No, three times. As she lay unconscious on the lunar surface, her air tanks depleted, the pendant had done it again. It had jumped her forward in time to a point where Clayton would be looking for her, to a time shortly after she had left Luna City for the mining camp.
But it seemed the pendant did more than simply juggle time; it worked with space as well, with the very fabric of reality. Somehow, it had transported her to a different place-to a place where the mining camp was no longer inhabited, where the power satellite still functioned in geostationary orbit. It had dropped her into an entirely different world, where Bill Darcy was the mayor of Luna City and his brother Sam was dead.
Susan put her hand to her throat. Sudden panic filled her thoughts. The pendant wasn't there.
Where was it? Where could they have put it when they undressed her? She had to have it. It was the only weapon that seemed to work against those who wanted her dead.
It was probably in the closet across the room. It no doubt rested in the pocket of her Fleet uniform there. In a moment she would get up and find it, put it around her neck.
But before she could act, the door to her room irised open. A figure stood silhouetted in the light from the corridor, a shaft of light reflecting off a blaster he held in his left hand-trained on her.
Chapter Twenty-four
"So, I have finally located you," the man in the corridor said. Susan recognized his voice immediately. It was Lieutenant Philip Krueger, Admiral Renford's secretary.
"That-" she started as he stepped into the room and the lights flared on, but it came out a hoarse croak.
Krueger nodded, a vicious smile playing on his lips. "It was me at the mining camp. But I didn't know you had a pendant." He wasn't wearing one. "Where did you get it?"
When Susan did not answer, he said, "No matter," and motioned with the pistol. "Get up."
Susan stood, clutching the blanket to her breast. Strange, she thought. She had never been the least bit modest, but now, with Krueger watching-holding the blaster on her-she felt suddenly self-conscious.
"Drop the blanket," he said. She did not respond. "I said, drop it." Krueger's voice was heavy with menace.
Susan complied, and Krueger's gaze raked her nude body. His expression reminded Susan of the assailant in her quarters on Fleet Base. He wasn't interested in what he saw, but in what he didn't see. He was looking for the pendant.
Then she remembered the man who had held a blaster on her outside the curio shop. His face had been hidden in shadows, and he had worn Base Security black, but he'd been about Krueger's height. Had that attacker been Krueger as well?
If only she had gone to the closet immediately, and searched for the pendant when she'd first thought of it…
Krueger's presence in her hospital room could mean only one thing. The man responsible for the attacks, the one who wanted her dead, was Admiral James Renford.
Suddenly, silently, a duplicate of herself appeared behind Krueger. She was dressed in a red Fleet captain's uniform, and a pendant dangled from its chain around her neck. A cut over her right eye dripped crimson blood onto the gray floor tiles.
With an effort, Susan eased all emotion from her face. She hoped the shock hadn't shown when her duplicate appeared; she didn't want Krueger to know what she suddenly realized would happen.
She had to keep him from noticing, had to buy time for her duplicate. She forced air through her strained vocal cords.
"What…" she started, then stopped. She tried again, and this time the question came out a barely discernible exhalation of breath: "What are you doing here?"
Amazement washed over his features. "You mean, you really don't know?"
Susan didn't answer. How could she? She didn't know.
Krueger shrugged then said, "I guess it doesn't make much difference now. After all, I am going to kill you anyway. You might as well know what this is all about before you die."
At that instant, the other Susan stepped up close behind Krueger and gave him a quick karate chop behind the left ear. He pitched forward, the arm holding the pistol flailing out, the barrel catching Susan a glancing blow over her right eye. She staggered back a step as Krueger crumbled to the floor at her feet.
Her fully dressed duplicate looked at the man stretched out in front of her, then gave her a knowing glance and stepped to the door. It irised open, and she went through without a word, dabbing at the cut above her eye with the back of her hand.
Susan stood unmoving, gazing down at the unconscious Krueger. What had just happened was beyond belief. Yet, it had happened.
Why had her duplicate hit Krueger just as he was about to tell her what was happening? Had she done it for some specific reason? And if so, what was that reason?
Just now, she didn't have time to work that out. For the first time since all this had begun, she knew precisely what she must do.
Stepping over Krueger's body, she went to the closet on the far side of the room and took down her uniform. She ignored the bleeding gash over her right eye and quickly got dressed. After pulling on her boots and fastening them, she removed the pendant from the pouch at her waist and slipped it over her head.
She held the lump of cold metal lightly in her prosthetic fingers, concentrating on the exact instant, only a few moments ago, when her duplicate had appeared behind Krueger. She pictured herself standing naked before him, while he held a blaster pistol on her.
It didn't work. For some reason, she couldn't make the jump. And yet, she knew she must. She had seen it happen.
She tried again, with exactly the same result.
Then, suddenly, she realized what was wrong. Her mental image of that instant was not complete. It wasn't specific enough. She had to re-create the exact circumstances in her mind, remembering everything from the grossest element to the most minute detail. She even had to remember her thought processes for that instant in time.
She built up the mental image bit by bit, until she was certain it was a precise copy of the actual occurrence. Then she added her thoughts just prior to her duplicate appearing behind Krueger. She had thought that Krueger's presence in her room meant Admiral Renford was behind the attempts on her life.
Still nothing.
What was missing? She held in her mind the exact scene as she had experienced it before. She held the thought she had been thinking. Why wasn't the jump taking place?
Then it hit her. She had to actually see herself appear behind Krueger.
Dressed in Fleet red, a pendant hanging from its silver chain around her neck, the bleeding gash over her right eye…
Again, as she had so many times in the past few days, she felt the dizziness. And the throbbing ache built behind her eyes.
In that instant she stood behind Krueger, just as she had watched herself do a few minutes before. He was about to say something, something her past self wanted to hear. Something she wanted to hear.
Could she let him say it? She hadn't let him say it before, but could she now?
No-because she hadn't!
With practiced accuracy she delivered her karate chop, and Krueger fell forward. The barrel of his pistol caught her naked self above the right eye as he went down.
For an instant, as her other self staggered back a step, she thought about finishing Krueger off, but she couldn't. She had not done so before, when she had watched herself strike him down, so she would not do it now.
She glanced at the blaster the man still held in his hand. Should she take it?