"Not yet, Honeycomb," he said, "but give me time.
"It's got to be something about this Mars-Earth problem," he went on
after a long silence. "Listen: how can Mars develop if it's in the spot
of the Red Queen--has to run like hell just to stay where it is thanks
to Earth's dumping policies?"
* * * * *
The door opened and closed and Maria Bergozza was with them. She said,
"Apparently this is necessary." She was holding a glass-pellet gun in
her hand, pointing it at Lindsay.
He said, "Why, you--!" and moved toward her. Promptly the Secretary
General's daughter pointed the gun at Nina's tanned midriff. He stopped.
Maria said evenly, "It's _you_ that have done this to me, Nina. You've
had all the fun while I've had to pour tea for papa at his damned
functions. You've fouled up our plans with your meddling down in New
Orleans. And now you've taken Zale, as you take everything else you take
a fancy to."
"But you tried to kill him," said Nina. "Why should you care?"
"He would have been a martyr--and _you_ wouldn't have had him," said
Maria, her gun hand steady. "I know it's going to ruin me to kill
you--but my whole life is ruined anyway. And this way at least I can
sacrifice it for the cause."
"The cause of interplanetary war?" said Lindsay, in his turn
incredulous. Hot rage rose within him, "You third-rate tramp!" He
stepped squarely into the line of fire, thrust his left breast in front
of the muzzle of her gun. Behind him Nina screamed.
But Maria didn't fire. Instead she sneezed--sneezed and sneezed again.
Her gun hand gyrated wildly as she doubled in a paroxysm and Nina moved
past Lindsay to pluck the weapon from her.
"Don't call me--krrrra_shew_!--third-rate," she managed to gasp before
the blonde sent her sprawling with a very efficient right cross to the
chin.
Nina turned on Lindsay angrily. "You damned fool!" she almost shouted.
"You might have been killed."
He looked down, felt his knees turn to water. He said, "Omigod--I
thought I was still wearing the star. I remembered how you saved my life
in New Orleans with your diamond evening bag!"
He sat down--hard. From the floor Maria whimpered, "What are you going
to do to me?"
Nina said, "I ought to kill you, you know, but it would cause too much
of a stink. So beat it and let us think. You'll be hearing from me
later. What you hear will depend on how you handle yourself from now on.
Understand?"