Gavin moved around behind her. He searched her impersonally, but
thoroughly. If she'd been concealing so much as a postage stamp he was
convinced he would have found it.
"All right," he said with a grin. "Now I trust you."
She dropped to a deck chair. "I've been trying to work up enough
courage," she confessed, "to--to talk to you. But you've been so grim
you've frightened me off."
"Why? D'you want another try at me?"
"That's not fair." Her eyes sought the deck. "I'm afraid. Cabot has
been ... he's ... I think he suspects me of working with X."
"Are you?"
"No." Her voice was shocked.
"But Trev was?"
She nodded.
"And you were working with Trev?"
"I wasn't working with him," she protested. "Only that one time. He
offered me five thousand credits to copy the _Saturn's_ loader."
"How did you connect with the _Nova_?"
"Do you mean how did I happen to get the job as third mate? But I told
you. I was a cadet aboard the _Saturn_. I simply asked Cabot for the
job."
Gavin said, "That lie wouldn't fool a school kid. If you were
proscribed by Tri-World you wouldn't have dared approach Cabot in the
open. Someone hid you out. Someone with enough influence with Cabot got
you aboard the _Nova_--"
The general alarm cut loose with its strident clangor. Gavin sprang to
his feet. "What's that for?"
"The little death!" Nadia said with a shudder.
* * * * *
As suddenly as the bell started it was stilled. A harsh voice came
through the public address system, "Go to your quarters immediately!
All personnel report immediately to your quarters and take to your
bunks." The voice brayed forth the commands three more times at short
intervals.
Gavin started at a run for the interior of the ship.
"Wait! Wait for me," Nadia cried.