'Quite. And a fascinating and profitable one as well, I think.'
'Have you had a chance to eat?' Though Rose had not herself eaten, she was anything but hungry.
'Yes, indeed.'
Drake interrupted, 'We had lunch and supper sent up to us. Sandwiches.' He sounded tired.
Rose said, 'Hello, Drake.' It was the first time she had addressed him.
Drake scarcely looked at her. 'Hello.'
The Hawkinsite said, 'Your tomatoes are remarkable vegetables. We have nothing to compare with them in taste on our own planet. I believe I ate two dozen, as well as an entire bottle of tomato derivative.'
'Ketchup,' explained Drake, briefly.
Rose said, 'And your visit at the Missing Persons Bureau, Dr. Tholan? You say you found it profitable?'
'I should say so. Yes.'
Rose kept her back to him. She plumped up sofa cushions as she said, 'In what way?'
'I find it most interesting that the large majority of missing persons are males. Wives frequently report missing husbands, while the reverse is practically never the case.'
Rose said, 'Oh, that's not mysterious, Dr. Tholan. You simply don't realize the economic setup we have on Earth. On this planet, you see, it is
the male who is usually the member of the family that maintains it as an economic unit. He is the one whose labor is repaid in units of currency. The wife's function is generally that of taking care of home and children.'
'Surely this is not universal!'
Drake put in, 'More or less. If you are thinking of my wife, she is an example of the minority of women who are capable of making their own way in the world.'
Rose looked at him swiftly. Was he being sarcastic?
The Hawkinsite said, 'Your implication, Mrs. Smollett, is that women, being economically dependent upon their male companions, find it less feasible to disappear?'
'That's a gentle way of putting it,' said Rose, 'but that's about it.'
'And would you call the Missing Persons Bureau of New York a fair sampling of such cases in the planet at large?'
'Why, I should think so.'
The Hawkinsite said, abruptly, 'And is there, then, an economic explanation for the fact that since interstellar travel has been developed, the percentage of young males among the missing is more pronounced than ever?'
It was Drake who answered, with a verbal snap. 'Good lord, that's even less of a mystery than the other. Nowadays, the runaway has all space to disappear into. Anyone who wants to get away from trouble need only hop the nearest space freighter. They're always looking for crewmen, no questions asked, and it would be almost impossible to locate the runaway after that, if he really wanted to stay out of circulation.'
'And almost always young men in their first year of marriage.'
Rose laughed suddenly. She said, 'Why, that's just the time a man's troubles seem the greatest. If he survives the first year, there is usually no need to disappear at all.'
Drake was obviously not amused. Rose thought again that he looked tired and unhappy. Why did he insist on bearing the load alone? And then she thought that perhaps he had to.
The Hawkinsite said, suddenly, 'Would it offend you if I disconnected for a period of time?'
Rose said, 'Not at all. I hope you haven't had too exhausting a day. Since you come from a planet whose gravity is greater than that of Earth's, I'm afraid we too easily presume that you would show greater endurance than we do.'
'Oh, I am not tired in a physical sense.' He looked for a moment at her legs and blinked very rapidly, indicating amusement. 'You know, I keep expecting Earthmen to fall either forward or backward in view of their meager equipment of standing limbs. You must pardon me if my comment is overfamiliar, but your mention of the lesser gravity of Earth brought it to my mind. On my planet, two legs would simply not be enough. But this is
all beside the point at the moment. It is just that I have been absorbing so many new and unusual concepts that I feel the desire for a little disconnection.'
Rose shrugged inwardly. Well, that was as close as one race could get to another, anyway. As nearly as the expeditions to Hawkin's Planet could make out, Hawkinsites had the faculty for disconnecting their conscious mind from all its bodily functions and allowing it to sink into an undisturbed meditative process for periods of time lasting up to terrestrial days. Hawkinsites found the process pleasant, even necessary sometimes, though no Earthman could truly say what function it served.
Conversely, it had never been entirely possible for Earthmen to explain the concept of 'sleep' to a Hawkinsite, or to any extraterrestrial. What an Earthman would call sleep or a dream, a Hawkinsite would view as an alarming sign of mental disintegration.
Rose thought uneasily, Here is another way Earthmen are unique.
The Hawkinsite was backing away, drooping so that his forelimbs swept the floor in polite farewell. Drake nodded curtly at him as he disappeared behind the bend in the corridor. They heard his door open, close, then silence.
After minutes in which the silence was thick between them, Drake's chair creaked as he shifted restlessly. With a mild horror, Rose noticed blood upon his lips. She thought to herself, He's in some kind of trouble. I've got to talk to him. I can't let it go on like this.
She said, 'Drake!'
Drake seemed to look at her from a far, far distance. Slowly, his eyes focused closer at hand and he said, 'What is it? Are you through for the day, too?'
'No, I'm ready to begin. It's the tomorrow you spoke of. Aren't you going to speak to me?'
'Pardon me?'
'Last night, you said you would speak to me tomorrow. I am ready now.'
Drake frowned. His eyes withdrew beneath a lowered brow and Rose felt some of her resolution begin to leave her. He said, 'I thought it was agreed that you would not question me about my business in this matter.'
'I think it's too late for that. I know too much about your business by now.'
'What do you mean?' he shouted, jumping to his feet. Recollecting himself, he approached, laid his hands upon her shoulders and repeated in a lower voice, 'What do you mean?'
Rose kept her eyes upon her hands, which rested limply in her lap. She bore the painfully gripping fingers patiently, and said slowly, 'Dr. Tholan thinks that Earth is spreading the Inhibition Death purposely. That's it, isn't it?'
She waited. Slowly, the grip relaxed and he was standing there, hands at his side, face baffled and unhappy. He said, 'Where did you get that notion?'
'It's true, isn't it?'
He said breathlessly, unnaturally, 'I want to know exactly why you say that. Don't play foolish games with me, Rose. This is for keeps.'
'If I tell you, will you answer one question?'
'What question?'
'Is Earth spreading the disease deliberately, Drake?'
Drake flung his hands upward. 'Oh, for Heaven's sake!'
He knelt before her. He took her hands in his and she could feel their trembling. He was forcing his voice into soothing, loving syllables.
He was saying, 'Rose dear, look, you've got something red-hot by the tail and you think you can use it to tease me in a little husband-wife repartee. No, I'm not asking much. Just tell me exactly what causes you to say what- what you have just said.' He was terribly earnest about it.
'I was at the New York Academy of Medicine this afternoon. I did some reading there.'
'But why? What made you do it?'
'You seemed so interested in the Inhibition Death, for one thing. And Dr. Tholan made those statements about the incidence increasing since interstellar travel, and being the highest on the planet nearest Earth.' She paused.
'And your reading?' he prompted. 'What about your reading, Rose?' c
' She said, 'It backs him up. All I could do was to skim hastily into the direction of their research in recent decades. It seems obvious to me, though, that at least some of the Hawkinsites are considering the possibility the Inhibition Death originates on Earth.'
'Do they say so outright?'
'No. Or, if they have, I haven't seen it.' She gazed at him in surprise. In a matter like this, certainly the government would have investigated Hawkinsite research on the matter. She said, gently, 'Don't you know about Hawkinsite research in the matter, Drake? The government-'
'Never mind about that.' Drake had moved away from her and now he turned again. His eyes were bright. He said, as though making a wonderful discovery, 'Why, you're an expert in this!'
Was she? Did he find that out only now that he needed her? Her nostrils flared and she said flatly, 'I am a biologist.'
He said, 'Yes, I know that, but I mean your particular specialty is growth. Didn't you once tell me you had done work on growth?'
'You might call it that. I've had twenty papers published on the relationship of nucleic acid fine structure and embryonic development on my Cancer Society grant.'
'Good. I should have thought of that.' He was choked with a new excitement. 'Tell me, Rose- Look, I'm sorry if I lost my temper with you a moment ago. You'd be as competent as anyone to understand the direction of their researches if you read about it, wouldn't you?'
'Fairly competent, yes.'
'Then tell me how they think the disease is spread. The details, I mean.'
'Oh, now look, that's asking a little too much. 1 spent a few hours in the Academy, that's all. I'd need much more time than that to be able to answer your question.'
'An intelligent guess, at least. You can't imagine how important it is.'
