"How did that happen?"
"The show went broke on Japetus. As adjudicator, Mr. Mawson checked on it. He liked me, and the next thing I knew, he was giving me little jobs to do. Then they got bigger, till finally he even sent me along on this trip with Cheng to pick you up."
"I see," Ross nodded slowly. "He trusts you a lot, apparently."
"Yes, of course." Veta nodded also. But a nervousness suddenly seemed to have seized her. Shifting, she fingered her pipe, eyes dodging Ross'.
For an instant he studied her; then rose, crossed the cabin, and once more checked the visiscreen. "It won't be too long now. We're beginning to move into shadow."
Veta's head came up. "And then—you're going down there, to Japetus, and ... try to do something to Mr. Mawson—?"
"I'm going down, anyhow."
"But why?" Now Veta, too, rose from her seat. Half-hesitantly, she came to him. "Wouldn't it maybe be better if you just—well, forgot about it?"
Ross' face darkened. "That kind of thing takes a lot of forgetting. When somebody forces my carrier off course, so that I crash on Venus, and then tries to blast me—" He broke off, thin-lipped.