"They were almost too much."
"But they weren't. You stayed sane. She would have taken any risk for you. And Ransome needs her now, and she'll take risks for him. You want Mary—but Ransome needs her."
"I almost died for Mary, back on Earth."
"Did you? Leo told me that you had the Dream Machine on a medium setting—low enough to break out of it when you decided you wanted to."
Bey stared mindlessly into the great water globe. A small, red-throated fish had come drifting lazily toward them and was poised at the curved transparent wall. It stared goggle-eyed at the two humans, looking at the universe beyond the barrier. That had been Bey before he came out there. Tucked away in his own little fishbowl, safe and warm below a blanket of atmosphere.
Earth. Suddenly he had a great longing to be back there, to see blue sky and drifting clouds.
"I'm going back, Sylvia. My job here is finished. The Rinis are interesting, and they're going to change our whole universe, but they will be Aybee's lifework, not mine."
"I know." Sylvia was still holding Bey. "Aybee's going to miss you. He'd never say it, but you're his idol, you know."
"Hard luck for Aybee."
"He could do a lot worse. Mary told me one other thing. She said that when you met her out in the Halo you talked a lot about me. She didn't speculate why, but I think you were trying to make her bring you here."
"I was. It was the only way I could think of to do it. I wanted to make her jealous, so she would want to bring me along and see I preferred her to you. I don't mean that I do prefer her to you, but . . ."
Sylvia was shaking her head. "Bey, when I hear you say things like that, I wonder if you know anything about women at all. If Mary had been the least jealous, or thought for a moment that you were interested in me, the last thing she'd do is encourage a meeting."
"But that's exactly what she did."
"Do you need it written out for you? You didn't talk Mary into bringing you with her to Ransome's Hole—she was intending to do that all along!"
"But you said there was no way she would—"
"Not so you could see if you liked Mary better than me." Sylvia's voice was warm. "You hairy, self-centered little ape. Mary did it for her purposes, not yours. She wanted to see if she liked you better than Ransome. But after she heard you talk about me, she said she felt less guilty about leaving to follow him."
Bey sat for a few seconds in silence, staring into the blue-green depths of the water. He was feeling tired but not the slightest bit heartbroken. Even the revelation of Mary's motives did not upset him.
"I'm a total idiot, you know," he said at last.
"We're all idiots."
"I'm the worst. I thought I was being so clever with Mary. I'm going back, Sylvia. Back to Earth, back to something I'm good at. To the Office of Form Control again, if they'll have me. But I'm really going to miss you and Aybee and Leo. I'm even going to miss Cinnabar and old Turpin, but I'll miss you most of all. Would you come and visit me—see the Inner System for yourself?"
"Among all those little hairy Sunhuggers?" He knew she was laughing at him. "What do you think I am?"
"I think you're a big, heartless skeleton that pretends to be a woman. Earth's not as bad as you think. I think you'd like it. Will you do it? Come and visit?"
"I'm not sure." She ran her finger along the hair on his wrist and refused to look at him. "No promises. But we'll see."
Bey nodded. It was all the answer he could expect, but it was enough.
He looked again into the water globe. The little red-throated fish was up against the wall, and it was still staring out at him. It had no eyelids, but Bey felt sure that it was trying to wink.
THE END
Table of Contents
PART ONE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
PART TWO
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
PART THREE
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
PART FOUR
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
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