associated with a failed enterprise, she didn't want it to be herself.
She became aware that her aide was clutching the back of her chair. 'What is it, Tepp?'
The woman looked even more haggard than usual, her face strained, her demeanor peculiar-in fact, Hilda thought, Tepp had been acting even more than ordinarily strange ever since they got there. 'Nothing, ma'am,' she said thickly.
Hilda glared at her. 'Nothing, my ass. Are you going to puke again?'
Tepp seemed frightened. 'Oh, no, ma'am, I don't think so. But that smell-'
Hilda sighed, resigned. The time had come. She said crisply, 'You're relieved. Get out of here. Go back to Arlington for reassignment.'
'Ma'am!'
'Go!' Hilda ordered, and turned her back on her former aide. Not for long. When she heard a pathetic throat- clearing from behind her, she turned back, now angry. 'You still here?'
Tepp held her ground. 'Yes, ma'am. I'm going, ma'am, but there's one thing-'
'For Christ's sake, what now?'
'It's my aunt. I promised I'd come and see her tonight, and I didn't get a chance to call her before we left the headquarters. She's sick. If I could just have permission to use a phone for a minute-'
Hilda shrugged. It wasn't exactly giving permission, but it wasn't a flat rejection, either. As Tepp hurriedly left the little viewing room Hilda didn't even look after her. Merla Tepp was now a dead issue.
She turned to Patrice Adcock. 'Didn't Dopey say anything at all when you told him about all the bugs?'
'He was delighted to hear about it,' Patrice said sourly. 'He asked me half a dozen times if we were sure it was the same kind of bug I had. The Docs were doing their best to ask him what was going on. He mewed something at them, but then he paid no attention to them at all. Then he said to me, 'You'll see,' and went back to not talking. I took that as a threat. I think-'
'Wait a minute,' Makalanos said suddenly. He turned to the linguistics crew. 'Did you get that? See if you can check what he said to the Docs right then, the first thing after Dr. Adcock told him about the bug.'
'Hey,' said the linguist, coming alive. 'Good point! It might help.' And indeed it might have, but not right then. That was when the interrogation came to an abrupt halt, and it was Merla Tepp who halted it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Outside the zoo cage Merla Tepp took a deep breath, forcing herself to be calm. She wasn't surprised at what had happened. The brigadier had been on the point of firing her often enough before, but she couldn't help wishing it had happened just a little later. She was going to miss the job. She would even miss Hilda Morrisey herself, a wicked woman, certainly, but in some ways an admirable one—
There was no use thinking that way. She knew what she had to do.
She turned her back on the armed guard, who had been looking at her with some concern, and marched to the office of Lieutenant Colonel Makalanos. His assistant, transmitting copies of the Doc's latest drawings to headquarters, looked up in surprise. 'Out,' Merla ordered. 'I have to make a secure call.'
The man got up to leave, looking baffled but obedient, and Merla sat before his screen. When she had terminated the assistant's transmission she sat for a moment, moving her lips in silent prayer.
Then she dialed the number in Roanoke, Virginia, and spoke to the placid, gray-haired lady whose face appeared on the screen. 'Aunt Billie? I'm really upset. Brigadier Morrisey has fired me as her aide, and I don't know what to do.'
The woman looked concerned, though not particularly surprised. She tsk-tsked sympathetically. 'That's too bad, dear. I know how you must feel. Is there any chance that she'll change her mind?'
'I don't think so.'
'What a pity,' the woman said vaguely. She paused, shaking her head in regret. Then she came to a decision. She said, 'I'm sorry if I sound a little upset. It's one of my bad days, you see. The left knee and both elbows again- I'm afraid I'll have to have the surgery very soon now.'
Tepp caught her breath. 'The knee and the two elbows? When?'
'Oh, very soon. As soon as possible, in fact. I wish it weren't necessary, but there's no sense in putting it off any longer, is there?' She was silent for a moment, then, briskly, 'I'm afraid I must go now, dear. I'll pray for you.'
Tepp terminated the connection and sat for a moment, breathing deeply. Then she stood up and left the office. 'Thanks,' she said to the assistant, and headed back for the cage. The outside guard had gone back to his daydreaming but he woke up quickly when Tepp ordered: 'Give me your weapon.'
'Do what? But I can't-'
'It's Brigadier Morrisey's order,' she said, taking it from him and checking the safety. 'Here, you can ask her yourself.' And she pushed the door open.
Inside Hilda Morrisey turned to glare at her. 'Now what the hell do you want, Tepp?' she demanded, and then saw the gun.
The guard, suddenly alert, reached for the weapon. Merla Tepp was faster than he was. She stepped back and put a quick round into his right thigh; the man screeched like an owl and collapsed as she set the weapon to full automatic and, sobbing aloud at last, sprayed Hilda and those devil-inspired alien monsters from Hell. She got off half a hundred rounds before she realized that Lieutenant Colonel Makalanos had a gun of his own and he had drawn it.
