"Well... one reason is that they'll find my body later this morning, while they are unloading. Then they'll be looking for you."
"I'll be many kilometers the other side of the horizon. But why would they look for me? I'm not going to leave my fingerprints on you. Just some purple bruises around your neck."
"Motive and opportunity. Botany Bay is a pretty law-abiding community, Miss Friday. You can probably talk your way out of trouble in jumping ship thereÄothers have. But if you are wanted for a murder aboard ship, the local people will cooperate."
"I'll plead self-defense. A known rapist. Fer Gossake, Pete, what am I going to do with you? You're an embarrassment. You know I won't kill you; I can't kill in cold blood. It has to be forced on me. But if I keep you tied upÄ Let me seeÄfive and three is eight, then add at least two hours before they work back to here in unloadingÄ that's ten hours at leastÄand I'll have to gag youÄand it's getting coldÄ"
"You bet it's getting cold! Could you sort of drape my sweater around me?"
"All right, but I'll have to use it later when I gag you."
"And besides being cold, my hands and feet are going to sleep. Miss Friday, if you leave me tied up this way for ten hours, I'll have gangrene in both hands and both feetÄand lose them. No regeneration out here. By the time I'm back where they can do it, I'll be a permanent basket case. Kinder to kill me."
"Damn it, you're trying to work on my sympathy!"
"I'm not sure you have any."
"Look," I told him, "if I untie you and let you put your clothes back on so that you won't freeze, will you let me tie you up and gag you later without fussing about it? Or must I clip you a good deal
harder than I did and knock you out cold? Run a risk of breaking your neck? I can, you know. You've seen me fightÄ"
"I didn't see it; I just saw the results. Heard about ft."
"Same thing. Then you know. And you must know why I can do such things. `My mother was a test tubeÄ'
" `Äand my father was a knife,' "he interrupted. "Miss Friday, I didn't have to let you clip me. You're fast... but I'm just as fast and my arms are longer. I knew that you were enhanced but you did not know that I am. So I would have had the edge."
I was sitting in lotus, facing him, when he made this astounding statement. I felt dizzy and wondered if I was going to throw up again. "Pete," I said, almost pleadingly, "you wouldn't lie to me?"
"I've had to lie all my life," he answered, "and so have you. HoweverÄ" He paused and twisted his wrists; his bonds broke. Do you know the breaking strength of a twisted sleeve of a good shirt? It is more than that of a manila line of equal thicknessÄtry it.
"I don't mind ruining the shirt," he said conversationally. "The sweater will cover. But I would rather not ruin my trousers; I expect to have to appear in public in them before I can get more. You can reach the knots more easily than I can; will you untie them, Miss Friday?"
"Stop calling me Miss Friday, Pete; we're APs together." I started working on the knots. "Why didn't you tell me a long time ago?"
"I should have. Other things got in the way."
"There! Oh, your feet are cold! Let me rub them. Get the circulation back."
We got some sleep, or I did. Pete was shaking my shoulder and saying quietly, "Better wake up. We must be about to ground. Some lights have come on."
A dim twilight trickled in, under, around, and through the tarpaulin covering the dinosaur we had slept under. I yawned at it. "I'm cold."
"Complaints. You had the inside of the snuggle. That's warmer than the outside. I'm frozen."
"Just what you deserve. Rapist. You're too skinny; you don't make much of a blanket. Pete, we've got to put some fat on you.
Which reminds me that we didn't have breakfast. And the thought of foodÄ I think I'm about to throw up."
"UhÄ Slide past me and sort o' heave it back into that corner. Not here where we would have to lie in it. And keep as quiet as you can; there may be someone in here by now."
"Brute. Unfeeling brute. Just for that I won't throw up."
On the whole I felt fairly good. I had taken one of the little blue pills just before leaving cabin BB, and it seemed to be holding. I had a butterfly or two in my tummy but they weren't very muscular butterfliesÄnot the sort that shout "Lemme outa here!" I had with me the rest of the supply Dr. Jerry had given me. "Pete, what are the plans?"
"You're asking me? You planned this jailbreak, not me."
"Yes, but you are a big, strong, masculine man who snores. I assumed that you would take charge and have it all planned out while I napped. Am I mistaken?"
"WellÄ Friday, what are your plans? The plans you made when you didn't expect to have me along."
"It wasn't much of a plan. After we ground they are going to have to open a door, either a people door or a big cargo door; I don't care which, `cause when they do, I go out of here like a frightened cat, running roughshod over anything or anybody in my way... and I don't stop until I'm a long way from the ship. I don't want to hurt anybody but I hope nobody tries too hard to stop me... for I won't be stopped."
"That's a good plan."
"You think so? It's not really a plan at all. Just a determination. A door opens, I crush out."
"It's a good plan because it doesn't have any fancies to go wrong. And you have one big advantage. They don't dare hurt you."
"I wish I could be sure of that."
"If you are hurt, it will be by accident, and the man who does it will be strung up by his thumbs. At least. After hearing the rest of your story I now know why the instructions to me were so emphatic. Friday, they don't want you dead-or-alive; they want you in perfect health. They'll let you escape before they will hurt you."
"Then it's going to be easy."
"Don't be too sure of it. Wildcat that you are, it has already been proved that enough men can grab you and hold you; we both know that. If they know you are goneÄand I think they do~ this boat was over an hour late in leaving orbitÄ"
"Oh!" I glanced at my finger. "Yes, we should have grounded by now. Pete, they are searching for me!"
"I think so. But there was no point in waking you until the lights came on. By now they have had about four hours to make certain that you are not on the deck above with the first-class excursionists. They will have mustered the migrants as well. So, if you are hereÄ and not simply hiding out in the ship properÄyou have to be in this cargo hold. That's an oversimplification as there are all sorts of ways to play hide-and-seek in a space as big as this boat. But they'll watch the two bottlenecks, the cargo door on this level and the passenger door on the level above. Friday, if they use enough peopleÄand they willÄand if those jimmylegs are equipped with nets and sticky ropes and tanglefootÄand they will beÄthey will catch you without hurting you as you come out of this boat."
"Oh." I thought about it. "Pete... if it comes to that, there will be some dead and wounded first. I may wind up dead myselfÄbut they'll pay a high price for my carcass. Thanks for alerting me."
"They may not do it quite that way. They may make it very obvious that the doors are being watched in order to cause you to hang back. So they get the migrants outÄI suppose you know that they go out the cargo door?"
"I didn't."
"They do. Get them out and checked offÄthen close the big door and shoot this place full of sleepy gas. Or tear gas and force you to come out wiping your eyes and tossing your cookies."
"Brrr! Pete, are they really equipped in the ship with those gases? I wondered."