'They can't object to your attending a scientific meeting on Earth.'
'And once there, you mean, I needn't return?'
'You will have no complaint with regard to treatment. You will be more comfortable there than you are here. Your every desire, your every wish- More than that, you can head the hyperspatial project and you will have an unlimited budget to devise tests of any kind, run experiments, make observations-'
'Well! What a princely bribe you offer me!'
Fisher said earnestly, 'Is there anything more you can ask for?'
'I wonder,' said Wendel. 'Why were you sent? An attractive man like you? Were they expecting you to bring back an elderly female physicist - susceptible - frustrated - drawn by your body like a fish by a hook?'
'I don't know what was in the mind of those who sent me, Tessa, but that was not in my mind. Not after one look at you. You are not elderly, as you well know. I don't for a minute believe that you are either susceptible or frustrated. Earth is offering you a physicist's dream. That has nothing to do with whether you are male or female, elderly or youthful.'
'What a shame! Suppose I proved recalcitrant and didn't wish to go to Earth? What were you to do as a last measure of persuasion? Suppress your distaste for the process and make love to me?'
Wendel crossed her arms over her magnificent breasts and looked at him quizzically.
Fisher said carefully, choosing his words, 'Again, I cannot say what was in the mind of those who sent me. Making love was not part of my explicit instructions, nor was it part of my intentions, though if it had been, I assure you that I would feel no distaste at the prospect. I felt, however, that you would see the advantages from a physicist's point of view and I would not denigrate you by supposing that you would need anything more.'
'How wrong you are,' said Wendel. 'I see the advantages from a physicist's point of view, and I am anxious to accept the offer and to pursue the butterfly of hyperspatial flight down the corridors of the possible - but I do not wish to give up your best efforts at persuasion either. I want it all.'
'But-'
'In short, if you want me, you must pay me. Persuade me as though I were recalcitrant, as best as ever you can, or I won't go to Earth. Come, why do you suppose we are here in a Privacy? What do you think Privacies are for? Once we have exercised, showered, eaten a bit, drank a little, conversed, experienced some pleasure in all these things, there is opportunity to experience others. I insist. Persuade me to come to Earth.'
And at the touch of her finger, the light within the Privacy dimmed seductively.
Chapter 17. Safe?
35
Insigna felt uneasy. It was Siever Genarr who had insisted that Marlene be consulted in the matter.
He said, 'You're her mother, Eugenia, and you can't help but think of her as a little girl. It takes a while for a mother to realize she is not an absolute monarch, that her daughter is not a piece of property.'
Eugenia Insigna avoided his mild eye. She said, 'Don't lecture me, Siever. You have no children of your own. It's easy to be pompous about other people's children.'
'Do I sound pompous? I'm sorry. Let us say, I'm not as emotionally bound as you are to the memory of an infant. I like the girl a great deal, but I have no picture of her in my mind except that of a burgeoning young woman with a very remarkable mind. She's important, Eugenia. I have a peculiar feeling that she is much more important than either you or I. She must be consulted-'
'She must be kept safe,' Insigna countered.
'I agree, but she must be consulted as to how best to keep her safe. She is young, she is inexperienced, but she may possibly know better than we do what must be done. Let us talk among ourselves as though we were three adults. Promise me, Eugenia, that you won't try to make use of maternal authority.'
Insigna said bitterly, 'How can I promise that? But we'll talk to her.'
So now the three were together in Genarr's office, the room shielded, and Marlene, looking quickly from one to the other, pressed her lips tightly together and said unhappily, 'I'm not going to like this.'