The cell was small, dark, and damp. There were stitches across my back,
under tape, and a traction splint and bandages on my shoulder. Let's
forget pain. Pain.... _Let's forget it! Forget it!_
I lay on my belly. I'd been on my belly for most of a week. And for
most of a week, I'd thought of how it would be to dig my fingernails
into my side, rip loose the phony skin over my ribs, and fire that one
shot into Thorsten's guts.
All I needed was a chance. Here in the cell, in a corridor somewhere,
alone with him, surrounded by his men, chance of life or no--that
wasn't what counted. I wasn't sane myself, anymore. There were two
people in the Universe--Thorsten and me--and room for one!
A chance. Lord God, a chance!
But all I had was dampness and darkness.
I was fed twice a day--or something like it. It was almost time for my
next meal, but that wasn't the important time. It was the helpless week
behind me, the week in which Thorsten's kidnaped technicians had had
time to assemble the ship's engines. The test flight was due, and after
that the production of engines for the other ships in Thorsten's fleet.
If I was going to do anything, I had to do it now.
I dragged myself up the side of the cell, leaving meat from my fingers
on the rough stone. I staggered over to the wall beside the door and
waited.
Time went by--hours or minutes--and a sound of feet came down the
tunnel leading to my cell.
I couldn't use my back muscles, but I tensed them now, feeling stitches
give way.
Tumblers clicked, and the door was opened.
I kicked it shut and sprang, wrapping my hands around a dimly seen
throat, a thin and soft neck.
"Ash!" Pat's voice was half-choked under my grip.
"Pat!" I opened my hands, and she stumbled free. But not for long,
because an instant later she was pressed against me again, her mouth
over mine.
* * * * *
We stood together in the darkness and in hunger. Finally, she moved her
lips away.
"Ash, Ash, you can stand!" She was sobbing with relief.
"Yeah--I'm on my feet."
"Can you fight?"
"Nothing bigger than you," I said. "What's going on?"
"He's crazy, Ash. That plan of his--I'd never heard it before. All he
told me was that he was going to take humanity out to the stars--he
said he didn't trust Earth government to do it."
"Yeah. I know. For that dream, I would have done what you did, too."
"I didn't love him, Ash. He--I don't know, he _was_ his dream, somehow,
and in spite of it all, he was a better, stronger man than anyone I
ever knew. Except you, Ash."
That was good enough. That was good enough to give her everything I had
or could get. And that made my spot even worse. It wasn't just she that
was going to get hurt--but she was the most important one of them all.