until, without warning, the damn Bureau pickup squad had scooped him up and hustled him in for examination. And ever since then they'd asked him the same damn questions over and over again, just like this little jumped-up cadet—
Who was, after all, young, and rather pretty, and would have been more so if she'd let herself look girly instead of efficient. And it had been a long time since he'd seen his own girl. So all he said was, 'I can't feel it. What's this, they've detailed you to soften me up?'
She looked at him quizzically over her coffee cup. 'Do you think I could? When Colonel Morrisey and Deputy Director Pell couldn't?
But we won't talk about it if you don't want to.' She leaned back against the wall, trying to get comfortable. 'Sorry about these benches. Do you want to talk at all, or should I just shut up? Like you could tell me about some of your missions.'
'Or you could tell me about yours,' he suggested, beginning to feel amusement.
'Mine aren't very interesting. They had me infiltrating some of the radical religious-militia groups in the Southwest. We cleaned up one little bomb factory, but it was taking a long time and that wasn't getting me any promotions. So I applied for a tour here.'
'So you're a career agent.'
'I guess so,' she said, finishing the last of her coffee. 'I was in protsy in college, and they called me up for active duty.'
The Police Reserve Officers Training Corps; Dannerman grinned in spite of himself. 'Me too.'
She said doubtfully, 'Well, maybe it was a little different for me. See, my parents were very religious. I grew up in a fundamentalist group; and the Bureau needed somebody who could get inside some of them. So the machines kicked my name out. But I guess I'll stay in the Bureau. It isn't that bad-'
And so on, and so on. The woman seemed to like talking about her life in the Bureau. Dannerman let her talk. It was a new and relaxing experience for him, these days, to be closeted with another agent when the other agent did all the talking. '-so here I am,' she finished. 'Want some more coffee?'
When human beings began to wonder if there were other intelligent races somewhere in the universe they began the SETI program-the 'Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.' That meant they listened for radio broadcasts from space, in the expectation that they might somehow establish peaceful communication with them. They did not take seriously the idea that some of those extraterrestrial intelligences might have similar programs of their own, with expectations a good deal less peaceful.
'Well, sure. And if you could find something to eat to go along with it?'
'I'll see what I can do,' she promised, gathered up the cups and left, naturally locking him in again.
Dannerman yawned and stretched, wondering absently what the Bureau had in store for him next. Wondering what he would do if in fact the deputy director did give him a direct order, in writing, to sign the release. He didn't think that was likely. Marcus Pell was too sharp a bunny to put anything like that in writing, especially if he thought Dannerman would file it with his attorney.
Which, Dannerman reflected, wouldn't be all that easy, since he didn't really have an attorney. Unless you counted the old fart of a family lawyer who had screwed up his inheritance and helped him get the job with Cousin Pat's observatory that had led to his flight to the orbiting old Starlab and thus to all this other stuff. . . .
He turned as the door opened again, expecting Merla Tepp with the coffee refills.
It was Tepp, all right, but she wasn't alone. She had someone with her, and the someone was Dannerman's Cousin Pat. 'I brought some company for you,' Tepp said brightly, 'and I've got to leave the two of you here for a bit. But I found something for you to snack on and the coffee's fresh.'
Cousin Pat, a.k.a. Dr. Patrice Adcock, gave Dannerman a look that was part weary and mostly just hostile. As she took the bench across from him he ventured, 'Hello, Pat.'
Pat Adcock didn't answer. Dannerman hadn't really expected her to. She hadn't forgiven him, and in a way he didn't blame her. Nobody liked having a Bureau spook planted on them, especially when the spook was a cousin they had known since childhood.
He fingered his collar, studying her. It was the first time in many weeks that he had had a good look at his cousin. Apart from looking tired and cranky she looked smaller than usual, in her unornamented Bureau prison gown. Mostly she just looked mad.
He tried again. 'So how've you been?' he asked sociably.
She gave him an eyes-narrowed look, but this time she answered. 'Shitty,' she said.
She didn't bounce the conversational ball back by asking how he was; she evidently didn't care. He sighed. 'Pat, I know you're pissed at me, but what was I supposed to do? I work for the Bureau. The Bureau wanted to know what you were up to. If it hadn't been me, it would've been somebody else.'
'Sure, Dan, but I wouldn't have trusted anybody else as much, would I?' She was silent for a moment, then said thoughtfully, 'You just can't leave that thing alone, can you?'
He hadn't been aware that he was still fingering his collar. He took his hand away. 'At least they didn't make you wear one.'
'Sure not. Why would they? I've been in solitary confinement in this dump.' Moodily she picked up her coffee cup, which reminded Dannerman to inspect the 'food' Agent Tepp had brought. It was an opened box of cheese- flavored crackers, but still pretty full.
Pat Adcock watched him chew for a moment, then asked, 'Dan? Do you know what's going on?' He shook his head, his mouth full of stale crackers. 'What was the point of that business in the interrogation theater? They just asked the same questions they've asked a million times before.'
He shrugged, chewing. Of course they had; it was pure theater, designed for the benefit of whoever was on the other side of that one-way mirror, but for what reason he could not guess.
She fidgeted, unsatisfied. 'Listen, do you think the whole thing with the implants could be some kind of trick? Maybe there isn't really anything in our heads at all?'
He swallowed the crackers. 'I wish. No, we've got them, all right. I saw the images come up on the screen the first time they examined me.' And most of the other times, too, through all the tests-the X rays and the PET scans,
