it because we suspected you? Was it because you knew we were about to place you under arrest? Answer me! Your life may depend on it.”

“Yes ... I went back,” she said. “But only to get ... something I didn’t want you to find. I was pretty sure I’d hidden it where you’d never think of searching, but when you started suspecting me--”

“I see. A damaging piece of evidence? Something of the sort?”

She nodded. “Yes ... yes ... a paper. It would have proven my guilt.”

“You admit your guilt then? We can still save you, but not if you go on lying, clinging to the story you told us. Every part of that is false.”

“No, no!” She almost screamed the words. “Most of what I told you was true. My brother did work for Wendel and ... I didn’t know that he had died. I just found that out a few hours ago. I came to Mars to help him, to save him if I could. I was a Wendel agent, but only because I had no choice. They threatened to kill my brother ... used that as a weapon to make me spy for them and do--uglier things.”

Her voice rose pleadingly. “Bring the ship back. Don’t send me out alone into space. You can’t be that cruel--”

“We can’t bring the ship back. But we can save you. Just tell the truth. Wendel knew that the Board was sending someone to Mars to investigate the combine, a man who couldn’t be bribed to shut his eyes to what he was sure to see here. You had instructions to kill that man before he could set foot on Mars. Wendel wanted him killed because they knew the Board was backing him to the hilt and he had been given enough authority to make him the most dangerous kind of adversary. Wendel also knew that you were the most resourceful and intelligent agent in their employ.

“You proved that, to my satisfaction, when you did what no one has ever done before--outwitted a Mars’ rocket security alert system by concealing yourself in a cybernetic robot. I’m sure it didn’t take Wendel long to discover that you are as intelligent as you are beautiful--both valuable assets in a secret agent. Priceless assets. The time is very short. Am I right so far?”

“Yes ... it’s all true. Please ... help me!”

“You tried to kill, without success, the man the Board was sending to Mars to investigate and crack down on both Wendel and Endicott. You tried to kill him three times.”

“No, only once. I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t fire that dart. There were other Wendel agents on board. One tried to blow up the ship. And there were other Wendel agents in New Chicago, with instructions to assassinate him if they could.”

“I see. But you did try to kill him in New Chicago. Why did you come to Mars, if you didn’t intend to try again?”

“I told you. I didn’t lie when I said I came to save my brother, that I wanted to see Wendel exposed ... forced to face criminal charges. When I tried to stab him in the New Chicago Underground and failed ... I realized what Wendel had done to me, what a vicious person I’d become. I decided I couldn’t go on being that kind of person any longer, not even to save my brother. I took the only other way I could think of to keep Wendel from killing my brother. I am a resourceful woman, I am intelligent ... why should I deny it? I might have made the Wendel Combine think twice about killing him. But now my brother’s dead and--”