Margot Dennison smiled. It wasn't the kind of smile designed to make a
man roll over on his back and wave all fours in the breeze. Margot
Dennison didn't need that kind of smile.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "I read your mind, you see. Very well,
Captain. If you're a fugitive from Earth--I assume Ramsey isn't your
real name, by the way--you may take me through hyper to Centauri. That
will be quite satisfactory. I will make my way from Centauri. Well?"
"Give me the gun," Ramsey said.
"My goodness, of course. I'm not trying to hold you up. Here." She got
up from the bed for the first time and walked toward them. She had firm,
long legs, and used them well. She was utterly lovely and although part
of it was probably her professional know-how, she made you forget that.
She was the most attractive girl, Earth or outworld, Ramsey had seen in
years.
Ramsey took the gun. Their hands met. Ramsey leaned forward quickly and
kissed her on the lips. He was still holding the Vegan girl's slender
arm, though. She tried to run away but couldn't. Margot Dennison
returned the kiss for an instant, to show Ramsey that when she really
wanted to return it, if she ever really would, she would pack the same
kind of libidinal vitality in her responses as she did in her
appearance; then she stood coldly, no longer responsive, until Ramsey
stepped back.
"Maybe I was asking for it," she said. "I was prepared for that--and
more. But it isn't necessary now, is it? My gosh, Ramsey! Will you
please close that mind of yours? You make a girl blush."
"Then put on your cloak," Ramsey said, and, really blushing this time,
she did so.
She said: "I'm prepared to pay you one thousand credits; what do you
say?"
"I say it must be a pretty important appointment you have on Centauri."
"Earth, Captain Ramsey. I'm settling for Centauri. Well?"
"I'll take you," Ramsey said, "if this girl comes too."
Margot Dennison looked at the frightened Vegan girl and smiled. "So it's
like that," she said.
"It isn't like anything."
Ramsey packed a few things in an expanduffle and the three of them
hurried through the doorway and down stairs. The cold dark night
awaiting them with a fierce howling wind and the first flurries of snow
from the north.
"Where to?" Ramsey hollered above the wind.
"My place," Margot Dennison told him, and they ran.
* * * * *
Margot Dennison had a large apartment in Irwadi City's New Quarter. This
surprised Ramsey, for not many outworlders lived there. That night,
though, he was too tired to think about it. He vaguely remembered a
couch for himself, a separate room for the Vegan girl, another for
Margot Dennison. He slept like a log without dreaming.
He awoke with anxious hands fluttering at his shoulder. Opening one
sleepy eye, he saw the Vegan girl. He saw daylight through a window but
said, "Gmph! Middle of the night."