“I’ll be dead if I don’t.” Without trying to hold back, I told her about the deal I had made, how I had turned up pregnant, why I thought my chances of living through a visit to The Realm were slim. “So what does it take to persuade you to look the other way? I think I can meet your price.”
“I’m not the only one watching you.”
“Pete? I’ll handle Pete. The other three men and the other two women I think we can ignore. If I have your active help. YouÄyou and PeteÄare the only professionals. Who recruited these others? Clumsy.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know who hired me, for that matter; it was done through m~y boss. Perhaps we can forget the othersÄdepends on your plan.”
“Let’s talk money.”
“Let’s talk plans first.”
“Uh . . . do you think you can imitate my voice?”
Tilly answered, ” `Uh . . . do you think you can imitate my voice?’
“Do that again!”
” `Do that again!’
I sighed. “Okay, Tilly, you can do it. The Daily Forward says that breakout near Botany Bay is sometime tomorrow and, if the figures are as sharp as they were for Outpost, we’ll hit stationary orbit and put boats down about midday the day after tomorrowÄless than forty-eight hours from right now. So tomorrow I fall ill. Very sad. Because I had had my heart set on going down to the surface for all those wonderful excursions. The exact timing on my plan depends on when those landing boats are scheduled, which must waitÄif I understand the matterÄuntil we break out into normal space and they can predict exactly when we will hit stationary orbit. Whenever that is, the night before the boats go down, around oh-one hundred when the corridors are empty, I leave. From there on you’re both of us. You don’t let anyone in; I’m too ill.
“If anyone calls for me by terminal, be careful not to switch on the video pickupÄI never do. You’re both of us on anything you can handle, or, if you can’t, I’m asleep. If you start to impersonate me and it gets too sticky, why, you’re just so fogged up with fever and medicine that you’re not coherent.
“You’ll order breakfast for both of usÄyour usual breakfast for you, and tea and milk toast and juice for the invalid.”
“Friday, I can see that you’re planning on stowing away in a landing boat. But the doors to the landing boats are always locked when not in use. I know.”
“So they are. Not your worry, Til.”
“All right. Not my worry. Okay, I can cover for you after you leave. What do I tell the Captain after you’ve gone?”
“So the Captain is in on it. I thought so.”
“He knows about it. But we get our orders from the purser.”
“Makes sense. Suppose I arrange for you to be tied up and gagged and your story is that I jumped you and did it to you. I can’t, of
course, because you have to be both of us from very early morning to whatever time the boats leave. But I can arrange to have you tied and gagged. I think.”
“That would certainly improve my alibi! But who is the philanthropist?”
“You remember our first night in the ship? I came in late, with a date. You served us tea and almond cakes.”
“Doctor Madsen. You’re counting on him?”
“I think so. With your help. That night he was kind of eager.”
She snorted. “His tongue was dragging on the rug.”
“Yes. It still is. Tomorrow I become ill; he comes to see me, professionally. You are here, as usual. We have the lights turned off in the bedroom end. If Dr. Jerry has the steady nerves I think he has, he’ll take what I’ll offer. Then he’ll cooperate.” I looked at her. “Okay? He comes to see me the next morningÄand ties you up. Simple.”
Tilly sat and looked thoughtful for long moments. “No.”
“No?”
“Let’s keep it really simple. Don’t let anyone else in on it. Not anybody.I don’t need to be tied up; that would just cause suspicion. Here’s my story: Sometime not very long before the boats go down you decide that you are well; you get up, get dressed, and leave the cabin. You don’t tell me your plans; I’m just the poor dumb maidÄ you never tell me such things. Or maybe you’ve changed your mind and are going on the ground excursion anyhow. It doesn’t matter either way. I am not charged with keeping you in the ship. My sole responsibility is to keep an eye on you here in the cabin. I don’t think it’s Pete’s responsibility to keep you in the ship, either. If you manage to jump ship, probably the only one who gets burned is the Captain. And I’m not crying over him.”
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