The way she said the name Dopelle, Keith thought—the way she emphasized the pronoun—almost capitalized it. She’s more than in love with him, Keith thought—she worships him.
He closed his eyes a second and when he opened them he didn’t look at her. He hardly heard what she was saying, until he realized she was asking a question.
«What can I do? Mekky told me he saw in your mind that you might come to me for help. He said it would be all right if I didn’t take any risk myself.»
«I wouldn’t let you do that,» Keith said. «And no one followed me here or could even suspect I’d come here. But I don’t know how you can help unless you can get in touch with Mekky. My masquerade here has blown up higher than a kite. And I haven’t got any answers for the questions the cops would ask—even if they stopped to ask questions. Mekky, I hope, could give me the answers—and vouch for them.»
She nodded. «But there’s no way you could get in touch with Mekky unless you could get to the fleet.»
«Where’s the fleet?»
She hesitated, frowning, before she decided to speak. «Near Saturn. But you couldn’t get there. You’ll have to wait it out somehow. Have you money?»
«No, but I don’t—wait, there’s something you can tell me. I might be able to look it up at the library or somewhere, but I can find out from you quicker. What’s the score on coinage—metal coins.»
«Metal coins? There haven’t been any since nineteen thirty-five. They were called in then.»
«Why?»
«The Arcs were counterfeiting them—and paper money, too. They had a network of spies here then. One of the things they did was try to disrupt Earth’s economic systems by flooding the world with counterfeit money. It couldn’t be told from real money even by experts.
«A bad inflation started and everything would have gone smash. So the war council of the nations got some scientists together and they figured out a kind of paper currency that couldn’t be counterfeited. I don’t know what the secret is. Nobody does, except a few scientists.
«Something they use in the paper gives off a faint yellowish glow in the dark or in deep shadow. Anybody can spot counterfeit money because no counterfeiter—nor the Arcs—has been able to duplicate paper that gives off that glow.»
Keith asked, «Was that when the change was made from dollars and cents to credits?»
«Yes—in all countries. Each country backs its own coinage but it’s all in credits and all kept at par so it’s interchangeable.»
Keith said, «So after the old money had been called in for exchange, it was illegal to possess any. But there are coin collectors who do?»
«Yes. It’s illegal and there’s a pretty stiff fine. But there are coin collectors, plenty of them. It’s not considered a real moral crime.»
«Like drinking during Prohibition?»
Betty looked bewildered. «Like what?»
«Skip it.» Keith took the little wad of money out of his pocket, the coins wrapped in the bills. He opened them out and studied them. He said, «I’ve got five coins here and two bills that are dated before nineteen thirty-five. About what would they be worth?»
He handed them to Betty, who glanced at them. She said, «I don’t know just what prices are paid. I’d guess about ten thousand credits—a thousand dollars by the old scale. What are those other coins and bills?»
«Dated after nineteen thirty-five. So they’re impossible. I nearly got myself killed giving one to a druggist in Greeneville.»
«But how could they be dated after—»
Keith sighed. «I don’t know either. But I’ll drop them down the sewer as soon as I leave here. The others are dangerous enough. Look—about Arcturian spies. Are Arcturians human beings? Can’t they tell an Arcturian from an Earthman?»
«They’re horribly different.» The girl shuddered. «Monsters, More like insects in appearance, bigger of course, and as intelligent as we are. But back in the early days of the war they captured a lot of people alive, on some of their first raids. They can—take over people, put one of their minds into a human body and use it for a spy.
«There aren’t so many now. Most of them have been killed. Sooner or later they give themselves away because their minds are alien. And since those early days they haven’t been able to capture many humans alive.»
«But even so,» Keith said, «why shoot on suspicion? Why aren’t they arrested and, if their minds are actually alien, a psychiatrist should be able to prove or disprove that they’re Arcturians. Don’t a lot of innocent people get killed?»
«Yes, maybe a hundred for every real spy. But—well, they’re so dangerous, especially now that the war is in the current stage, that it’s better, really better, that a thousand people die than that an Arc spy should stay at large.
«If they got a few of our secrets to add to their own science it could change the tide of the war. And that would mean the end of the whole human race, the death of billions. So it’s not considered a crime to kill a human being by mistake if there’s cause to think he’s an Arc. Don’t you see?»
«Not completely. If you could capture them and be sure first wouldn’t that be just as good?»
«It’s too dangerous. Too many of them have escaped on the way to jail or even after they were locked up. They have special powers, physical and mental.»
Keith grinned wryly. «So one of them could maybe take the gun away from the W.B.I. man who was holding it on him. Well, if they had any doubts before in my case, they haven’t now.»
He stood up. For a long moment he stared at Betty Hadley, then turned his head and looked at the window. It was black, blank.
The mist-out was on.
He said, «Thank you. Good-bye.»
She stood, too. Her eyes went to the window, as his had. «But where are you going to go? You might take a chance for a block or two if you’re careful, but—»
«I’m armed.»
«But you haven’t any place to go. You can’t stay here, of course; there’s just Della and I. But there’s a vacant apartment on the floor below. I can fix it with the janitor so—»
«No!»
Keith’s answer was so explosive that he felt foolish after he had said it.
«But tomorrow I can talk to the W.B.I. I can explain that Mekky vouched for you to me. It won’t be safe until Mekky is back a few months from now, for you to be running loose—but on my word for it they might hold you in protective custody until he does come back.»
Possibly there was a shade of uncertainty on Keith’s face, for she kept talking, pressing the point. She said, «They will believe me enough to give you the benefit of the doubt. Because I’m Dopelle’s fiancée—»
She couldn’t have known it, but it had been the wrong thing to say. Keith shook his head slowly.
He said, «No. I’m going out. You—you’re really in love with this Dopelle?»
She said only, «Yes,» but the way she said it was enough.
«Good-bye then, Miss Hadley,» Keith said.
She held out her hand to him but he pretended not to see it. He didn’t trust himself to touch it.
He went out quickly.
CHAPTER XII
The Moon
ON HIS WAY down the stairs he began to realize how foolish he had been and to be glad that he had been foolish. He was mad—not at anybody but at everything. He was tired, very tired, of being pushed around. He’d been as cautious and careful as he knew how and it had kept getting him into worse and worse trouble.
Now he was going to quit being cautious. It would probably get him killed, and quickly, but—well, what did he have to lose?